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Louisville Postgame Thread

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oldude

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Some thoughts on the Louisville game:
  • UConn…reigning national champions…preseason #1…deep, talented, experienced and absolutely loaded. None of that guarantees another championship. But I have a level of comfort and confidence that I haven’t felt since Stewie and company were in the process of winning 4 straight.
  • UConn’s offense was not quite humming on all cylinders tonight, but the one thing that has not changed from last year is UConn’s defensive pressure. UConn held Louisville to 34% shooting.
  • I guess we shouldn’t be surprised to see Paige at the game. She’s been at just about every big game anywhere, regardless of the sport. I believe she was sitting with her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas. Probably had another half dozen new endorsement deals to sign...☺️
  • For those that are keeping track, UConn used 9 players tonight, including this year’s version of a small lineup with Sarah and 4 guards: Azzi, Kayleigh, Ash & Allie.
  • I am really pleased to see both KK & Kayleigh attacking the basket. Now if the Huskies can balance that by shooting a bit better from the arc, UConn's offense will start to look more consistent.
  • In case anyone has any doubt, Sarah runs the show! She can play any position from PG to C and everything in between. Sarah just plays at a higher level than everyone else on the court.
  • No cupcake to start the season, like most every other top team. The Huskies beat a good Louisville team today by double figures. One down, 39 more to go.
  • I have the grandkids on Sunday, so I’ll look forward to reading everyone’s comments on the FSU game after someone else starts the postgame thread.
 
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—As many guessed, at least early in the season, KK is going to get multiple open looks. What a plus if teams have to game plan for her scoring.

—Comparing Strong to Jokic I thought was a little bit of stretch when I first heard it. Not so much anymore. Geno saying the other day in jest that he just lets her do what she wants may actually be true.

-K9 is quickly eliminating any concerns about point guard depth.

-I was expecting a little more polish on the low post from Serah. She looks hesitant which is odd considering the credentials she brought from UW. Ziegler outplayed her tonight.

-4-26 from 3 was disappointing but they got so many open looks and move the ball so well that defending them will be a nightmare. If they shoot their normal percentage it is a 30 plus point game easily.

-Under 10 turnovers for a first game is outstanding.

-Other than Blanca being out (bummer), I think this is the rotation we see for a while.

-A little sluggish in the second half but other than the 3 point percentage, a nice start to the season.
 
This game was ay 5:30?!? So much for having a life!!

Go Huskies!!!
 
This was a real mixed bag - some good things for sure, and some not so good things.

Was really impressed with:
  • Sarah - she really can do it all and I love that the announcers are already talking her up as a NPOY candidate
  • Azzi - her shot really was off 9-20, but she's special
  • KK - more offense and almost 3 point shooting than we saw from most of last season
  • Kayleigh - really worked hard and showed an all court game
  • The defense especially in the first half was energetic
  • Lots of open looks
The team got a lot of good looks, but the shooting was not good. 4-26 from 3. L'ville made a nice run and really showed some good stuff. Geno was pretty happy after the game ("we shot 4-1000 for the game from 3" LOL.
 
As I said in the game chat, this was a game of halves. The first half was great. The second half had a lot of flaws. It’s to be expected when you’re playing a ranked team on a neutral court for your opening game. Especially with Paige gone and working in Serah and Heckel as new big players.

The hustle was there. The off-ball movement and passing was there. For the most part there were no awful turnovers and the team looked fairly in sync. Shot selection could be better as well as end of quarter play. These things will improve.

This UConn team at their best wins this game going away at halftime. At their worst they “squeak by” with a double digit win.

Sarah Strong is truly a player to behold.
 
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Going in I was way more concerned about offense than defense. But aside from the first quarter, the defense was somewhat disappointing and the offense looked great aside from not hitting open treys. I have to believe the threes will start to land and they’ll figure out how to play suffocating defense for the full forty. And Heckel was a revelation.
 
That game was a mess. Thank God for KK in the first quarter. Credit Jeff for taking an essentially new squad and getting them to play tenacious Louisville ball. We couldn't hit the broad side of a big barn - one of those nights when missing was infectious. Watching Azzi make a nifty move to the hoop only to have her toss the ball right over it with maybe 2 to go was like the signature move of the night. I hope a lot of rust was left on the floor.
 
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I was curious today about the pg depth. That was answered. Heckle is going to get better and better with each game. I see her hunger and aggressiveness on the defensive end. Her and KK will be alright.

The overall game was a good first game. I know moving forward, the offensive plays will be more polished, and players will have a better understanding of each other in real time play. Guards are going to attack Azzi on the drive so they can draw a foul against her. Hopefully azzi can will work notnallowing this to happen because she is needed very much on the court, even if we have luxury of Sarah.
 
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A UConn win is a win

Sarah Strong is a big bucket getter. Led the team in points, rebounds and assists. They will need to lean heavily on her all season long. Azzi Fudd's shot was off and foul trouble limited her a bit, but she still managed a strong 20 points. The offense needs to run and flow between these two

Azzi needs way more touches than she was getting and they need to realize when it's a fast break and she's on the inverted wing, they need to get her the ball. She often got the ball very late and had to get creative which she showed she can do that, but it's not sustainable.

KK shot the ball really well, she's growing as a point guard and game manager
Heckel is faster than I thought and she is a sharp cutter and her pass awareness is going to be really good.
Serah Williams made some good moves but need to get used to moving quicker at this level. She was a step slow all game and Louisville had her number.
Shade made some nice buckets.
I'd like to see more of Ziebell
 
First game of the season. It was about what I expected/

The starting 5 play good defense. Good offensive flow and ball movement. Negative was the shooting percent f.rom 3. But the team proved the can win with an off night from 3.

K9 is going to be a good one. No fear of driving the lane. Very good court awareness. She and KK are going to be difficult for other teams to handle.

Sarah will be fine.

Williams we get there. UConn offense is a other to absorb.

Overall, good start to the season.
 
Frodo said:
Ouch. Dreadful performance. They should beat Louisville by 30, at least, without braking a sweat. Did Sera Williams play in this game?
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Frodo said:
Ouch. Dreadful performance. They should beat Louisville by 30, at least, without braking a sweat. Did Sera Williams play in this game?
Expand ...

Thank you for you interest in UConn women’s basketball.
 
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Really proud of KK and Heckel played well. That's about as positive as I can be unfortunately.

Serah looked almost like a freshman. Took some really bad shots.

I was hoping for more from Allie. Seemed to revert to last year's Allie.

They seemed to give up the press in the second half and everything went off the rails. Half court needs work. Part of me wonders if Geno made them run some plays that they have been working on unsuccessfully so he had film he could rant about.
 
Suebird10fan said:
Going in I was way more concerned about offense than defense. But aside from the first quarter, the defense was somewhat disappointing and the offense looked great aside from not hitting open treys. I have to believe the threes will start to land and they’ll figure out how to play suffocating defense for the full forty. And Heckel was a revelation.
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Heckel was very impressive showing great cuts to the hoop and strong finishes. She will get her points.
 
It was interesting that our C's played far less than 40 minutes and our point guards far more. KK and Kayleigh were in together quite a bit when Sarah was the 5. I consider Ash to be the 3 not Azzi because she is by far the better rebounder, but nobody else that I would think of mostly as a 3 played, so that position was way less than 40 minutes also, but of course in the future, Blanca and maybe Morgan should fill that in.

My best guess is against good teams Geno will use a rotation of 9, adding Blanca when healthy and subtracting Allie. When Blanca returns Ash can move over to back up Azzi when Blanca is at the 3. Allie could show enough to make it 10, but at this point I think she was used for limited minutes just because Blanca was not available.

The final margin was a little disappointing, but they were good shots and the odds of being that bad from the 3 in future games is very slim.
 
Good win over a scrappy Louisville team who didn't let up and got to within 10 in the 4th as our offense seemed to be searching for someone to take over late in the game as we have been used to seeing. Some very positive things to take away from the first game especially at PG ++ but also much room for improvement. Maybe from all the things written expected a quicker, stronger presence in the paint but many times our big was out of position plus failure many times of some pretty basic stuff like boxing out. There will be much for the coaches to discuss with the team over the next several practices.

Time to learn and to look ahead and to get ready for Florida State.
 
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