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Louisville Postgame Thread

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Kind of what you would expect from a first game against an opponent with a pulse. Louisville will be a problem for teams this year. I only got to watch the fourth quarter in its entirety as I didn't get home from work until six and then it was my turn to make dinner. My wife likes to go to live games. Doesn't like watching on TV so some of my observations are based on the box score and what I saw in the last stanza.

Ball movement was good, but shots weren't dropping. That happens sometimes. They still won by 13. The defense is not there yet. The effort for the most part was good (although I saw some slow closeouts on some of Louisville's three point attempts), but the rotations and help defense isn't there yet. I expect that will be corrected by the time the end of January rolls around. I agree that Heckel looked really good. Geno said Sarah didn't have a great game. Box score doesn't show that.

Geno and staff will have some good film for teaching moments.
 
Lots of good things

I had a feeling that Kaleigh was going to allow us to forget Chen
(or at least for us not to fret at losing what she had delivered).
She may be even better than that…had a fine game…almost wonderful.

Azzi had the quietest 20 points in living memory

Williams seem hesitant (at times) around the basket…At one point, I yelled at the TV, shoot the ball…and Rebecca mirrored my response…lt’s like she wants to make every pass into the post an artistic event worthy of ABT.
Sometimes just forcing it up without the fakes and gyrations is the better choice.
I hope she learns that quickly.

Imagine if the gang had had (even) a 30% 3-point average
It’s beyond my mathematical powers to calculate the margin…But it would have been a lot.
 
  • No Paige to make the team look good when shots aren’t falling
  • Shooting 4-26 from three despite many wide open looks
  • Ranked opponent on a neutral site
  • Still a double digit win
I don’t mean to sound harsh or anything but people that expect postseason form on November 4 should be flogged
 
I think Geno was experimenting in the second half with the different line-ups and slowing the ball down to run offense. If Shade will be a streaky shooter again, I hope Allie will get more playing time. I hope Blanca is not out very long. Another freshman getting injured before getting a chance to prove herself.
 
Good first game, UConn won and the coaching staff has plenty of film to review with the team. I hope Geno doesn’t go with more than a 9 player rotation, IMO 8 is the number you want. The players can get in better sync if the lineup is consistent.
 
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HuskyNan said:
  • No Paige to make the team look good when shots aren’t falling
  • Shooting 4-26 from three despite many wide open looks
  • Ranked opponent on a neutral site
  • Still a double digit win
I don’t mean to sound harsh or anything but people that expect postseason form on November 4 should be flogged
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I can only speak from a musicians point of view but even after months of rehearsal for a tour you don't get used to playing live and being on the road until like show #5.
Every team needs a few weeks to get into game shape.
 
After the 1st Q it looked like our fondest dreams about this team were coming true. After that is was a grind. We did lots of good things and won the game and would have looked a lot better in the win if a few of those 3s went down. As is the team isn't going to think they are too wonderful to win and know that they need to keep improving. That's a good thing.

The things that stood out to me:

Keyleigh got a ton of PT and Allie almost none. I didn't see either exhibition game but the comments on her play led me to think she'd get more minutes. Given how poorly our 3 point shooting was and that Allie's strong suit is 3 point shooting it would make sense Geno would give her more PT. No so. Keyleigh was really, really solid. I liked her game a lot.

Ash wasn't hitting her shots but as usual played her hard-nosed game. She earns her minutes.

Serah is a big body and has a history of being good. I'll give her a pass for the game - I think first UConn game jitters got to her.

Loved the first half scoring by KK.

All in all a win against a respectable team. Room to improve not withstanding the obvious talent this team has.
 
I realize it's the season opener, but I don't recall many games where UConn had 5 players with double digit shot attempts. Down the road, it should makes things more difficult for teams trying to deny SS from taking over offensively when other players are not hesitant given open looks. Ideally, shots will drop at a higher percentage going forward.
 
KK started the game almost scoring at will, then basically stopped trying to score. The other scorers seemed to have gotten off to a really slow start especially from distance.
I'm guessing that Serah's shooting touch down low is going to pick up really fast.
I thought Jana played well in her limited minutes. Ice did what I think was expected of her.
It looked like the Huskies didn't come out for the second half as we are used to seeing and it continued for the whole half. Geno probably wanted to use a couple other players in the game but then the 7 or 8 player rotation didn't really click as well in the second half.
I hope we will see more consistency for the whole 40 minutes on Sunday.
 
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1. I thought it was great was Geno said in postgame about how its important not to make a win feel like a loss because it wasnt by 30 pts.

2. Ok, KK!!

3. I think it speaks volumes that in the 4th when LVille had made it a game that Geno put in Ice!

4. Too bad we didnt get to see more of the bench. But, alas, there's always next game...
 
Fun game to watch early on. The guards will be exciting led by KK and Azzi. Three point shooting will get better as they had some great looks.

I expect Williams to improve and to mesh well with Sarah. One of my favorite plays was the great pass from Sarah to Serah for a layup in first half.
 
It was more or less as I expected. I’d dreamt of better, but this is the sort of rusty play one ought to expect. By turns brilliant, by turns frustrating. If they’d shot better from 3 they’d have won by 30 or more.

The thing that surprised me, though maybe it shouldn’t have, is that Geno essentially played 6 players: Sarah Azzi Serah, Ash KK and Kayleigh. Three others got 8 or fewer minutes. I’d wondered if there would be more experimentation, maybe get 10 players double figures minutes. This is what a lot of us bantered about. But Geno wasn’t prepared to do that so early in the season. I have a feeling it will happen later in the season.

Another surprising thing is that the second half was mainly half court ball. Very little pressure, very little transition. After the exhibition games, Geno hinted that he’d like to do much more of both. I guess he thought the team wasn’t quite ready for that.
 
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Dove said:
Did Ashlynn Shade play?
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HuskyNan

Post in thread 'Louisville Postgame Thread'

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AzzisBraids said:
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
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I disagree big time to your comments that "Azzi's shot was off" "Azzi needs way more touches"...Azzi was 9 for 20, so she shot almost 50%. How many more touches do you think she needs? There were few games last season where anyone, PB included, had 20 shots, so, again, how many more touches do you think Azzi needs?
 
HuskyNan said:
  • No Paige to make the team look good when shots aren’t falling
  • Shooting 4-26 from three despite many wide open looks
  • Ranked opponent on a neutral site
  • Still a double digit win
I don’t mean to sound harsh or anything but people that expect postseason form on November 4 should be flogged
Expand ...
That's against the Geneva Convention.
 
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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This won't be a popular opinion, but you're not wrong.

Sera Williams was a first team Big Ten double double machine? You'd never know it from this performance. That was dreadful. At least guard your opposite big and not let them put up a 20/20 game against you with half a dozen open three point shots.

KK great game and hopefully she keeps hitting the open shots. Heckel great game, she's going to be a headache to guard because she's going to have wide open spaces to cut and drive.

Sarah and Azzi will be fine. Ash will be fine. But considering all of that sudden depth at the center position, at least one of them has to at least rebound, box out, play defense and protect the rim. One game isn't a season, but this was alot closer than it should have been.
 
So many positives from this game. From the way the team attacked on both ends of the floor to the way each player embraced their role on the team. This team is going to be scary to match up against.
 
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