Louisville Postgame Thread | Page 6 | The Boneyard

Louisville Postgame Thread

I have some random thoughts too.

-we went away from Sarah strong too much.

-I have seen it mentioned a couple of times that Serah Williams was all big 10. And that’s apparently the explanation for why she will be good here. Well, so was dorka juhasz and it took her until season two to really show us what she could do. We don’t have two seasons with her; and she is a different player than dorka… but I think it is something to keep in mind.

-I have actually talked about three point shooting being a potential weakness. Paige left. And even Chen shot a respectable 35%. 4-26. Something to keep an eye on.

-Speaking of Chen. I think she is a little undervalued. Check out her shooting splints when you get a chance. And remember she did that as a 5’9” guard with very limited opportunities.

-I’m a little disappointed fisher didn’t play.
 
CL82 said:
All in all, I would call it a solid B/B+ by the team. Not bad for the first game, but we are just spoiled because we've seen so many A/A+ games.
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For the last decade, we’ve mostly seen the A games in March and April, not because UConn is getting worse but because women’s basketball is getting better. I get exasperated when people freak out every November and December when the team isn’t perfect
 
I posted my thoughts on the game earlier, but after reading thru the comments a few other things jump to mind.

In my original post I talked about the good things that I saw, mainly from KK, Sarah, Kayleigh, and Azzi. Kudos to Ash for her play excepting her shooting. In a way I'm kind of surprised at some of the angst on the board - Geno was interviewed after the game and was pretty glowing about the team. He even said he wasn't bothered about the run L'ville went on in the 4th quarter. He wanted to let the team figure out how to get through it and not rely on coach to "fix". I thought that was pretty interesting.

He did joke that we were 4-1000 from 3, but he said several times that the ball movement was solid and we got a LOT of open looks. For a team filled with capable shooters, a lot of open looks are good things that mean those shots will start falling. Also, I didn't mention Jana in my original post - not sure if her lesser PT is a result of her coming back from injury, but I thought she looked solid and hope she gets more PT going forward.

It seemed the lineup he liked best was KK, Kayleigh, Ash, Azzi, and Sarah. Small ball again.

On the flip side there's nothing wrong with pointing out things that were disappointing. Serah was one of them. I hope she gets better, but she had wrong positioning several times in the post, even hitting the bottom of the rim once with a layup attempt, and completely missing everything with another attempt. As was pointed out, we had Dorka for 2 years to learn the system and get "up to speed". Serah does not have that luxury. I hope this game was an anomaly for her cuz she did not look good. BUT only the first game.

I thought Ice looked OK. Am expecting more given she's an upper classman now. I'm glad Allie was part of the core group this game but she didn't do much. I wonder if she had hit her only 3 point shot if Geno would have left her in longer.

Last thought - this game clarified the core group to me - Blanca would be part of it so it's a core 10. Right now Allie is on the cusp of core 9/10. Unfortunately for Caroline and Kelis that means no PT in big games, and we will see what that means in blowouts. People who thought/hoped Caroline would contribute more with playing time will be disappointed, but thus far her role will be relegated to player-coach / mentor.
 
EricLA said:
I posted my thoughts on the game earlier, but after reading thru the comments a few other things jump to mind.

In my original post I talked about the good things that I saw, mainly from KK, Sarah, Kayleigh, and Azzi. Kudos to Ash for her play excepting her shooting. In a way I'm kind of surprised at some of the angst on the board - Geno was interviewed after the game and was pretty glowing about the team. He even said he wasn't bothered about the run L'ville went on in the 4th quarter. He wanted to let the team figure out how to get through it and not rely on coach to "fix". I thought that was pretty interesting.

He did joke that we were 4-1000 from 3, but he said several times that the ball movement was solid and we got a LOT of open looks. For a team filled with capable shooters, a lot of open looks are good things that mean those shots will start falling. Also, I didn't mention Jana in my original post - not sure if her lesser PT is a result of her coming back from injury, but I thought she looked solid and hope she gets more PT going forward.

It seemed the lineup he liked best was KK, Kayleigh, Ash, Azzi, and Sarah. Small ball again.

On the flip side there's nothing wrong with pointing out things that were disappointing. Serah was one of them. I hope she gets better, but she had wrong positioning several times in the post, even hitting the bottom of the rim once with a layup attempt, and completely missing everything with another attempt. As was pointed out, we had Dorka for 2 years to learn the system and get "up to speed". Serah does not have that luxury. I hope this game was an anomaly for her cuz she did not look good. BUT only the first game.

I thought Ice looked OK. Am expecting more given she's an upper classman now. I'm glad Allie was part of the core group this game but she didn't do much. I wonder if she had hit her only 3 point shot if Geno would have left her in longer.

Last thought - this game clarified the core group to me - Blanca would be part of it so it's a core 10. Right now Allie is on the cusp of core 9/10. Unfortunately for Caroline and Kelis that means no PT in big games, and we will see what that means in blowouts. People who thought/hoped Caroline would contribute more with playing time will be disappointed, but thus far her role will be relegated to player-coach / mentor.
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From what I've seen from her, she finishes better around the rim than what we saw last night. Yes, she only has one year, but one game shouldn't be an indication that this is what we'll see for a full season.

There's nothing wrong with expressing disappointment. To me, the tone of some posts came across as dismissive of her BIG10 accomplishments and her potential after seeing her in action in one game. Yeah, the BIG10 hasn't won a title in what feels like forever, but it's not like players from the conference are that inferior. UConn has picked up three transfers from that conference over the last few years. I'd like to think that would give the conference some credibility. 🤷‍♀️
 
donalddoowop said:
Do you really think that the rest of the UConn team is going to play the way they played tonight? Don't expect KK to score like she did tonight in every game. KK could go scoreless and UConn can win by double digits. She does other things well. UConn's guard position is in good hands for the next few seasons.
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Well, just joshing a bit about KK. But she only took one shot in the 2nd half, and that kind of thing has always mystified me. Often a player will light it up early, and then go totally quiet. Defense change on player? Player feels like they should be taking fewer shots? You would think that the coaches would have really been pushing KK to stay aggressive.
 
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EricLA said:
I'm glad Allie was part of the core group this game but she didn't do much. I wonder if she had hit her only 3 point shot if Geno would have left her in longer.
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I don’t think it was a case of Allie getting the hook as much as it was Geno tinkering with what lineups work with Louisville’s brand of play. Ditto Ice.

Re: Ice, I thought she had a couple of excellent defensive plays, both one on one with L’ville’s big girl. Ice made herself big, stood her ground, and the kid missed both of her shots while eying the ref looking for a foul call that simply wasn’t deserved
 
www.uconnwbbweekly.com

Despite uneven performance, UConn taking the positives from win over Louisville

The Huskies' season-opener was a "tremendous success", according to the head coach.
www.uconnwbbweekly.com www.uconnwbbweekly.com

Per Geno:
“I don't ever want to walk off court this year — because we're UConn and we're defending national champions and we're preseason number one — and make wins feel like losses because we didn't win by enough. We didn't win the right way. We had too many laws. We were too sloppy,” he explained. “Today, we were a typical basketball team — little bit better than typical.​
​
“The way we got there was pretty cool, not making any threes and still getting up 28. You would say it's not an easy thing to do,” Auriemma said. “We didn't shoot free throws and we didn't make threes — and we're up 20. So that's pretty significant for our part.”​
 
HuskyNan said:
I don’t think it was a case of Allie getting the hook as much as it was Geno tinkering with what lineups work with Louisville’s brand of play. Ditto Ice.

Re: Ice, I thought she had a couple of excellent defensive plays, both one on one with L’ville’s big girl. Ice made herself big, stood her ground, and the kid missed both of her shots while eying the ref looking for a foul call that simply wasn’t deserved
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I definitely agree with you that Geno was playing with lineups. But given that I'm baffled that only six players got more than nine minutes. And if you're gonna play someone for five minutes, what about Ayanna or Kelis? (I'm only not including Caroline in that because her injury history, she may generally be day to day.)
 
I mostly agree with the general consensus. Two things I didn't see that I was thinking about - First KK seemed way more mature out there and she made 2 more 3 point shots that were scored as 2 pointers because she moves her right foot a bit forward to initiate her jump. so easy to fix if she moves about 4 inches farther back from the line. My second observation is the lack of credit of the changes LV did to stop the original onslaught. Their bigs often outplayed ours but mostly by being unguarded outside. Their big was very good in this game. Credit to them.

I also was wondering why K9 didn't get more minutes last year given her impact in this game. I suspect her being a first year player factored in.
 
EricLA said:
this game clarified the core group to me - Blanca would be part of it so it's a core 10. Right now Allie is on the cusp of core 9/10.
Expand ...
I think it really depends on what you mean by 'core'. If you mean who's likely to get enough PT in the first half of the season to develop significant chemistry, then cautiously I might agree that it looks like a 9 player core is coming, and it might extend to 10 once Blanca is back. And I say 'cautiously' since only 6 players got double digit minutes in this game.

But if by 'core' you mean who is likely to be in the rotation come the end of February, I think we also got a glimpse of that group in this game, and it's currently only 6 deep: Sarah Azzi Serah Ash KK and Kayleigh. Blanca could well become the 7th rotation player, but so far no one else appears to be on that cusp. When the game grew close in the 4th quarter, Geno showed who he would go to, and Allie isn't on that list... at least not yet.

If I assume Geno is looking for an 8 player rotation, as has been typical in recent years, and if Blanca become #7, who would be #8? Allie is possible, but Kelis might have a shot as well if he wants more team speed. Or a platoon of Jana and Ice if he wants more size. On the other hand, if you're right that 9/10 is really the rotation he'll end up with, then I'd agree that Allie has a real shot. I just didn't see any evidence supporting that in this game. What I did see is that Allie seemed better on defense than last season, more intense and more focused. If she keeps that up and also finds the range on her shot, then signs look really good for her.

The interesting question for me is how deep he will go for the Tennessee game. Last season, he went 8 deep and although this seems to have been a defining moment for team chemistry going forward, it was also a failed experiment in that particular game. This season, if Caldwell is still playing her 'hockey line' full court press by February, will Geno try to run with them and go 10 deep or more? Or will he pound them down low with the size advantage UConn currently enjoys? Or will he rely on small ball to deny them their staple transition game? I've wondered in other threads whether Kim will be able to sustain Tennessee's style of play if Cooper and Spearman emerge as essential players on a very young squad. If those two have to play 30 mins, then I'm not sure they can keep pressing for 40 minutes a game. In that case, I suspect Geno will play 8 deep, not 10. This could be a turning point game for both programs.

The next couple months may not reveal what we hope though, given the schedule. With FSU, tOSU, Michigan, Utah, USC and Iowa all coming up, and only 2 easy games in Loyola and Xavier, I think there's a good possibility Geno could revert to the veteran core + Kayleigh and Blanca getting the bulk of the minutes. The conference schedule should allow him to experiement with a much deeper rotation, but that doesn't really begin until the very end of December.
 
Zinethar said:
I also was wondering why K9 didn't get more minutes last year given her impact in this game. I suspect her being a first year player factored in.
Expand ...
I think it was a poor coaching decision by Lindsay Gottleib. We're seeing evidence now of what Kayleigh could have been at USC if von Oelhofen hadn't been signed out of the portal at the last minute. In the end, TVO didn't add much that Kayleigh and Malia couldn't have supplied. In Lyndsay's defense, though, it would have taken a lot of nerve to go with a rotation that relied so heavily on 4 freshmen -- Smith, Heckel, Howell and Samuels. But if she'd chanced it, she might not have lost half of them after the end of the season, and her roster this season would have been a lot stronger for it.
 
BRS24 said:
www.uconnwbbweekly.com

Despite uneven performance, UConn taking the positives from win over Louisville

The Huskies' season-opener was a "tremendous success", according to the head coach.
www.uconnwbbweekly.com www.uconnwbbweekly.com

Per Geno:
“I don't ever want to walk off court this year — because we're UConn and we're defending national champions and we're preseason number one — and make wins feel like losses because we didn't win by enough. We didn't win the right way. We had too many laws. We were too sloppy,” he explained. “Today, we were a typical basketball team — little bit better than typical.​
​
“The way we got there was pretty cool, not making any threes and still getting up 28. You would say it's not an easy thing to do,” Auriemma said. “We didn't shoot free throws and we didn't make threes — and we're up 20. So that's pretty significant for our part.”​
Expand ...
Very well said by Geno and exactly what the fans need to take away from this game. Also, from this same article, another stat about the game:

The Huskies struggled from deep all night (4-for-26 on 3-pointers) but still managed to overwhelm the Cardinals in the paint by a 50-18 margin.

That makes me feel pretty dang warm and fuzzy.
 
Zinethar said:
I mostly agree with the general consensus. Two things I didn't see that I was thinking about - First KK seemed way more mature out there and she made 2 more 3 point shots that were scored as 2 pointers because she moves her right foot a bit forward to initiate her jump. so easy to fix if she moves about 4 inches farther back from the line. My second observation is the lack of credit of the changes LV did to stop the original onslaught. Their bigs often outplayed ours but mostly by being unguarded outside. Their big was very good in this game. Credit to them.

I also was wondering why K9 didn't get more minutes last year given her impact in this game. I suspect her being a first year player factored in.
Expand ...
During the POST GAME Pressor, Jeff Walz said that in the second
half Louisville switched to a ZONE defense. Any Boneyarder thoughts
about that??
 
donalddoowop said:
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.
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I believe that everyone that played the game yesterday was a streaky shooter. When a team goes 4-26 on the 3 pt shooting I would call that worse than streaky. Ash was one of only 3 players that hit a three yesterday. Ash 1-7, KK 1-3 and Azzi 2-8 everyone else went 0-8, K9 0-4, Sarah 0-3 and Allie 0-1.
 
Zarathustra said:
During the POST GAME Pressor, Jeff Walz said that in the second
half Louisville switched to a ZONE defense. Any Boneyarder thoughts
about that??
Expand ...
I'm pretty sure Rebecca said as much during the game
 
Zarathustra said:
During the POST GAME Pressor, Jeff Walz said that in the second
half Louisville switched to a ZONE defense. Any Boneyarder thoughts
about that??
Expand ...

Well, UConn tried attacking the second half zone in a traditional way, three-point shots, but failed. 13 of UConn's 39 FGAs in the second half were threes, but they hit only 1-13 (7.6%).

UConn also couldn't score from the FT line in the second half either, drawing only four FTAs and making two of them.

Otherwise, they did okay on 2FGs in the second half, hitting 15-26 (57.6%).
 
I don't think the zone was as much of an issue as thought. When shots don't fall, especially open ones, well, what are you going to do. What happened was Louisville got hot and we started making a few dumb fouls. Their shooting was bound to improve, ours never got going so the margin slipped. Walz has some very good players and should move way up in the rankings as the season progresses.
 
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