Make It Happen

[PhillyCoach]

Watching the "Magnificent 7" (whoever stated this first nailed it) is fun for me. The players know more than anyone else that they can win!
Other than SC & Stanford (which would be a stretch to win), UConn has the best starting 5. Let's get to the meat. The playoffs. In The Big East tourney a team has to play 3 days in a row. I think UConn has handled this task in the past (usually only using the Geno system of 7, maybe 8 players.) Then there is a long period before the NCAA. Team should be well rested. The first week of 2 games (at home) are a little easier because of the seeding. Now 4/5 days rest. The next weekend is the Big Test. Does Geno train his players to go 38-40 minutes with a difficult opponent? Of course. Is it possible that all 5 players could go 40 minutes in that third game and win? Absolutely. One day rest and we are at the regional championship looking to go to the final 4. Could all 5 starters go 40 minutes again if necessary? Put it all out on the court and don't worry about tomorrow. Yes. If they win then they get 4/5 days rest to play the final rounds.
This is an extreme scenario. However, IMO if you asked the players could they go 40 minutes in those games (with the rest day and all that) to the girl they would say "Heck yes" if that is the situation I am faced with, I will take it and give it my all. All with the positive expectation of winning.
Do we want it to play out this way with 40 minutes for all? NO. No one wanted this season to be what it is either. But they accepted it and they are amazing.

 

[HuskyNan]

Aubrey is a forward, not a guard. don’t know why you expect her to be racking up assists.

Where Aubrey gets her points is off steals, offensive rebounds, fast breaks, and at the free throw line. She’s 2nd on the team in offensive rebounds and free throw attempts (with Aaliyah 1st in both), tied for first in steals with Nika, shoots 34.4% from three, and along with Nika, shuts down the other teams’ best scorer. She plays the most minutes for a reason

 

[HuskyBaggins]

The tuff news today is that Azzi will be out 2 weeks then she will be re evaluated. Caroline and Yanna are still out. Ines is sick. Just when we thought things might get better with Azzi back on the floor we're right back to where we were and the team continues to deal with it and the team continues to win. The ole saying when the goin gets tuff the tuff get going. Well UConns resilience has been amazing. The keep on keepin on. So whats next??

At some point I have to ask, just exactly what kind of insane concussion did Ducharme get ? I mean, for crying out loud, I've never heard of an NFL player sitting out a month until Tua this year, but he had multiple concussions. I don't know. I don't get it

 

[JRRRJ]

Thru 19 games this year, we've seen 6 different lineups, compared to 7 last year. From a sample size comparison, lineups 2 and 5 are comparable with average points scored. The Avg- (points against) has gone down, however in looking at the teams in each lineup tell a story:

2 - NCSU, Duke, Iowa, Prov, ND (1 conference game)
5 - FSU, Seton Hall, Butler, Xavier, St J, G'town, SH, Butler (7 conference games)

View attachment 83308
Starting tomorrow, as some have mentioned, we've got the gauntlet of DePaul, TN, Nova, Prov, and SC in 14 days. It will be interesting to see the affect on PPG+/- upon playing some of these teams.

Nice analysis.

How about running the standard deviation for each group? (JK ;^)

It shows that the team that's started the most recent games is, by MOV, the best lineup of the bunch. Even allowing for no top-ranked teams lately, a margin of just under 30 pts per game is awesome.

 

[HuskyNan]

DO NOT SPECULATE ON THE INJURIES. We don’t have any fact and people are spinning wild scenarios on what “everybody knows”. We don’t know anything.