Marquette Postgame Thread

[Aluminny69]

One thing I noticed, passes that normally work against weaker teams, resulted in turnovers tonight. You have to worry that by playing weaker teams, UConn gets a false sense of what will work and what doesn't against the better teams.

 

[Boreifs]

Also, Aaliyah Edwards now leads the nation in FG shooting at 70% which is inching close to the all time record of 72%. The goofs at the NCAA stats page need to put Edwards' name in there where it belongs instead of pretending she doesn't exist.

She may not have played enough minutes to qualify.

 

[Boreifs]

Watching the replay right now this was a total ass kicking from the start. We could have won this game by 30 if we really wanted to.

Where did you find the replay?

 

[jaundicedeye]

This is a good game for us to win. Not playing our best, against a good aggressive team, and still coming out with a 10 point win.

I believe that is the proper perspective. As Geno said, learning how to grind out games is needed for March success.

 

[chrissaran]

The team needs to rest. Paige looked incredibly sluggish. Said earlier in the year not to wear her out. Not the performance of the number one team, but UConn still managed to win. Marquette wasn't going to play as poorly as last time. Nika regressing. Move your feet, Nika. Stop hitting the player you're guarding.

 

[Convert2016]

Rarely, in any team sport, do fans give credit to the opponents. It always seems to be an "internal" situation. Players are sluggish/tired, poor execution, overpassing, etc. The simple truth is BOTH teams played very tough defense tonight. Huskies will have nights down the road where they will shoot poorly because they will face teams that are quick, physical, and will force them to take tough shots. What will keep them in those games is that they play very tough D too and Liv/Aaliyah (especially) work non-stop. If they stay out of foul trouble, they can grind out those games. If not, well, they're very young..

 

[BobbyJ]

OK, this was a game for our bigs, who scored 16 of our 25 field goals, while our guards were 3 for 16 from outside the arc. (Williams, Muhl, Westbrook, and Page were, overall, 10 for 37). Were our guards forcing shots? Not that I saw; they had many open looks. Also, a very un-UConn low ratio of assists to made baskets: 12/28, in part because so many of those baskets were from offensive rebounds after misses. Why such poor shooting, especially from Page? I have no idea.
Defense, especially rebounding, was very strong, especially against an opponent that usually counts on an edge of offensive rebounds. Christyn's defense, by the way, has improved markedly.

I have an idea. When PB knows in advance that she is shooting, and is 100% committed to it she hits a high percentage. But her instinct to find others open is so strong that when in motion, coming off screens for curls etc. she often is still half expecting to pass as she goes up and isn't totally focused. I believe another factor is that for probably the first time in her career she's being physically challenged and bumped when going for shots in traffic and she needs to learn to expect contact and go up stronger, focused on the shot and braced for it. Mostly a mental adjustment.

 

[browns]

Admittedly this was not a great game for UConn. They beat a team determined not to go down easy. Parts of this game was ugly. Parts of this game was nice. The reason this game was low scoring was because UConn got few if any easy baskets. They had to scrap and claw for every basket.

In kind, they made Marquette earn every basket they got as well. Marquette is averaging 72.6 ppg. Tonight UConn held them to 20 points below their average. I’d say that was one heck of a team effort. A tip o the turban to our girls not only for tonight’s game, but for the grit and hard work they displayed all year in this Covid plagued season.

Paige is excused. She’s stepped up for us every game this year, especially in the big one against South Carolina. Liv and Aaliyah stepped up tonight. The thing that impressed me most was how our team kept fighting hard to keep their man in front of them.

They fought very hard on the boards on both ends tonight. Marquette is not a scrub team. They are second in the conference only to UConn. They seldom get out rebounded. They got out rebounded tonight 43-25.

Games like this reveal character one way or another. I for one am very proud of the way our team fought and persevered on a night when they didn’t have their A game.

#25 DePaul got beat at home by unranked 3-16 Butler, the team we just vanquished. Crap happens. So glad it only happened to us once this season. Marquette tried very hard tonight to make it twice.

This was Paige's worse game of the year.She hasn't been shooting well the last few games but when she only has 1 assist thats alarming..Liv an AE were awesome..Marquette is a very good rebounding team and the bigs really pounded the glass especially the offensive boards..Geno has often said the Ncaa's are about having good guard play..let's hope our guards were just tired tonight..good effort on defense though

 

[Twolf]

The team needs to rest. Paige looked incredibly sluggish. Said earlier in the year not to wear her out. Not the performance of the number one team, but UConn still managed to win. Marquette wasn't going to play as poorly as last time. Nika regressing. Move your feet, Nika. Stop hitting the player you're guarding.

I agree that Paige looked sluggish, her cuts and work without the ball weren’t nearly as sharp or aggressive as usual, but that could be expected given the fact that the team is coming off 5 road games in a row, and she is playing over 36 minutes a game. That would be playing the entire game plus over 4 minutes at the level she played at last year. Now add in the physicality, speed of the game, and travel that the college game demands and you can understand why strength and conditioning coaches work so hard at building endurance as much as strength, and try to couple that with enhanced nutrition. When the body says no it makes no difference what the mind wants, or as one of the best coaches I was ever around always said “fatigue makes a coward out of everyone”.

 

[uconnfan68]

About what you’d expect for the fourth game in 10 days, 3 on the road, and a young team.

Especially when the whistles were silent all night.

 

[BobbyJ]

I agree that Paige looked sluggish, her cuts and work without the ball weren’t nearly as sharp or aggressive as usual, but that could be expected given the fact that the team is coming off 5 road games in a row, and she is playing over 36 minutes a game. That would be playing the entire game plus over 4 minutes at the level she played at last year. Now add in the physicality, speed of the game, and travel that the college game demands and you can understand why strength and conditioning coaches work so hard at building endurance as much as strength, and try to couple that with enhanced nutrition. When the body says no it makes no difference what the mind wants, or as one of the best coaches I was ever around always said “fatigue makes a coward out of everyone”.

I agree. That's the one area I expected her to struggle some with before the season. She needs a full offseason of strength work to handle the bumping, holding, and to fight off screens and hold her spot when being posted or driven on. And she's such a finesse player that she needs to be stronger on the ball and protect it better now that she's being physically challenged for the first time in her career.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

It doesn’t say it on the NCAA page, but there’s a minimum of 5FG made per game needed to qualify. She’s 10 short (95 FG in 21 games when she needs 105), but has a chance to make up the difference if she keeps getting buckets.

Perhaps the most ridiculous standard I've ever seen. They've had Jade Williams of Duke on there all year. She made 20 field goals in the 4 games Duke played. Guess that's enough to lead the nation in shooting if the few in front of her fall off. Had Duke halt their season after one game Williams would've been the FG champ.

Jade Edwards of American is on the list despite playing 9 games. Anna Olsen is ranked having played 6 games. And there are others in this vein.

Let's not kid ourselves, Aaliyah Edwards leads the nation in FG% no matter what idiotic minimum the NCAA sets.

 

[Jingo]

Let's admit it. Marquette played us very tough. Let's tip our hat and leave it at that, eh?

 

[Dokey]

I agree. Was rooting hard for Nika all year - but her and Evina do not want to shoot. I also think Aubrey is a game changer and needs more than a few minutes come tournament time.

If you are complaining about players who don’t shoot why do you want more of a player who doesn’t shoot and probably shouldn’t. Aubrey has a role, an important one, and that is how she will spend her time at UConn.

 

[Carnac]

Guys, A windstorm took out my power right after the 1st quarter. I ended up following the gamecast on my phone. Not a very pretty game from what I could tell. So the BY is going to have to fill me in on the details.

OD, if you haven’t got your power back as of this post, I hope it’s restored soon.

 

[Dokey]

It wasn’t an ugly game. Marquette played well. We won because we had taller players. The NCAA tourney is coming up. Get used to it.

 

[Pastahusky98]

I will contact my lawyer at once and bring up charges against Marquette for emotional distress. Our beloved Huskies, simply HOW will they recover from the trauma of being involved in a close, competitive game?

 

[Sluconn Husky]

It wasn’t an ugly game. Marquette played well. We won because we had taller players. The NCAA tourney is coming up. Get used to it.

Pretty ugly for UConn: 41% FG, 3-16 on 3's, 12 assists to 15 turnovers. If that's what Marquette's defense can do I shudder to think of UConn facing Stanford.

 

[hoophuskee]

One thing I noticed, passes that normally work against weaker teams, resulted in turnovers tonight. You have to worry that by playing weaker teams, UConn gets a false sense of what will work and what doesn't against the better teams.

huh???????????????

Anytime a top team ends up getting upset you can point to a phase of the game that they didn't play as well.

For example, do you really think UCONN is going to crush SC, Baylor, Stanford or NC State on the glass in any manner like they did vs Marquette as well? Thus- power rebounding like what happened vs Marquette in which UCONN totally wiped them out - won't work against the better teams too, right?

And at the other end if UCONN were to win they are going to take away another team's strength's too, right?

It's just that UCONN tends to take away the other teams strengths more than theirs get taken away over the last 20+ years, right?

 

[hoophuskee]

If Azzi is half as good as people say, CW's minutes will be way down next season.

I doubt this very much. Paige and Azzi are super shooters. CWill is a terrific driver. She'll be able to play off of them.

And her minutes will be down because UCONN is going to blow teams out much earlier and won't need to push their starters as much in order to change how they play.

 

[Redux]

MU was the better team the last three quarters.

Despite the fact that they missed about 6 gimme shots.

Great game from ONA and AE and some good minutes from AG. Otherwise: burn the game film and move on.

 

[Cuango]

The team needs to rest. Paige looked incredibly sluggish. Said earlier in the year not to wear her out. Not the performance of the number one team, but UConn still managed to win. Marquette wasn't going to play as poorly as last time. Nika regressing. Move your feet, Nika. Stop hitting the player you're guarding.

This team does need a rest! They look (all except Liv & AE) like they are just fried! I am hoping they can get their legs back and (more important) get their mental edge back to where it was earlier in the season. Also hoping for a healthy, well rested Anna!

 

[fomalhaut]

The passing numbers were what jumped out at me. 12 assists (season low) on 28 field goals, with 15 assists. Last game that bad was last season's loss to Baylor.

 

[RedStickHusky]

Mama said there'd be days like this...

• We've been talking all year about the importance of knocking down shots. Remember when we were the "worst shooting team in the history of teams". Then, for a couple weeks, we weren't. Now, maybe we are again. Hopefully, tonight's 3-16 is a function of tired legs.
• Forcing the defense to close out on the arc is important, especially for Christyn's driving game and for opening up cutting/passing lanes for assists. Maybe a dose of tournament adrenaline will pick them up.
• Aaliyah has really stepped up to fill a void on this team with her effort not just on the offensive glass but on the defensive end and running the court. She hedges off screens like Isiah Whaley - really fun to watch.
• Nika still looks like she wants to throw a highlight reel pass on every possession; she also tends to launch herself into the lane a lot with no idea of what's going to happen when she gets there. I still think Geno is playing her at point to try and get more shots for Paige but I'm not sure it's working. I wonder what her +/- is? Also, I can't imaging Nika's body language is doing her any favors with the refs...
• I love the boneyard drama as much as anybody, but calling any of these kids 'no shows' or 'soft' or 'lacking in effort' isn't really justified imo. Some people here act like someone's taking their lunch money. They don't owe us a fifty-point win every time out.
• Obviously, we're going to have to win at least a couple of competitive games to get #12. Not a slam dunk, but I still like our chances.
• I wouldn't be surprised if Geno isn't just a tiny bit pleased (secretly) that they got pushed a little bit heading into the tournaments.
• Hoping Evina's not hurt to the point of having to miss any time. Having her on the floor is important even when she isn't looking to score.

 

[Littlemin]

Uconn just beat a good, determined, physical team by double digits essentially at their own game. IMO, they showed the mental toughness needed to win an ugly game when things aren’t all peaches and cream. Mental toughness that can win a NC. The entire backcourt played very poorly offensively but not one of the four hung their heads and stopped playing hard and tough. At least for me, I feel better about their chances after last night than before it. Defense and rebounding win, IMO offense is for the uninitiated casual observer. Personally, I enjoyed the heck out of the game, much more than any of the 20-40 point blowouts. An eye test, effort and determination game, not a stats game.
And one last point, I rarely watch games with the sound on but will always start doing so for announcers I am unfamiliar with; last night I left the sound on all game without even realizing it, so kudos to them.

 

[eebmg]

For those saying ESPN does not favorably cover UConn (or Paige) due to FOX affiliation, SC keeps the spotlight on Paige and the team even after a lukewarm game. Also, Sue Bird invited on to speak about her career, new contract (said no other team offered her anything) and a little on Paige and being a Freshman at UConn, Sue put a bit of a target on Paige's back. Said if Paige could enter the draft today, she would be picked #1.

 

[eebmg]

Aaliyah Presser

 

[eebmg]

Liv Presser

 

[npignatjr]

Exactly, this year she is what she is and we love her defense and rebounding. this offseason she needs to figure out how she can get better offensively. Foul line jumper, taking her big outside and driving to the rim because she is very quick. Just have some way to consistently score on offense.

Not just that when they are trying to run offense she just runs around like she has no idea. Great in helter skelter.

 

[npignatjr]

Your point number 2 was what I was thinking except more in line that Marquette appears to be the BE's UCF. I thought a couple of our players kept getting mugged (esp. Paige) and the refs swallowed their whistles.
I think it was an off night for Nika because she was called on a couple fouls that she didn't like, which is normal, but she seemed a bit more madder early tonight.
Another reason about getting mugged (or whatever you want to call it), most times that Liv was near the basket without the ball, from the start of the game, their defender had her forearm up against Liv's back and it was never called. FFW to the 3rd or 4th quarter, Nika did a quick hand check and was blown for a foul. But these didn't affect the game, I guess...

I usually look forward to the replays of our game wins, but I may have to skip tonight's game...

Nika's got a foul for responding to an elbow being thrown at her
Liv on one sequence got shoved so hard her head snapped back, whip lash, no foul called