This was posted earlier in the thread but bears repeating. Players were put into unfamiliar roles, with a short turnaround from Princeton, on the road against a ranked team. three (Lou, Amari, Caroline) had some kind of physical issue (foot, calf, neck, respectively). Of course they wore down.
Context is always helpful for understanding the dynamics of events. The performance of the 7 must be viewed relative to the circumstances and the mental preparedness they are in. As such, I have expressed much admiration for how they played in a last-line-of-defense situation for the team....in shuffled positions, new roles save a few, floor leadership roles in place of those disabled, etc.....and I posted elsewhere how, in statistical measures, they were able to function with recognizable symmetry to similar effectiveness prior the injuries hit, if short on overall efficiency.......except for a few crucial measures. They only had two intervening days to practice in these reconfigured roles.
To do this away against the team that had earlier defeated Notre Dame spoke volumes of what they are as UConn WBB players.
The chatter sometimes grates because people tend to measure performance relative to well-oiled UConn WBB teams while forgetting context. Among many things, the team tried to make it easier for Ines and things went fairly well when they moved into positions for her to deliver the ball but a lot of times, they remained stagnant, leaving Ines in "what-to-do" moments leading to a breakdown of flow, a mistake or a TO - a product of only 2 days practice working together. That things didn't breakdown more is a credit to all of them. The same thing can be said on the other side of the ball.....switching defense needs familiarity to function well in
concatenato. The mental side of players in different and more important roles than previously can undermine performance.....hiccups here and there aside, these girls performed well beyond my expectations. So, shame on me for underestimating them.
Mental burdens? Aubrey becoming a needed go-to scorer alongside Lou, with the Coach's challenge thrown in. Lou and Caroline to carry the scoring burden more; Aaliyah everything she can do, she must; Ines the PG.....Ayanna and Amari, more of themselves.....all these in limited practice time playing UConn way, probably with instructions to just play and not think too much - tall order. And yet, they managed most of the time.
And so I raise eyebrows at even mildly critical comments which ignores context but I usually stay quiet. Since I have just been told that this is the BY -
Anything Goes? (Cue Ella) So, I have chimed in above and one more below:
"Ines
small compared to MD guards, looked like a high school girl" Aside from the fact that she just left the Azores and has just turned 18 after getting to UConn at the last possible minute, the comment's emphasis on size made me wonder: Ines is 5'9".....Nika is just an inch taller but what should one say about Crystal, Moriah, Renee, Rita, Jennifer......
Best to stop.....
But, I understand that they all want UConn to win ALL the time.....with the best of UConn way, perfectly.