Mercer Postgame Thread

[Sluconn Husky]

Stanford shot 44.6% last night...as noted towards the end there were several point blank shots that missed.

And Stanford's offensive isn't very good either. Is that the point you're making?

 

[mbr33ct]

I don't know how we shot 44.8%. It seems like on several possessions we missed not just a bunny, but3 to 5 bunnies in a row, and the only reason it stopped was the refs mercifully called a foul. I guess they could not stand to watch it continue. I assume on all those, every miss counts as a miss, unless they happen so fast the official scorer can't keep up. Maybe he tells the refs to call a foul and stop it.

Yeah but they padded their Offensive rebounds.

 

[housekeys]

I have to disagree with folks who say "all that matters is the win". This is not a team who has played together for the entire season. The whole team has only been back and healthy for a few weeks. So every game is a chance for the team to get better chemistry, re-acclimate Paige, figure out which lineups work best, and build for a NC run.

Yeah you can't advance if you don't win, but "style" points matter. What is the team doing? What combinations work best? How are they doing it? Who is playing/shooting well? Who is effective on the floor? Etc.

Too much settling IMHO for post player jumpers. Not enough using our height advantage in the post. Tons of credit to Mercer for playing hard the entire game and collapsing in the post almost every time the ball went in there. And the FT shooting was way off. 58% with Evina going 1-4 from the charity stripe.

• Paige actually looked great. Took the right shots, had a nice stat line, was efficient and effective.
• Azzi - very few shots. but hit most of them. And continues to play solid defense as well.
• Christyn - leading scorer but her offense was just not good. She needs to stop with the 3-point barrage. But her defense was tremendous.
• Caroline - same for her. 2-6 from 3 - just stop with the shooting. The team shot 45% from 3 and Christyn and Caroline were a combined 4-14
• Dorka with a double double. How about them apples?!!
• Overall our post play was solid. Liv and Aaliyah had some nice moments.
• Nika was Nika.
• Quiet game from Evina.

The 3rd quarter had tremendous defense. Holding a team to 0 points in a quarter is spectacular. Bottom line it was a 45 point win, but not the kind of dominating performance that screams "This team is ready to win a NC"...

You must be a perfectionist. UConn can always do better, but they are human. So is South Carolina. Not that it means much, but if you compare what South Carolina did against a way more outmatched opponent, versus UConn's performance today, it may put things in perspective. 79 points on 79 shot attempts. Yikes. I thought the rule book says 2 points for a made basket, lol.

South Carolina vs Howard

UConn vs Mercer

 

[BlueSkyGLW]

A note to everyone who's complaining about UConn's offense. Go back and watch the 2010 National Championship game against Stanford. In a game when UConn couldn't throw the ball in the ocean, the Huskies won perhaps the ugliest championship game in the history of WBB 53-47. Defense wins championships, and this UConn team is playing championship defense right now, something we really haven't seen since 2016.

You still have to score to win....so offense to make sure you do score more than the opponent is mandatory. This cliche is overused because it is not the only thing you need to win the NC.

A good offensive performance to go along with good defense ensures the win and makes the game more memorable......like all the four straight won by Stewie, MoJeff and Morgan. When that happens, the game crosses the threshold to art.....a beautiful game.

 

[Ralph]

I get exasperated with people picking apart a 45 point win

Its simple, this is not just any basketball team, this is UConn. We don't practice until we get it right, we practice until we cannot get it wrong. We are totally spoiled, but that is what we expect. I think we can easy go and root for a player who is not that good, like the bench going wild for a walk-on's 3 pointer at the the very end of the championship game. But for most of our players, they are really really talented and we expect them to do it all better. They expect if of themselves also. A win is ok for the national championship game. For every other game, playing really well is part of getting better for the next game. Playing just ok and winning is not ok.

 

[LarryLegend]

"Caroline - same for her. 2-6 from 3 - just stop with the shooting. "

I agree with most of your comments but there's possibly going to come an important moment in one of these games when Ducharme will be called upon to make a three-point shot.........the only way she's getting her confidence back on that shot is to just keep on shooting......

since her injury she was struggling with 3s. It was good to see her make a couple. As you say she needs to keep shooting

 

[Husky fanatic]

Going forward the missed bunnies, turnovers and poor free throw percentage will become an issue as the competition increases. Today it didn’t matter but tomorrow it just might

 

[Javafan]

Of course the offense isn't going to be perfect they haven't played in 2 weeks. You people are never happy. They can go 100 percent from the floor and make every free throw and have zero turnovers and y'all will still complain.

It's not complain, it's a review of which areas need to be improved. SIMPLE : Cut down mental mistakes of miss FT and miss bunny !

 

[oldude]

You still have to score to win....so offense to make sure you do score more than the opponent is mandatory. This cliche is overused because it is not the only thing you need to win the NC.

A good offensive performance to go along with good defense ensures the win and makes the game more memorable......like all the four straight won by Stewie, MoJeff and Morgan.

If UConn scores a minimum of 83 pts in ever game they play during the tournament, as they did today, the Huskies will win the national championship.

 

[Zarathustra]

I get exasperated with people picking apart a 45 point win

I agree with HuskyNan. ... My team never won by 45 points!
As an asside... I was only off by
5 in my pronostication expectations. GO HUSKIES! Go Big East!

 

[freshler40]

Several comments, our defense was solid but our bigs need to close out much better, they tend to play off the offensive player too much. We only had two blocks against a much smaller team???? Our bigs need to finish shots, even when hit, we tend to give up and don't even get a shot off. We look too much for a foul and not to score!!!!! Why not get both???? How can we shoot a higher percentage from three than point blank?

Our full court press, after a hoop, was impressive and led to several quick scoring opportunities.

Overall a good win on paper but not so much while watching. Some rust exists but the future looks bright.

 

[Boreifs]

Its simple, this is not just any basketball team, this is UConn. We don't practice until we get it right, we practice until we cannot get it wrong. We are totally spoiled, but that is what we expect. I think we can easy go and root for a player who is not that good, like the bench going wild for a walk-on's 3 pointer at the the very end of the championship game. But for most of our players, they are really really talented and we expect them to do it all better. They expect if of themselves also. A win is ok for the national championship game. For every other game, playing really well is part of getting better for the next game. Playing just ok and winning is not ok.

Sigh! Nan, I’m with you.

 

[Icebox]

Buick shouldn’t show its Buzzer Beater ad during UCONN games. We all saw that shot.

 

[housekeys]

Going forward the missed bunnies, turnovers and poor free throw percentage will become an issue as the competition increases. Today it didn’t matter but tomorrow it just might

True, but only to a team that plays us perfectly. I would like to think that team is made up of humans.

But, yea, there is always something to get better at. FT's for sure. They are supposed to be free.

 

[jaundicedeye]

• Christyn - leading scorer but her offense was just not good. She needs to stop with the 3-point barrage. But her defense was tremendous.
• Caroline - same for her. 2-6 from 3 - just stop with the shooting. The team shot 45% from 3 and Christyn and Caroline were a combined 4-14

Wow. I don't think we want either of them to stop shooting three's when they are there. I am very confident that Geno wants them to shoot when the opportunities are there. As we go further into the tournament, we will need those outside shots and we want them to have the confidence to take them.
I would hardly say that the sum of Christyn's 3-pt. shots constitutes a barrage. SMH.

 

[jchusky]

It's not complain, it's a review of which areas need to be improved. SIMPLE : Cut down mental mistakes of miss FT and miss bunny !

don't you know you can't be objective or they call you a "non fan". Ft's are a concern esp for a player like Dorka, can't see her playing meaningful minutes in a close game in the 4th because opposing players will just hack her and send her to the ft line. I thought the last 5 min of the 1st quarter were the worst possibly of the season. 3 off rebs in 1 posession for Mercer and 4 turnovers. Not sure if it was being sloppy or lazy but it was not good. Agree that they can get away with this with an inferior squad like Mercer who poses no threat, but not against top level teams like Nc st/Sc/Stanford. Also someone in the chat mentioned the rotations were not fun to watch I agree. The players got no rhythm there was too many off and on subs.

 

[Monte]

Good: Defense

Bad: Passing

 

[Bald Husky]

A note to everyone who's complaining about UConn's offense. Go back and watch the 2010 National Championship game against Stanford. In a game when UConn couldn't throw the ball in the ocean, the Huskies won perhaps the ugliest championship game in the history of WBB 53-47. Defense wins championships, and this UConn team is playing championship defense right now, something we really haven't seen since 2016.

That game was painful, LOL. Imagine, Maya, Tina, and Renee scoring 12 points in the first half. Stanford with 20, had to be the worst half of basketball in the history of the FF.

 

[HuskyNan]

Considering I specifically commented on that game on the women's board I'm pretty sure I'm aware what SC did. And it's utterly irrelevant. SC's offense isn't good either. But when you allow 10 points in three quarters and out-rebound your opponent by 40 it doesn't have to be.

How about giving Mercer some credit? They’re nationally ranked #12 in FG% defense

FIELD-GOAL PERCENTAGE DEFENSE

Last updated March 19, 2022 - Through games March 18, 2022

RANK	TEAM	GM	OPP FG	OPP FGA	OPP FG%
1	South Carolina	32	623	1920	32.4
2	UCF	28	477	1431	33.3
3	Liberty	32	579	1707	33.9
4	Tennessee	31	678	1996	34.0
5	Norfolk St.	29	530	1553	34.1
6	Stanford	32	641	1848	34.7
7	Jackson St.	29	638	1833	34.8
8	Princeton	28	508	1455	34.9
9	North Carolina	29	596	1707	34.9
10	Dayton	32	650	1860	34.9
11	Howard	31	643	1836	35.0
12	Mercer	29	593	1686	35.2
13	UC Davis	28	586	1665	35.2
14	UConn	30	610	1732	35.2
15	Charlotte	31	651	1842	35.3
16	SFA	32	629	1777	35.4
17	Montana	30	655	1847	35.5
18	Towson	32	723	2036	35.5

 

[jaundicedeye]

"Caroline - same for her. 2-6 from 3 - just stop with the shooting. "

I agree with most of your comments but there's possibly going to come an important moment in one of these games when Ducharme will be called upon to make a three-point shot.........the only way she's getting her confidence back on that shot is to just keep on shooting......

Couldn't agree more. Just posted something along these lines prior to seeing your post.

 

[oldude]

That game was painful, LOL. Imagine, Maya, Tina, and Renee scoring 12 points in the first half. Stanford with 20, had to be the worst half of basketball in the history of the FF.

Yes, but in the end it was beautiful.

 

[MD#12Fan]

Looking ahead....
IMO UConn needs Nika in the starting lineup. She sets the tone defensively. Right out of the gates the opponent runs into a wall. I know, who sits. Could you go small, with one post? With big time pressure full-court, in the passing lanes, and close outs, couldn't a small group with one post rebound? Set the tone, then sub in bigs as needed. Just a thought. BTW IMO all the bigs are playing good.
Hey, Geno has to get Azzi more shots. She's got to get 15 shots. That's a sure 20. This offense isn't getting her enough looks.
More dribble drive pitch with Azzi finding the open spot. Boom

 

[HopJim]

While the 1st half was not a thing a thing of beauty by UConn standards, I can't remember a game, particularly in the NCAA's, where UConn's bench scored 36 points! Very fun to watch.

 

[cordarone]

If UCF wins over Fla (they're leading after one quarter), this forum's going to be a lot more miserable than it is now come Monday evening. Whether the Huskies win or not, I doubt any style points will be found in that game