Michigan Postgame Thread

[JellyBean]

As a reminder, Hoopgurlz rankings from 2024:

1. Sarah Strong

2. Jaloni Cambridge (OSU)

4. Syla Swords (Michigan)

7. Allie Ziebell

11. Morgan Cheli

13. Kayleigh Heckel

18. Kendall Dudley (UCLA/Michigan)

19. Imari Berry (Louisville)

20. Olivia Olson (Michigan)

Pretty awesome. Thanks for posting the 2024 rankings. Pretty darn impressive and those players are doing well, minus Morgan but that is due to health issues, but we have seen glimpse of what is to come once she gets cleared medically.

 

[freshler40]

With over 5 minutes left azzi made her third 3 pointer of the 4 th quarter giving us an 11 point lead. She never got another shot from the floor. Little effort made to even get her the ball. With 17 sec. Left she made 4 free throws to clinch the game. Maybe do a little more next time to get Azzi a shot or two.

We don't seem to set high picks for Azzi and our double high offense wasn't used effectively. Our guards need to play off this but we seemed to be content to play outside with little cutting to the basket.

 

[Freud12345]

Ash looked like she was trying to get it to Azzi as Michigan was likely to foul. This was another tentative play by someone maybe not wanting the pressure of free throws with the game on the line.

Very true. Never thought of that

 

[Doctor G]

Her threes started falling in the second half finishing with two ridiculous circus shots. My husband also called her Caitlin Clark.

Her threes started falling when Geno took Azzi off of her due to Azzi collecting her second foul (was an effort foul but still a dumb foul). Can’t say I loved this decision since Azzi held her to 2-12 in 1H, but then again it probably saved Azzi’s legs in Q4. With no rest, Sarah was just too tired to close on any of those pick and 3 actions in the fourth. Credit to Swords. She made the open looks the play execution created.

 

[Fore!]

I do want to say. I think we got unlucky. I don’t think Syla will be in that kind of a zone most nights. Because those were very difficult shots.

To be fair, Azzi won’t be either. Swords was the 4th ranked player coming out of high school for a reason.

 

[Bald Husky]

Just a few tidbits:

• Sarah played tough throughout, but trying to get her the ball down low to her when she is triple teamed was not smart.
• Azzi came up big in the second half, but missed too many 6-8 footers in the paint.
• Worried about the bench. Allie just can't make a 3 pointer until she shoots at least three or four first. Kayleigh did not play well, but I question why she did not play more.
• I think Geno should have put Caroline in when the team went 8 minutes without scoring.

-Blanca, looked a little off, but again, hardly played.

• We will not win the NC unless we can put down the 3 pointers as we just can't navigate against the Zone.
• I think Geno may be going too far trying to make all these different combinations. The bottom line is, we can't score on most of them. Its time to get the top 8-9 players and make sure they are the ones that will carry us to greatness.
• I am hoping Morgan finally gets healthy because she may be the player that can make a difference in our rotation.
• The good thing is that we won. This game may open some eyes for some of the players, and after this those will be the players that will lead us forward. Like Tennessee last year, hoping that the players will wake up and see that the road won't be easy, but in my opinion, the NC is UConns to lose.

 

[Henry]

We played a very good 1st Q, a horrendous 3rd Q, and did enough in the 2nd and 4th to not lose. Our bench didn't help much at all - so much for our depth. Thankfully Azzi still had enough in the tank to hit those 3s in the 4th.

The TOs were bad. Passing to a player whose double and triple teamed. Throwing to nobody at all. Not UConn basketball.

 

[mauconnfan]

The zone can be tough to play against. I can’t even count how many times I watched teams struggled against Syracuse MBB despite the fact that everyone and their mom KNEW it would be basically the only defense they ran.

Heck even in the earlier game last night once Syracuse WBB switched to it in the second half, Utah struggled to score.

It’s early in the season. Some players are brand new to the college game and are being asked to do a lot. They will learn. I have faith in the coaching staff.

Calhoun had us ripping up the Cuses zone soon after taking over and getting the right players. With shooters it should be easy to rip up they just need to practice against it now.

 

[FanFromMaine]

Christine reidi at LuhI in Long Island NY is building some high school program. Swords and Heckal tonight.
Swords was unbelievable—
None of her current team is going to UConn and they are all top 5 recruits.
We have work to do this year if we to go undefeated

Lutheran has been good since the ‘60s. They used to play Cross every year in New Haven.

 

[Linart]

That sums up my feelings perfectly! I don't know who Ana is but she's hysterical.

 

[Vowelguy]

Last year it was easy. Paige would cut to the FT line, receive the ball and either shoot it, pass it to an open shooter or drive to the basket. I think this year that needs to be Sarah.

You mean losing Paige was a big deal?

 

[Vowelguy]

They won but they got exposed badly tonight. Only Azzi and Strong are capable three point shooters. The rest are bricklayers. This is probably Geno’s worst shooting team in years. Im not so confident about repeat anymore.

Worst shooting in years lmao
Where were you for much of 2019-24?

 

[FanFromMaine]

Geno’s biggest issue right now is settling on a post player. Serah is athletic but not very physical. Jana is physical but not particularly athletic. Blanca is athletic and physical but undisciplined. If I were Geno, I would consider going back to Jana as the starter and then substitute off her.

When i saw Serah in Annapolis, she played like a 4 more than a 5. I expect CD is teaching her about life in the pivot and she will learn to use her athleticism better.

 

[#1florida]

On the other hand you need to find out what you have in your bench and what rotations and groupings work, earlier in the season, so later in the season and tourney time you know what works and what doesn’t.

In others words IMO now is the time to move things around and move players around.

Maybe against weaker teams. But, this game was up for grabs.

 

[#1florida]

On the other hand you need to find out what you have in your bench and what rotations and groupings work, earlier in the season, so later in the season and tourney time you know what works and what doesn’t.

In others words IMO now is the time to move things around and move players around.

If the game is not on the line. First win the game, move players around against weaker teams.

 

[HuskyNan]

• UConn’s offensive execution continues to be inconsistent. At times they look unstoppable and at times they struggle to execute. The 3rd qtr tonight was particularly brutal. When was the last time UConn was outscored 18-4 in a qtr?

.

Feb 10, 2020. UConn didn’t win even one quarter

 

[Doctor G]

You mean losing Paige

When Michigan went to a zone our offense disappeared. We are going to see a lot of zone the rest of the year

The game was so hard fought, that it is easy to forget it’s early in the season. We will be fine against the zone. The team clearly hasn’t yet installed much, if any, zone offense. Nobody was cutting into the open spaces (Paige always gave the offense movement and set screens no matter how tired she was) and the squad and the coaches missed Ice’s ability to pick, pass and shoot from the top of the key against zone. When they ran high-low it was successful, but they did not run it much.

 

[oldude]

Where was their pressure defense ? Also , was Azzi taken off Swords ? She was guarding her well and giving her a problem I thought

I can only speculate:

1. MI shredded ND’s pressure defense at will for one easy basket after another. I can only guess that, other than light pressure by UConn’s guards after made baskets, Geno didn’t want to give MI the opportunity to do the same thing as they did to ND.
2. Yes, Azzi did do a good job on Swords. At the same time, once she was taken off Swords, Azzi picked up her offense significantly. As info, Azzi did not hit her 1st basket from the floor until less than a minute left in the 1st qtr.

 

[ctchamps]

I think Williams didn’t switch fast enough on some screens and Swords took advantage and made some shots- possibly it was someone else though. Williams- everyone, really- needs to perform her role effectively- for her, she has to score & defend down low and get rebounds.

In that comeback it was more Strong than Williams.

 

[mhshuskies]

 

[Ron and Vida]

Two.

Quite disappointing from the rest.

The bench strength is misleading. It looks like we have two benches. One that can play against top ten teams and one that can’t. Last night was a clear example of the latter

 

[FanFromMaine]

KK and Ash replace Paige and Chen in our starting line-up. To me, that’s a big jump for both of them.

 

[HuskyPhan]

First time ever saying this:

UConn attendance was disappointing for a h game against a ranked foe.

More positively: Azzi looked like a first rounder tonight.

I was at the game last night and I have to admit I was also surprised by the number of empty seats. I'm guessing that it was due to the late start time of the game and the fact that a large part of the UCWBB fandom are card carrying AARP members-like myself Fortunately I'm only a 20 minute drive to Mohegan Sun so I could manage it-thank goodness because it was an amazing game!!! Go Huskies!!!!

 

[Ron and Vida]

I have to say, I’m glad they pulled it out. I still have PTSD from the men’s game on Wednesday when they lost after holding a lead at the half. It was another top 10 matchup and eerily similar to tonight’s game

I’m glad to see that they pulled it out too. Otherwise Notre Dame would’ve pulled out their game in the last seconds and UConn didn’t. They would still be dancing in the streets

 

[ctchamps]

On the other hand you need to find out what you have in your bench and what rotations and groupings work, earlier in the season, so later in the season and tourney time you know what works and what doesn’t.

In others words IMO now is the time to move things around and move players around.

I don’t believe Geno was experimenting in this game. He was trying to find players that could give the starters some rest. Unfortunately only K9 could offer some help and even she was a net negative when in.

She is one of four players that I hope to see improve considerably over the season. The others being Serah, Blanca, and Allie.

We have two super offensive players. Hopefully one more player can develop into a reliable offensive player.

But more important than that is we need a bench that can come in and play enough minutes without a drop off to allow our starters to rest.

I loved our defensive effort in the first half. We might have the best full court defensive team in the nation. But we exert a lot of energy employing it. I was nervous at halftime because I wasn’t sure we could sustain it. My concern was realized.

Michigan didn’t exert the same amount of energy in the first half. Plus they employed a lot of zone in the second half.

They had less tired legs at the end of the game. If we want to employ that first half defense against top teams we need that bench improvement. I’m cautiously optimistic it will happen. But that’s what makes sports exciting. There are no guarantees.