Michigan Postgame Thread

[Zonepress]

The defensive circle no longer applies to the women's game as of last season. That was a valid charge call.

good to know
thnks!!

 

[The Deuce]

Sorry to be so late to the party
We were driving between Lecce and Otranto, this morning…in lovely Puglia, Southern Italy: Greetings.

Two thoughts

-Kim Barnes Arico has experience matching Geno…back in the day, her Johnnies
embarrassed UConn, taking a big East game, UConn should have won

-(and more pertinent)…The game was too late for us to follow but as a super senior I woke about 2:45 ish to attend to things, seniors do at night…and I turned on ESPN play by play…and I came in with Uconn up 12/14…and then he subbed in Blanca at 4:42 of the third:

-inside of 25 seconds, she fouled Mila Holloway, who hit two foul shots
-She then turned the ball over twice in the next 32 seconds, leading to a three and
a reduced lead…In retrospect a commedia moment, but must have seen tragic at the time.
-Geno pulled her after a grand total of 49 seconds of negative mayhem

A game to tell her grandkids about after an illustrious career

All too true.

 

[drweo]

Our defense coming around and under screens was terrible. Instead of us hedging on the screens we stayed back and let Swords kill us. The last 3 shots that sword took were the same and KK went under and let swords get loose.

The going under the screens/picks has been evident in all the games so far. It's surprising that the coaches haven't controlled it yet. Three point shooters getting way too much space.

 

[The Deuce]

A deep team doesn't mean healthy bodies. It means players who can play against top competition. Michigan showed that UConn is far from deep: only Sarah and Azzi can be counted on. A 3rd option must be developed before March. Hopefully, that option is Serah. If not, it needs to be KK driving to the hoop and stressing the defense. She does it at times with success but then stops.

 

[Zonepress]

The going under the screens/picks has been evident in all the games so far. It's surprising that the coaches haven't controlled it yet. Three point shooters getting way too much space.

kk try to get through the pic but couldn’t
It was the back player’s responsibility to come up
Definitely not on KK

 

[Bigboote]

The defensive circle no longer applies to the women's game as of last season. That was a valid charge call.

Her feet were planted, but her torso was moving and I thought leaned into Shade’s path. It was close, and I have no complaint with the call.

The first charge on Shade, she caught a pass about a foot or two from the defender. Definitely a charge, but maybe a pass that shouldn’t have been thrown.

 

[hookshot]

It is early in the season still but it feels like we know what we will be getting each night from Azzi, Sarah, and KK, the regular season will be about figuring out what we can consistently expect from everyone else.

Fully Agree, but Ash, for sure, will keep after it till she hits her talent ceiling and Williams, Heckyl, Alli, Blanca all have yet unfulfilled ceiling based on pure talent, so bodes well for a March core rotation of 8+. Then, of course, there is the Safety net provided by Jana, Ice and, yes, even Carolyn and Chelli, etc.

 

[Conndog]

Not for nothing but the game vs Ohio State was far from a sell out as well and that was a Sunday noon tip off....

Maybe due to high ticket prices?

 

[Conndog]

I di

they also missed on the offensive foul called on AS
late in q-3 the michigan player had positin but her back
foot was clearly in the circle
big play at the tine

I didn’t think defender was set; but, the shot was released from Ash’s hands before any contact was made. Basket should have counted because of that

 

[Cuango]

I thought the key play was calling time out with 42 seconds left and a lead that had dwindled to three. Geno grew up a masterful play that got Sarah a layup with 26 seconds left. Up five, 68-63.

We needed Azzi’s foul shots to go in from that point but the most important possession of the game was up to Geno and that is why he is who he is.

On the other hand, I don’t know why we weren’t fouling down the stretch to force them to start the possession over. We only had one foul in the fourth quarter, plenty of fouls to give.

The defensive intensity of the first quarter was in sharp contrast to the tentativeness shown on offense in the second half. Even with that though, there were plenty of open shots created that were simply missed.

I was at the game and what stood out most to me was Sarah’s ability to rebound on the defensive boards in traffic. When there was a crowd under the basket, she almost always came away with it. And they were tough, physical, rip it away type rebounds.

I have to go with the Oldude assessment. Don’t know if he agrees with this but I’d be willing to bet a tidy sum that f we were to play them again in two/three weeks, we would win by double digits. No disrespect at all to Michigan who played a magnificent game and showed a lot of heart but I just do not think it is replicable for them. I freely admit that we were fortunate to win that game but they should have won because those circumstances are not likely to happen again.

We will be better prepared for a zone, Swords will not likely play like that again, and even if she did, we would likely be able to do more to counter it. Our help for Azzi & Sarah will be better and more prepared and Geno will have Sarah better prepared to respond to double teams. Now some will say, “Michigan will get better too.” That is true but there are two reasons why that won’t really matter.

First, our big two had good games but not great ones and the rest of our team was pretty average at best. That may have been (likely was) the best Swords has ever played in those circumstances! Olson had a good game not a great one. The odds of Swords playing like that again against us would imo be pretty low. However, the odds of Sarah and Azzi playing like they did are (once again, imo) pretty good. The odds of our complementary players playing that poorly again are quite low as well. .

Second, this is going to sound arrogant but there it is, we are simply better than them! We have better coaching, better players, and are simply more used to playing in these sorts of games. Geno will use this game to capture the attention of Blanca, Serah, and Kayleigh especially and to a lesser extent Allie and their performances will rise commensurately.

I think I messed up somehow! Sorry to the Mods if I did!

 

[GoUconn7961]

When I read some pre-game posts, I sometimes had to shake my head. At times, UConn fans forget the days of intimidating opponents with just the name on the jersey are long gone. Other teams have great coaches and players now and games won’t always be a cakewalk.

I was blown away by the people who thought we’d beat a top ten team by 20+ points. With all the talent scattered around the country, that won’t happen as often.

 

[DemonDeac22]

I looked at the shot distribution chart by quarter and found it odd that Sarah had attempted and missed 2 3-pointers in the first quarter but she never attempted another one for the rest of the game. Very odd, especially when she has shown the ability to hit these when the pressure is on. Was this Geno’s direction to keep her primarily in the low post after 1Q? Why would he not want to open the floor with his two most trustworthy 3-point shooters, especially if the opponent is in a zone and swarming her every time down low?

 

[BobbyJ]

I looked at the shot distribution chart by quarter and found it odd that Sarah had attempted and missed 2 3-pointers in the first quarter but she never attempted another one for the rest of the game. Very odd, especially when she has shown the ability to hit these when the pressure is on. Was this Geno’s direction to keep her primarily in the low post after 1Q? Why would he not want to open the floor with his two most trustworthy 3-point shooters, especially if the opponent is in a zone and swarming her every time down low?

Somewhat. When Michigan started using the 2-3 matchup zone they noticed that with Strong revolving on the perimeter UConn had no inside threat so they could crowd the 3 line and take away UConn's only two scoring threats. So Auriemma dropped SS into the paint to either exploit the hole in the middle or at least draw multiple defenders to free up some room on the perimeter. She drew the defenders however, no one other than Fudd could get or make shots out there and so UConn's offense became stagnant.

 

[JoePgh]

Some moderately good news from the game: In the pre-game presser, Geno said there was no news on Ice or Morgan, however, Morgan Cheli was NOT wearing a boot at last night's game. Fingers crossed!

Yes, indeed, it appears that "Das Boot" has been sunk!

 

[JoePgh]

they also missed on the offensive foul called on AS
late in q-3 the michigan player had positin but her back
foot was clearly in the circle
big play at the tine

You are forgetting that there is no "circle" in WBB any more. That rule was repealed two years ago. Now it's just a straight charge/block call as it would be anywhere else on the floor. The announcers correctly commented on this.

In real time, watching the game live, I thought both offensive foul calls against Ashlynn were wrong. Watching the replay and replaying the action several times, I think they were both correct (although the second one may not have been since Ashlynn appeared to have started her shooting action when the defender set her feet). Ashlynn needs to either change direction or pull up and shoot rather than barreling into the player.

 

[uconnfan68]

Never heard that pillow expression before (why not?) but certainly sums up Azzi at crucial moments. She was the "go to" player when it was needed last night.

The late Stuart Scott from ESPN Sportcenter used it often.

 

[uconnfan68]

Unfortunately against quality opponents, Auriemma doesn't share this belief of the fans that this is a deep roster. It's wishful thinking on the fan's part. He knows what he has. If he thought the bench could handle Michigan's level of competition, they would have played more. None of them did anything to make him keep them on the floor, he had to get them off. Four of them shot 2-10 with 5 fouls and 4 TOs in a combined 30 min.

He only plays the ones he trusts when it gets close. Pulled K9 for Shade after a late poor pass.

 

[JoePgh]

I have now read this entire thread, which feels like it warrants an Olympic medal for endurance. I would add the following thoughts which have not been offered already:

1. In Geno's post-game press conference, he stated that this was the first game this season in which UConn got no productivity from its bench. Clearly he was surprised by this, as I think were most Boneyarders. But in a game of this magnitude, he clearly could not leave bench players on the floor if they were making mistakes such as silly fouls. Blanca and Jana were both guilty of that (5 fouls between them in less than 12 minutes combined), K9 was making bad passes, and while Allie played calmly and did not make any bad plays, she did miss two wide-open 3-point shots -- and in her case, the 3 ball is the only reason she would get any minutes in a game like this. So Geno was right to pull the bench players as quickly as he did, even though it meant playing the starters way too much (as he acknowledged rather emphatically in his remarks). I think Ice and Morgan could have made big contributions if they had been available, but they weren't.

2. Regarding all this talk of a third scorer, the only current "other" player who is likely to get to that level this year is Blanca, and she simply can't be given big minutes until she plays more mistake-free and under control. I think Geno has told her that, and I think she understands it and has been trying to address it, but she isn't there yet. Other players like Ash, KK, Serah, and K9 can score and may get 8 to 15 points in competitive games, but it will be surprising if they exceed that number consistently against good competition. Of those, I think Ashlynn has the best chance to do so. More likely, if all of them average around 8 points each in 25 minutes of playing time in competitive games, that would be 32 points from players other than Azzi and Sarah, which should be enough to win those games.

3. In the best-case scenario, Blanca will get control of her play by March and April and will become a starter (in place of Ash or KK) and a 15-point, 6-rebound scorer. Also in a best-case scenario, Morgan will get healthy and will supply 6 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals in 15-20 minutes in competitive games. If that happens, #12 will be clearly in reach.

4. I find all the disparagement of Ashlynn in this thread to be very puzzling. I have watched all the games live, and I am very impressed with her combination of skill, intelligence, and hustle. Of course she makes mistakes because she takes risks, but her hustle plays and defense compensate for that. I think it is likely that her shooting accuracy will return to last season's levels as she continues to play, but even if it doesn't, and she doesn't produce any more than she has thus far, I think she should continue to start, play lots of minutes, and be on the floor at the end of close games. And I think Geno agrees (at least with the current state of bench play). Now, if Morgan can return and play like she did last year before her injury, that could affect Ashlynn's minutes and even her starting role.