Morning After

[meyers7]

Just a few thoughts on last night. Most probably have been discussed in different threads.But anyway.

1. Inability to win close games. I think last close game (<10) we won was Georgetown a couple years ago? Not sure who to pin this on. I think some of it has to go on the coaches. If the players are not executing under pressure, it's kinda the coaches job to get them to be able to do that. Get the right personnel on the floor. Get the ball in the right players hands. (i.e. KML to take FTs - figure out a way to make that happen)

2. Biggest thing, and it's been a problem all year, Turnovers. 35 is ridiculous. ND put up 18 more shots than we did. 18 more! Along with the extra FT's, no way you can win.

3. Kinda goes with #1, but FT shooting. We did pretty good until it really counted. 6/8 in regulation. 7/13 in OT. And in the 1st OT up 70-66, we got 4 possessions to extend the lead. 3 times we had a chance for FTs (6 points), we made 1. The other was a TO I think. You knew right then we were not going to win. ND made their FT when they counted.

4. Guard play. ND has it, UCONN, not so much. Guard play wins championships. Really showed at the end, without Banks, Hartley fouled out and Geno not trusting Jefferson enough. Doty just can't do it anymore at this level. Not really her fault, just physically can't do it. But it's affecting her mental game too. Too many mistakes, dribbling into double teams. Faris is not a PG, heck for 3/4 of her career she played the 4. Hartley is not really a PG either and of course we've seen she's in a slump and still not 100% back from her injuries. At this point I think just give the keys to Jefferson, either we win it all with her or we don't. We've proven it doesn't look like we can beat Baylor or ND with our guard play up to this point anyway. Might as well try something different. Sink or swim, we've already shown we can sink.

5. Refs. Yea they didn't cost us the game. But they didn't help either. Overall not a badly called game (FT's were fairly even up to the final OT), but when ND needed a call, there it was.

6. Zone. UCONN got abused all night with 1v1 by McBride and Diggins. They weren't hitting 3's at all. Why not play more zone? The couple of times we did try it, it seemed to throw ND's offense way off. May have protected us on fouls too. Granted it would have made it harder to rebound. But we held our own there.

7. Ridiculous defending. Ok we are a tremendous defensive team. And we disrupted ND offense quite a bit. Forced them to do a bunch of 1v1, (although we got killed by that). However, how many times did they come down in transition 1v1, 1v2, 1v3 and score? Ridiculous. Stop the damn ball!

 

[blkkirk]

I think ND's mentality to push in transition made the biggest statement for me. We pushed for most of the game but in the end we chose to walk the ball up the court.

 

[vtcwbuff]

I absolutely agree regarding Jefferson. Where's Ashley Valley when the team needs her?

Just curious but does anyone know the individual record for turnovers by a UConn player?

 

[UConnCat]

Just a few thoughts on last night. Most probably have been discussed in different threads.But anyway.


4. Guard play. ND has it, UCONN, not so much. Guard play wins championships. Really showed at the end, without Banks, Hartley fouled out and Geno not trusting Jefferson enough. Doty just can't do it anymore at this level. Not really her fault, just physically can't do it. But it's affecting her mental game too. Too many mistakes, dribbling into double teams. Faris is not a PG, heck for 3/4 of her career she played the 4. Hartley is not really a PG either and of course we've seen she's in a slump and still not 100% back from her injuries. At this point I think just give the keys to Jefferson, either we win it all with her or we don't. We've proven it doesn't look like we can beat Baylor or ND with our guard play up to this point anyway. Might as well try something different. Sink or swim, we've already shown we can sink.

6. Zone. UCONN got abused all night with 1v1 by McBride and Diggins. They weren't hitting 3's at all. Why not play more zone? The couple of times we did try it, it seemed to throw ND's offense way off. May have protected us on fouls too. Granted it would have made it harder to rebound. But we held our own there.

7. Ridiculous defending. Ok we are a tremendous defensive team. And we disrupted ND offense quite a bit. Forced them to do a bunch of 1v1, (although we got killed by that). However, how many times did they come down in transition 1v1, 1v2, 1v3 and score? Ridiculous. Stop the damn ball!

Agree with a lot of what you say disagree on a couple of points. I just don't understand giving the keys to Jefferson. She would be overwhelmed physically by Diggins and Sims. It would be unfair for Geno to put her in that position and he knows it. The team is playing to win this year, so Geno has to stick with Hartley and get her to play better. That's still the best option. Moriah can get some spot duty to give the guards a blow or change up the pace a little bit but she's not ready to drive yet. Doty will see less time going forward as long as Bria and KML stay out of foul trouble.

I don't understand the criticism of the defense. Without the benefit of having a dominant shot-blocker in the lane like Griner, UConn did about as good a job as you can against ND. Diggins and McBride are shot-makers and UConn forced Diggins to shoot a dreadful 11 for 31 and McBride shot 11 for 28. That's 37 missed shots. Loyd shot 2 for 10. That's 24 for 69 or 34.7% from ND's lauded guards. I think Geno would take that level of shooting in a heartbeat. McBride and Diggins are good enough shot-makers that you're not going to shut them down. But they were forced in to some really tough shots, including some out their rear-end shots. Too many defensive possessions weren't finished off with good defensive rebounding. ND scored 21 second chance points.

A sure way to stop the transition baskets is to stop turning the ball over. It's hard to complain about defense when the offense gives it up 35 times. It's amazing they played as tough as they did defensively considering how often they coughed it up. Cut those TOs in half and we're talking about a win and a pretty good defensive effort.

 

[meyers7]

Agree with a lot of what you say disagree on a couple of points. I just don't understand giving the keys to Jefferson. She would be overwhelmed physically by Diggins and Sims. It would be unfair for Geno to put her in that position and he knows it. The team is playing to win this year, so Geno has to stick with Hartley and get her to play better. That's still the best option. Moriah can get some spot duty to give the guards a blow or change up the pace a little bit but she's not ready to drive yet. Doty will see less time going forward as long as Bria and KML stay out of foul trouble.

I was advocating giving her the keys as opposed to Doty, not necessarily Hartley. Basically let her take more of Doty's minutes. Although getting Hartley more time at the 2 guard would probably help her and the team. Let the guard rotation be Hartley/Faris/Jefferson for the most part. Even when Doty can contribute (the lesser teams), it might be better to let Jefferson have some of those minutes so she may be closer to speed when she is needed with ND or Baylor.

I don't understand the criticism of the defense. Without the benefit of having a dominant shot-blocker in the lane like Griner, UConn did about as good a job as you can against ND. Diggins and McBride are shot-makers and UConn forced Diggins to shoot a dreadful 11 for 31 and McBride shot 11 for 28. That's 37 missed shots. Loyd shot 2 for 10. That's 24 for 69 or 34.7% from ND's lauded guards. I think Geno would take that level of shooting in a heartbeat. McBride and Diggins are good enough shot-makers that you're not going to shut them down. But they were forced in to some really tough shots, including some out their rear-end shots. Too many defensive possessions weren't finished off with good defensive rebounding. ND scored 21 second chance points.

A sure way to stop the transition baskets is to stop turning the ball over. It's hard to complain about defense when the offense gives it up 35 times. It's amazing they played as tough as they did defensively considering how often they coughed it up. Cut those TOs in half and we're talking about a win and a pretty good defensive effort.

The overall defense wasn't bad. Actually pretty good. It was just the transition defense. And granted not giving up silly TO's that lead to transition would be a great help. But even on rebounds sometimes ND was able to break. The problem was McBride or Diggins coming down 1v1, 1v2 and even 1v3 and scoring. 1v1 I can see, but 1v2 and 1v3 should not be happening.

 

[UConnCat]

I was advocating giving her the keys as opposed to Doty, not necessarily Hartley. Basically let her take more of Doty's minutes. Although getting Hartley more time at the 2 guard would probably help her and the team. Let the guard rotation be Hartley/Faris/Jefferson for the most part. Even when Doty can contribute (the lesser teams), it might be better to let Jefferson have some of those minutes so she may be closer to speed when she is needed with ND or Baylor.


The overall defense wasn't bad. Actually pretty good. It was just the transition defense. And granted not giving up silly TO's that lead to transition would be a great help. But even on rebounds sometimes ND was able to break. The problem was McBride or Diggins coming down 1v1, 1v2 and even 1v3 and scoring. 1v1 I can see, but 1v2 and 1v3 should not be happening.

I agree w/ you on Jefferson. Funny, I don't recall as many transition baskets as you do. Box score says ND got 10 fast break points last night which surely didn't help.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

If we hit 1 more free throw we win the game - then what would the talk be ?

 

[UConnCat]

If we hit 1 more free throw we win the game - then what would the talk be ?

Great win in tough environment and despite 30 TOs; Great OT by Tuck and Diggins' 11 for 31 shooting and 8 TOs. Instead, she's the headline story on ESPN last night. You gotta love sports.

 

[Icebear]

The overall defense wasn't bad. Actually pretty good. It was just the transition defense. And granted not giving up silly TO's that lead to transition would be a great help. But even on rebounds sometimes ND was able to break. The problem was McBride or Diggins coming down 1v1, 1v2 and even 1v3 and scoring. 1v1 I can see, but 1v2 and 1v3 should not be happening.

The transition defense because of the TOs was the key to the game for me.

 

[UConnChapette]

To my surprise the sun came up.

I woke up to see said sun.

I went to my job so that I could earn the money pay my bills and not have to live outside in the sun all the time.

I was able to feed myself and my family.

UConn had still lost a tough 3 OT game to hated rival Notre Dame.

All things considered, I got nuthin to complain about.

 

[MilfordHusky]

The sun did come up--amazingly. But the winter storm is coming tomorrow. The prediction for D.C. is 4-8". If we get 8", the District will be effectively shut down.

I hope the weather is better up north.