How would UConn do against the tOSU press? I mean, it's clear that teams without a strong presence at pg or a big post presence is vulnerable to this, and the temptation to dribble toward the sideline at midcourt is hard to overcome. Inês succumbed to this a few times against Princeton. In previous years, Nika did too.
It's a lot harder to press teams with really confident ball handlers. Christyn was like this, practically press insurance, since no one ever got the ball away from her. Heck, she'd put the ball behind her back to break through traps and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Paige and Azzi are the same way. Once they have the ball, it's just too dangerous to try to trap them, their handles are too good, their passing vision, and they don't get flustered -- though Azzi did that one time late in the Stanford game last year.
But the real insurance against the press this year is Dorka and Aaliyah. They've already done this a few times this year, ready to get a pass at midcourt, either one can dribble from there or pass into the post. Either one could beat an unwary pressing team that got its spacing just a little bit off all the way to the basket.
