ND Postgame Thread

[nastynatty]

They were not going undefeated and while losing sucks, it is part of the game.

Geno himself said that no one was expecting to go undefeated this season. The schedule was designed to challenge them and while it’s nice to be able to face a challenge and prevail (like the Iowa game)—the lessons from a loss stick with you a bit more. Remember how the 2020-21 Huskies responded to the loss @ Arkansas? I hope this loss will spark a similar shift. This team has clearly been really good in the early parts of the season and has definitely exceeded the expectations of most but there is still much room for improvement and they’ll be more motivated than ever to bounce back from this loss.

 

[nastynatty]

You do realize they have 2 6’4” players injured on the bench don’t you

And another 6’4” player coming in 2023

 

[Redux]

Rebecca Lobo calling the games

She fakes me out. She knows basketball so well I always think well maybe I'm going to hear a competent game call but it doesn't happen. It's not her fault, it's obvious that, in terms of calling the game, NOTHING useful is coming to them through the headphones, thus nothing gets communicated to us in the audience.

Play stops. Is it a foul? On whom? I want to know right away. Or rather is it not a foul but a held ball? May not make any possession difference in a specific instance (depending on the arrow) but I want to know. Or maybe in the contact melee someone stepped on the line or the ball went out of bounds. Or maybe an asteroid has hit and the world is coming to an end. Would they even bother telling us?

So we're interviewing an important guest on an important topic. Great: I'm all in favor of that. Sports broadcasts do it all the time. But when something happens in the game can't we pause for a moment, call the play, then come back to the guest?

Then someone hits a three and then half a minute later the score decrements by one, couldn't somebody let us know that's not a technical glitch, but there was a foot on the line and the three has been changed to a two?

It's not Lobo's fault (and technically most of that is not even her job). It's the producer and the lack of funding; they just don't bother to provide the resources to help the talent call the game right. But I just always have the hope that Rebecca's stature will somehow upgrade the production effort. Doesn't happen: they don't respect her any more than they respect us as the audience.

 

[uconnfan68]

And another 6’4” player coming in 2023

She doesn’t appear to be an inside force.

 

[nastynatty]

Ohio State, Indiana and ND may jump ahead of us this week.

Disagree. I don’t think a loss on the road without Azzi is enough to disregard UConn’s strength of schedule and quality wins. Stanford stayed at 2 after their loss because it was a strong matchup and a “good” loss. Ohio State and Indiana may jump UConn becuase they’re undefeated and got quality wins in the Big10/ACC challenge this week but I don’t think the Huskies deserve to drop out of the Top 5 for a loss like this one. ND’s loss to Maryland and this win basically cancel each other out rankings-movement-wise so they can stay where they are.

I will also admit that AP voters make some interesting decisions and we can’t necessarily predict their thought process. I don’t think it matters much anyways because no matter the rankings I think this UConn team (when healthy) has already established itself as part of the clear upper echelon of WCBB teams (with SC and Stanford).

 

[Notyetready]

She doesn’t appear to be an inside force.

She's not getting the assists...

 

[Bone Dog]

She doesn’t appear to be an inside force.

I’m not so sure about this. There’s more than one way to be a force inside: being stout or being swift. Breanna was always a force and it was through being swift. Jana is swift. I think she can be a force, a rim protector, a rebounder, a post up scorer a passer. Ice and Ayanna can bring the muscle if she doesn’t have enough.

 

[Woof 101]

One of those "burn the tapes" type of games. Nothing went well. Azzi got hurt. ND played out of their mind. It happens. No one goes undefeated.

With all due respect tapes are one of the most valuable coaching tools. Never burn a tape and the one you think you should is the one a team should watch the most. You can't learn as much from mistakes watching tape from games where everything went well.

As for no one goes undefeated, again no attack you may have missed a few seasons being younger but welcome aboard.
The Huskies ended up owning the sport, catching Summitt and the Vols in the national title chase with championship No. 8 in 2013 and following with three more to reach a record 11. There have been nine undefeated seasons in the history of NCAA women's basketball, six by UConn.

There is no reason to play these guys. They abandoned the Big East, there is nothing but bad blood, and the games always turn into "Mosh Pit " tball.

Just a different opinion, anyone, anywhere, anytime and it is a boost for the women's game. How many Big East games will be on a national network on a Sunday afternoon. You say bad blood but do not realize that is what makes rivalries and draws fans to the game.
There is no real blood just damn good competition.

Anyone knows why Caroline played only 13 mins? Is she not fully recovered yet?

Yes, anyone observing the game would realize Caroline is a shell of her former self at this point. The stat line is a story.

I hope it's because she was TOTALLY ineffective and not because she has lingering injury issues....

I agree but she is too damn good for it to be something else. She is simply not back to her use to be.

A foul is a foul if the refs call it, Aubrey could be wearing a halo and it's still foul.

Oh but what if wearing a shamrock?

And many of us has been around basketball enough to know Amari has excellent form and shoots the ball really well for a 6’5 player. When CD, Aubrey are way off - I am not sure the harm.

And...... This is a big AND how many of us are at practice every day and know more than Geno and CD? Does she get up and down the floor as quick as the rest of the team? One observation of mine.

On a separate topic, wanted to see what the BY thinks of Rebecca Lobo calling the games.

I can't speak for others but I have no problem with Rebecca calling games. Also very happy for her just signing a new multi year contract with ESPN. I think she calls them all fair and square.

 

[Cobra 1]

For anybody( maybe just me) who has been wondering where the Maddy Westbeld ,who was all ACC as a frosh, has been, she certainly showed up today. Been averaging 7pts,6 boards 2 assists, today had 17 ,9, and 4, and blocked 3 shots. Had a modest year last year; wonder if she was hurt. Back to her frosh year, she would make them very tough.
Oh, and does anyone remember a UConn timeout being taken during ND's 24-11 2nd quarter? Must have been one anyway, right?

I was yelling at Geno to call timeout; your post right on target.
Ciao

 

[Cobra 1]

It appears that the vast majority of posters want to see Amari get more quality minutes to see what she can do to help this team.
I wonder what Geno will do; he is very obstinate in his ways and yet it is hard to question our HOF coach.

 

[Cobra 1]

I’m not so sure about this. There’s more than one way to be a force inside: being stout or being swift. Breanna was always a force and it was through being swift. Jana is swift. I think she can be a force, a rim protector, a rebounder, a post up scorer a passer. Ice and Ayanna can bring the muscle if she doesn’t have enough.

Hopefully Ayanna will develop some type of scoring game; even her layups and put back’s are currently an adventure.
Ciao

 

[hoophuskee]

Geno's limited playing of Amari continues to baffle me. I mean could she have shot, rebounded, and been outhustled, and been frazzled any worse than Aubrey? I could see if we had a full squad, but with all the injuries? What a wasted resource....

Yes she could have. What makes you think she could be a better rebounder than Aubrey? Because what she did well vs Providence?

You think if Aubrey is being outhustled that all of sudden Amari wouldn't after near two years she has shown she hasn't been?

It's not a "wasted source." It's your over-valuing the source just becuase she is tall.

 

[hoophuskee]

It appears that the vast majority of posters want to see Amari get more quality minutes to see what she can do to help this team.
I wonder what Geno will do; he is very obstinate in his ways and yet it is hard to question our HOF coach.

Yes the 11 time champion is "veyr obstinate." All those Final Fours - yes he should listen to the BY who over-values anyone above 6'4.

 

[enigmatic]

All I have to say is better NOW than in the NCAAT. #bleedUCONNblue

 

[JBK]

Yes the 11 time champion is "veyr obstinate." All those Final Fours - yes he should listen to the BY who over-values anyone above 6'4.

I am not sure if we state an opinion why everyone thinks we are being critical of our coach the GOAT of women’s basketball.
I know it is early, but Mir McLean is off to a fantastic start in the ACC.
Unfortunately - no one is perfect and that’s why is it fun to talk basketball in this BY

 

[martyn]

Not sure why Griffen continued to take all those outside shots, long after it proved not to be working. Surely you have something else you can run in lieu of that, anything. Even with your best long-range shooter sidelined. And then he sends Aubry to the bench, as though she had done something wrong, after which the comeback efforts immediately fizzles out.

Inexplicable. Especially coming just one game after he said they have been encouraging each player to find the one or two things that they do very well and focus on that.

Griffen was completely off her game, defense as well as offense. Something was going on with her. The effect on the team was crippling.

 

[UConnCat]

If you get 13 more rebounds than the other team that’s 13 more possesions. One team gets the ball and the other doesn’t.

No, it doesn’t work that way. If the 13 additional rebounds were on the offensive boards then yes. If the 13 more rebounds were (mostly) on the defensive boards it doesn’t give you additional possessions as you’re going to get a possession anyway. Where are the stats that show ND had 13 more possessions in yesterday’s game. Each team took 57 shots. UConn had more trips to the FT line and ND had 3 more turnovers. Possessions were about even.

 

[Littlemin]

If you look back to the Texas game, the issues that hurt UConn today against ND were there too. Our interior defense was lacking (even with Dorka-albeit she did play that game with a broken thumb). When we really needed a bucket against Texas, Azzi was really the only one who could provide it (scoring 17 of 20 4thQ pts that game). With a similar issue regarding dealing with size inside plus not having Azzi available, ND took advantage of those weaknesses.

I do think it was 100% the right decision to not put Azzi back out there. Even when she came back in during the 2Q, she was still clearly hobbling a bit. Her health comes first. And with the physicality of the game and the way she has to run off screens in order to get open, it was better to be safe than sorry by sitting her out in the second half. Learned that the hard way with Paige in the last ND game. I was glad to see the coaching staff take that precaution when I’m sure Azzi was wanting to get out there and help in such a big game.

I am sorry but the idea that Fudd was the only player who could score in the 4th against Texas is really off base. Fudd got hot as all heck and the rest of the team focused on getting her the ball, picking for her, etc. THAT is what good teams do until the opposition takes it away. If other players tried to make plays and failed I could see your point but that was most definitely not the case. And I am not denigrating Fudd’s performance at all but as has been pointed out, her great run started when Uconn was already up double digits, so the “really needed a bucket” is somewhat misleading to say the least.
And yesterday, ND had established their superiority well before Fudd got hurt, and a good part of that was because Fudd couldn’t shake Citron and combined with ND not covering Griffin, Uconn was prevented from even running their offense. Losing her hurt any comeback chances, and that’s all it did.
One last point, and this is more aimed at all the posters who viewed this as a “big game”. It was yesterday, because any game is big on game day, but it was not even remotely a big game in the grand scheme of things. For Uconn, true big games don’t start until maybe the BE tournament, but certainly the NCAAs. If it was really a big game, I am sure Auriemma would have considered and had a counter for what ND threw at them.

 

[Bajan Best]

Today was a perfect storm for our team,
1) obviously, Azzi getting hurt was a big difference, and please don't tell me that prior to her getting hurt that she did nothing, the game is played in forty minutes, it's not like ND was the first team to limit Azzi's scoring early in a game.. We have all seen her come back in the 2nd half and torch other teams..
2) Anytime the refs allow the game to be played as physically as they allowed today UConn will have to be shooting well to overcome that. our offense and defense are more effective when the game isn't physical, Nika and Ayanna are the only natural, aggressive players on this team defensively, and Aubrey sorry.. Only Lou is aggressive on offense.
3) Geno got outcoached today, for the life of me why was Geno okay with AE not hedging hard on the screens at the top early on, her dropping back to stay connected with the bigs allowed their guards to attack the rim and shoot uncontested shots to keep ND in the game early on, their team was bigger and stronger, which means they should also be slower, so rotate defense and use your quickness to steal the ball, not get caught behind their bigs and be overpowered..
4) Amari's 6-5 could have helped us today, she was not hesitant being left alone and made 2) 3's whereas others on our team other than Lou were hesitant..

With all of that said, this is only one game, but as history has shown us, this is exactly the type of game that has stopped us from getting #12, we cannot play soft when the game is allowed to be physical by the ref's No one other than us Uconn fans will feel sorry for us, be the aggressor from the get go, use pump fakes more often, draw contact and force the ref's to call fouls on teams who play that aggressive against us.. Azzi has to learn from Paige how to be dramatic in letting the ref's see that she is being manhandled when trying to come off screens.. No one on our team has mastered drawing fouls for a good few years now, we are always seeking to get clean looks, let's learn to put teams in foul trouble every once in a while, please....

 

[nastynatty]

I am sorry but the idea that Fudd was the only player who could score in the 4th against Texas is really off base. Fudd got hot as all heck and the rest of the team focused on getting her the ball, picking for her, etc. THAT is what good teams do until the opposition takes it away. If other players tried to make plays and failed I could see your point but that was most definitely not the case. And I am not denigrating Fudd’s performance at all but as has been pointed out, her great run started when Uconn was already up double digits, so the “really needed a bucket” is somewhat misleading to say the least.
And yesterday, ND had established their superiority well before Fudd got hurt, and a good part of that was because Fudd couldn’t shake Citron and combined with ND not covering Griffin, Uconn was prevented from even running their offense. Losing her hurt any comeback chances, and that’s all it did.

I agree with your point about the Texas game and it was indeed very smart to feed Azzi’s hot hand. I simply was pointing out that in tough games, it’s often one player taking over the bulk of the scoring late (maybe the Texas game wasn’t the best example). This year (and a few games last year) it’s been Azzi, obviously we’ve seen Paige do it in the past 2 years as well. It’s not necessarily a bad thing all the time because UConn has enough players who can score at will and just take over a game when the situation calls for them to. Usually this role is filled by whoever’s night it happens to be (I pointed out that against Texas it was Azzi’s night). However, in this game at ND it bit us in the butt a bit because we desperately needed Lou to assume a similar role (which she as best as she could) but it without other scorers on the floor, it was much easier for the ND defense to just key in on her.

I do disagree with your statement that Notre Dame was in the driver’s seat before the Fudd injury. I believe it was still a 2pt game when Azzi’s injury occurred and the ND run happened shortly after. The offense was disjointed but the Huskies were still very much in it right before the Azzi injury. They weren’t playing well but they probably would’ve been able to hang around a bit longer had the Azzi injury not unsettled things. Azzi might not have been able to escape the ND defense that was glued to her when she was on the court but they were so concerned with her when she was on the floor that other things were opening up. Even without her scoring while she was on the floor, it became much harder to run anything when she was no longer there to attract so much defensive attention.

 

[Blakeon18]

Maybe a very different kind of season this year?

Yikes! Maryland....after defeating ND on the road...comes home and loses to
Nebraska 90-67. Many other examples...beyond the normal ups/downs.

 

[BRS24]

Geno would rather lose early in the season to provide some film so he can get his message across. There were seasons where they went undefeated (or almost) and it covered up a lot of issues that he had trouble fixing because of the team's record. Some thought "as long as we're winning ..."

 

[eebmg]

Is there any presser expected?

 

[jdote33]

Is there any presser expected?

 

[BostonCanuck]

"We need another big guy that can make shots from outside on the perimeter. So when Dorka comes back, that gives us the opportunity to do that."

No. When I hear statements like this from the head coach, I wonder if he has yet to truly grasp why his program has gone one for six in Final Four games since 2017 (including two losses to Notre Dame). So frustrating.

I would encourage everyone to listen to the first couple minutes of "UConn Women's Basketball Plus" recap of the game on YouTube by Hamilton Neill. His summation of the issue at hand here is quite succinct.

No. 3 UConn Women's Basketball Falls 74-60 at No. 7 Notre Dame | Game Recap | NCAAW 2022

The UConn Huskies dropped their first game of the 2022-2023 season as they fell 74-60 on the road at No. 7 Notre Dame.Olivia Miles led the Fighting Irish wit...

youtu.be