ND Postgame Thread | Page 4 | The Boneyard

ND Postgame Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
A few observations:

1. Sarah Strong has moments tonight that she looked like a Freshman
2. Yes, Azzi Fudd was missed, but I don't think we would have won the game even if she played
3. The difference maker might have been if a healthy Aubrey Griffin was able to play
4. Remember, ND was playing with a "hobbled" Olivia Miles for most of the game, and she is ND's 2nd best offensive player
5. As many have already pointed out, Sonia Citron was all over Paige in this game. While Paige was our leading scorer, Citron's defense was bothersome for Paige
6. Coach Ivey out-coached Geno tonight. No doubt
 
Tonyc said:
A big point was Strong getting in foul trouble and ND built their lead. Of course no Azzi either. Strong no in foul trouble things may have been different. Geno needs more athletic scorers. Just think if no injuries Paige Azzi Sarah Caroline and Ice/Jana That lineup cant be beat. Just a thought.
Expand ...
Tony I agree that we need to get some more athletes. Aubrey will help here and so will Azzi if she can fully recover from her injury. We need players that can stick with the quicker players that other teams will throw at us. Our team is really not very athletic! I love them all but they are kinda slow-footed!
 
Dee Kantner was pretty much invisible tonite. :)

I agree with everyone that stated that a paint presence by a big is necessary. I don't remember a feed inside that resulted in a basket. ND freshman played like an upper classman.
 
.-.
1. Can we admit that putting Paige on the ball would just be easier. We spent so much energy attempting to get her the ball without even shifting the defense. Just let her bring the ball up, we either scored or got looks most times she touched it. Putting her off ball also renders her passing ineffective. Notice ND puts the ball in the hands of their best player. We don’t, for some bizarre reason.
2. I’m just a little frustrated with Shade. She continues to have an inability to score against strong competition. I thought that hurt us immensely tonight.
3. The makeup of this team is spotty when you realize KK, Chen, and Shade aren’t great shooters against good defenses. Azzi staying healthy is paramount.
4. I would’ve liked to see Sarah and Paige play a two man game. They had success in that but we didn’t go to consistently.
5. We don’t generate free throw attempts. Sometimes I think we value winning pretty too much. Initiate contact and force the whistle. I know the officiating wasn’t stellar but still.
6. Ice has virtually zero post up game. Jana needs more minutes but needs to learn better defensive positioning.
7. Our defense lacked heart. We helped way too much on the strong side and paid dearly.
8. Happy KK showed some signs of offensive life. That was huge.

A disappointing loss, but not the end of the world. If I have one take away, I’m praying to see the coaches shake up the makeup of this team. I don’t feel we put our best lineups out there, and I don’t think we put players in spots to succeed.
 
uconnever said:
We just need to be more aggressive as a whole, we never force them to guard hard and maybe get them into foul trouble, it’s always the other way around and it has a lot to do with a players personality, our players are always less aggressive.
Expand ...
Sometimes I think about how some UConn teams of old would just dominate the current UConn teams. Not because of a talent discrepancy. Just played tougher.
 
I felt going into the game that to win UConn would have to score85-90 points to win
Unlike other posts on the board, I thought the defense was okay Hidalgo and Miles are very
Difficult to defend and when their other players
Shoot like they did in the first half u need to play the a game offensively and that dint happen
 
.-.
LwrcasefaN said:
I don't know, but I'm accustomed to a bit more cutters of the base offense. I don't see it.
Expand ...
ND knows the UConn offense and managed to muck it up:

only 10 assists on 31 field goals
3 of 16 from 3
and your lack of successful cutters.

Good win for ND. They ended up beating us in both front and back court, but Huskies showed heart getting back into the game.

Liatu King was their hero down low with 16 points and 12 rebounds (This is King's 5th year in ACC after 4 at Pitt). Of course Hidalgo led the guards, but Miles was efficient going 6 of 9 for 16 points and Citron played strong d.

Some positives for UConn were Strong's composure and solid games from KK 10 and Chen 11 points. Not so much from our other players and Paige can't beat one of these top 8 teams on her own.

We will learn from this and quickly have Iowa St and USC to move on from this one. I still have a lot of faith in this group!
 
jaydee602 said:
No excuses, the better team won tonight. But I wish this game was later in the season. UCONN is still trying to find the right combinations with their deep roster & Aubrey could have also contributed inside.
Notre Dame is a very strong team & they are already set with their lineup.
Expand ...
Guess you're not familiar with Maddie Westbeld.
 
jaydee602 said:
No excuses, the better team won tonight. But I wish this game was later in the season. UCONN is still trying to find the right combinations with their deep roster & Aubrey could have also contributed inside.
Notre Dame is a very strong team & they are already set with their lineup.
Expand ...
ND won't be set until Westbeld gets back.
 
Some thoughts: It's always hard to beat a team that hits more than 50% of their 3 pt shots. Especially when you hit less than 25%. Some of it is defense, some is just a team (player) being hot. Also, sad to say, but Shade was a complete waste this game. Never came close to hitting a shot. Strong's bad fouls also had an impact on her play. Some really silly, careless turnovers. Gave up too many offensive boards (effort?). A tough game in a tough road venue. We should get better.
 
hart2hart said:
I do, sorry you feel that way. No double screens period. I’m talking this year. I don’t live in the past.
Expand ...
Yes this year. Paige was running Citron through a series of double screens - low blocks to high post handoff. Do yourself a favor and rewatch the 2nd half of this year’s game.
 
Trying hard to put a positive spin on things. ND shot great from 3 (10 of 18) and we shot poorly ( 3 of 16). If ND had missed just 2 of those and we shot 5 of 16 instead of 3 of 16 we probably win this game even with all the other things that didn’t go so great for UConn. We’ll get them next time!
 
.-.
ND was the better team tonite and HH the best player and is now probably the front runner for player of the year.I dont think that is even debateable..once again Paige came out passive and took awhile to get going..games like this she should dominate
Yes we sure could use another scorer with Azzi out and as much as I like her Shade was a no show
Imagine how good ND will be when Westbeld gets back
When Sara picked up her 3rd foul and had to sit I knew it was over
 
oldude said:
UConn tried face guarding Hidalgo last year and she went for 30+ and fouled out the BE DPOY in only 19 minutes. I'm not sure what game you were watching, but throughout the 2nd half, UConn was running Paige through a low screen in the blocks, followed by a high screen and handoff to get her the ball. You really don't have an idea what in the H you're talking about.
Expand ...
It feels like all that low screen to high screen stuff is just to get the ball in her hands and THEN start the offense. And it only worked less than half the time. Mostly she ran around, didn’t get open and we went to plan B, which was someone else do something while she stands and watches. Some of it is on Paige -she just doesn’t cut hard enough and demand the ball, but a lot of times the screens aren’t good enough and/or the passes aren’t good enough too. So we run around accomplishing nothing to get the ball to our playmaker instead of just letting our playmaker have it. I feel like of her made baskets, one was legitimately set up for her (a 10 foot baseline jumper on a back cut). The rest she created herself after finally getting the ball and driving on her own or with a simple ball screen. So let’s not waste all this energy getting her the ball.

It isn’t pretty offense, but some simple Paige/Strong two person pick and roll or pick and pop has the potential to be a Stockton-Malone type of thing where you can keep doing it and make teams show they can stop it. I always thought Bueckers had a very unique skillset of being able to make high degree of difficulty passes and shots and it feels like we are leaving most of her tools in the toolbox and turning her into kind of an ordinary player. She had one “nice pass” moment today (lob to Strong for a layup) and made a little over half of her tough 2s - but I don’t like that recipe for success.
 
Defend the 3 and hit some 3's, I believe we win this game. A young team going on the road playing against a great back court played well. I know we are going to get out rebounded all season long just because we're shorter than most teams, but we can't give up three four, five shots in one possession That can be demoralizing over a course of a game.
 
Kudos to Hannah Hidalgo for a clutch performance. She is definitely a candidate for NPOY.
But I wonder how many coaches would tolerate her showboating & taunting gestures,especially early in the game. Would Geno accept that behavior?
Niele Ivey is a great coach who motivates her players. But I am surprised she doesn't rein in Hannah a bit.
 
.-.
uconnever said:
We need to focus on Hidalgo next time we play them. Stop her and we win. Easier said than done but someone on our team needs to take these things personal. We seem to be recruiting a different type of player these days and we need to not just focus on play but we need some players with attitude. Like a Swin, Asia or Shea. I can name a lot more. They were great players but they were not gonna take any crap. We have very few of those players on our team. Too nice. This is why our Kryptonite will be Notre Dame and South Carolina, not only are they good players but they are tough as a team. Geno needs to look at these things more, our girls while I love all of them, they are too nice. Ice I’m finding out will not be what I expected for this reason only. She has all the talent in the world but you can’t teach heart and toughness. I know it’s one game but we will need a little luck to win the title, mainly avoid these physical teams. We are mostly finess.
Expand ...
I think, saying, the team lacks heart is ridiculous
And I have no idea what too nice means
they were out, played by a team that was clearly better playing in front of a very tough crowd
miles and Hidalgo were the best 2 players in the
Game and king shot way better than normal
To say the team lacks heart ,isint tough and is too nice
Is an insult to the players
Perhaps pointing out things like lazy passes
Inability to finish at the basket going under screens
Not over, playing Olivia miles right hand
Taking a whole half to realize the referees were not going to call any fouls might be a better way to critique the team
 
Reignman79 said:
Tony I agree that we need to get some more athletes. Aubrey will help here and so will Azzi if she can fully recover from her injury. We need players that can stick with the quicker players that other teams will throw at us. Our team is really not very athletic! I love them all but they are kinda slow-footed!
Expand ...
The difference in game was clearly outside shooting. ND was great. We were bad. Our post game really struggled all night but our points in paint overall was strong. Need Azzi or someone else to help relieve the defensive pressure on Paige. Every opponent knows she is the head of the snake and in big games she needs to take over early to give others confidence.
 
Gurleyman said:
It feels like all that low screen to high screen stuff is just to get the ball in her hands and THEN start the offense. And it only worked less than half the time. Mostly she ran around, didn’t get open and we went to plan B, which was someone else do something while she stands and watches. Some of it is on Paige -she just doesn’t cut hard enough and demand the ball, but a lot of times the screens aren’t good enough and/or the passes aren’t good enough too. So we run around accomplishing nothing to get the ball to our playmaker instead of just letting our playmaker have it. I feel like of her made baskets, one was legitimately set up for her (a 10 foot baseline jumper on a back cut). The rest she created herself after finally getting the ball and driving on her own or with a simple ball screen. So let’s not waste all this energy getting her the ball.

It isn’t pretty offense, but some simple Paige/Strong two person pick and roll or pick and pop has the potential to be a Stockton-Malone type of thing where you can keep doing it and make teams show they can stop it. I always thought Bueckers had a very unique skillset of being able to make high degree of difficulty passes and shots and it feels like we are leaving most of her tools in the toolbox and turning her into kind of an ordinary player. She had one “nice pass” moment today (lob to Strong for a layup) and made a little over half of her tough 2s - but I don’t like that recipe for success.
Expand ...
It might be worth noting that Iowa went to the final game, two years in a row running an isolation with Caitlin Clark, and a bunch of other nice college players
 
oldude said:
Yes this year. Paige was running Citron through a series of double screens - low blocks to high post handoff. Do yourself a favor and rewatch the 2nd half of this year’s game.
Expand ...
Even with Paige scoring 25 points, mostly on off-balance, short jumpers, Citron did herself proud not spending most of the evening on her backside.

A lesser athlete would have collided with screening Huskies at every turn. Paige might have slightly won the battle with Sonia, but it surely was fun watching the two of them running laps through the other eight players throughout the game.
 
.-.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,094
Messages
4,552,970
Members
10,435
Latest member
DukeBlue


Top Bottom