ND Postgame Thread

[oldude]

Some thoughts on the Notre Dame game;

• Two teams dealing with injuries to key players, but one of the biggest games of the regular season nonetheless.
• Both teams came out a little tight. Shots weren’t falling and turnovers were mounting. But then the Irish drained 3 straight shots from the arc to take a 6-pt lead at the end of the 1st qtr. From that point on, UConn was playing from behind and struggling to find their rhythm.
• The Huskies fought their way back into the game in the 3rd qtr, throwing the Irish off balance by playing zone defense and hitting their shots on offense. But ND took control again in the 4th qtr, as the Irish clearly outplayed the Huskies tonight.
• Teams are doing everything they can to stop Paige from taking over games including face guarding her with their best defender, doubling her to get the ball out of her hands and getting physical with her anytime she attempts to make a cut. So far it’s been working pretty well. Many of the shots Paige hit tonight had a really high degree of difficulty. She ended up with 25 points on 11/20 shooting, none of which was particularly easy.
• In the end, it was just too much Hidalgo. You can’t play off her because she’ll kill you from the arc. But if you play her tight, she’ll blow by you and either score or kick the ball out to open teammates. WBB will have its hands full trying to figure out how to defend her for the next 3 seasons.
• Well, Geno and his coaches have a bunch of things to work on.
• Next up is Georgetown at XL and then two more ranked teams, Iowa St and USC. This will be a critical 3-game stretch for the Huskies.
• Keep your chins up. Azzi and Aubrey will get healthy and better days are ahead.

 

[TheGOAT23]

 

[Glenn]

Their guards outplayed our guards

 

[maple]

I am just going to practice the golden rule tonight, I think. But this is how I feel

 

[Sluconn Husky]

At no point did I think ND was going to lose.

 

[scotty0330]

Seems like this board is always talking about the players that aren’t available. No doubt Fudd would have helped but they don’t win the game with her. Irish are too fast and actually have some talent in post unlike UConn and you end up with a double digit loss

 

[BfromCT]

Well, the results were not what I wanted, but they were what I feared and half expected. UConn has no answer for Hannah Hidalgo and she is my odds on choice for POY. The stat that tells it all is the three-point shooting: Notre Dame 10-18 and UConn just 3-16. Second, free throws: Notre Dame 7-8 before the end of game fouling and UConn 2-3 before the final minute. Finally, the Huskies coughed the ball up too many times, particularly early in the fourth quarter. Azzi Fudd might have made a difference, but as of now, Notre Dame is clearly the better team.

 

[hoopsfan22]

How many did ND play tonight? 6-7? How many #1 recruits?

 

[victor64]

Stats told a bunch here. Way below normal assists, 3-16 from 3, ND killed UConn on the offensive boards.

The post defenders are so worried about fouling that teams are not afraid to go to the hoop.

NDs guards are terrific but King played great. Plus Citron made Paige earn every point.

Lot to learn from this game. Things that have surfaced in previous games (lack of ball movement) were magnified tonight.

I am not concerned at all about this team.

 

[bballnut90]

Question: why doesn’t Geno utilize more of a 2 man game approach with Strong and Bueckers? They have the perfect skill set to execute it, and if defense collapses both are strong passers to find the open player. I feel like everything should be running through those 2 offensively rather than Chen/Arnold dribbling so much.

 

[Blue Huskie]

Read my lips "Losing an away game to ND in December means NOTHING in the big picture". Except of course NOBODY here wants to ever lose to ND. I get it. But they shot 55% from 3 and we shot 20%. When we play them again thias year (?) that could be completely the opposite. And to the chicken littles in the chat room of course it demonstrates hardening of the arteries for the UCONN program. Well what else is new? Chat room coaches are a dime a dozen. Time to review my ignore list.

 

[uconnever]

Ice just isn’t cutting it and Jana needs more time. Too laid back with our front court recruiting

 

[AzzisBraids]

This was a good loss for the Huskies. Citron stuck to Paige like white on rice. Paige had her moments but we never saw the NC State takeover Bueckers emerge. Strong had some freshman moments, was in foul trouble and that limited her aggressiveness. Chen did the best she could. No one else really emerged and without Azzi, the perimeter shooting was never there.

For everyone rallying for El Alfy to have Ice’s minute, she did and you saw what that did with them. UConn’s lack of a rim protector was evident and no guard Geno put in could handle ND’s pressure. KK, Shade, Cheli, Samuels. Losses like this are good, Notre Dame seems better after back-to-back losses and I think UConn, like them, will learn from this.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Congrats to ND, but Hidalgo needs to dial it down a tad. Waving off Chen was just poor sportsmanship.

Nah she can go on all she likes. She was easily the best player in the gym tonight. We ain't beating that team 'til she's gone.

 

[Centerstream]

UConn has no front court either. Losing Beers was devastating.

What are you talking about, we never had Beers?????

 

[Martinj481]

Ice and Jana aren't the answer in the post! We are in deep trouble against a quicker team! Chen and Paige aren't considered quick! No energy and no effort! They wanted it more from the tip you could just feel it! Paige needs to be Clark in these kinda games for UConn to succeed!

 

[reelfan]

Team was totally out of sync....played scared. A lot more time on the road playing hard nosed teams will cure that.

 

[Bone Dog]

The story of this game was Hannah Hidalgo who shot 6-11 from 3. None of what I expected from our rotation players materialized. Paige fought through tough defense — and a lot of unwhistled fouls — to score 25 and Sarah pitched in 14, 12 from Kaitlyn and 10 from KK. But this was not a game that was ever going UConn’s way.

We couldn’t buy a 3 for most of the game, and when Sarah picked up her 3rd foul midway through the 2nd quarter things didn’t look good. On the fouling issue, one sign is that until near the middle of the 3rd quarter UConn had shot a total of 1 free throw. Yup, you read that right. Liatu King scored really well and rebounded well, though there were at least 3 over the back calls that weren’t called.

Enough griping. Even with all of that, we just didn’t hit enough perimeter shots. You can’t expect to win if you shoot 3-16 while your opponent shoots 10-18. Hats off to ND. They shot better and played well enough in the other aspects of the game to prevail.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

How many did ND play tonight? 6-7? How many #1 recruits?

Miles, Koval, and Hidalgo were all top-5.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Their guards outplayed our guards

Not really. O boards and 55% from 3 is what did it.

 

[NutmegDog]

Those who credit the Irish for out-quicking us -- I can't disagree. But the real issue is our inside game -- our inability to grab D boards, resulting in many second/third chance baskets. Also, although ND got credit for only 3 blocks in the box, it seemed like a lot more of our inside attempts were just swallowed up.

 

[Happydad745]

Hitting a few more 3s would have helped.....Paige really didn't show up until the 2nd half. Tough game against a really good team, without Hildago they are barely top 10. Hopefully Strong learn from this, and Jana who at times looked good. I don't understand why Geno pulled Shade, she is a much better shooter than KK...and that mess at the end of the 1st half with Chelli or Ziebel and Samuels was questionable. Hardly any assists.

 

[BrandonCT]

Can someone kindly explain the logic of having Sara Strong focus upon Hildago to ensure you would dramatically diminish her offensive possibilities…. April prep?

 

[Sluconn Husky]

What are you talking about, we never had Beers?????

It was them or Oklahoma for Beers. They lost.

That's what I am talking about.

 

[HuskieDawg]

ND has UConn’s number, 3 wins in a row.

They made 10 3 pointers to our 3, and played that hectic aggressive defense that really forces us into some tough shots. The fact that Hildago out rebounded Ice and Jana combined is frustrating. They just do not offer any type of presence in the paint on the defensive end right now against a top team like ND. We’re going to need them To really improve along the way.

A poster, forget their name, said in another thread that we didn’t lose much offensively with Shade starting in place of Azzi. Might be one of the worse takes of 2024. I love everything about Shade but she’s just does not bring what Azzi does to this team on the offensive end and not scoring a single point didn’t help the outcome of the game.

The good thing is we have lots of room to improve. Paige, Sarah and Azzi will be as strong as any other 3 players out there. I also really liked what I saw from Chen. If she can become that 4th consistent scorer that is going to be a huge boost.

KK stepped up and is doing better finishing when she goes to the basket. She still doesn’t have much of a jump shot to speak of, but if she can get and finish at he rim that can help.

I really think our two biggest issues are the play of Ice/Jana on the defensive end and Shade being very inconsistent right now scoring. I think that will all improve over the year but right now I think that hurt in a game against a quality opponent like ND.