News on COOMBS? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

News on COOMBS?

Charliebball said:
defensively Coombs is the best that he has at the guard position...no reason she couldn't have given CD a breather in that game....as pointed out earlier, Coombs also a very good rebounder and might have helped on the defensive boards a bit where UConn was getting destroyed...
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CHAR: good to hear that from you. Not totally alone.
 
Sorry but some of these suggestions about how Geno should have or could have used Mikayla in the game last night sound "experimental" as in put her in there and see what happens. It's tournament time, even for a second round game against Buffalo Geno has a plan and a scout. Of course things did not go according to plan and this might sound harsh: There was not a single matchup on the floor last might that would have been favorable to Mikayla. That why she didn't play. The team started off in a good rhythm especially shooting the ball. Which starter was Geno going to take out to get Mikayla minutes. Mikayla is not the type of player that you want on the floor in times of adversity. The adversity for UCONN started with 7 minutes remaining in the 2 quarter and continued until the final buzzer. The adversity for UCONN peaked when Crystal got her 3rd and 4th fouls. Sorry guys and gals that was not Mikayla's experimental time.
 
I'll echo @UcMiami and @Charliebball regarding MC's rebounding ability. People tend to focus on her athleticism regarding her defense and then her weak offensive game. But part of that athleticism means she has good hops, quick hops, and quick hands. She was ideally suited to help on the boards--she's demonstrated what she can do. And, she can block shots.

It's a head-scratcher to me why she didn't play.
 
winlots said:
Seems she has been playing her best ball lately. A little less out of control. Making a couple shots. Defending with tenacity. Lots of energy. Our tape quit for some reason a little before the end of the game, but from what we saw, she never got off the bench. Any news or thoughts?
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That is Geno being Geno. He can talk all he wants about using the bench more when Katie was out and how valuable it was for the bench. There are four games left, hopefully, and he will not go any deeper than six unless someone gets hurt or fouls out. Yesterday three had four fouls and he played none of them.
 
vtcwbuff said:
UConn averaged 11.f PF/GM entering last nights game. They were called for 21 against Buffalo.
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From Buffalo's web page, it seems that they averaged 19 PF/game. And last night there were 46 fouls called in total. So both teams far exceeded their yearly average, Seems to me that the refs were way too involved in the game. I have a good friend who refs several sports and many, many basketball games. He always said that if the fans noticed the refs, they were not doing their jobs. I sure noticed that bunch last night. This quality ( I use that term loosely) of officiating does not belong in the tournament. And both coaches felt the flow being interrupted all night. We won. I am happy. But we all could have seen a better game with less intervention.
 
vtcwbuff said:
UConn averaged 11.f PF/GM entering last nights game. They were called for 21 against Buffalo.
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The refs were whistle happy. I noticed it before the calls started going heavily against Connecticut. There were a lot of phantom calls, initially against Buffalo and later against CT. It thoroughly screwed up the pace and rhythm of the game. The refs were probably out of their league, literally.
 
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Bama fan said:
From Buffalo's web page, it seems that they averaged 19 PF/game. And last night there were 46 fouls called in total. So both teams far exceeded their yearly average, Seems to me that the refs were way too involved in the game. I have a good friend who refs several sports and many, many basketball games. He always said that if the fans noticed the refs, they were not doing their jobs. I sure noticed that bunch last night. This quality ( I use that term loosely) of officiating does not belong in the tournament. And both coaches felt the flow being interrupted all night. We won. I am happy. But we all could have seen a better game with less intervention.
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Agreed. From my seat, I even thought the "T" on the Buffalo player was over the top. Can you imagine what it would be like watching a Buffalo-UCF game with how physical both teams are????
 
Scoop said:
From my vantage point, the only reason ONO got into the game was because of the foul trouble of Dangerfield and Williams. ONO will block shots and get rebounds that no one else on the bench will get. I believe if their accumulated number of early fouls had not forced Geno's hand, all 5 starters would have played 40 minutes. The Tenor of the game changes when Crystal is on the bench. If you've noticed lately, Geno rarely takes her out before the game is decided. The starters were all walking a fine line late in the 4th quarter. Williams had 3 fouls. EVERYBODY else had 4.

View attachment 41378
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I honestly don't expect that to happen in the next round.
 
eebmg said:
Without a Kia Nurse of Gabby Williams, we need to defend elite players using team defense. With foul trouble mounting, I think we were forced to be more passive. Still, I was dissappointed that we seemed to lose alot of concentration on the defensive end after Q1.
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UConn had both last season and that did not stop Young of ND from scoring over 30 points. Coombs could have come in for Walker who was playing a very bad game, overall.
 
Last night 2 players showed up to play, the seniors. Rebounding was KLS, and Collier, the other 3 stood around. ONO in her few minutes played defense and rebounded.
 
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I certainly agree about the 'trust' issue with Geno, but the first foul trouble started fairly early in the first half with Williams and at that point Uconn had a sizeable lead. He went with Ono, and I thought she played pretty poorly when she first entered, giving up O boards, playing defense outside while leaving the inside wide open and fumbling rebounds. At either the middle of the first Q or middle of the second Q as Uconn began bleeding scoring margin, Coombs could have been given a few minutes to see how well or poorly she did. Truthfully she couldn't have done much worse than the five on the floor.

I do agree that by the mid fourth, he was riding his horses and should have, but that was because he refused to try anything during the first half. He seemed to trust her quite a bit when Lou was out during the AAC tournament. What changed?

I also thought he called off the press when Buffalo finally slowed their heart rate and began to run good offense - they were breaking the pressure and getting really good shots and making them by the time he pulled the defense back.
 
CocoHusky said:
We don't have a good enough perimeter defender to limit anyone's top perimeter scorer as we have in the past consecutively in Kelly Faris, Moriah Jefferson, or Kia Nurse.
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Exactly. I'm surprised that FLJ was the first coach I've seen this year to consistently pound the dribble drive right into the teeth of UConn's defense. You either score or get fouled 80% of the time. If you don't have a huge front line like Baylor to dump it to, it's the best way to attack this D.
 
Bascomfan said:
I honestly don't expect that to happen in the next round.
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I agree. Geno wanted to win this game. Buffalo was down big at one point but refused to stay down. Because they began to close the margin, it appeared Geno was not comfortable using any of his reserves early on.

I don’t expect UConn to be in a similar situation for game 3. You can’t blame a coach for wanting his 5 best players on the floor when the opposing team is mounting a comeback run.
 
HopJim said:
2? Williams was dominate in beginning of game on both offense and defense. Not her fault Geno took her out and was made the point guard later in game.
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I thought Williams played well. She hit some huge shots. The only reason she sat was because of foul trouble, same for Dangerfield.
 
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I echo the thoughts of those who felt the refs were too intrusive. My benchmark for
over-intrusiveness on the part of refs is 40 fouls per game.

If the game had been really chippy with tempers flaring, then the refs would have to
get it under control, but last night wasn't really that kind of game.
 
ed4ourgirls said:
I echo the thoughts of those who felt the refs were too intrusive. My benchmark for
over-intrusiveness on the part of refs is 40 fouls per game.

If the game had been really chippy with tempers flaring, then the refs would have to
get it under control, but last night wasn't really that kind of game.
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I think there needs to be an end to the bogus contact fouls, where the defensive player has her arms vertical and the offensive player jumps into her. As well as 5 fouls and you are out, make it 6 fouls.

Also, bring back the one and one free throw.
 
Bama fan said:
From Buffalo's web page, it seems that they averaged 19 PF/game. And last night there were 46 fouls called in total. So both teams far exceeded their yearly average, Seems to me that the refs were way too involved in the game. I have a good friend who refs several sports and many, many basketball games. He always said that if the fans noticed the refs, they were not doing their jobs. I sure noticed that bunch last night. This quality ( I use that term loosely) of officiating does not belong in the tournament. And both coaches felt the flow being interrupted all night. We won. I am happy. But we all could have seen a better game with less intervention.
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They where definitely blowing allot during this game.
 
Gus Mahler said:
I'll echo @UcMiami and @Charliebball regarding MC's rebounding ability. People tend to focus on her athleticism regarding her defense and then her weak offensive game. But part of that athleticism means she has good hops, quick hops, and quick hands. She was ideally suited to help on the boards--she's demonstrated what she can do. And, she can block shots.

It's a head-scratcher to me why she didn't play.
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I agree more with your analysis than CH's. Not only does she have the quickest feet on the team and real leaping ability for her size, but when shots go up she hunts for an opponent to put her body on and box out, which is very rare for this UConn team. She also gets to lots of loose balls and long rebounds. So I don't see inserting her as an "experiment," especially when the fouls counts began to mount.
 
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IMo Coombs can't be trusted to play well though isn't terrible. I don't think you can trust her offense. When she comes in it is 5 on 4. Maybe she should have been put in maybe not. Not worth fretting over.
 
Charliebball said:
defensively Coombs is the best that he has at the guard position...no reason she couldn't have given CD a breather in that game....as pointed out earlier, Coombs also a very good rebounder and might have helped on the defensive boards a bit where UConn was getting destroyed...
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Well, if he doesn't trust them now then when? This was the perfect opportunity for C & O to experience the realness of the Tourn.-- a la, win or die. Unless he knows something (and he does!!), I cannot see him/Uconn advancing playing only 5 for 40-mins. Buffalo was, surprisingly, a very good team. With a decent tall(er) front court player they would really be a difficult out for many teams. I had to look them only to find that they are a SUNY-school (not a priv.sch). I bet you that the team lacked top 30 or higher players coming out of HS. How many #1 recruits we count! My thinking is that he wanted the 5 to figure out how to control and win a game without falling into panic. There will be more of these-- UCLA, for ex., and they will have to figure it out. And Dangerfield must know by now that she is options 1, 2, 3 . +-- no one in front or behind her. Play smart and don't get cute. Or, has DT has been quoted as saying-- 'don't be so humble, you are not that good.'
 
Where do you people come up with your information? Do you even have anything real as far as information before you post? Or do you just make sh-- up as you go along? Reading this board and peoples opinions on why players do not player is just getting too tiresome and annoying. Stop making assumptions.
 
01Neaggrad02 said:
Where do you people come up with your information? Do you even have anything real as far as information before you post? Or do you just make sh-- up as you go along? Reading this board and peoples opinions on why players do not player is just getting too tiresome and annoying. Stop making assumptions.
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Please try and be a little more specific. I don't agree with some of the opinions that are written here but I don't think anyone is making stuff up.
 
I’m jumping into this one late. I recognize that none of us know what Geno knows and that Mikayla doesn’t add much to the offensive side of the game. But like many, I was baffled that she didn’t get at least some PT for several reasons.

Crystal did not have one of her best games, in part because she was chasing Dillard all over the court on defense. Crystal actually did a reasonably good job defending Dillard through about 1 1/2 qtrs. But like most great scorers, Dillard is relentless and she started to find a rhythm. With fouls mounting up on both Christyn and Crystal, and Crystal struggling on offense, Mikayla would have been a nice change up to throw at Dillard.

IMO, Mikayla’s ability to face guard an opponent is exceptional, and her combination of length, hops and quickness make her a superior man-to-man defender than Crystal. I also believe that Mikayla had earned Geno’s confidence with her defensive intensity during the last month of the season.

Finally, I had hoped to see Mikayla on Durr some if UConn and Louisville meet again in the Elite 8. If Mikayla had demonstrated the ability to slow down a great scorer like Dillard, I think there would be a strong possibility of her getting an opportunity to match up with Durr should the rematch happen. However, based on the Buffalo game, I seriously doubt we will see a Durr/Coombs matchup.
 
Charliebball said:
defensively Coombs is the best that he has at the guard position...no reason she couldn't have given CD a breather in that game....as pointed out earlier, Coombs also a very good rebounder and might have helped on the defensive boards a bit where UConn was getting destroyed...
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Charlie, echoing your thoughts. My opinion on why UConn sagged at end could have been that several were gassed. Hate the feedback that 18-19 year old women shouldn't get tired. Sometimes game conditions just cause it to happen. Geno not giving even a few minutes of rest an old discussion but even he says you need to match strategy to the game.
 
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Crystal has a huge workload when we face a perimeter scorer like Dillard. She was tired and she started reaching instead of moving. It would be perfect if Mikayla could spell her. I see it as a trade off, though. Crystal runs the offense and keeps the floor spaced so that Pheesa can perform her magic inside. With double teams coming off Mikayla, our inside game gets bogged down. If we were hitting well from the perimeter, Geno may have risked it, but Meghan was off and Lou and Crystal got worn down by the half.

The great thing about Meghan’s game was she kept shooting and working, so Buffalo kept respecting her. That allowed us room to maneuver in the paint.
 
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