Notre Dame Postgame Thread | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Notre Dame Postgame Thread

jaydee602 said:
To all of us "couch coaches" who think we are smarter than Geno, we must give him kudos for inserting Jana El-Alfy at the perfect time.
Not exactly the elevator screen call, but it helped decide the outcome.
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Considering that Serah has been practically unplayable, I am surprised he didn't go to Jana earlier. I certainly was praying for him to do so.
 
Puppy Love said:
Considering how little Notre Dame has to work with in terms of players, I’m pretty surprised that they got as far as they did. Obviously, Hannah Hidalgo has been carrying the team (much like Taurasi did after Bird and company graduated). As much as I don’t like Hannah, I am pretty darn impressed of what she has accomplished.
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Sorry, but I hate this disrespect for the rest of the players on those teams that is a just not true - no Geno coached team has ever relied on one player in the way ND does with Hidalgo. Taurasi scored 23% of the teams points in 2003 only slightly more than the 20% average per player. 24% of assists, 14% of rebounds and 12% of steals. No question she was the star and leader on the team, but it was a team. And that continued in 2004 for as freshman turned sophomores..

Sorry for the digression from a great win.
 
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Imagine what K9 and Serah are feeling right now. I'm so happy for both of them. It's not often that players get to experience all of this, and I'm insanely happy they decided to come to UConn.

ps - there's another thread where I posted a bunch of vids of the team dancing. YeeHaw Shade got them going. :D
 
I did not like this game. I did like the outcome. For two games now, they won. But to me they did not look like the UConn team of this season. Yes, their opponents come out with intensity especially during the tournament. In the last two games something for me has been missing which has made these games scary. Very nice to see people who come off of the bench that make such a big impact on offense as well as defense. I am lucky. I get to see the team play in another final four and perhaps for another championship.
 
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veryolddog said:
I did not like this game. I did like the outcome. For two games now, they won. But to me they did not look like the UConn team of this season. Yes, their opponents come out with intensity especially during the tournament. In the last two games something for me has been missing which has made these games scary. Very nice to see people who come off of the bench that make such a big impact on offense as well as defense. I am lucky. I get to see the team play in another final four and perhaps for another championship.
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If they play this poorly offensively and still manage to win two more games, it’ll be all because of their defense. IMO.
 
I think (for once) that the various carping (above) is
overdone...

Tough opponent
Tough Pressure
A competitive game

The various opposing coaches have put in great plans
to attempt to disrupt our offense. and have each succeeded to some extent

I believe that we’ve played the 2 toughest opponents that we will meet in the tournament.

I’m very pleased with this win

As I’ve noted in posts throughout the season
We have just too much talent for most…(all?) teams
 
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ucmiami2 said:
Sorry, but I hate this disrespect for the rest of the players on those teams that is a just not true - no Geno coached team has ever relied on one player in the way ND does with Hidalgo. Taurasi scored 23% of the teams points in 2003 only slightly more than the 20% average per player. 24% of assists, 14% of rebounds and 12% of steals. No question she was the star and leader on the team, but it was a team. And that continued in 2004 for as freshman turned sophomores..

Sorry for the digression from a great win.
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First, you seem to be reading into what I typed something that I never said. Secondly, agree to disagree. Go back to the 2003 box scores and look at the games that were actually competitive. This one happens to be the box score against 23rd ranked Oklahoma.

IMG_0887.jpeg
 
oldude said:
Some thoughts on the Notre Dame game:
  • Win and advance! Everyone can start breathing again.
  • Through the years UConn & ND have had some epic battles in the NCAA Tournament, fielding teams loaded with AA’s and future WNBA draft picks. But this year is different. Certainly, UConn is loaded. But ND depends on a mercurial, 5’6” wunderkind who’s playing the best basketball of her career.
  • Just like UNC, ND walked the ball up the court, slowing down the game, in an effort to avoid playing an up-tempo game with UConn at all costs.
  • For the 4th game in a row, Blanca came off the bench and supercharged UConn with 14 points and 5 rebounds in the 1st half and strong play throughout the game.
  • UConn seldom allows one star player to beat them singlehandedly. Today against HH, UConn alternately ran both KK and Kayleigh at her, while rotating a big anytime she penetrated the lane. It worked for one qtr. But HH went off for 9 in the 2nd while continuing to be ND’s best option on offense, finishing with 22 points on 7/19 shooting with just 3 steals and 5 turnovers.
  • One interesting set that UConn used to prevent HH from hunting steals was to run whoever she was guarding, typically KK, into the corner, having either Sarah or Azzi initiate the offense at the top of the key.
  • ND was doing everything possible to disrupt UConn’s offensive actions. In the first half, Sarah had only 4 shots and Azzi had just 5.
  • While Sarah didn’t get a lot of shots in the 1st half, she was a force on defense with 3 steals and 3 blocks.
  • In the 3rd qtr UConn did an awful job making shots and a tremendous job rebounding the basketball.
  • With Serah struggling, Geno went with Jana in the 3rd qtr, who came up HUGE on the boards while also scoring several very BIG baskets as UConn pushed the lead to 11 points
  • We’ve seen a lot of small lineups from UConn. But in the 3rd qtr, UConn rolled out a throwback with a true center (Jana), 2 forwards (Sarah & Blanca) and 2 guards (Azzi & Kayleigh)
  • In the 4th qtr, both Sarah and Azzi were able to take and make shots, while Blanca continued to be amazing, playing her best game as a UConn Husky!
  • Most importantly, I had UConn +18 in Sarge's pool!!!! 😁 😎 🙃😄🤩
  • It’s on to Phoenix for UConn and their 25th FF appearance, the 17th in the past 18 seasons. The Huskies will face either SC or TCU in the national semifinals for the opportunity to play for their 13th national championship. LET’S GO HUSKIES!!!
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UConn cannot keep playing down to teams with less talent. ND tried hard without much quality on the court, though the annoying HH is really amazing. No way to describe her shot as "pretty" but "pretty effective" will do. We need to grow in the next few games (2?); we haven't not looked our old selves vs NC and ND. Please focus. We can't just tee it up and expect a win. What you smell is #13.
Message to Latin America: send more players like Blanca; she's going to be a big star.
 
In addition to the idea that this is the hardest game to win (almost to the FF), another thought is by this point, the remaining eight teams are usually all pretty strong. So a team wins the sweet 16 game, and only has 48 hrs to rest, rehab, and game plan for another team. Sometimes you get an "easy" scout, and sometimes you get a team like ND, with absolutely nothing to lose. Geno's reaction after the UNC game was dead on - he wasn't looking forward to HH and the ND on a mission.

Now, with the E8 game done, the team has a bit more breathing room to prep for their FF opponent. The assistants are probably already scouting SC and TCU, and then will put finishing touches on the game plan after tomorrow night. There's also an upside to only having four teams in Phoenix, that I referenced somewhere else.
 
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huskyd said:
UConn cannot keep playing down to teams with less talent. ND tried hard without much quality on the court, though the annoying HH is really amazing. No way to describe her shot as "pretty" but "pretty effective" will do. We need to grow in the next few games (2?); we haven't not looked our old selves vs NC and ND. Please focus. We can't just tee it up and expect a win. What you smell is #13.
Message to Latin America: send more players like Blanca; she's going to be a big star.
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These games are WAY more physical than regular season games. As long as that is the case physicality is the great equalizer. The same thing happened in the WNBA playoffs. They let them play rough and the scoring goes down. No way around it.
 
I posted this in the Kibitzer BA of the game thread but it was my first thought for the Postgame thread...
"BA play to end an Elite Eight game": Yanna makes an ill advised pass that results in a turnover to Hildago. Hildago dribbles into the front court in a fashion like she is going to let the clock run out for the last 5 seconds...but no...she drives to the basket for an easy layup...but no...Yanna blocks it and Joe Vaszily forgot that he was supposed to call the imaginary foul!!!!!!!!

It had to make Yanna so happy for the recovery.
 
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