Nothing against Waco, TX, but Athens, Ga is a great college town, and the SEC is a much stronger conference than the Big 12, particularly with TX & OK on the way. I don’t know if Baylor offered Taylor, but unless the money was ridiculously high, she made the right decision staying at UGA.
Yeah, I think people are overhyping the “quick guard” thing. Sure, McDonald tortured us in that game but I’d bet a lot of money you could put those same teams back together and make everyone healthy and AZ as was could never beat UConn as was in a best of 7 or 5! She (Ari) was shooting .407 overall and .345 on threes. She went 4-9 on threes against us in that game and added 11 free throws while going 7-17 overall. Now kudos to her for stepping up and having a great game but it was really our performance against the rest of the team that beat us. UConn generally is able to fade 1 player going off because they simply make up for it with the rest of the team. This time we couldn’t. Obviously, it’s not good to have a player torch us like that but for me anyway, I just don’t think that game has any lasting meaning beyond the fact that they (UConn) were extremely young, overconfident, banged up and did not perform well at all. If Anna hits one three, Aubrey scores one basket Nika scores 2 more points, and ONO makes two of her seven misses, we win and likely beat Stanford in the final. We did not obviously, but I am very confident that this year’s team is way better equipped for that kind of game! Not necessarily in the sense that we can shut down another McDonald, (though I think we’ll be better at that as well) but rather that our ability to withstand a single dominant performance will be much improved. I’m not sure everyone has really grasped the offensive potential of this team. Assuming our defense remains as strong as usual, I just don’t think teams will be able to score enough points to beat us!
Your right, except South Carolina who i think can trouble us defensively. Really for me, they are the only team who can stop us defensively and I’m not totally sold on that happening. Stanford will be a problem also but it’s us and South Carolina this year with UConn having the edge I believe.
McDonald had a good game, not great and Uconn did not lose the game on defense. IMO, you left out a very important piece of the piece of the puzzle, namely that Bueckers took only 13 shots and was largely a non-factor down the stretch; when Uconn needed her to shoot, to hunt shots. IMO, the Arizona game was the type of game Auriemma knew Uconn would eventually face in the tournament; a tough defensive game, a game where someone would truly have to “take over”. She was that someone, obviously, and Auriemma identified that very early in the season but she decided she knew better than the coach and would play the season her way, so IMO she was woefully unprepared for the Arizona moment. She was not the only reason they lost by any means, it is a team game, but the NPOY is the one you look to; not Griffin, a non-scorer, nor Makurat or Muhl, players who were both compromised by injuries, or Ono, who is a very uneven offensive player with a history of disappearing on the offensive end against quality opponents. And to be clear, I don’t place the BLAME on Bueckers in the least for the loss but I guess I personally find it hard to generate a great deal of respect for a player, no matter how tremendously talented, who refuses to play the way a coach asks them to play, especially when the coach is the best the game has ever seen.
That's a lot of ifs and wishful hoping. Arizona led that game wire to wire ,won by double digits and pretty much dominated UCONN. Past team were able to overcome quick scoring guards with a game changing perimeter defender. Last year's team did not have such a player. Assuming (your words not mine) this year's team has such a player sounds like more wishful hoping. Team defense is a multiplier of, not a substitute for good individual defense. The ball was starting in McDonalds hands if you don't do enough individually to slow her down then the defense is a starting every possession at a deficit-AKA playing up hill on your heels.
Move over I'll have a seat too.
C’mon down brother! We have unlimited seating. Her improv skills, up fakes, ball fakes, and footwork are off the charts for a college kid, never mind a HS kid. Add some more strength and experience and you’ll have an AA wing. To develop those moves and shots at her age shows a superior work ethic. How would you like to clear a side and run a 2 man with her and Toomey?
Maybe you could point out where I said this year’s team had such a player? In fact, I specifically said the exact opposite of what you are saying! You know, making something up to then use in your argument for or against renders the whole conversation meaningless. The point I’m trying to make is this.; sure we may not have a lockdown defender that can deal with someone like McDonald but most of the time (in fact, almost always) we win anyway because we hold the rest of the team down enough to where we outscore them anyway. Apparently this is one of your favorite things to rail against but IMO it simply is not a big issue. I just don’t agree that the only reason we have beaten teams with a quick scoring guard was us having a game-changing perimeter defender. I think we have won virtually all those games, with or without an opposing quick guard, because we had better players and coaching across the board. On the rare occasion we have lost those games it has rarely been as simple as one quick guard single handedly beating us. If you truly think that AZ could beat us (healthy) in a series as our teams were constituted last year, then I guess we’ll just have to disagree. AZ played a great game and deserved to win but one swallow does not a summer make. Do I wish we had a blindingly fast defensive guard? Of course! I just don’t think we have to have one to win as we almost always win those games anyway. We lost that game because of a lot of things coming together at the perfect time. Nika was hurt, Liv laid an egg, we were young, inexperienced, and overconfident and Adia Barnes had her team breathing fire and believing Aari was going to lead them to the promised land. Their team played over their heads while our team simply was not ready to play. That team was really tied into Aari’s leadership. I live in Tucson and she really had a special year (actually two years) Her impact on that team was far beyond her actual statistical production. She’s really not a very good shooter but she had so much confidence in the rest of her game that she just lifted the whole team and almost won the championship. I mean, if her last shot had gone in, we would be talking about one of the greatest performances in the history of the FF!
Right here.
Who did you have in mind that is better "way better" equipped to shut down a player like McDonald on this team?
I think you missed the wink
"Nothing against Waco, TX?" Having lived near there, like the University but can't find many positive things to say about the town.
Trying to be diplomatic…….
Nice try! Nika- healthy, an influx of better shooters, more experienced team, another rim protector in Dorka. I think all of those will allow us to be able to overcome your nightmare scenario of the quick guard!
Did you even read my post? I specifically said, “not necessarily in the sense that we can shut down another McDonald” ?
Did you? You followup that statement by stating ((though I think we’ll be better at that as well).
Well Nika is healthier I'll give you that. I'm not sure what having better shooters has to do with better individual perimeter defense that are capable of slowing down quick guards. Dorka is no rim protector she average 1 block per game in 3 season at tOSU= same BPG average as Aaliyah Edwards and Aubrey Griffin. Sounds like more wishful hoping to me.
It wasn't so much the quickness of Ari that hurt UConn last year, but the inability of UConn to defensively adapt to the multitude of screens and sets they ran for her. Remember CW and her "we weren't prepared for that" quote? Even that would have been overcome if UConn could have found a way to shoot AZ out of their zone. They didn't. They pressured Paige hard on the perimeter, forcing UConn to almost abandon the 23 keep and the dribble hand off, then sagged the paint hard, daring UConn to make shots. Then of course when Liv moved out to trigger the triangle they didn't respect her elbow jumper at all. Geno smartly continued to recruit shooters then accepted a transfer of a wing/post that could stretch the defense and force teams to respect UConn's perimeter shooting.
I see your point just happen to disagree. Arizona game was April Geno has not recruited any shooters in response to any perceived weakness as a result of the Arizona game. Azzi and Caroline signed with UCONN 6 months before the Arizona game.
I mostly agree. I think however Geno long saw the need for perimeter shooting and perimeter defense well before the Arizona game, before even the 2019-20 season, and recruited to fill that need, hence Saylor and CD. As for a bigger post presence, yes and yes. Which is why I was so disappointed Geno didn't pursue Cardoso harder. I believe however, perimeter disruptor or not, it was Geno's fault that the team wasn't "prepared" to face the multiple screens and sets AZ used to get Ari shots, and CW's remarks proved that to me.
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That’s one more per game than we had last year, no? The entire focus of my argument was to point out that regardless of whether we had a lockdown, blazing fast defender, we usually win anyway. We have added more elite talent to last year’s Final Four team, than anyone in the country except possibly South Carolina. We are healthy, we are more experienced, we have the burn and disappointment of last year’s defeat to motivate us, we have three/four seniors who desperately want to win a National Championship and every other member of the team wanting to send them off with a championship. Finally, we have Geno and Chris! Color me optimistic that this team is better equipped to deal with a fast, talented guard on the opposing team. Whether that means actually stopping that guard or simply overwhelming the other four players on the court and nullifying that guard’s performance by outscoring the rest of the team is really irrelevant. We still win!
For some young kids, it’s simply the case that, at an early age, they are just not strong enough to get the ball up to the rim without launching it from their chest. Yes, at some point, someone should try to change it before it’s too late. But the longer you go with bad mechanics, the harder it is to change. Mikayla Coombs is a good example of a great athlete with bad shooting mechanics.
