Oh. Poor Baylor without their PG

[hoophuskee]

IMO, the eye test shows clearly the effect Muhl has had on this team, her loss has been felt although I would agree wholeheartedly not remotely to the extent the loss of Richards to Baylor based on the in-game injury. Baylor was just unprepared to lose her and Mulkey didn’t have a clue, her strength as a coach is not thinking on her feet. With the psychological effect of the loss of Richards coupled with the run Uconn went on immediately after, a CYO coach would have called a time out to settle things down and re-calibrate.
As for the Richards injury effect on the game, regardless of her defensive awards, Bueckers was still getting hers prior to the injury. So with sports being as unpredictable as life itself, Makurat getting in the teams face and lighting a fire in them might have had more of an effect on the run Uconn went on than Richards getting injured, who knows?

Sure. And I don't think we are arguing. I think AM probably did have a huge effect.

But for Diidi- after-the-fact we can look at it it like you say in bold. However as a team there either is no excuse for it by that I mean either the players are at fault or the coach did a lousy job preparing her team. Because Didi shouldn't have an effect on a team like that.

They did come back at the end as well. Lack of being prepared if a player goes out is not a complete excuse. SO if she gets into foul trouble would they expect the same collapse? They wouldn't / shouldn't. Again -- they DID come back. UCONN deserves a heap of credit for putting Baylor on their heels as well. If they were to play again today I'm sure you wouldn't see DIdi being missed as much as what happened.

Bottomline is one player on a team like Baylor that recruits as well as they do - should not have this type of effect. Didi is not "Michael Jordan/LeBron James." Baylor just didn't perform or the coach wasn't ready along with -- the opposing team was just too good.

 

[eebmg]

I think the more apt comparison of DiDi going down is when Paige twisted her Ankle in the TN game. For the next few minutes, we were mentally shot and a 9 pt lead dwindled to 2. It is the mental shock to the team of losing someone important to your team.

True, alot of credit on the UConn side for taking advantage while also getting it into our heads that we belong on the same court but Kim not calling time out when it is clear they were in free fall and trying to get their heads into a better place is nuts.