Ok Lets move on what does it take to beat Stanford

[StanFan]

Y’all are rising on how we can match up with Stanford. But how they match up with us? I can see the bigs, but how they stop Paige, Azzi and Christyn? I see a big match up advantage here.

On defense I would guess than Anna Wilson guards Azzi - and as a Stanford fan, hope that Anna can do something similar to what she did to Katie Benzan of Maryland (hold a 45% 3 point shooter averaging 10+ points a game to an 0-5 night). Paige and Christyn probably get the Hulls, and Paige in particular will have an opportunity since recently Stanford has struggled to contain players like Rori Harmon who like to drive and then elevate for the midrange.

 

[TeamFirst!]

I don't care what anyone says, Caroline IS in the dog house. Geno only sees the bad right now. For example, when Paige threw her that high pass that went out of bounds when she was wide open, that probably was interpreted as Caroline's fault. Caroline needs some time to get in the flow of the game. We've seen it over and over. She should be playing over 20 minutes vs Stanford but I wouldn't be surprised if she gets 6-8 minutes at best. My sense is that Geno is by nature a conservative. He goes with the tried and secure approach rather than the approach which might be a bit more risky but make the difference in a win. He should have Caroline spell the bigs some, especially in a 2 big lineup. They struggled in the small lineup against NC State but maybe that is because Caroline wasn't in the lineup.

 

[jaydee602]

The opening line in Vegas: Stanford (-1) over UCONN. The over/ under is 128.5 total points.
By those numbers, they are forecasting a 65- 64 final. That's basically an even game.

 

[Zarathustra]

Belibi is a handful inside despite being undersized--she's extremely strong and athletic. ONO/Edwards need to finish looks inside when Brink is out (she only plays 22 minutes per game) but I think the vast majority of UCONN's scoring will be from Bueckers/Fudd/Williams.

I do recall the dunk by Ms. Belibi. A very athletic Stanford team. We
need to hold our own inside ( ONO, Aaliyah, with some help?? from
Amari or Piath, if necessary ), and spread the wealth of outside
guard play offensive production = Everyone Eats. Continue
the offensive rebounds Aaliyah!! Christyn , Azzi, and Paige will
come through, but again, a full team effort is essential. Win another
one for DORKA! Z ? some sort of minor break out for Caroline??

 

[TeamFirst!]

Stanford doesn't always have Brink and Belibi in at the same time. That enables us to play a small lineup more than what sometimes might be possible against many teams. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Kiki Iriafen a little more than normal in this game. She is a force athletically.

 

[Bball244]

Cameron Brink has a tendency to foul a lot. Maybe UConn will get a pinch of luck with her in foul trouble early

 

[Jmsdawg]

1 .Does Paige still have her cape ready.
2. Will we adjust to Stanford playing I Big and 4 guards with the same and Keep one of our bigs ready for foul trouble. Or will they adjust to us playing 2 bigs.
3. Will Geno play more Caroline in our 4 guard offense or Evina. I guess it depends who plays well?
4. Who will Nika pester when she get in the game Hailey Jones, Anna Wilson
5. How does Liv match up against Brink?
6. Who guards Lacey Hull
7. Can we outscore them in a run a gun battle or can we out defense them?
8 Will will still count on our guards for most our offense?
9.What type of defense do we play to beat them?
10. Any other topics please jump in

I know most WCBB fan believe Hailey Jones is the key player for Stanford but from what I saw Brink is the player that cause opponents real problems. Final Four games will be tough for all involved but IF Paige can be Paige I believe UConn will be NC!

 

[tchalla1]

I hate to say it but after watching Stanford play the other night, its hard to imagine anyone beating them. Hope I am wrong

Not to worry--you are indeed wrong.... There's no team that's unbeatable.. I see a lot of opportunity for UConn against Stanford, especially at the guard play,,,

 

[UConnCat]

Team leaving for Minny today. Makes sense. Would be a day off from practice so might as well travel.

 

[Conndog]

For example, when Paige threw her that high pass that went out of bounds when she was wide open, that probably was interpreted as Caroline's fault.

That's ridiculous, Caroline was open and remained open for several seconds, the pass to her was very high, Caroline was lucky to get her fingertips on it. And as far as playing Evina over Caroline, all the shots that Evina missed in 2nd half or decided not to take even though she was open, how I wished it was Caroline firing away. One thing Caroline doesn't do is hesitate when shooting! She is too good to not play more, I'm not the coach, but I just don't understand why the strategy that made UConn so potent late in season (everyone eats) is now feed the starting five and serve leftover scraps to everyone else.

 

[Forego]

1 .Does Paige still have her cape ready.
2. Will we adjust to Stanford playing I Big and 4 guards with the same and Keep one of our bigs ready for foul trouble. Or will they adjust to us playing 2 bigs.
3. Will Geno play more Caroline in our 4 guard offense or Evina. I guess it depends who plays well?
4. Who will Nika pester when she get in the game Hailey Jones, Anna Wilson
5. How does Liv match up against Brink?
6. Who guards Lacey Hull
7. Can we outscore them in a run a gun battle or can we out defense them?
8 Will will still count on our guards for most our offense?
9.What type of defense do we play to beat them?
10. Any other topics please jump in

Move on? Move on from the post game thread for one of the best games UConn ever played. Hey some of us were up late
last night and we are slow readers.

 

[SLY63]

(AE and ONO have to be 1, 2 in the country in illegal screens set this season)

Funny you mention illegal screens, as I would imagine this isn't the hardest thing to fix.

 

[Pinhead]

AE and ONO simply have to stay out of foul trouble. If they have to sit for an extended period of time then Brink will take over.

Brink seems quite prone to sitting for the same.

 

[JJTB]

I like the way our guards are playing. To me, as long as the bigs play even, we win.

 

[Huskiefan23]

I hate to say it but after watching Stanford play the other night, its hard to imagine anyone beating them. Hope I am wrong

It's time for Paige to channel her inner Morgan William and Arike Ogunbowale. No team is unbeatable and Uconn over the years has proved that.

 

[asuwish]

Shoot a lot better from 3 then you have the previous two games. No way you can beat Stanford going 5-20 (Indiana) or 5-21 (NC State) from deep. Stay out of foul trouble. (AE and ONO have to be 1, 2 in the country in illegal screens set this season). That's it. If you do those two things and everything else stays the same, you have a chance.

Last night Paige did a great job of getting Liv set before using the screen. Our post have to just stay in place. If a screen doesn't work it's the ball handlers fault.

 

[Conndog]

Liv needs to be cautious when helping far from basket- nothing infuriates me more than to see our center foul someone 30 feet from the basket. And if she gets beat and opponent is going in to the basket, just concede the two points. That first foul when Cunane got the ball inside and turned to make a layup, Liv swiped at the ball but got called for foul, and 3 point play resulted. Once she got 2nd foul called on her, she had to sit rest of the half.

I hope the outside shooting is there, which is one of our strengths. Brink is great defender against people bringing it to the hoop, so shooting is the counter. Best shooters are Paige, Azzi, Christyn and Caroline. These four need a lot of minutes to beat Stanford.

 

[Urshurak]

3 pointers and free throws need to be massively improved to best Stanford. We can’t leave 7-8 points on the table and expect to win.

Also, I think some parts of the defense need to be better. We lost a couple players with easy layups against Nc State. Stanford will feast.

I think UConn can win, but it will be a tall (no pun intended) task and a lot needs to go our way.

 

[nastynatty]

I hate to say it but after watching Stanford play the other night, its hard to imagine anyone beating them. Hope I am wrong

I watched the Stanford/Texas game as well & while they looked really good and came out with a win, they definitely didn’t play a perfect game and showed some weaknesses. They struggled a bit with Texas’ press so I think UConn’s full court pressure will have to be an emphasis for the next week. Brink has a tendency to commit cheap fouls so I say feed Liv the ball at the start and go at her. She’s a good shot blocker but she’s gonna have a hard time blocking Liv who is an inch taller and built very similarly (aka long). I’d match up defensively with Paige on Wilson, Azzi on Lacie, Christyn on Lexie, Aaliyah on Jones, and Liv on Brink. Lexie and Jones are the biggest offensive threats they have and Christyn and Aaliyah have consistently proven that they are worthy of drawing the most difficult defensive assignments. I think Aaliyah can similarly bother Jones like she did Maddy Siegrist in the BET final. Plus, Jones might have a hard time having to guard Aaliyah all the way down in the post with AE’s physicality. Overall, should be a great game with some interesting matchups.

 

[eebmg]

Just a quick quote from Tara

VanDerveer said she watched UConn’s double overtime win over NC State on Monday night.

“I thought they played really well last night,” she said. “Obviously, the game could have gone either way. Free throws down the stretch maybe were the difference. It’s very sad they had the injuries they have and having the injury last night, too, you never want to see a player go down. They’re playing very well, and we’ll have to play very well to beat them.”

 

[The deacon]

It's time for Paige to channel her inner Morgan William and Arike Ogunbowale. No team is unbeatable and Uconn over the years has proved that.

I'd hate to think Paige has any of Arike in her. Paige being Paige is just fine. No need to summon up traits of such a selfish player.

 

[Longtime fan]

1 .Does Paige still have her cape ready.
2. Will we adjust to Stanford playing I Big and 4 guards with the same and Keep one of our bigs ready for foul trouble. Or will they adjust to us playing 2 bigs.
3. Will Geno play more Caroline in our 4 guard offense or Evina. I guess it depends who plays well?
4. Who will Nika pester when she get in the game Hailey Jones, Anna Wilson
5. How does Liv match up against Brink?
6. Who guards Lacey Hull
7. Can we outscore them in a run a gun battle or can we out defense them?
8 Will will still count on our guards for most our offense?
9.What type of defense do we play to beat them?
10. Any other topics please jump in

I don't think we can beat Stanford. We are all over-looking the impact of losing Dorka. She was playing great against NC State when the accident occurred. She was making an impact, and had done so in most of our big games. So we lost an important player.

The wild card for the next game, of course, is the return of the" caped crusader." Paige played like the MVP of the country again, as the NC State game got late. Can the team step up to support that? ( relying just on Paige will not get the job done). And can Paige do it again?

Stanford is the defending champ and they seem better than they were last season. We tend to forget about all the west coast teams, because we never play them, or see them play. But I watched several Stanford games ( I live in LA ). They are legitimate. They have size, speed, maturity and talent. Plenty of it.

We still have not played " the best game we can play." One in which we protect the ball; our shots are on target from all sources, we make fouls shots, and we defend. If we find that game, we could win. We are "there," and anyone " there" can win ( though I think Louisville has no chance ). But I really believe we need 40 minutes of excellence from everyone. Maybe 50 if the NC State game is an indicator.

Geno will, given a choice, play Evina not CD. Not only is she an offensive threat but she is a smart player. CD needs more experience to become as "court smart" as Evina. She, after all, received that magical pass from a trapped AZZI and saw, and delivered, a perfect pass to an open Williams for the winning basket. Let's not overlook, by the way, the brilliance of AZZI. No rest. 19 points. Amazing basketball overall. Getting that pass to Evina was a miracle.

We have a shot. But we need to step up. Coaches and players. For Dorka. And for Aubrey. And for us all. What a scene.

 

[CTGirl15]

Well, one positive of being the 2 seed in a field of 1 seeds, we will be wearing road uniforms and almost zero chance that the cursed grey uniforms will show up. They wore those against Arizona last year.

But, to beat Stanford, you have to get them to turn the ball over, take and miss a lot of three's, and get brink into foul trouble. Texas did it earlier this year and got close two days ago, but Stanford pulled out the win. They can go for long stretches without scoring or they let up defensively (see the Maryland 17 point comeback in the 4Q). But, its a tall order to hope all of that happens in one game. I think UConn will need to play smart on defense, be careful of the offensive fouls and fouls away from the basket for Aaliyah and Liv, and we need to make FTs and hit our open outside shots.

 

[CL82]

Here’s some analysis from the Stanford board including a history of every matchup. It’s a decent read.

 

[jchusky]

Stanford will attack Olivia, the fouls she committed last night were just leaving you scratching your head. Luckily for Uconn, Brink is also suffering getting into early foul trouble. She had 2 early in that Texas game and you could see how hard they struggled to manufacture offense without her. I just want to see Wilson guarding Paige, that is a matchup I have wanted.

 

[Kat]

Playing a lot of zone defense, challenging them to make their 3s. It would also help with keeping out of foul trouble which is especially important with Dorka unavailable to play. Getting those rebounds--that will be the decider.

 

[tchalla1]

I don't care what anyone says, Caroline IS in the dog house. Geno only sees the bad right now. For example, when Paige threw her that high pass that went out of bounds when she was wide open, that probably was interpreted as Caroline's fault. Caroline needs some time to get in the flow of the game. We've seen it over and over. She should be playing over 20 minutes vs Stanford but I wouldn't be surprised if she gets 6-8 minutes at best. My sense is that Geno is by nature a conservative. He goes with the tried and secure approach rather than the approach which might be a bit more risky but make the difference in a win. He should have Caroline spell the bigs some, especially in a 2 big lineup. They struggled in the small lineup against NC State but maybe that is because Caroline wasn't in the lineup.

I thoroughly agree with you that Caroline needs more playing time in order to contribute more, but I can't say she's in Geno's doghouse. In fact he often praises Caroline. Please remember she's a freshman and we're in the throes of a national championship run... I would like to see Caroline get minutes against Standard because as you alluded to, I too believe she can be of value given Stanford's "tweener" lineup.

 

[HopJim]

Exactly how I feel about them. Jones is a playmaker more than a scorer but she does get a bucket when they need it. She smart and knows how to get fouled at the very least. She also has games where she is completely off and a non factor. Aubrey would help a lot here. We don’t necessarily have anyone but Aubrey who matches up well with her. Caroline may be because she has the size and foot speed. Jones is probably not definitely too fast for our bigs and too big for out guards. Hull has been on fire too. She’s aggressive as hell and we need to make her a priority. If we stop those two, then I think we win. If they get theirs and then some, then we need another special performance from Paige. We can beat them but they are very well put together. Gonna be epic.

Jones could be the X-factor. We match up well everywhere else, but after watching all the drives for buckets and/or fouls from N. Car. State, suspect Jones has marching orders to take it to the bucket. If our guards can minimize the drives from the other Stanford players, our bigs have a better chance of staying physical and not fouling. I like Nika disrupting Jones's game, but wonder how much time Geno will give her.

 

[AgStatesman]

Here’s some analysis from the Stanford board including a history of every matchup. It’s a decent read.

Exactly the type of in depth coverage you'd expect from alumni of one of our country's real elite educational institutions.

 

[NU2BY]

I thoroughly agree with you that Caroline needs more playing time in order to contribute more, but I can't say she's in Geno's doghouse. In fact he often praises Caroline. Please remember she's a freshman and we're in the throes of a national championship run... I would like to see Caroline get minutes against Standard because as you alluded to, I too believe she can be of value given Stanford's "tweener" lineup.

Regardless of what Caroline's status is with Geno, or what so-called praise he might offer regarding her during a press conference or interview, he isn't playing her. That's the bottom-line! However, in defense of Geno, I think the one thing many of us are overlooking (me included) is that she was just short of brilliant when playing without Paige and Azzi. When they're in the lineup things are much different. She has to play a different game with a different mindset. This affects her game, abilities and confidence. Geno sees that and we aren't giving the best WCBB coach the game has ever seen his due. But that aside, I want Caroline to get 15-20 minutes in every game.