One view from courtside

[winlots]

Composite "take" from four very good seats. Our bias: to tell it as we saw it, with no attempt to curry favor or toe the company line, understanding that others would see things differently.

Lubbock folks: nice bunch who appreciate New England and UCONN.
Lubbock team: good group with real sense of team. Hard workers. Decent size and talent. Played some impressive D.
Our Band: terrific.
Our Husky: also terrific. Constantly active, great with the kids, good dancer, brings things to the table.
Our sweats and uniforms: Lousy. A lot of gray (overwhelmingly so in the unis), which has what to do with UCONN colors? Typical recent Nike stuff which often obliterates traditional team colors Look better in the close up game photos than they did in real life, where it was almost impossible to read the numerals from distance.
STEWART: played a strong game in all phases with lots of hustle. Should have a mighty AA season.
JEFFERSON: Though we didn't see the great leap forward that Coach described, played a fine game in all phases at AA level.
TUCK: Perhaps the most difficult to describe tonight. Seemed off her usual game (though she rebounded well) and not sure she returned after first quarter. We're thinking she has some degree of injury.
CHONG: DNP but seemed like she could have played if needed.
LAWLER and PULIDO: their usual solid stuff. Seem mature and well-coached. Hustle, Confident. Could get minutes on a lot of teams.
NURSE: rough and tough as they come and never reluctant to shoot. Her mid-range shot seemed significantly better than last year. Ferocious on D. Confident. Knows the system.
WILLIAMS: rather similar to Nurse tonight in terms of her aggressiveness, very strong D, confidence, and seemed to be sky-ing even more impressively than she did last year, believe it or not. Think she could perhaps have a tremendous (with a capital T) season ahead of her if given enough PT.
EKMARK: Seemed less lost out there and better conditioned than last year. Unfortunately, got off to a tough start with her three and that didn't help her night at all. Seems to give it what she has to give in terms of effort, but didn't see any remarkable change in her quickness, and that seems a very significant limiting factor again this year. In any given game, if she can hit some early shots, would not be surprised to see her have some hot scoring nights.
BUTLER: DNP. Our hearts go out to her and we can't wait to see her out on the floor. Expecting VERY good things.
BOYKIN: DNP. Noticed that when the team did their traditional post-game trot by the student section, she did not see "into it." Stone faced. Perhaps "down" bec unable to play?
COLLIER: We think we have a real player here. Seems bigger than expected. Didn't score as well as expected, but has a very nice all around game. VERY nice. Great future ahead.
SAMUELSON: sour and surprising (to us) note to end on. Didn't mind that her shot was not on, as that happens and could maybe even be expected her first time out. BUT, she looked much less capable and determined on D than we had anticipated. Failed to challenge threes, did not seem interested in mixing it up in contact going for loose balls and rebounds, and did not really seem to hustle in the UCONN manner. Did seem to be playing a ton of minutes, so perhaps was fatigued as she does not appear to be particularly strong.
FANS: chomping at the bit.

 

[Sonny44]

Thanks winlots. Agree, really ugly uniforms; not a good omen.

 

[Siestakeyfan]

SAMUELSON: A freshman that NEEDS a LOT of work !

 

[DaddyChoc]

Hmmm... good thought

 

[ctdogpound]

The use of the larger ball isn't until the next (and final) exhibition game. Tonight, they used the "regular" sized basketball.

 

[TWG236]

Wife and I went to the game last night. First of all, as stated by Nan and many, many others, the grey uniforms suck. Second of all, according to the overhead scoreboard both teams only played with four players. Never identified nor showed the stats for the fifth player of either team. Winlots description of each player are very actuate. Both Nurse and Williams were beast on both offense and defense and their overall game has really improved. They will be a blast to watch this year. I believe that although Samuelson was HS NPY, it was due to her offense prowess and nothing to do with defense. Geno and staff were well aware of this when they recruited her and they must believe that she will be willing to put in the time and effort to improve in this aspect of her game. My observations led me to believe that although at times both Samuelson and Collier had the look of a deer in headlights, because there is still a long season before us my guess would be that we will see a "BIG" improvement in both of their games before it ends. The good thing with this team is that our returning veterans are so strong, that our three freshman have a very talented and experience group to learn from which should allow each of them to really improved by tournament time and help win #11. Let the season begin.

 

[HGN]

So the rookies played like rookies...............there should be no surprise there. And the 2nd year players (Nurse/Gabby) played like it.............. No surprise there either. And the senior AA's (Stewie/Mo) played like it. No surprise there either. And UConn won the game handily.......No surprise there.
This is just the first game , or scrimmage if you will. An Exhibition. Some of us BY'ers were nervous and we weren't even playing. Just think how nervous the Rookies were. Is there any surprise that they played like it? It will get better and they will be more comfortable as the season wears on.

The ONLY surprise would have been if UConn had lost.

 

[CL82]

For what it is worth, I suspect that if we are seeing the gray uni in exhibition games, I suspect it is because we won't be seeing it during the year.

I'd guess that Geno isn't a fan either.

 

[uconnever]

I agree that KLS biggest adjustment appears to be on D. I think with strength and her getting more comfortable things will get better. I also agree about Ekmark. Don't see much change, but if she can just at least get her shots to fall, she will be alot of help. I think her position is our weakest on the team.

 

[DaddyChoc]

I miss Stokes

 

[winlots]

Thanks winlots. Agree, really ugly uniforms; not a good omen.

SON: thank you. Hope you're wrong about the omen though. Gotta admit I'm not liking the Tuck and Butler stuff one bit.

SIESTA: For sure. The good news is that she has a better chance at UCONN to get the coaching and challenging daily work she needs to make those improvement; and she says that is exactly what she welcomes.

TWG: Thank you for your nice comment and your own commentary. Our only significant difference seems to be on my group's Day One take on Collier, as we were quite impressed early on, though we also saw the early "headlights" as expected.

HGN: a good and entertaining summary - thanks.

CL82: Hope your guess about Coach is a good one!

UCONN: thank you and I agree with your comments.

DC: yup, for sure. I'm thinking a healthy Butler will ease our pain over time -- ?

 

[chrissaran]

What were you watching? Mo played great and so did Breanna; however, how many turnovers did Breanna have? You need to get your glasses cleaned. Mo blew by defenders like they were standing still.

 

[DaddyChoc]

I hear they used the regular womens ball... the next exhibition game they'll "test" all that new stuff

 

[ed4ourgirls]

With regard to the fans, it seemed to me (possibly incorrectly) that while our fans cheered
and applauded made baskets, there seemed to be very little applause whenever someone
made a steal, snagged an aggressive or difficult rebound or made a snappy pass (there were
one or two snappy passes).

Folks need to reward our kids with applause for all the good things they do besides making
baskets.

 

[DaddyChoc]

geesh... these ladies aren't in the pee-wee league "our kids"

 

[johnnyc]

geesh... these ladies aren't in the pee-wee league "our kids"

Do you have children? My wife and I still refer to our 30 & 26 year old's as 'the kids'. As in 'how are the kids doing?', etc. It's a family thing. It is easy to transfer that to being a fan of a college team in such a way that they are like 'family'.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Do you have children? My wife and I still refer to our 30 & 26 year old's as 'the kids'. As in 'how are the kids doing?', etc. It's a family thing. It is easy to transfer that to being a fan of a college team in such a way that they are like 'family'.

they are YOUR kids... these players arent your KIDS nor your FAMILY as much as you want to believe they are.

I understand what you're sayiing but the things we say about "other kids" sometimes is unusual... its cool to talk bad about "other families kids" .

either they're big girls who can take the criticism when called chubby etc. or they're "kids" who we should only say nice things about

(rant over)

 

[HGN]

I miss Stokes

DaddyChoc, let's not talk about Stokes. The conversation saddens me because I miss her too. And the absence of Butler in the middle makes it even worse.

 

[DaddyChoc]

DaddyChoc, let's not talk about Stokes. The conversation saddens me because I miss her too. And the absence of Butler in the middle makes it even worse.

watching that game and seeing Lubbock try those reverse layup... Stokes would have slapped that $&#* into the 5th row but instead we watched those hail mary's hoping they didnt go in

 

[ctkaiser]

Wife and I went to the game last night. First of all, as stated by Nan and many, many others, the grey uniforms suck. Second of all, according to the overhead scoreboard both teams only played with four players. Never identified nor showed the stats for the fifth player of either team. Winlots description of each player are very actuate. Both Nurse and Williams were beast on both offense and defense and their overall game has really improved. They will be a blast to watch this year. I believe that although Samuelson was HS NPY, it was due to her offense prowess and nothing to do with defense. Geno and staff were well aware of this when they recruited her and they must believe that she will be willing to put in the time and effort to improve in this aspect of her game. My observations led me to believe that although at times both Samuelson and Collier had the look of a deer in headlights, because there is still a long season before us my guess would be that we will see a "BIG" improvement in both of their games before it ends. The good thing with this team is that our returning veterans are so strong, that our three freshman have a very talented and experience group to learn from which should allow each of them to really improved by tournament time and help win #11. Let the season begin.

The scoreboard is same as last year. Shows 4 players. If you watch it long enough (instead of the game) it will show you the 5th player. It rotates. You would think somebody would have realized that it's not a good system and change it.