Oregon Post Game Thread

[HuskyNan]

This team played one bad quarter on the road and it killed them. They also played hard as spit from the opening tip. Made me proud. They lost, but I have no complaints. Once I heard CW was in protocol I had no expectations they would win. I really just want to see all of these teams they've lost to down the road.

Well, yes, but the team couldn’t stop shooting itself in the foot. The early season turnovers reappeared and the shots on offense were rushed and mostly off balance or fade away. Yes, Oregon gets some credit but opponents have been playing a zone defense all season. You’d think the Huskies would have figured it out by now.

Nika, E, and Aaliyah won’t shoot and teammates inexplicably won’t pass the ball to Dorka. Liv was a soldier and Caroline is the only one that can create so Oregon only had to guard the two of them. UConn just made it too easy for Oregon

On edit - do they practice rebounding? I was yelling at the TV for UConn to go to the offensive glass. What’s up with that?

 

[Aluminny69]

Question for those who believe UConn will rebound when everyone is back, who was injured for the South Carolina game, that would have made a difference? Saylor and Mir are both gone, and Griffin is out for the season.

 

[SARG 2011]

This team has been shorthanded almost all season...then big road game and your 2G can't play due to Covid. The second quarter did them in but I for one saw improvement in the 4th quarter. The SC and the GT games were not good...the team seemed mentally and physically fatigued in those games. I didn't see that today and I'm loving this latest version of Liv

 

[Centerstream]

Bueller, Bueller, EDWARDS?

Just curious...what does this even mean? What am I missing?

 

[Geesworld]

It's pretty simple. Road game against a good team without prep time and another starter out of the line up.

ONO is a post option but she also has to be a facilitator at the high post. One of the post players is going to have to step up and give her some help to balance our high low and back door action.

Perimeter players had self inflicted wounds and it was costly this game and they are going to have to get that under control.

We didn't lose because of the refs but we aren't getting officiated fairly. Lotta extra aggression is being allowed.

Worst 3 point shooting team in the history of UCONN. CD needs more midrange attempts and less attempts being the arc. Her rythm is off.

Sophomore slump is a real thing for UCONN players. Good grief!

 

[uconnever]

Not mad, because we are not at full strength. With that said, Edwards and Westbrook have regressed and Dorka is very inconsistent. Caroline is the bright spot and should start when we’re at full health. Caroline does need to relax a little. Evina confuses me. She has me thinking she is injured because she is a waaaay more aggressive player.

 

[TeamFirst!]

The only way we were going to win this game was for Caroline to knock down some 3's and it wasn't in her today. Still, 10-21 shooting is actually good folks. Yet again, she showed that she is a player who can play against top competition. It wasn't a great day for her but she still put up 22 points on near 50% shooting. By the 4th quarter it was clear no one wanted to pass to her though. Sure she missed some 3's but was anyone else lighting it up? Uconn needs to GET where their bread is buttered. Geno needs to knock some heads. That was inappropriate. Our best shot in the 4th was to continue to go to Caroline, not avoid her like the plague. If anything, the offense should be catered to her more. How many times did someone pick for Caroline? Near zero. She needs to be an even bigger focus for this team's offense. She sure could use some help doing it also. She has to do it almost completely by herself.

It was the ONO and Caroline show today. ONO's putting up 1st round pick numbers. Her defense is her strongest asset and she's not a bad assist person and a high percentage scorer. Have to say the team MVP at this point.

Everyone loves Nika but this is what you get against top competition. I don't want to be critical but what does it take for people to wake up? She's great against nobodies. She can't score or really even defend that well against top competition. She's injury depth and someone who can rest the starters a few minutes. A future great coach.

Without the outside shots going in we had a real tough time getting the inside game going. Have to knock down the 3's.

 

[Tonyc]

Well the biggest problem is we dont have scorers. Liv and Caroline and thats it. We have 3 number 1 HS POY on the bench today and Im sure they wouldve scored at least 40 pts if not more and that wouldve been enough to win handily. We need to wait for Azzi Christyn and Paige to get back. Those 3 along with Liv and Caroline will make UConn a very good team.
Everybody outside of Caroline and Liv dont know how to create, and dont have the poise to shoot the outside shot. Thats it for right now. Until everybody gets healthy and can play we will struggle against good teams. I am not going to pick on individual players either. We are a team and we win as a team and loose as a team. Looking forward we will have Amari Paith Patterson and Brady next season. That will be a big improvement.

This has been a tuff season for the team as a whole. No excuses either. Without Paige its been tuff. She makes everybody better. Right now no use in complaining or placing blame on anybody. We are what we are and we can only hope we can hold on until we get healthy again. Paige Azzi and Christyn should be good for over 50 pts a game and that along with Caroline and Liv will get us where we want to be.

 

[nwhoopfan]

That is extremely misleading. Started out the game +10, outscored by 23 the rest of the way, and that was with a 7-0 run to end the game when it was completely over. So no, it wasn't 1 bad quarter that did them in. Outscored by 30 other than the first 3 minutes and final 1:24.

 

[Stymie]

This game was over in the 3rd quarter
No minutes for Amari?
No minutes for Piath ?
Why doesn’t a “reporter”(?) at the post game presser find out why the hell not?
No glib BS answers.
No avoidance.
Just answer the GD question.

 

[Ardenque]

Completely embarrassing. Liv did well, Caroline trying to do too much. Westbrook doesn't deserve to start again. When everyone comes back, last guard off the bench. No fire at all, looked like she didn't want to play.

Is Westbrook still injured? She continues to look like she‘s going at half speed.

 

[uconnever]

Well, yes, but the team couldn’t stop shooting itself in the foot. The early season turnovers reappeared and the shots on offense were rushed and mostly off balance or fade away. Yes, Oregon gets some credit but opponents have been playing a zone defense all season. You’d think the Huskies would have figured it out by now.

But, Nika, E, and Aaliyah won’t shoot and teammates inexplicably won’t pass the ball to Dorka. Liv was a soldier and Caroline is the only one that can create so Oregon only had to guard the two of them. UConn just made it too easy for Oregon

I agree with all except Dorka whom I’ve been a fan of since Ohio state, plays nervous and gets herself trapped amongst other silly decisions.

 

[Rb335]

Question for those who believe UConn will rebound when everyone is back, who was injured for the South Carolina game, that would have made a difference? Saylor and Mir are both gone, and Griffin is out for the season.

I'm not sure, but I think the hope is the increased play of Caroline. Really the only thing that could be different.

 

[Surly1]

It’s as easy to be a front runner as it is to jump off the bandwagon. Missing CW seems par for the course in this unfortunate season. One thing struck me watching the game is UConn is not benefitting playing in an inferior conference. The SEC, Big 10, ACC, PAC-10 and Big 12 offer so many more competitive games. Once upon a time, UConn’s talent made this disparity disappear, but the the quality of the women’s game has improved significantly.

Obviously, not having Christyn Williams made a huge difference in the outcome, but based on the play of the team, I don’t believe it would have made much of a difference.

Ducharme is gaining valuable experience and she plays hard and aggressively. However, in this stage of her development, UConn is in trouble relying on her to shoot 20+ times. You can see that she will continue to improve, but I cringe when I watch her rush 3-pt attempts time and time again. She will get better and learn not to force every play.

I said it before and it bears repeating. Paige covered up a lot of the lack of overall talent last year and the early part of this season. Liv has played well this season, the best of the returnees, other than Paige. It is sad to see the regression in the games of Edwards, Westbrook.

The season is not a write-off, but everything has to fall in place - a big ask given the season so far. I’ll bide my time, waiting patiently for Paige and Azzi to return. If not this season, then next.

 

[Aluminny69]

Not mad, because we are not at full strength. With that said, Edwards and Westbrook have regressed and Dorka is very inconsistent. Caroline is the bright spot and should start when we’re at full health. Caroline does need to relax a little. Evina confuses me. She has me thinking she is injured because she is a waaaay more aggressive player.

When Paige and Azzi return, I hope Caroline becomes more judicious in her shot selection. It's okay now, because others are reluctant to shoot, but in the future....

 

[genzhusk]

Question for those who believe UConn will rebound when everyone is back, who was injured for the South Carolina game, that would have made a difference? Saylor and Mir are both gone, and Griffin is out for the season.

azzi. geno took her out because prolonged foot injury caused slow defense. azzi had won us the previous game against USF, who beat stanford and nearly tenn

 

[Blueballer]

It felt like the outcome of this game was pre-determined when we went down another guard, but they should have played a LOT better than they did. Very disappointing. At least it was a road game to a good OOC team.

 

[CL82]

Hard to be colder than UConn's offense.

Literally 41 points per game out injured and all of them are guards. There aren’t many college basketball teams that can win games leaving 41 points on the bench. we just need to survive, keep playing hard and get healthy.

 

[TCC Kid]

We can only assess the players who played the game. A terrible display of UCONN basketball.

CW wouldn’t have been the difference in this one

Nika we love her you but they are not even bothering to guard her close because just don’t shoot.

Dorka needs to show us why Geno thought she was good

Evina has just disappeared.

CD must have been told to shoot it early and often. No problem with that based on the 3 mentioned above.

AE .??????? Had the highest of hopes. She’s gone backwards.

ONO…IF she continues to play like this, she will be rewarded with with a pretty high draft pick

I agree with nearly all you say.
CW, is my disagreement. She may or may not have made a difference, we'll never know. But if past history is effective, she plays BIG is Big games. She has the potential to take over a game. If she had been in, CD would have been more comfortable with scoring--and scored more (possible). One more who could score--may have taken the burden off of Evina, MUHL, AE, everyone. Scoring is easier when you are ahead. She MAY have made a difference.

 

[cohenzone]

I’m not sure what people expect. They had adjusted pretty well to no Paige. New roles. Then no practice without Christyn, one day off and a cross country fight for a relatively early game. I suspect Evina is still hurting. Presumably they had adjusted to not having Aubrey’s body available let alone her defense so that needs to be discounted and then there is Azzi.

UConn is playing down 4 guards. Good luck with that, and they aren’t just any old guards. Nika is limited offensively. So we have anywhere between 30-40 points that have to be accounted for. For now we need Dorka/Edwards to fill some of that. I know it doesn’t mean much, but this group played a very good team even in the second half. I think the worst thing was some really bad turnovers. A bunch of weak passes that need to be eliminated because Paige isn’t showing up for a little time still. Tough year.

 

[uconnever]

Geno is still building a championship caliber team and we are good enough to win it now at full health, but we are a couple of pieces away. Ice and Ayanna, more so Ice may be the inal piece. The only thing is once Liv leaves, we may have a hole at center until Amari steps up.

 

[msf22b]

I couldn't help thinking:
What goes around, comes around.
Tonight was a game that was quite familiar...except that the better team wasn't UConn.
We used to do this to everybody all the time...Now the shoe was on the other foot

But, I wasn't particularly upset or screaming at the TV or not watching.
To have won tonight , everything would have had to come together...it didn't.
And I'm sure the team was in a partial state of shock at the last minute scratch.
But they came out and played BB

I really liked that as the game developed and the loss was certain, there was no sense of entitlement, no moping; they competed if somewhat futilely right up to the end.

We've all seen much more experienced players than Caroline trying to win the game by herself...
Skylar Diggins for example in the NCAA semi-final in Stewie's first year...Doesn't usually work, and it didn't tonight.

This is a team that needs to work on a bunch of things if they are going to be successful against top-ten teams...and Oregon is a top-ten team.
They have to find a way to get Dorka involved for example.

But rather than critique individual players, lets look at the big picture, At the moment, they're not a top-ten team...far from it. They'll have to work their way back, baby steps even when the stars return.

The question is how good can they be...I don't know. But perhaps, pretty darned good.

It will be a fascinating journey of (hopefully) big improvement
Enjoy it, buckle up...Lots and lots of up and downs ahead.

A UConn season unlike any in recent memory.

 

[dtbtbtb]

We all saw what we saw...a team missing some key parts and looked lost on offense and on defense for long screeches of the game.
The players:
Ono was real good, played her heart out and i would think improved her WNBA prospects with this game.
CD is a player and got stardom written all over her. Today there some moments that she actually played like a freshmen but she fights and despite not being able to hit from distance, got such a great variety of shots that she can score regardless.
Everyone else was very disappointing. DJ seems to have bad hands and can't hold to the ball. AE can't hit anything from mid range and that layup taking too many steps while all alone??? Nika can't shoot and as such with all of her hustle, can't be a starter against top teams. If she wants a real future in basketball, she must become a reliable shooter. E is a mystery...since the UCLA game she seemed to have lost her confidence and those turnovers.....argh...
In general the team looked soft (maybe it had to do with the refs letting Oregon be physical and whistling UConn for barely touching an Oregon player).
A very difficult game to watch as a UConn fan

 

[LwrcasefaN]

I've said this before...whichever team is the healthiest during the tournament will hoist the trophy. They didn't lose because they played poorly. Asking one player to do things they aren't accustomed to doing you can overcome. Asking 3...you get this. They lost because they weren't a top 25 team with all the injuries/absences. If you don't match up well against a team....you usually lose. It's that simple. Happy for Oregon, but they (and announcers) celebrated (minus confetti) like they won the NCAA tournament.

 

[TCC Kid]

It felt like the outcome of this game was pre-determined when we went down another guard, but they should have played a LOT better than they did. Very disappointing. At least it was a road game to a good OOC team.

You are right. I'm sure Geno thought the same thing. Scoring is the problem. Uconn can't always be a good defensive team against top teams, accept it. So, Offense is all that's left. Put the ball in the basket. Layups, even 4th graders do it well and the basket is much further away for them. Recruit scorers Geno!!