Overall thoughts on the first game

[sTu]

First game, young team intergrating new players, trying multiple line-ups etc. Typical responses to ONE game good or bad.

 

[intlzncster]

I dont think this team has played together yet... someone important has been out of action each game... am I wrong?

There's a lot of new pieces as well, so it will take time to get this group playing together. The return of Doty will go a long way towards that. Offense always comes after defense with a team that hasn't played together. Pretty sure Geno and the staff works first and foremost on defense anyway.

 

[intlzncster]

I'm sure Holy Cross's defense isn't at the caliber that a top school like Stanford, ESPECIALLY TAMU and BAYLOR have at this point. So i agree 77 points on HC is not a good sign.

Maybe the 3pt shooting woes will get better with time, patience, and less nerves...KML is a freshman after all.

Dolson and Hartley played in U18 team, Italy tour, and practice and didn't perform up to par.

Dolson still doesn't look ready to deal with Griner at all... so all they hype about Dolson form the board and critics is uncalled for. I figure you earn praise, not expect it at any elite program. Right?

Tina worked so hard, as does Griner, in the post, to develop, get positioning and finish a point.

Griner has improved each year, and this year she finally has some rebounding to go with her points, considering she doesn't really play more than 23 minutes up to this point.

I really like UCONN, in fact after watching some of Stanfords game and watching Nneka (or Chiney) and her team struggle to put down opponents no.23 and lower (for a top 5 team, at least), i was thinking (or hoping) they would have a hard time in Connecticut, but i have my doubts.

To better days on the court, and that when we play UCONN it will be no. 1 vs. no. 2, (hoping we beat UCLA, ND, and TENN, and you all beat Stanford).

First game with lot's of new pieces. Baylor returns just about everyone. We lost Maya, so It's going to take time to integrate new players into the system. Imagine what the Bears will look like when Griner leaves (going to take some adjustment).

RE Griner: we'll see how she responds to bigger physical players as far as rebounding goes. She gets rebounds against smaller teams by just standing there.

RE Dolson: the idea was to NOT go to her this game (per Geno), as it is too easy against a team like this. Too many other things to work on. Dolson will be fine against Griner as she is physically stronger. And Heather has shown she can D up Griner (ie last year) when necessary.

Sims and Hartley are different players. Sims is definitely a PG, while Hartley seems more of a 2 guard. Having Doty back full time will help Hartley immensely.

What Uconn is right now won't resemble the team we'll see later in the season, so I don't think you'll see many people worrying over here.

All that said, I would expect Baylor to win in on it's home court against UConn this year.

 

[Husky68]

I expect a lot of playing time for KML and shared Kia/Heather.
Don't have enough size in starting lineup, vs. last year adding Doty vs. Maya is a big drop in rebounding if Faris has to take over for Maya. Maya was a very strong girl and held her place inside against all comers. What do you do? Dolson is better rebounder this year. Not sure given starting lineup what you do except do as best you can. Assuming Trees start both "O" girls plus a center, if SD guards the center, have Tiff and KF on the "O" girls. Problem on defense the "O" girls are tough inside and offensive rebounding, on offense KF doesn't put lot of offensive pressure on girl guarding her and Tiff will have trouble going inside against either of the "O" girls. Trees are just one of the more extreme examples of size difference but even Tenn. with Stricklen and Johnson will be big for KF and Tiff.
KML really is good basketball player. Her shot drops (nice form and touch) and she is best player on team with how she moves and court awareness. She looks much more agile than Maya (not more powerful or faster) and stronger than a freshman DT. This is one super duper player. Uconn is a FF favorite with her.
Geno's comments that Kia/Heather aren't producing like he would want, if he is comparing them to SD (who he says is 2nd best center in college as a sophomore) that's pretty high standard. Like complaining that Tiff isn't Maya. See some serious playing time and success for these two (again success as substitutes which is not same as saying play better than Steff or KF).

Seems like Doty's body has gone back to slimmer and she actually looked more agile than I was expecting. Her jump shot form was more fluid and powerful, 2 years ago she seemed to be flinging it more. Also looked like a bit better dribbler.

Banks looks like a legit guard substitute given athletic ability almost alone. So even before Michala and LE looks like 9 deep of solid players and other than Dolson, you play poorly you have someone ready to take your playing time. KF doesn't make herself a threat offensively there are players who will, Tiff can't get untracked, Bria turns the ball over - lots of players with their piggy toes on the inbounds line waiting for Geno to look down the bench and point them to the scorers table.

 

[Tonyc]

This is going to be an up and down year for UConn standards. We are going to score and we are going to be inconsistent until IMO Feb. We have team chemistry in spurts. We did score 77 pts and I thought we would be over 90. KML was 0-7. Thats part of it and I dont see that happening very often. The other reason is Geno played the frosh alot and alot of combos. He didnt have to do that last season. SO the combo of KML 0-7 and alot of frosh playtime imo is why we didnt score over 90pts.

I see more 4-7 5-7 games then 0-7. Some of you are worried about Stanford. Im not. Yeah we could lose but I see us pressuring their guards and forcing the O sisters to shoot from 10 ft out. As of yesterday the O sisters were all Stanford had scoring. EIther get in foul trouble there isnt much depth.

This years version of UCOnn is young and inexperienced but very very talented. Outside of Griner there isnt a better scoring post player then Stef . Geno used alot of combos with Heather Stef and Kiah and MJ. Weve got height and that will cause problems for teams trying to go inside againest us. When Kia and BB get their confidence and are confortable and if Heather continues as she has the past couple of games UConn is going to be a force. Why Weve got alot of height and alot of guards and a post player that is very hard to stop. Stef will have games where she scores alot of points because UConn will continue to feed her until defenses can stop her.

I agree we could lose some games early but after Jan 31 we are going to be very tuff to beat.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

We do need to remember that 8 of these players are relatively new, freshmen and sophomores.

This is also the point I was making in the other thread when people thought UConn's preseason ranking of #6 was too low. Maya has to be replaced, and the bulk of the team is underclassmen. They take time to develop, and a preseason poll is where the team is before games start, as opposed to a poll as to how the players will develop.

 

[cardfan]

This is going to be an up and down year for UConn standards. We are going to score and we are going to be inconsistent until IMO Feb. We have team chemistry in spurts. We did score 77 pts and I thought we would be over 90. KML was 0-7. Thats part of it and I dont see that happening very often. The other reason is Geno played the frosh alot and alot of combos. He didnt have to do that last season. SO the combo of KML 0-7 and alot of frosh playtime imo is why we didnt score over 90pts.

I see more 4-7 5-7 games then 0-7. Some of you are worried about Stanford. Im not. Yeah we could lose but I see us pressuring their guards and forcing the O sisters to shoot from 10 ft out. As of yesterday the O sisters were all Stanford had scoring. EIther get in foul trouble there isnt much depth.

This years version of UCOnn is young and inexperienced but very very talented. Outside of Griner there isnt a better scoring post player then Stef . Geno used alot of combos with Heather Stef and Kiah and MJ. Weve got height and that will cause problems for teams trying to go inside againest us. When Kia and BB get their confidence and are confortable and if Heather continues as she has the past couple of games UConn is going to be a force. Why Weve got alot of height and alot of guards and a post player that is very hard to stop. Stef will have games where she scores alot of points because UConn will continue to feed her until defenses can stop her.

I agree we could lose some games early but after Jan 31 we are going to be very tuff to beat.

Both can hit 10 ft shot. See Nneka's game at UConn two years ago.

 

[VAMike23]

Just watched the archived game on Hoop Streams since I missed all but the last 7 mins in real time:

Our man-to-man defense against these first two teams is "OK" with our starting 4-guard lineup, but it will probably not be good enough to go toe to toe against the better teams. If/when teams run a high post offense or otherwise put their center out high, drawing Stef to the FT line (happened often with Holy Cross), we just don't have enough horsepower on the help side. Holy Cross was able to exploit this a number of times, and most of our competition is going to better than HC, although their ball-handling is pretty good. To my eye, rebounding was also "OK" but not strong with the 4-guard lineup (shocker) although Bria has a way of greasing herself to slip inside with regularity when she is in the game.

We were in zone only briefly, with Stef in the middle, Buck and KML at either side on the baseline, and Bria/Tiff out top. This was a pretty imposing defense that actually looked like it had some good things going for it. I would not be at all surprised to see this zone against Stanford for significant minutes--the three baseline players looked solid, and you could easily have different guard combos at the top of the zone. Rebounding was also better with a second 'big' in the game, even with the zone. This assumes that we can make our shots at the other end so we have time to set it up.....

I thought for much of the 1st half, our offensive ball movement showed very good flashes. As other posters noted, Geno was subbing a lot throughout the game, and this was a big part of why the flow wasn't always there. It was better than I thought it might be after reading the post-game threads. Now if we can just get a couple of KML's threes to fall.....

--Tiff doesn't fall, but she still commits silly fouls.
--Tiff is more judicious about when to drive and how far to take it.
--Bria didn't travel on the right wing but it was called; Stef traveled on the feed from BBanks but it wasn't called.
--Buck looked good in the 1st half, just as she did toward the end of the game when I saw her the other day.
--Stokes wasn't bad either; both she and Buck improved, I thought. Buck is still my first 'big' off the bench right now.
--Banks' handle was pretty wobbly in this game. Still needs some time to get her confidence and aggressive mindset, as most freshmen do.
--I agreed with both of the moving pick calls on Stef. She cannot afford even one of those in big games.
--It was great seeing Doty out there grabbing teammates' jerseys, commanding the huddle, and making 3's!

 

[ladybears4eva]

I think the radio announcers may have been carried away. HC was picked for 5th in the Patriot League in their recent coaches' poll, and they are a very young team.

very smart for actually looking it up, vs just taking some one's word for it. kudos.

 

[ladybears4eva]

There's a lot of new pieces as well, so it will take time to get this group playing together. The return of Doty will go a long way towards that. Offense always comes after defense with a team that hasn't played together. Pretty sure Geno and the staff works first and foremost on defense anyway.

i do think Doty is a gem, she is tough and smart, i just hope she stays healthy she seems so delicate to me because of all her injuries, but she's so tough minded its a mystery. I like her at the PG spot more so than hartley.

 

[semper]

Yeah, I read the story on ESPN and then the thread on the Yard, and it didn't seem it was the same game.

 

[justML]

I just enjoyed watching our team play again after what seemed like FOREVER that I didn't think to analyze.

That will come later

 

[Tonyc]

Both can hit 10 ft shot. See Nneka's game at UConn two years ago.

Thats what I mean I want to see the O sisters shooting from 10 ft out not 2 ft out.