PONs for G7

[diggerfoot]

We beat top fifteen teams by thirty points. We beat a top ten team by fifteen points. Does anyone else see where this is going?

The negative that gets me most is admittedly personal. When UConn started their rise to dominance there was a villain to hate, Stanford's coach VanDerveer, the one of "we have six Sales" and "Tennessee will beat them" after we demolished them in a Final Four game. Oh yeah, she dissed Lobo, too. Meanwhile Summitt was the coach that would play anyone and we really have a lot to thank in her role with bringing UConn to prominence.

Then Stanford did things like become the only #1 seed to lose to a #16 and acquired injuries at a greater rate than UConn. Vanderveer, perhaps a bit begrudgingly, started to mellow and give UConn and Auriemma our due. She eventually became hard to hate.

No matter, we had Ms. "dynasty" GG and "jewel of the east" Stringer to shift my ire towards. Their teams even beat us occasionally, making headlines when over a selected stretch of 4-8 games they could even maintain a .500 winning percentage. Ah yes, those were the days, but they eventually faded. GG left for Texas where we smacked her around over there. Stringer, well, I'm starting to feel a bit sorry for the old gal. I think her time has passed. My image of her is one of grandpa sitting in the corner and telling all his stories to no one in particular. Best to just let him (her) relive the glory days.

Just as those two faded into oblivion a new target for hate came into being, a former ally at that! Summitt did UConn the most wrong of any coach out there. I suppose I could go on hating her now, but two things mitigate that. She really did help us out in the beginning, along with all of women's basketball. Also, in looking back at the timing of things I easily can conclude that was not the real Summitt doing us wrong. I took care of my Mom who had Alzheimer's for five years. It's a terrible thing. I choose now to just give Summitt the respect she deserves.

Ah, but lurking in a background of ill will for many years has been Frese, the coach of negative recruiting fame. Lots of subplots feed into this ill will, from matador defense to Walz being the real genius behind Maryland's run. Then came last night's game.

First, Frese is willing to play us finally, which says something right there. She calls us the deepest team she's ever seen. Her team plays defense against us. And let's face it, Maryland has had enough sustained success that we just might need to credit the system Frese has put in place rather than attribute it to a former assistant coach. Then came the segment on her son with leukemia. Well, that did it right there. How can I possibly hate Frese now?

I tell you, I'm a rudderless ship right now. I can't hate McGraw, too much good will between her and Auriemma. I can't hate Mulkey, because she's never dissed UConn and one suspects after Griner leaves Baylor won't be a rival. I've got nothing left to hate. That's my biggest negative coming out of last night's game.

 

[meyers7]

That's your biggest negative? Wow. There were so many negatives last night, I thought you would post a book.

 

[Icebear]

Good thing there are no teams ranked 0.

 

[diggerfoot]

That's your biggest negative? Wow. There were so many negatives last night, I thought you would post a book.

The purpose of PONs is irony. Actually, the better the team does the easier the PONs become. Should the team really play badly I would have to switch to POPs instead, though in that case the purpose would not be irony.

 

[meyers7]

The purpose of PONs is irony.

Duh.

Actually, the better the team does the easier the PONs become. Should the team really play badly I would have to switch to POPs instead, though in that case the purpose would not be irony.

You shoulda switched after this game.

 

[bruinbball]

While Kelly had a good game last night, she could have done a little better and helped out her overall FG% a bit. Both her FG% and 3FG% dropped after last night. Maybe, one day she will put it all together......

 

[diggerfoot]

While Kelly had a good game last night, she could have done a little better and helped out her overall FG% a bit. Both her FG% and 3FG% dropped after last night. Maybe, one day she will put it all together......

You're going to cause me to hijack my own thread, but bringing up Faris reminds me of a thought I had while watching the game last night. When I can attend games I usually focus on what goes on in the post. There's a lot of action and entertainment going on there that people don't realize: shirts being held, shoving with forearms, even some well-placed smacks, all done in an attempt not to be seen by the officials. All the intense action is quite entertaining and, despite the invariable groans from the home crowd to the contrary, we always give as much as we get. I love it!

But then Ms. Faris comes along and it seems that wherever she is that's where all the action is as well. I've been converted from post-gazing to wing-gazing when she's in the game. Never a dull moment! That's a POP by the way, not a PON. Sorry.

Now that I'm on the topic my favorite Faris moment last night was an unspectacular one. She grabbed a rebound and three Maryland players were trying to strip her of it in a rather physical manner. They had no chance! Her look was almost like: "You can try to take this ball away, but I might have to kill you!"

 

[trisailin]

Along with your trendlines of winning margin vs ranking, I want to point out that Maryland scored 8 points more in the second half while we scored 3 less. Very good thing the game was only two halves, and not three. Of course, very few sports play their games in thirds, but that should not stop us from pointing out this terrible trend.

 

[ThisJustIn]

I don't want to pile on Kelly, but really, where was the effort? 7 assists, 7 rebounds, 8 points? Sheesh! A little more hustle and she'd have had a quadruple-double. How is she going to get this team some national attention (and raise her WNBA stock in the process) if she doesn't set clear, personal goals?

I can take some comfort in noting that Graham seemed to notice her -- but ESPN online? We want Sports Center!

Kelly Faris was at the center of the defensive efforts thwarting Maryland. If ever there was a player born to star in a game in which the points column seemed to matter less than rebounds, steals and stops, it is Faris The senior finished with eight points, seven rebounds, seven assists and eight steals, leading Auriemma to sarcastically note that there is a reason the Big East coaches who continually leave her off all-conference teams have the records they have, while his team, with Faris on the court as much as humanly possible, has the record it has during her time in uniform. She either scored or assisted on almost half of her team's field goals.

"She is just the life of our team, offensively and defensively," said Connecticut's Stefanie Dolson on a night when her team-high 14 points was not the most important line. "It's amazing how many steals she can get and how many turnovers she can force the other team to have. She doesn't talk a lot, but just watching her -- anyone who watches her play just knows how hard she works. She just really get us going."

 

[Icebear]

There needs to be a category for TOs caused. Kelly would lead in that category, too.

 

[Jim]

I don't want to pile on Kelly, but really, where was the effort? 7 assists, 7 rebounds, 8 points? Sheesh!

I was looking at the post-game notes (http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools...o_pdf/2012-13/release/release_20121205aaa.pdf) and I noticed in the UConn Combined Team Statistics that against ranked teams Ms. Faris had 18 assists and 2 turnovers and for all games had 33 assists and 7 turnovers. That means against cupcake teams she had only 15 assists and 5 turnovers. Clearly, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 9 to 1 against ranked teams and only 3 to 1 against cupcake teams, Ms. Faris appears to be unable to focus properly unless properly challenged. This has dire consequences for the first and second round games in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

 

[bruinbball]

I was looking at the post-game notes (http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools...o_pdf/2012-13/release/release_20121205aaa.pdf) and I noticed in the UConn Combined Team Statistics that against ranked teams Ms. Faris had 18 assists and 2 turnovers and for all games had 33 assists and 7 turnovers. That means against cupcake teams she had only 15 assists and 5 turnovers. Clearly, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 9 to 1 against ranked teams and only 3 to 1 against cupcake teams, Ms. Faris appears to be unable to focus properly unless properly challenged. This has dire consequences for the first and second round games in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

Hopefully they will limit her to five minutes a game so that they are not promoting such poor ball control versus lesser teams.