Post Game Article at the Courant

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UConn women dominate Vanguard 96-30 in preseason opener

Quotes

“Every exhibition game is the same,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “You’re going to play a team you’re going to beat by a lot so you can’t go by the final score, so you try to go by ‘How did it look? What was the feel of it?’ and those first five, six, seven minutes — considering it was the first time out — a lot of good stuff was happening.”

"Of course there’s some things I need to work on, but overall I think I did a pretty good job,” Williams said of her first game in a Husky uniform.


Auriemma said Walker and Williams played at around the same level they’ve been practicing at and did what the team needed them to do throughout the game. He’s expecting the pair to contribute more as the season goes on.


“I’ve been saying it for two years now, or however long I’ve been saying it, that we’ve got a gap between a certain group that we play and the next group,” Auriemma said. “It’s too early in the season to make any assumptions, but anyone coming off the bench has to feel like they can contribute something because we’re going to need them at some point.”


“I think I’m just trying to do more stuff this year,” Samuelson said. “We lost a really big rebounder for us, and I’ve been trying to do it more in practice and just be more of an all-around player for this team.”

 

[eebmg]

Pretty Bizarre to me that no one is commenting on the previous article. Let's try another one


Takeaways: UConn Women’s Basketball vs. Vanguard (Exhibition)


Re: CW

After those first two points I was pretty comfortable,” Williams said. “There’s some things I still need to work on but overall I think I did a pretty good job.”

She finished with 10 points, five rebounds and one assist. With a higher confidence level and more poise than most freshmen, Williams can make an impact on a game anytime she touches the ball and Auriemma makes sure to keep reminding her of that.

“She’s good at a lot of things,” he said. “Whenever she catches the ball I want her to do something. I don’t know what or how, but I know she’s going to do something with it.”

Re: ONO

While her classmate stole the show, Olivia Nelson-Ododa also had a positive outing. She grabbed 11 rebounds — second-most on the team — including seven on the offensive glass — and two blocks.

At the same time, Nelson-Ododa clearly has room to grow. Despite a decent height advantage, she didn’t get many good looks at the basket and seemed to struggle with her positioning down low. She got to the free throw line four times but hit just one of those attempts.

“She was active. She’s going to get a lot better,” Auriemma said. “She better get a lot better fast because we’re going to need her sooner rather than later. She has a lot to offer.”

Bench Disappoints

Beyond those five, it was a different story for the Huskies. Auriemma played his entire roster and gave the reserves plenty of minutes, but they had little to show for it. The bench played the majority of the fourth quarter and were outscored by Vanguard 15-9. Their performance came as little surprise to Auriemma.

“I’ve been saying it for two years now,” he said. “We have a big gap between the group we play and the next group.”

However, the Huskies will need something from the bench this season. They can’t rely on five players to play 40 minutes every game and stay healthy the entire season. That’s just not realistic. Instead, Auriemma is keeping his expectations down and just wants his bench players to find roles for themselves.

“Anyone coming off the bench has to feel they can contribute something because we’re going to need them at some point,” he said.

 

[Pound fan]

100% spot on!! The 2nd string was painful to watch, they looked a bunch of inexperienced freshmen out there. They left plenty of room for improvement that's for sure. Lol

 

[southofnorth]

I’m hoping this isn’t a 3rd straight year of poor bench production. Realistically they need 3 players to play significant minutes to allow adequate rest for the starters during games (specifically in games that aren’t blowouts).

 

[Huskee11]

When five bench players are out there together, not good. But in big games it will be one or at most two bench players on the floor at any given time. So, the key is to figure out who can mesh best with the starters on the floor for 3-4 minute intervals.

They don't need to score. They do need to be able to handle the ball and defend. ONO and Coombs seem to me to be capable in that regard, certainly by March if not now. Irwin and Camara are also possibilities. All of them played stretches with the starters in the first half and generally did ok.

Interesting that when Coombs came in for Crystal, CW ran the point. Obvious that ONO needs to hit the weight room but she is very tall, very long, and will be very good. And CW is as advertised, the real deal.

 

[MilfordHusky]

As much as I wanted to see Christyn and Olivia, along with the improved Megan, this may be the most important news of the day:

"On a separate note, it was a big recruiting weekend for UConn. They had four recruits at the game. From the 2019 class, Haley Jones (Ranked No. 1) and Aliyah Boston (No. 3) were there for official visits. Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, the top players in the class of 2020 and 2021, respectively, were both in attendance as well."

If Geno can get all 4 of them, we will be strong contenders and maybe favorites through 2025.

 

[hoopsfan22]

With the four recruits it got me thinking Geno wants to put together one last super team before riding off into the sunset.

 

[meyers7]

"assist-heavy offense "

That was one of the really good takes from this game. 23 assists on 39 baskets. Nice for a preseason, 1st game of the year effort.

 

[HopJim]

As much as I wanted to see Christyn and Olivia, along with the improved Megan, this may be the most important news of the day:

"On a separate note, it was a big recruiting weekend for UConn. They had four recruits at the game. From the 2019 class, Haley Jones (Ranked No. 1) and Aliyah Boston (No. 3) were there for official visits. Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, the top players in the class of 2020 and 2021, respectively, were both in attendance as well."

If Geno can get all 4 of them, we will be strong contenders and maybe favorites through 2025.

Lets get 1-2 first before we start looking at National Championships!