Post game thoughts...

[Gus Mahler]

Did she throw her jacket at post game conference?

I don't know. I thought she was getting close at one point in the game.

 

[Carnac]

I think she did.

She played very little in the second half. CD came in and gave them a spark and energy the team needed in the second half. There was no way Geno was taking her out of the game. She was aggressive, scoring and not turning the ball over.

She was on the floor at the end of the game. She was on the floor when UConn took control of the game for good. Read between the lines here. After tonight, Geno has got to feel he can trust her. He trusted and counted on her against the #2 team in the country, and she came through. Based on UConn's performance tonight, any questions?

 

[BigBird]

Did Saniya just lose her starting spot?

Not necessarily. Geno starts (or doesn't start) players for reasons beyond the obvious. He had wanted Saniya to attack more, but BU had a bunker defense in the paint, which made Chong's pet move - darting to the basket - somewhat less effective. And that's just one reason. Saniya will have other starts. She can play.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Did Saniya just lose her starting spot?

No. The way she played against Florida St......she will have a lot of rope.

 

[hoophuskee]

Well, here's a stunner. Guess how many rebounds Gabby had?
zero....

Wow- great mention of a stat that I wouldn't have even expected.

 

[bags27]

Kim didn't look good to me. Looked like she'd aged a lot.

Probably even more tonight.

This says it all about the 2 clubs:

• "Toughness," Mulkey said of the difference between the teams in the stretch drive. Just flat out toughness, taking balls away from posts when they threw it in there. A turnover here or there, just cuts for them on offense. Just toughness. That's all it was."
• "We are going to put up a fight every game," Samuelson said. "Nobody is going to be able to just take us out and think like, 'Oh, they're just going to lose this game.' We're going to be ready to fight every single game we go into and we know it's going to be difficult each game. But we also know that we want to be in this situation and we just showed that every single night we can have a different person step up and be a big key to our win."

No. 3 UConn women pull away from No. 2 Baylor, 72-61

 

[Ozzie Nelson]

Our Women...

 

[Gus Mahler]

Regarding the streak: We should be able to make it to 80 now (Chattanooga at the XL). I'd like to see that, so we can boast a 70, an 80, and a 90.

 

[Carnac]

Well gang, most of the questions we had over the summer have been answered. I'll still wait until the 5th game has been played before I draw any conclusions. ..

 

[noirwestern]

There is no longer a "core 4" is there? Now there's a core 7: the 5 starters, plus Crystal and Natalie. Each one of them has had her moment; each one could have a break out game. But Geno is also great about throwing the other 2 freshmen in at key times, given them experience under pressure as well. A truly organic team is forming here....

I'd like to see him play eight or nine on a regular rotation and avoid anymore of this, "look at what they lost" crap. I know ticket buyers come for the show which means winning the game they paid to see but seems like taking a longer view would insure more winning seasons to come?

 

[hoophuskee]

Couldn't be more proud of the team. Early in the year, losing the Holy Trinity after last season, BIG time new faces and contributions needed from everyone who could sit back at times last year and watch the seniors make magic... Did anyone expect an 11 point win? I predicted about a 6 point loss and am THRILLED to have been wrong.

The REAL Danger - Crystal Dangerfield - Just give her the keys to the Ferrari NOW? 21 points on 8-14 shooting to go along with 6 assists? And only in her 2nd game in a UCONN uniform. It's going to be VERY had not to expect spectacular things from this terrific young lady.

Forgettable first half for Gabby, but boy did she make up for it the 2nd half. Not sure if the light bulb suddenly came on, but committed no fouls in the 2nd half, and scored most of her 14 points during that frame.

We kind of got crushed on the glass (39-29), but how about Napheese grabbing 11 of them? Sort of an off scoring night at 6 points on 3-7 shooting, but hey, you can't score 25+ every game...

I thought Lou was really solid too. Not "superstar-esque),but she played within herself, and took good shots, making most of them. 16 points was a great effort.

Even thou Nurse didn't shoot well (3-12), most of her shots were good ones, and several rolled around and rimmed out. Oh, and 6 assists to match Crystal in that category.

Wanted to add a shout out to Nat - not a big scoring night but 6 boards, including 3 offensive - she showed toughness, and this might be one of the biggest and strongest teams in the nation. Nat showed she can be a big help, not just a body to throw in there. Not sure what to make of Saniya - thoughts?

Bottom line, a gutty, tough, hard fought win against a probable final 4 team. ANYONE who discounted this team should do so at their own risk. I wonder if the coaches are rethinking moving ND to the top spot after they only beat Green Bay by 4? Also, Lobo said "Baylor is going to be so much better in March". Um ok. How about a young and inexperienced UCONN team? I'd say we have some room to grow too.

I love Rebecca ! Not "love love" but she is just cool ot listen to.

With that said- her and kara crack me up and it looks like SueBird is in on it too.

Rebecca and Kara are soooooo into post play. Meg has a bit of that too. And Bird is so into guard play.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Two thoughts. Regarding Crystal Dangerfield: Not sure I've ever seen a young point guard move so well without the ball.

Regarding Nat: Great job of going toe to toe with the Baylor Bigs and not picking up wasteful fouls.

I thought Moriah was pretty good without the ball. You might not remember too well because we always felt pretty confident and comfortable when she did have the ball in her hand. I think Moriah can't be surpassed. She's the gold standard though I'm simply amped if Ms. Dangerfield is comparable to Moriah. It seems everyone has got to push a newer player as the best. It was Sue until she got bettered by Moriah until she got bettered by Crystal until she got bettered by ???????.

 

[Kibitzer]

Where's that guy who predicted an 0-4 start?

 

[UcMiami]

Because after reviewing it the refs weren't smart enough to call it incidental contact and play on.

Once they call a foul, they cannot un-call it on review. There are very limited things that can be changed on review and a foul call is not one of them. So since the foul was called and it was a dead ball situation it must be a T. Very unlucky for Baylor, but luckily the basket that preceded the call pretty well iced the game so it didn't change the result.

 

[UcMiami]

Kim didn't look good to me. Looked like she'd aged a lot.

I had started to wonder last year if she was having some health issue - I actually think she looked better today that the few times I saw her last year. Hope it is just the 'TV' effect or something.

 

[shinobimono]

Did Saniya just lose her starting spot?

Have we already forgotten Saniya's fine performance in the previous game? Fickle fans, are we not? Great performance by Crystal Dangerfield, but different players will rise to the occasion each game, some perhaps more often than others, but we shouldn't write off one player based on only one game. GO CRYSTAL, GO SANIYA, GO HUSKIES!

 

[willingtonfan]

That was fun. Not quite sure why the dead ball technical was called....

As to the deadball technical. On that play, as I recall, the first call by the official was ball out of bounds to UConn. Then, one of the referees called the others over and went to the video monitor. What had happened was that on the play, after the whistle had been blown with the initial call of out of bounds, the Baylor player elbowed our player in the neck, knocking her down. Since this occurred after the play had been blown dead, and after enough of an interval after the whistle had blown that the Baylor player ought to have known that, it is, by rule, a deadball technical foul, since it cannot be a common foul, having occurred at a time when the clock was stopped and the ball dead.

I think the interesting thing on that is that Geno did something few coaches do in such a situation. When there is a technical foul, the coach may designate any player (whether in the game or on the bench -- it is the one exception to the normal rule that any substitute has to remain in the game for one tick of the clock before leaving; a coach can take a player off the bench to shoot the free throws without inserting them into the game) to take the free throws. Since Dangerfield is a freshman he probably was afraid that the moment might make her a bit nervous, so designated Katie Lou to take them. I think a smart choice in the event.

 

[willingtonfan]

At the press conference, Geno was asked to compare Crystal to Mo. He gave a beautiful answer, to wit: Crystal is ahead of Mo after two games, but Crystal has a long, long way to go to catch up to where Mo ended up.

But considering the big game pressure, it really boggles the mind how well Crystal played. She'll have her down games, too, but her potential to take over a game is always there.

I watched the presser online, and Geno's comment after the comparison was also interesting. He said the thing about Moriah is that when we were recruiting her and she was a freshman, he would ask the assistant coaches, "So what can she do?" and they would say, "Well, she's fast." He would then ask, "And what else?" And they would say "She's very fast." And he would then ask, "Anything else?" And they would say, "Well, she's really quick." His way of saying that she came in with her speed being her trademark, and had still to work on what to do with it.

I think that is why a lot of us are thinking, and not unreasonably, that Crystal at game two is better than Moriah was at game two. After this performance, I would have absolutely NO hesitation "handing her the keys" in a big game. She has clearly shown she can handle it without driving the car into a ditch, if folks will pardon my extension of the metaphor.

 

[willingtonfan]

Can UConn take another transfer this year?

As far as I am aware -- we do not currently have a roster of fifteen, which is the NCAA limit. Of course, any such transfer would have to sit out one calendar year after doing so per NCAA rules. The problem with transferring mid-year is that means that your eligibility ends in midseason. If a player transfers after their second year at a school, for instance, they have to sit out a year, but then have two years of eligibility at their new school. If a player transfers midseason, first off, it has to be between semesters; then, if, for example, a player transferred after their freshman year and one semester of their second, they would sit out a year, then be able to play two full seasons plus only the fall semester of a third. So you would have a player that you could only play through the middle of December, and then they would be out of eligibility, which would make the rest of that season rather odd.

 

[willingtonfan]

I love Rebecca ! Not "love love" but she is just cool ot listen to.

With that said- her and kara crack me up and it looks like SueBird is in on it too.

Rebecca and Kara are soooooo into post play. Meg has a bit of that too. And Bird is so into guard play.

Speaking of Sue Bird, not sure if anyone heard -- she was on the WTIC afternoon sports show yesterday afternoon, before the game. She was quite funny. Told several interesting stories about playing basketball overseas.

Here are my two favorites:

1. Andy Gresh asks her, so how does it happen you end up playing in Russia? Does some guy named Boris call and say, "Hello, Sue Bird, I want you to come play for my women's basketball team in Russia. Are you interested?" (Said with a nice fake Russian accent.) And Sue replies, "Well, sort of. It so happens my agent's name over there IS Boris, and he calls me up and tells me what teams are interested." She says all this without laughing which I find amazing -- of all the Russian names, Gresh just happens to hit on the one that matched Sue's agent's name.

2. Gresh asks her to tell her favorite story of playing in Russia. Sue says it was in her first game. She knows no Russian and her coach no English. Their team is down a point with twenty seconds to play. Coach calls timeout, draws up a play. Sue says, "Now of course, I have NO idea what this play is, and here I am the point guard who's supposed to run it." Thankfully there was a player on the team from France who understood Russian and spoke English, so she comes and tells Sue what the drawn-up play was. Sue ran the drawn play, and they won the game. I just find it hilarious that it seemed not to occur to the coach that SOMEBODY ought to clue in the POINT GUARD as to the desired play!

The Bird is quite funny!

 

[cbraarj]

As far as I am aware -- we do not currently have a roster of fifteen, which is the NCAA limit. Of course, any such transfer would have to sit out one calendar year after doing so per NCAA rules. The problem with transferring mid-year is that means that your eligibility ends in midseason. If a player transfers after their second year at a school, for instance, they have to sit out a year, but then have two years of eligibility at their new school. If a player transfers midseason, first off, it has to be between semesters; then, if, for example, a player transferred after their freshman year and one semester of their second, they would sit out a year, then be able to play two full seasons plus only the fall semester of a third. So you would have a player that you could only play through the middle of December, and then they would be out of eligibility, which would make the rest of that season rather odd.

If a player transferred at the end of this semester they would be eligible to play after next December when this semester is over then have two full years from the end of the semester that would be considered one year

 

[Geew1992]

As to the deadball technical. On that play, as I recall, the first call by the official was ball out of bounds to UConn. Then, one of the referees called the others over and went to the video monitor. What had happened was that on the play, after the whistle had been blown with the initial call of out of bounds, the Baylor player elbowed our player in the neck, knocking her down. Since this occurred after the play had been blown dead, and after enough of an interval after the whistle had blown that the Baylor player ought to have known that, it is, by rule, a deadball technical foul, since it cannot be a common foul, having occurred at a time when the clock was stopped and the ball dead.

I think the interesting thing on that is that Geno did something few coaches do in such a situation. When there is a technical foul, the coach may designate any player (whether in the game or on the bench -- it is the one exception to the normal rule that any substitute has to remain in the game for one tick of the clock before leaving; a coach can take a player off the bench to shoot the free throws without inserting them into the game) to take the free throws. Since Dangerfield is a freshman he probably was afraid that the moment might make her a bit nervous, so designated Katie Lou to take them. I think a smart choice in the event.

Uconn had just scored on the play so it couldn't have been out of bounds to uconn

 

[Sonny44]

At the press conference, Geno was asked to compare Crystal to Mo. He gave a beautiful answer, to wit: Crystal is ahead of Mo after two games, but Crystal has a long, long way to go to catch up to where Mo ended up.

But considering the big game pressure, it really boggles the mind how well Crystal played. She'll have her down games, too, but her potential to take over a game is always there.

I wouldn't be quite so conservative bags. She made a bunch of big time plays and shots against a highly touted team in her second game here. She came in and ran the show. What other UCONN great did that?
I don't think we would have won the game without her last night.

 

[Florida Fan]

Hate to write off Saniya, but how to harness that speed? She seems to be pressing, her status up for grabs, so she shoots quickly, great if it goes in, but she needs patience, to draw the defender and hit the open teammate. The word will be out on Crystal, she'll see double teams or a chaser and we'll need everybody playing together on both ends of the court. Maybe not a surprise to the insiders, but I was worried we had nobody to break down defenses and score with swagger. Dangerfield played under control and took what they gave her, freshman in name only. Two games in but the surprises keep coming.

 

[Sonny44]

Guessing no. Geno is famously loyal to his seniors and Crystal is a heck of a spark off the bench. He also does not make personnel decisions based on one game.

He's also loyal to winning.

 

[Sonny44]

I don't know. I thought she was getting close at one point in the game.

I was really disappointed with Kim. I really enjoy her antics.

 

[phil sampieri]

Ya know what's amazing? If you bet on UConn tonight, you would have lost! (favored by 13 right?) Funny, doesn't seem so bad to lose, huh?

Would have won. Line went from 13.5 to 7 then to 5.5 Must have had some action on Baylor

 

[HoopsFan21]

I was really disappointed with Kim. I really enjoy her antics.

She was warned in the first half. Anymore antics would have resulted in a T, and by now she must realize how that can cost her team in a close game that might ultimately be decided by a couple of FTs.

 

[JSB60]

Guessing no. Geno is famously loyal to his seniors and Crystal is a heck of a spark off the bench. He also does not make personnel decisions based on one game.

I thought he did after the last loss at Stanford. I think it's a tough call right now and wouldn't be surprised if even Geno is still making up his mind.

 

[Siestakeyfan]

UConn is number one until somebody beats them.

What a LEAP 5 11 vs 6 7 center Gabby 5 11 wins !!