Post game thread (merged thread)

[dtbtbtb]

One of the questions entering this season was, how does Paige get better after her phenomenal first season...well, she is clearly stronger and now finishes with contact!

 

[Huskee11]

I was there. It was a good sized and enthusiastic crowd. Nice to be back, it has been too long.

Hard to know what to make of it. I give them a B minus. Lots of room for improvement. It looked like a blowout early but it ended up being a game where we couldn`t shake them. I never felt the outcome was in doubt, but I was disappointed we didn`t stomp on them. It looked like we were headed that way at the beginning of the third quarter, but it didn`t happen.

The scoreboard over midcourt doesn`t regularly give the stat lines for the players on the floor like it used to. Advertising more important, I guess. When I looked up with a couple of minutes left, I saw that Paige had 34 and I was shocked. All in the flow. Magnificient, although I am sure Geno lit a fire under her after the first quarter.

Maybe it was just the style that Arkansas plays, but the middle seemed open at both ends and perhaps moving the three point line back is responsible in part. If so, I like it.

Arkansas is a good offensive team. Goforth is a player. Spencer is very quick and Ramirez is savvy. Wolfenbarger didn`t show much.

They seemed to have Goforth, who seems taller than 6'1", and Wolfenbarger on Azzi most of the time to limit her ability to launch threes.

The referees were abysmal. They were calling touch fouls even when there was no touch and missing some obvious calls. I hope that this is not a prelude of what we are going to see on a regular basis. The players were getting frustrated.

The old vets, Williams and Westbrook, came through although Christyn obviously needs to shoot better from the line. I thought Westbrook in particular played very well.

Dorka seemed to be in a hurry.

Lots to clean up, especially free throws, limiting dribble penetration, avoiding fouls, and rebounding. I wish we had a game on Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

[Aluminny69]

So, after 5 minutes the score was 17-2. So, for the final 35 minutes, Arkansas played UConn even, despite 34 points from Beckers.

 

[my2cents]

We always seem to look not as good against physical teams. Stanford , who supposedly has the best offense, has 35 points late in the 3rd quarter against a physical Texas team. It happens. Our bigs got in foul trouble and basically stopped challenging the Arkansas penetration.
Paige could score 40+ a game if she wanted.

 

[oldude]

We always seem to look not as good against physical teams. Stanford , who supposedly has the best offense, has 35 points late in the 3rd quarter against a physical Texas team. It happens. Our bigs got in foul trouble and basically stopped challenging the Arkansas penetration.
Paige could score 40+ a game if she wanted.

Vic Schaefer may be the best coach in college basketball at designing and implementing a defensive scheme to shut down a high-powered offense. He did it against UConn in 2017. He did it last year against MD, and he's doing it again today against Stanford.

 

[Blacketh’D]

I agree that the future is uncertain. I was responding to a post that declared "We lose to SC next week. No question about it." Surely you agree with me that outcome is clearly not preordained.

yea you are absolutely right. I guess the way it was worded to me you wanted to say "crap happens" but them also use the previous year as a reason that the outcome should be different.

 

[HuskyNan]

Offense wasnt great either (except for Paige), but the defense was an embarrassment.

Yet, the Huskies scored 95 points. What the heck to people want?

 

[AmeriConn]

We need Nika The Gnat back on defense!

 

[pk1234]

As expected for a game where only 2 of the 9 rotation players have played a game at XL in front of fans, a lot of good things and a lot of bad.

Arkansas is a good team, I think they should be ranked and will be for most of the season. Ramirez is a proven scorer and Goforth is really good, she could get minutes on just about any team in the country.

Paige is the best player in the country. Nobody else can make 34 look that easy. That said, eventually she's going to start seeing doubles and triples more often, other players need to step up.

Christyn and Evina played well, both have settled into roles, CW as the #2 scoring option and Evina as a jack of all trades, master of none steady contributor. They'll need to stay composed and stay on the floor against the elite teams.

Aaliyah needs to stay on the floor and she can be an All-American. She's the best of our bigs right now, and I'm not even sure it's close.

Azzi was disappointing but we had the freshman bar set so high after PB last year. She looked lost on defense a few times and only 1-4 from deep. Ideally she takes her game to another level where she can push CW and EW for backcourt minutes.

Dorka looked a bit overmatched too on both ends. Again, 1st home game in 2 years can maybe give benefit of the doubt. But she's going to need to be better than that.

ONO is ONO, she's been here too long for the dumb fouls and turnovers. But she as always had some glimpses of greatness on both ends. It's frustrating.

Ducharme was a non-factor today but again, hope it's just deer in the headlights in first home game. She looks the part of a legit player.

Nika looked a bit lost in her role. I'm was a fan of hers last year but if she can't be trusted to make shots, hard to see her being more than a role player.

 

[Aluminny69]

Yet, the Huskies scored 95 points. What the heck to people want?

Or 61 points, sans Paige. On 22 of 46 shooting (47%)

 

[HuskyNan]

My thoughts -
1. First game of the season. Does Geno schedule some cupcake for an easy win? No, he scheduled a pretty good team, one that’s been living in the players’ heads for a year. And UConn won by 15 points, something most teams would consider a darned good margin of victory.
3. This is still a young team and there were times today everyone on the court was a freshman or sophomore. Talented kids, but really young nevertheless. Azzi admits to being nervous, I’m sure others were as well.
2. Geno was tinkering with the lineups - a lot. It seemed like Christyn was going to single-handedly win the game then Geno took her out for a freshman. Then another freshman came in and the offense went right down the tubes. I think Geno would have left them in if the defense didn’t go down the tubes with the O. But there is no way the Huskies could get into any kind of a groove with the lineup changes.
4. People aren’t giving Arkansas enough credit. Neighbors is a good coach and his team played really well. Kudos to them.
5. I think I can count on one hand the number of seasons the offense hasn’t progressed faster than the defense. It’s a yearly refrain from Geno.

 

[HuskyNan]

Or 61 points, sans Paige. On 22 of 46 shooting (47%)

I could be wrong but I think she’s on the team so her points count. And 47% is pretty good.

 

[rt bb fan]

A win is a win. Arkansas is not an easy team to play. Kudos to them for fighting the entire game.

Paige was Paige. What did people expect? Despite the cries from the fandom, she's going to be playing minutes just like last season.

Good games by E and Christyn.

The rest, not so much. Aaliyah limited by fouls - a couple of real bad calls on her. Olivia - decent game but some on this board will never be satisfied with her play. Dorka - eh. Less impressive than Liv. Azzi - unimpressive. Caroline - eh. Nika - eh.

Defense - much work to do. Rebounding - much work to do. FT - 64% is unacceptable.

A lot of work to do.

Last year our free throw per centage was in the high 60's. We were not a good free throw team. From the ft hays game we looked bad on free throws.Unless Geno gets gets on them I don't see us being any better then last year.

 

[pk1234]

And for what it's worth re: Fudd and Ducharme looking a bit overwhelmed, Jersey Wolfenbarger, who also was a Top 10 recruit, and is likely going to be a really, really good All-SEC caliber player at Arkansas, looked pretty lost today too. There's a clear learning curve that Paige made us all forget about.

 

[oldude]

Spoiler alert: TX 61 Stanford 56 at Stanford today.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

Last year there were many occasions when we came out flat in the 3rd quarter. That didn't
happen today. We won every quarter (albeit narrowly) today.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

Spoiler alert: TX 61 Stanford 56 at Stanford today.

No more Big 12 cakewalk for Baylor!

 

[hoophuskee]

It’s only first game. No big deal with of the stuff stated below other than 1 thing. OMG Paige!!!!! . For me – just amazed at her play. Too bad UCONN needed her to play the 40. Just want to re-iterate this game no big deal 1st game of season.

1—Dorka. If we over-evaluate the 1 exhibition game like what was done last week and apply the same to this week then the good news is that she’ll be back next year. Saw a player not near as good defensively vs Liv as some suggested last week. And her outside shooting looked just as atrocious as her f/t shooting. No way right now she starts over Liv.

2—Liv. Still the same but better. But still essentially the same in that she has such poor basketball instincts. We can win with her but whew, at least so far, she is much more of a great athlete than a basketball player. Man, would I love to see her have a jump hook on the right-side of the baseline.

3--- Edwards. Our best 4/5 post player. 4—Nika- Terrible today but no big deal.

5--- CWill and Evina. To me they are very nervous players unless if the game is a blowout. Think of beautiful Evina’s shot was and she didn’t seem to hunt for more. And she doesn’t take the ball to the hoop much with an intent to score either. As for CWill the only thing you can rely for her to score on is a layup. If she doesn’t get it, then what? Granted it’s hard to stop her from getting some. But her shot still remains an enigma other than layups. Even f’/throw line-- it’s not good. But they are a very nice offset to one another.

6—This leads me to Azzi. IMO key player for the season. Her defense was atrocious. I expect this will be fixed to a degree. IMO offensively she’ll take major, major pressure off of everyone if UCONN can get her looks like they did today in the 3rd quarter. UCONN needs to get her open/ she needs to work to get open, and ofc she needs to hit quite a few 3’s. That’s exactly what Geno said a few weeks ago about her and team need to get her open. That's why he's the boss!!!!!



A lot to look forward to.

 

[Littlemin]

We need Nika The Gnat back on defense!

I would think that was exactly why she played most of the 4th quarter. While she didn’t do anything remotely spectacular, she kept the ball in front of her on defense and kept the ball moving on offense.

 

[ABCDFE]

Excited to finally start the season! Mixed bag today

• Paige - remarkable. Makes the game look so easy and she’s just head and shoulders better than anyone right now. What else can I see. It’s almost like I want her shooting every time. Best player defensively and sneaky good defense. Could make argument she played the best defense of any of the guards today.
• CWill - I thought she played decently with her aggressive driving, disappeared a little again in different points in the game and didn’t see as ferocious on D as late last season. Needs badly to improve her free throws.
• Evina - I thought she played well first half. Second half I thought she wasn’t as aggressive and seemed t lose focus on defense on several occasions, maybe she was a bit tired. Some of the players looked fatigue so not sure if there was something else going on.
• Liv - was aggressive from the beginning, and you could tell they were trying to feed her. Unfortunately she doesn’t play smart on the offensive end or the defensive end. Looking at how Dorka played today we really need Liv to at least hold down the fort defensively and on the rebounding side. Hoping she can do better going forward…big sigh of hope.
• AE - thought she played ok. Was physical but also had trouble keeping people in front of her. Foul trouble limited her effectiveness, but I really think she will be fine
• Dorka- didn’t think she played that great. Maybe she was nervous but wasn’t the force I thought she would be. Hoping for more the next game.
• Azzi - you can see the potential. She’s much quicker than I thought and that shot is going to fall when she starts getting more time and rhythm with her teammates. She just needs to be a bit better keeping her man in front of her. Like page last year I think she will improve a lot on the defensive end.
• Caroline - in her limited minutes I didn’t see much. Traveled on an offensive set that I recall but nothing stuck out. I expect her to also improve dramatically as the season progresses
• Nika - didn’t see her comfortable. Bad misses on her shot kind of like beginning of last year
• Note: we really missed Aubrey today. Her defense alone would’ve been a huge help at least contain the dribble drive, especially on a player like Ramirez. Need her back ASAP.
• Sorry that we couldn’t see other players play since the game was within 8-14 points throughout the second half.

 

[Waquoit]

Its probably too soon to panic.

Ya think? I thought it was cool that when Dorka came in for the first time, Ono stayed in.

 

[uconnever]

No more Big 12 cakewalk for Baylor!

Texas starting next year will take over that conference. With Mulkey gone, I expect Baylor to fade.

 

[Zanzman]

Or 61 points, sans Paige. On 22 of 46 shooting (47%)

 

[Aluminny69]

I could be wrong but I think she’s on the team so her points count. And 47% is pretty good.

The comment was the offense other than Paige.

Specifically
BostonBay said:


Offense wasnt great either (except for Paige)