'lesser' teams have extra incentive vs. the huskies. knocking the 'legendary' uconn off would be the highlight of their season -- even their multiple seasons.
Gotta laugh at you. How'd those 20 minutes a piece for the bench work out for you?
keys to a uconn win will be:
In this day and age anything is possible. Let's roll out the ball and see what happens.
The only positive in it is as long as the Ref’s are letting bumping and ticky tack fouls go equally against both teams it helps UConn keep their 5 ready for prime time players on the court. When one has to sit they are significantly diminished offensively and defensively.
Perhaps getting her involved in the team's actives, familiarizing her with the pre-game routine? She missed the summer and fall semester, so everything that was taught to the freshmen between then and now is significant. Whether it be how they jog onto the court, what warmup routines they use, etc, etc, it's probably like drinking from a fire hose for Jana. I like that she was dressed in a uni, as it shows her bonding with the team.
I strongly suspect that one of the issues with the development of UConn’s 3 bench players has to do with practice. UConn has always taken pride in conducting extremely demanding practices, and that’s when young players can really develop their skills and gain confidence.
Most years, Patterson as a freshman wouldn't be even playing. She lost sight of a player last night, but it happens. I can see her patience developing on the offensive end. She's fine to me...folks just want more because we need bodies. Amari, despite the fouls isn't a lost cause, but that's a thread to itself.
They are playing like a very tired team right now. The bench doesn't need to score to be an important part of the game. Right now their role is to give the starters just a little break. Nika is the engine that makes this team go and I think the level of play against SC will be much better and I would expect UCONN to play them close. The players they do have will have to play good, limit the TOs and the fouls but their five are as good as anyone in the country.Some thoughts on the Providence game:
- Something about the bus ride from Storrs to Providence the past two seasons hasn’t agreed with UConn. It was ugly, but a win is a win is a win!!!
- Nika had a season low 3 assists vs Nova on Sunday. Different story today as Nika added 9 assists to her NCAA leading total. In addition, I like that Nika was looking for her shot more tonight as she added 14 pts on 6/9 shooting.
- Dorka has this unique “scissors kick” shooting style. Like many jump shooters, her shooting foot (right foot) is forward. But when she’s up in the air, she scissors her legs closed and then scissors them open again as she lands, kind of like a ski jumper doing a telemark landing. I don’t know if she does it for balance or it’s just an odd shooting quirk, but her shots keep falling and that’s all that really matters. Her double-double tonight was a big key to the game for UConn.
- Any contribution from the bench is a welcome one for UConn, and the Huskies did get minutes tonight from Ayanna, Amari & Ines. But they really need more meaningful contributions at this point in the season.
- What are the odds that UConn would shoot 43% from the arc with Lou going 1-5?
- The refs allowed a lot of banging and bumping tonight. It was even on both sides but it certainly didn't help the Huskies.
- With the win today, UConn successfully navigated the gauntlet of 5 games in 12 days. Next up is the toughest test of the season vs SC on Sunday. On paper the shorthanded Huskies are no match for the Gamecocks. But games are not played on paper. Go Huskies!!!
If they have 4 starters on the floor and one reserve at a time they should be fine. No one expects the reserves to come in and take over the game, they barely play. Rest at this point for the starters is as important as their contributions on offense.
Are you using stats to determine how well or how badly a team plays? Did you watch the game? Providence shot poorly but their defense was well-coached and well-executed. Providence’s key problem is that they can in no way match UConn’s talent. Their best player would probably come off the bench as the 8th player for the Huskies.
I noticed that too. I was thinking maybe she goes through warm-ups????
I wanted Geno to pull Aaliyah and put Ayanna in for the 4th quarter. At least Ayanna was playing hard. A Providence player drove to the hoop and Aaliyah didn’t even put her hands up, just stood and watched. It happened a couple of times. Ayanna might have fouled but at least she’d try, and maybe she’d learn something
27 minutes of court time from the bench and one point. What a crew. I say; start them all against South Carolina. And have a rule: no one can come out until they have scored 7 points minimum.
This might just be the most tone deaf post I've ever seen on the BY
I would attribute Ayanna's challenges compared to highschool as learning the UConn way of doing things. I'm sure she maybe learned remedial skills but now CD and Jamelle are probably breaking down her techniques and building them back again. She'll be fine next year. Ayanna is like a lot of super athletes. They first get by with the athleticism and youth coaches are just excited to win and they didn't focus on the details of the technique. Well CD isn't that kind of coach so she is probably relearning the fundamentals.Obviously she made a bad choice and is under a coaching staff with no clue on how to develop players.
Depleted I will give you but dispirited I have to beg to differ. This team has never shown to be dispirited. They support each other all game every game.
Really nice summary not only of the game but also of the current status of the team. You could see exhaustion in Aaliyah's eyes, even under the mask, and Lou's poor shooting stats (5-26) in the last 2 games are simply due to fatigue and some outright muscling which is transforming women's basketball for the worse with each passing day. On the other hand, the energy and will of our PG is just remarkable and both Dorka and Aubrey have been having very good games and also carrying us. As Geno has repeatedly said, we need all 5 of our starters to have solid games. When they don't every game is in jeopardy. Our bench is simply not helpful except to give short breathers and they actually have hurt us at times. It's disappointing but a reality.Some thoughts on the Providence game:
- Something about the bus ride from Storrs to Providence the past two seasons hasn’t agreed with UConn. It was ugly, but a win is a win is a win!!!
- Nika had a season low 3 assists vs Nova on Sunday. Different story today as Nika added 9 assists to her NCAA leading total. In addition, I like that Nika was looking for her shot more tonight as she added 14 pts on 6/9 shooting.
- Dorka has this unique “scissors kick” shooting style. Like many jump shooters, her shooting foot (right foot) is forward. But when she’s up in the air, she scissors her legs closed and then scissors them open again as she lands, kind of like a ski jumper doing a telemark landing. I don’t know if she does it for balance or it’s just an odd shooting quirk, but her shots keep falling and that’s all that really matters. Her double-double tonight was a big key to the game for UConn.
- Any contribution from the bench is a welcome one for UConn, and the Huskies did get minutes tonight from Ayanna, Amari & Ines. But they really need more meaningful contributions at this point in the season.
- What are the odds that UConn would shoot 43% from the arc with Lou going 1-5?
- The refs allowed a lot of banging and bumping tonight. It was even on both sides but it certainly didn't help the Huskies.
- With the win today, UConn successfully navigated the gauntlet of 5 games in 12 days. Next up is the toughest test of the season vs SC on Sunday. On paper the shorthanded Huskies are no match for the Gamecocks. But games are not played on paper. Go Huskies!!!
I would love to see Amari posting up more. She has shown moves when she's down low. Don't really understand why she spends most of the time at the top of the key, setting meaningless picks. She doesn't have much of an idea what to do out there. Almost like Geno is trying to groom another Dolson , but doesn't appear to be a Dolson type player.. Wonder where she spent most of the time in High School. Just looks to me like she's being put in a spot where she will fail. Tell her to get down low, and tell players to get her the ball. Of course, only in blowouts for the moment.
There was another one, the Georgetown game.
