Providence Postgame Thread

[oldude]

Some thoughts on the Providence game;

• It’s always good for a team to get back on the court in order to flush a loss out of its system. UConn did that this afternoon vs Providence before a sellout holiday crowd at XL.
• Jana gets her 1st start, which is both a message and a challenge to Ice and Jana. Geno started the lineup today with the hope and expectation that this unit can jell together to carry this team to the promised land. I had high hopes after Jana posted up and scored on UConn’s 2nd possession, but clearly this is going to be a work in progress….
• As many of us predicted based on the 2nd half success vs USC, UConn rolled out a full court, man-to-man, trapping press, 3 minutes into the 1st qtr (I’m patting myself on the back ). Against an experienced team, UConn forced 31 turnovers with 17 steals. Here is another prediction. UConn will employ some form of pressure defense in every game for the rest of the season, particularly once Aubrey is back in the lineup.
• Great to see Azzi back and draining a couple of 3’s. She is nowhere near her top form yet. But it will come.
• Paige is a complete basketball player to be sure. But I must say, she is absolutely at her most effective from midrange. One or two quick dribbles off a high screen, pull up, elevate, bury the J. It’s truly a thing of beauty.
• I thought the Huskies had gotten over the “Ugly 3rd Qtr disease” that had been plaguing them earlier in the season. But apparently not....
• I really like Kaitlyn, but if KK can ever find her shot, I think she starts for UConn.
• Somewhat ugly win that I will chalk up to the post-Christmas funk the Huskies seem to catch just about every season.
• Bring on the Golden Eagles on New Years Day!!!

 

[hoopsfan22]

Player of the Game: Paige Bueckers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[victor64]

Coming off a loss and some time off, Providence had no chance against a fresh and motivated Husky team.

The offense went through some stagnant periods. Azzi and Ash having an off day shooting and Sarah being in foul trouble didn’t help. Some can be attributed to Providence being really aggressive defensively.

Is full court pressure going to be a regular part of UConn’s defense? I love the idea of taking advantage of the depth Geno has in the backcourt. In the past, he often shied away from using it much in big games mainly because of a short bench. He has the kids now. Imagine what Aubrey will do in a full court press defense.

KK has the same hesitation issues as Nika went through. Meghan correctly pointed out that KK passed up two wide open looks early. She needs to use the Big East schedule to get through it.

Morgan and four other guards finished the last two minutes of the first half. The ultimate scramble defense. Doubt we see it much the rest of the season but it was fun watching them today.

Everyone loves how Sarah never seems rushed or flustered. Allie is the same way. When she figures out the defensive end, the minutes will increase.

I guess the only negative other they didn’t shoot that well was Jana and Ice didn’t do much in their limited time.

 

[jcoton56]

Not a work of art for sure, but the outcome was never in doubt.

 

[msf22b]

I'm looking forward to the +/- on this one

After seeing it: Not very informative

 

[Kaizen]

67-41 with Paige 23, Sarah 14 and everyone played, a good game.

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[Urshurak]

Ugly game. Straight up.

Post play - donuts again. Ice and Jana are completely ineffective. Going to cost this team down the road.

Not sure how to fix this offense. 20 points in an entire half against a terrible Providence team is sad.

Q had some good minutes. Paige looked great in the first half. Azzi looked good too.

 

[HuskieDawg]

Always good to get a win and the 1st quarter might have been one of the best they have played all year.

Paige came out swinging and we need more of that, a lot more of that especially against better teams.

I don’t think the way we played today would have been good enough to beat ND or USC. I saw a lot of things that have been consistent with the season as a whole, scoring drought, offense not generating easy shots, very strong defense but not always leading to easy baskets etc…the “want to” is there but the execution is lagging a bit still.

The non competitive post minutes we are getting continues to be frustrating for me to watch, but there is time to get it corrected.

Was good to get everyone some minutes and give Paige, Azzi, Strong some good rest as we will need those 3 at full capacity against better competition.

Wishing everyone a very happy and safe New Year!

 

[Bone Dog]

Brilliant 1st quarter. Pretty ragged in the second half. Shooting was very cold for everyone not named Paige. The bright side: lots of tough defense. Also, Morgan Allie and Q got minutes and looked pretty good.

 

[Stagnant]

I hate the way we played. I do buy that there was some Christmas rust.

But Jana and Ice combined for 2 point and 5 rebounds. And our small ball got even smaller in the second half. Paige, Sarah, Shade, Azzi, and KK. It just isn’t a viable lineup against a lot of teams imo.

I do want to give KK credit. She is on a really good streak right now. If she could shoot a bit better; it would be a no brainer to really increase her minutes and her role in the rotation.

 

[Blueballer]

Weird game. Outstanding first quarter with fabulous pressure "D" and then shifted pretty much to cruise control for the rest of it.

 

[rt bb fan]

Chen and KK give us no outside shooting. The bigs give us inside scoring. There in lies one of the problems with our offense

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[Next 12]

This game will be used as a learning curve, about what should have been different or better. No worries, we won. Most predictions were for Uconn to win by 40 or more, Providence out rebounded Uconn and kept the game from being a run=away. Cudos to Pronidence. Every one played that was capable and Qadence came to the rescue in rebounds. Uconn had to work a little in this game and I still see an upside to the game The fouls were a little much BUT, Uconn is on it's way to another B E title.. GO HUSKIES!!!!

 

[hoophuskee]

I'm an Offensive guy. I love Offense. They didn't shoot well - that is fine. No problem overall with the game. But as a fan of shooting, I'm not a fan of KK's refusal to shoot the ball. I don't care if she goes 1-10. But a refusal to shoot I would like to see change. It's only end of December. But still as a fan of shooting that I am it bothers me.

But I'm not the one that matters if it bothers.

 

[maple]

A win is a win and thankfully they don’t give out style points.

Kind of wish we had actually blown out Providence though. I don’t really love seeing a 20+ point win over a team that we could have (and probably should have) beaten by 40+. I know it seems nitpicky but to me this just points to some continuing issues — particularly with scoring; the 3rd quarter was dreadful. And 7-29 (24.1%) from 3pt for the game is not great. I’m not expecting Iowa St game % shooting in every game but honestly … we could do better.

Also being out rebounded …

 

[Glenn]

I thought the q3 offense was concerning. Not that we missed so many shots, but that we seem to be strictly a jump shooting team. No drives, no chance to get fouled and go to the line.

 

[Topsail]

As Geno said in post game interview , I know who they are and the rest are a work in progress with a smirk. This was in response to , you are trying to figure out a combination.

 

[HuskieDawg]

I'm an Offensive guy. I love Offense. They didn't shoot well - that is fine. No problem overall with the game. But as a fan of shooting, I'm not a fan of KK's refusal to shoot the ball. I don't care if she goes 1-10. But a refusal to shoot I would like to see change. It's only end of December. But still as a fan of shooting that I am it bothers me.

But I'm not the one that matters if it bothers.

I think we’d all care if KK went 1-10 because that is not helpful to the overall team offense or her confidence. She does need to shoot when wide open, but for whatever the reasons may be her shot has not improved at all since her frosh year.

That said she needs to find what she can do for us offensively similar To what we watched as Nika’s game evolved. KK is so darn quick she should be working her way towards the basket for layups, getting fouled or kicking to an open teammate. That I believe is where she can make her mark right now on the offensive side of the ball.

 

[Centerstream]

22 points in the second half and we should have easily scored into the 80s, no matter which 5 players were on the court. Fans here on the BY consistently post about how good the bench players are at scoring. This afternoon was the time where every one of them had the chance to shine. Maybe it was due to the score or coming off the break, but no one seized upon it. I think that Geno was kinda disappointed by it based on his postgame comments to Meg.
But the team did play great defense throughout the whole game. KK was terrific on D!

 

[Tonyc]

Paige gets the ball and looks to score. Almost like playin on on one. We need everybody else to do that. Outside of Paige we are not looking to create to score, we are passing. We need to look to score.

I like Z and Morgan. They look for their shot especially Z. She went at the basket and popped a couple of outside shots. We need her to get more playtime which will build her confidence.

Azzi is comin along. She needs a few games under her belt and she will be shooting lights out. Over all we had an off shooting nite. Maybe a little rust from the holiday. We scored off our defense especially in the 1st qtr. We need others to look to create. These kids were depended on in HS to score. We need that mentality back.

We did look better running out stuff. D was tuff aggressive overwhelming at times and the intensity and energy was sky high. Im thinking ahead and Azzi will start clickin as will Morgan and Z. We need Jana and Ice to attack the rim all the time and they will be fine. They dont get enough shots down low and theyre both big and need to learn how to get their shots off.

Kaitlyn was the leading scorer at Princeton. We need her to get some of that mentality back. We need 5 scorers on the floor almost all the time. That means Jana Ice Kaitlyn KK and Ash have to become a scoring threat. Morgan and Z will get there over the next few weeks. Ash KK and Kaitlyn could start will pull up jumpers. We will see what happens on Wednesday

 

[Centerstream]

I'm an Offensive guy. I love Offense. They didn't shoot well - that is fine. No problem overall with the game. But as a fan of shooting, I'm not a fan of KK's refusal to shoot the ball. I don't care if she goes 1-10. But a refusal to shoot I would like to see change. It's only end of December. But still as a fan of shooting that I am it bothers me.

But I'm not the one that matters if it bothers.

I also felt like Morgan was not looking for her shot, which I don't understand. She seems like she could be just like freshmen Caroline and Ashlynn. She has shown this in previous games but today, not so much.