Rich on the inaugural 50-50-50 club

[pap49cba]

Couple of great Geno quotes herein:

"There’s been times when I’ve been at Connecticut where we couldn’t do either of those things. We couldn’t steal it from you and we couldn’t block your shot. But we had Diana (Taurasi) so it didn’t matter what the (heck) we did."

"When D and those guys were here we didn’t take any chances. We stood there, guarded you at the 3-point line. We didn’t let you dribble by us. So there was no chance to block any shots because we didn’t have a shot blocker. Now we’re running out there like crazy. Guys go by us … (swat, swat, swat). So those guys should thank me for their 50 blocked shots because we’re playing a defense that helps them. Not me so much.’’

LINK

 

[DobbsRover2]

What Geno said about the DT teams and blocks is more true of the the 2003-04 team (4.2 bpg) that had three players tie for team lead with 27 blocks than with the 2002-03 team (4.6 bpg) that was 11th best among Huskies teams going into this year and had DT pick up a respectable 45 blocks. And if you remember, the last play of the 2003 semis against Texas was something like a DT block, though they may have just counted it as a steal with the ball slipping out of the ball handler's hands as she jumped.

But it is interesting that UConn employs much more of certain defenses in some years than in others even with basically the same roster and three players (DT, JMo, Strother) who were all decent at blocking shots. Steals were a different story, as neither of those teams could steal if their coach's life depended on it, and the 2002-03 didn't even reach 7 steals a game compared to this year's team's 10.6 average.

 

[UcMiami]

DT and Maria were never accused of being either fleet of foot or quick so 2002-3 and 2003-4 were starting at a disadvantage on the steals stats.

 

[DobbsRover2]

DT and Maria were never accused of being either fleet of foot or quick so 2002-3 and 2003-4 were starting at a disadvantage on the steals stats.

Ah, so little Miss Innocent Maria had you fooled too, eh? She would jog around with her God-given slowness as proclaimed by her coach just waiting for the right moment late in an NC game to lull a bamboozled UTenn player into trying to lob a long in-bounds pass out over her head. Steal-io! Game over!

 

[jsloanjr]

This team will only get better with their defense when everybody gets healthy.........

 

[cohenzone]

This team will only get better with their defense when everybody gets healthy....

Yeah, our D sucks.

 

[UCONNfan1]

This team will only get better with their defense when everybody gets healthy....

Agreed. Missing Morgan is big, but it's bigger with Brianna having a slight ankle issue. That leaves Kiah and Saniya off the bench.

 

[rocky rococo]

My clearest memory of Maria involves her stealing the ball. It was in one of those NC games against Tennessee. April McDevitt had come down on the possession immediately prior and scored over Maria with ease. Next LV possession McD went back to the same move she'd eaten Maria's lunch with, and Maria simply took the ball right out of April's hands, and suddenly the UConn surge was on.

 

[hoopsdiva]

Has any other team (women or men) ever had 3 players with 50 blocks? Seems like an unusual accomplishment, especially at essentially the mid point of the season.

 

[UcMiami]

Has any other team (women or men) ever had 3 players with 50 blocks? Seems like an unusual accomplishment, especially at essentially the mid point of the season.

I would guess yes on the 50, but should they all three reach 100, I would be less confident.