Save Us From Sabrina Ionescu

[HuskyNan]

To put things in perspective, Uconn is a 24 point favorite over Oregon. We were a 20 point favorite over UCLA.
If we lose to a 24 point underdog, we did not deserve to be National Champions.

Regarding odds, the oddsmakers are predicting how the betting will go, not how the game will go. They set odds that they believe will have half the bettors putting money on a UConn win and the other half betting on a UConn loss. I wouldn't get too invested in the odds as a predictor of the game's outcome.

 

[Ellie]

IMO The final eight game is the toughest game. In many respects tougher than the Final Four. Oregon and the PAC 12 have "comported" themselves well and the shift of women's basketball prowess to the West coast has begun. Uconn will play this game as "serious" as if they were playing Norte Dame, Baylor or South Carolina because Geno knows the "pretenders" have left the building with only contenders still standing. Sabrina is the Bill Bradley/Larry Bird of her generation and will thrill the fans with her basketball IQ and savvy awareness. Her legend will grow and prosper and like Bill and Larry will go down in defeat....

 

[donalddoowop]

Making reference to Oregon's prior losses has no relevance. As their coach said in their post game presser, they have improved tremendously over the year and defense is the key for them....it is the area where they have improved the most. Oregon is long and they will be a tough rebounding team. Our saving grace is they have never played us and have never been at this stage of the tournament. We will need our A game and stay out of foul trouble to win. I have every confidence we will prevail, but it will be a challenge. Assuming we do win, it will be a good tune up for us as we look down the barrel at Baylor.

Baylor has to get by MS first. MS has as big a front line as Baylor.

 

[BobbyJ]

That and the curious lack of energy or sense of urgency. They simply didn't seem to know what they were doing. Against UCONN early in the season, they looked like the 3rd best team in the nation (behind UCONN and Baylor). As the season wore on, not sure what happened. People can point to soft schedule, but I don't believe that's it.

Brenda is not a good X's and O's coach. And her team failed on that account (TO's, low BBIQ). She's more the cheerleader/motivator. Sadly, her team failed on that account too.

Having said that, Oregon is a decent team. However, the style they play, and their inability to do much as a team (Ionescu is a terrific scorer, facilitator, leader, etc). Take her out of the game even in a small way and this is a 20+ point win. Do what UCONN does best, and we win by closer to 40. Unless Geno brings in the bench with 8 minutes left in the 4th...

By "style they play", I mean they do not have the ability to play a cohesive team brand of basketball. They do a little passing, but they were most successful when Sabrina would have the ball in her hands creating offense. UCONN excels at taking the opposing team's best player out of her comfort zone. I simply don't see this being close...

Good points. I think a good matchup would be to let Williams clamp onto Ionescu whenever possible. The quickness and strength advantage of Williams could really mess her up.

 

[Huskee11]

A few random observations from being at the Oregon-Maryland game:

Kept waiting for a run from Maryland that never came. Flat doesn`t begin to describe how they played. It looked like they tried to turn the energy up briefly midway through the fourth quarter, but too little too late.

We remember Slocum as the player who lit us up big time in the fourth quarter in December. How does that player only shoot one three pointer in 38 minutes? Team as a whole 0-6 from three? Makes no sense.

Frese played right into their hands when for some reason she went 2-3 zone for the third quarter. Who does that against a team that is trying to slow the game down? More importantly, it also got Lexi Bando in the game. Against man to man, she was totally ineffective and only got one shot off in the first half, I think. She is not especially quick and does not play off the dribble, so tight man to man is a problem for her. But a great long distance shooter and the zone allowed her to get open and hit three threes, also missed some other open ones. Great strategy, Maryland.

I am really impressed with Ionesco. She is a step slow and their offense has too much dribbling, but she can really pass, is a very good shooter, and a fearless competitor. No one is talking, though, about Maite Cazoria, who played 40 minutes with 15 points and only one turnover. She was particularly effective early, as she was then the primary ballhandler and took it to the basket a couple of times. From Spain, plays kind of like the USF players but she is quicker and better.

The arena was rooting for Oregon. Obviously, in major part rooting against Maryland but also a recognition of a solid, young, well coached team that is easy to root for. They earned a lot of respect yesterday.

We will win on Monday but we better come out hard from the opening tap. If we let them hang around, that means they are setting the tempo and there could be some seat squirming. If we get way up early, they will not have the luxury of playing slow.

 

[uconnever]

I believe Kia needs to focus on Sabrina. She's the engine. Then the other two guards are really good too. I think if we shut them down, it's an easy win. I like their bigs but I think we eat them up by our bigs driving by them. I think we win by at least 25. Them slowing the game down and then hitting shots would be the only way they win.

 

[hoophuskee]

She is a revelation. She is a coach on the floor, very athletic and nimble, she's got Larry Bird eyes, she can shoot and she isn't afraid to set her teammates straight when she's not happy with what they're doing.

When I turned the volume up at the end of the game, I discovered she's a FRESHMAN!

I am 100, well 99.9 percent, sure Geno, CD, Marissa and Shea are cooking up a plan for her, but unless it involves an abduction I'm afraid we're all in for a long night Monday.

This is a joke, right?

 

[hoophuskee]

Do not underestimate either the PAC 12 or Sabrina Ionescu. For what's it worth, the PAC 12 has the best conference RPI rating. I have watched several PAC 12 games this winter (more thru inadvertence than intention) and have been impressed by the quality of play and the coaching. Ionescu is indeed "Bird" like. If she is not tightly controlled, she will cause Uconn agita. That having been said, if Uconn brings its "A" game, lights out.

The PAC 12 is awesome this year. Awesome.

 

[rugbymate]

In their last five games, Oregon has beaten #11 Washington, #23 Temple, #9 Duke, and #3 Maryland. Those are national rankings, not seeds. UConn would be wise to take Oregon seriously.

The good news is that unlike some posters, Geno, staff and players will take this game seriously.

 

[tomcat]

For a brief period, Ionescu was on UConn's recruiting radar, so they know at least a little about her. That plus the fact that Geno knows and respects the OUY coach's style and knowledge and it'd seem to me that UConn can come up with a game plan. Then it's just a matter of the players coming through. Add to that the fact that both Geno and the players say they did not play their game against UCLA, and I think UConn can win by at least 15-20 against Oregon.

 

[CocoHusky]

Canada is a tremendous " playground " player.

I saw another post after the UCONN Syracuse game saying A. Peterson & Syracuse play "street ball". Canada and Peterson were both brilliant for their teams against UCONN. Just wish we could evolve to the point where we can give another team's players credit for playing well.

 

[chrissaran]

As great as Sabrina played, and as over hyped - she never makes the wrong move - as the announcers have made her, she is fallible. She made mistakes yesterday, and she will make mistakes on Monday. We can't have two halves like the second half against UCLA. As Andy Landers pointed out, Oregon size will be a detriment when trying to guard Gabby and Napheesa. They won't be mobile enough. UConn 82-65.

 

[SVCBeercats]

They have 13 losses don't they, and play in the pac 10, right? I'm not losing sleep over this one.

I suspect your PAC 10 reference reveals the amount of attention you may have recently paid to the PAC 12. Five PAC 12 teams were in Sweet 16. More than any other conference. Now only two teams in the Elite 8. However, no conference has more (ACC 2, SEC 2, AAC 1, BIG12 1). As for the 13 losses Tennessee won the NCAA championship in 1997 with 10 losses. It could happen. However, I'm thinking happy REMs for you and me. Oregon/Temple 71-70 UCONN/Temple 97-69, 90-45

 

[Buzzyboy]

I'm kind of off-base a little, but boy, that PAC 10 conference sure seems to have attracted some excellent coaches, some excellent players and from what I've seen of the four (!) of their teams in the tournament, they come in battle hardened and ready to play. Glad UConn will be seeing more of them. Good for everyone.

Geno has shown for years that he's always been for the growth of women's basketball and that's why he has always had a willingness to bring in opposing coaches to watch his practices and has been so helpful to other programs in so many ways. Whenever he's been asked about whether UConn is good for women's basketball, he's always suggested he wants other teams to catch up and not for UConn to take their foot off the pedal and play down to their opponents.

 

[magic]

IMO The final eight game is the toughest game. In many respects tougher than the Final Four. Oregon and the PAC 12 have "comported" themselves well and the shift of women's basketball prowess to the West coast has begun. Uconn will play this game as "serious" as if they were playing Norte Dame, Baylor or South Carolina because Geno knows the "pretenders" have left the building with only contenders still standing. Sabrina is the Bill Bradley/Larry Bird of her generation and will thrill the fans with her basketball IQ and savvy awareness. Her legend will grow and prosper and like Bill and Larry will go down in defeat....

Give me a break !

 

[Buzzyboy]

IMO The final eight game is the toughest game. In many respects tougher than the Final Four. Oregon and the PAC 12 have "comported" themselves well and the shift of women's basketball prowess to the West coast has begun. Uconn will play this game as "serious" as if they were playing Norte Dame, Baylor or South Carolina because Geno knows the "pretenders" have left the building with only contenders still standing. Sabrina is the Bill Bradley/Larry Bird of her generation and will thrill the fans with her basketball IQ and savvy awareness. Her legend will grow and prosper and like Bill and Larry will go down in defeat....

I get the impression that yesterdays Oregon game is the first time most of the people on the Boneyard have seen the Oregon team and yet there's a lot of people using that one game to formulate an opinion on how good or great Ionescu (sp) is and how good Oregon is. How many times has Geno and his staff gone to see a potential recruit before he decided to offer someone a scholarship. Multiple times, at least, right? That suggests that once is NOT nearly enough to be absolutely certain how good a player is and yet there are people that use that ONE TIME to decide that this player or team is the best thing ever. I'm reading now that the west coast suddenly is the place for the best recruits and that there's starting to be a MAJOR shift in where the best teams are starting to come from. Washington was really good last year and pretty good this year and most of it was on the back of one player, Plum. Does anyone thing that they'll be a top 10 team next year? I think I'd wait a while before I'd be certain of that major shifting. The Pac 10 seems to be a balanced league with some talent but a couple of runs by a few teams doesn't automatically suggest any radical shifting, as of yet. Are we to assume that Quinnipiac is on the verge of being THE PLACE to play or a program that is now ELITE? Just saying some of this talk may be a little premature.

 

[Buzzyboy]

As great as Sabrina played, and as over hyped - she never makes the wrong move - as the announcers have made her, she is fallible. She made mistakes yesterday, and she will make mistakes on Monday. We can't have two halves like the second half against UCLA. As Andy Landers pointed out, Oregon size will be a detriment when trying to guard Gabby and Napheesa. They won't be mobile enough. UConn 82-65.

I agree wholeheartedly though I would changed your remark that "we can't have two halves" to "won't have two halves" because Geno will not allow that to happen. My final score is a bit different, 85-63 and then we'll be on our way to what I think (?) is our 9th consecutive Final Four. Go, Huskies!

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Agreed. Maryland players looked almost disinterested and unprepared . I was shocked !

I think they were already looking ahead and got gut-punched.

 

[DefenseBB]

She is a revelation. She is a coach on the floor, very athletic and nimble, she's got Larry Bird eyes, she can shoot and she isn't afraid to set her teammates straight when she's not happy with what they're doing.

Brenda Frese will have nightmares about her for the foreseeable future, I'm sure.

I had the volume down during most of the Oregon v. Maryland game and, frankly, wouldn't have watched very much of it if Maryland hadn't been losing for almost the entire game. I kept expecting Brionna Jones, et al to right the ship and step (figuratively, of course) on Oregon's neck. Never happened. Every time Maryland seemed to gather itself for a run, Sabrina found someone for an open shot, penetrated and scored or got fouled.

When I turned the volume up at the end of the game, I discovered she's a FRESHMAN!

I am 100, well 99.9 percent, sure Geno, CD, Marissa and Shea are cooking up a plan for her, but unless it involves an abduction I'm afraid we're all in for a long night Monday.

Umm yes, she is good but let's not anoint her the second coming of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Breanna Stewart! My goodness, I worry you may need more meds or stronger glasses to take a longer look at her season stats. Again they are good but your over exuberance on her is perplexing.

 

[my2cents]

Most of these comments are about how we adjust to them.
The impossible task is how they adjust to us. The answer is they don't.
We easily have the fastest, smartest, hardest working womens CBB.....easy win

 

[nwhoopfan]

No one is talking, though, about Maite Cazoria, who played 40 minutes with 15 points and only one turnover. She was particularly effective early, as she was then the primary ballhandler and took it to the basket a couple of times.

Oregon really has 2 PG w/ Cazorla and Ionescu. They are both good passers who generally make good decisions on the floor.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I suspect your PAC 10 reference reveals the amount of attention you may have recently paid to the PAC 12

I can't believe how many people on this site keep calling it the Pac 10. It expanded in 2011. Does news travel slowly to the East Coast? Or maybe it's because the Big 10 and Big 12 didn't change their names, regardless of how many teams each conference contains, so they're assuming the same of the Pac.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Is anyone really saying the balance of power is shifting to the West? That's a bit dramatic. I think there's been a considerable upward trend to be certain. For years Stanford was the only program out West that could compete nationally. The last couple seasons have shown several other teams from the West are capable of making deep runs in the Tourney.

 

[Blue Huskie]

She is a revelation. She is a coach on the floor, very athletic and nimble, she's got Larry Bird eyes, she can shoot and she isn't afraid to set her teammates straight when she's not happy with what they're doing.

Brenda Frese will have nightmares about her for the foreseeable future, I'm sure.

I had the volume down during most of the Oregon v. Maryland game and, frankly, wouldn't have watched very much of it if Maryland hadn't been losing for almost the entire game. I kept expecting Brionna Jones, et al to right the ship and step (figuratively, of course) on Oregon's neck. Never happened. Every time Maryland seemed to gather itself for a run, Sabrina found someone for an open shot, penetrated and scored or got fouled.

When I turned the volume up at the end of the game, I discovered she's a FRESHMAN!

I am 100, well 99.9 percent, sure Geno, CD, Marissa and Shea are cooking up a plan for her, but unless it involves an abduction I'm afraid we're all in for a long night Monday.

INDEED on all counts. And like you said the most amazing thing is to get all those ingredients in a freshman. Astounding.

 

[jonson]

Umm yes, she is good but let's not anoint her the second coming of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Breanna Stewart! My goodness, I worry you may need more meds or stronger glasses to take a longer look at her season stats. Again they are good but your over exuberance on her is perplexing.

This is certainly true. And Ionescu certainly makes her share of freshman mistakes. But it's also true that Ionescu's season stats don't tell the whole, or maybe even the most important part, of the story. For one thing, she broke her thumb on her shooting hand in December, missed (I think) 4 games, and then didn't shoot very well for several games after that. For another, I think you would have to watch her in game after game (as I have) to understand how important she is to Oregon's overall success. To me her impact is reminiscent of DT's on the UCONN teams a decade and a half ago. I'm not saying that she has DT's talent (who does?), but she does bring something like the toughness, competitiveness, smarts, and confidence that made Diana so important to her teammates' success.

 

[augustaTC]

I can't believe how many people on this site keep calling it the Pac 10. It expanded in 2011. Does news travel slowly to the East Coast? Or maybe it's because the Big 10 and Big 12 didn't change their names, regardless of how many teams each conference contains, so they're assuming the same of the Pac.

Good response!!! Whatever they call themselves they have some good coaches & players. Tara's not going to have her pick of all the west coast girls anymore.

 

[Ellie]

Give me a break !

No breaks, just hyperbole!

 

[huskyd]

UCLA was the first game this year where I thought we played a talented team with as much or more athleticism at every position on the floor as Uconn has and it showed in the 'struggle' of a fifteen point win that never got to single digits in the second half. It showed in players showing some signs of being tired during the game. It definitely showed in the number of tipped passes as well as the number of steals and turnovers. And it showed in openings that closed quicker than expected and led to more contested shots. It was a pretty new experience for this team and they didn't handle it quite as well as they should have. Their coach got it right - it was a game of inches and not feet, and Uconn is used to a game of feet even against the top five teams we have played.

Oregon is a very good team playing with reckless abandon. But they are a team like all the others we have faced that will be slower and less athletic than Uconn at almost every position on the floor. They are well coached (like ND), they have more size (like almost everyone), they have good guards (like ND), but they do not present a new/different challenge to Uconn, one they haven't experienced before.

So Uconn had three off games this year - FSU followed by Baylor, Tulane followed by Temple, and UCF followed by USF in the conference tournament - a bad game followed by pretty brilliant outings. UCLA was a bit of an off game as well, and I suspect it too will be followed by a pretty brilliant outing. The alternative is that 110 games/9 FF/4 NCs has finally crept into their heads and the fatigue displayed yesterday was more than playing a different type of team. I am inclined to go with option one, an off game to be followed by continued brilliance.

And in terms of Oregon's run, they struggled against a decent Temple, beat an injured (and slow) Duke team, and handled a talented MD team with ease. An MD team that hasn't won an important game since Lexie Brown transferred. An MD team that while better than the version they put out 5 years ago that never played defense, is still not that interested in playing 40 minutes of defense. An MD team that thrives on transition and fast break offense, loving to run up the score on a schedule of grossly over matched teams as opposed to actually working on half court offense in those games. And an MD team that spent the last two weeks complaining about seeding, and regional assignment, and a lack of tickets, and dreaming about revenge against Uconn with a pretty mediocre game coach leading them.

Oregon is a really young, brash team led by a really good coach, with a lot of talented young players. They are playing really well and shooting really well. But Uconn has played teams like them before this year, and there are not going to be surprises. Sabrina is very good and poised, but she is not the physical challenge that Jordan was, Kia with a bad wheel will not be overmatched. They are a smart team, and those are always challenging, but Uconn teaches classes in basketball IQ.

So Oregon is definitely worthy of being in the elite eight and a team to be taken seriously (there aren't any bad teams left) but as long as mental fatigue has not set in, I am less concerned with this game than yesterday's.

Very sound and thoughtful, Uc. Two comments: first, Brenda hasn't won an important game in 15 years (you were too generous), and, second, Geno says he loves to play teams with which he isn't familiar and which don't know his team. Coach reckons that teams that haven't seen UConn aren't likely to be prepared for the level of play the Huskies achieve. He's got his wish. Dead Ducks comin' up.

 

[toadfoot]

Making reference to Oregon's prior losses has no relevance. As their coach said in their post game presser, they have improved tremendously over the year and defense is the key for them....it is the area where they have improved the most. Oregon is long and they will be a tough rebounding team. Our saving grace is they have never played us and have never been at this stage of the tournament. We will need our A game and stay out of foul trouble to win. I have every confidence we will prevail, but it will be a challenge. Assuming we do win, it will be a good tune up for us as we look down the barrel at Baylor.

While Oregon may have improved greatly I think a lot of people forget how much UConn has improved since the start of the season. I'll be stunned if this isn't a 20+ win.

 

[tomcat]

Is anyone really saying the balance of power is shifting to the West? That's a bit dramatic. I think there's been a considerable upward trend to be certain. For years Stanford was the only program out West that could compete nationally. The last couple seasons have shown several other te ,ams from the West are capable of making deep runs in the Tourney.

I don't know it is the trend that the earlier poster predicted, but there certainly are good/great players committing to PAC teams, and not just Stanford. Part of it also is the new wave of coaches, including Graves at Oregon, the guy at OSU, etc. It is no longer the case that when you see a PAC team in the NCAAs, you can assume they play Basketball Lite, which you could as few as five years ago.