I totally agree with your thoughts on this subject. The reality of this is that this Team is not a good mix of characters who can carry off a competitive game against a superior Team. We will watch them play an inferior team for the rest of the AAC season and maybe for the first two games of the Tourney. Who knows, if they are defended like this by USF, they may lose their first game in the AAC on Sunday. You cannot keep living in an alternate universe and delusional world when you keep playing inferior teams. The moment that you leave this bizarro world, REALITY sets in.
Mmm I have a different take on that. The AAC is the real world. Most teams do not play three of the best teams in the country. UConn does because its goal is always the national championship. There is a consequence to that in a year when you aren't best the team in the country. We aren't.
In the chat, I expressed a lot of optimism about the game. We were getting open looks, we just didn't knock them down. We are a lot closer to SC than many believe.
One thing I (along with everyone else on this board, I'm sure) have noticed is that our execution of schemes is way below our normal standards. Cuts are sloppy, not sharp. Screens are not always set in a place that they are actually useful. Passes, even when they connect, are just a bit off so that the recipient can't catch and shoot. Those are little things but (as I used to say when I coached) "little things are big things." (It was better received than little things matter.)
UConn's system is very complicated. Learning to "read and react" consistently and correctly isn't easy. Understanding both where to be and where your teammates will be in Connecticut's motion offense isn't easy. It comes with time. Yet we are relying on freshman and sophomores to execute it. They can't yet. (At one point in yesterday's game I saw Megan shove Anna so that she'd move to where she should be.) As talented as Aubrey is, and she is enormously gifted, she has no clue what she should be doing out there. That's not her fault. She'll get there, but it will take time.
One this that we lack that could really help us right now is a player who can make things happen via force of personality. You know the the kind of kid... Jen Rizzotti, Jemelle Elliot, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, etc. As Kara said post game a few weeks ago the team 'is missing a player who will yank on your jersey and tell you to get your act together.' Paige is that kind of player, but it is highly unusual for a freshman to have that impact. Maybe, Westbrook can do it, I don't know.
Bottom line, it is going to take time. I like the pieces we have and the pieces we are getting, but it is going to take time. We're seeing the same thing on the men's side to a much more extreme degree.
