SC Postgame Thread

[Zonepress]

The last 5 minutes and the overtime reminded me of the 2003 and 2004
It was DT and 4 other players who played defense .rebounded and got the ball to DT
Down the stretch. PB is. Playing that same roll and only a freshman Amazing performance

While it’s easy to be critical of the offense
Of both teams I thought it was great defense by both teams


Coach GA has done everything to
Bring out the best in CW. Really stuck with
Her but seemed like the 2missed foul shots
We’re enough.might not have the temperament for the big games

Not a pretty game but the first win agsinst
A “top” team since the 2019 season

The team is developing an “identity”
Play great defense ,rebound
Play both big or small ,play7 players
And knows who the leader is

Only wish there were more games like
This

 

[psconn]

Ok, I'm a little late to the party. My dog was sleeping next to me in the living room when Paige's shot went in. I just finished peeling him off the ceiling.

 

[Centerstream]

I’m not sure why so many people are happy here. Yes Paige is the best ever as a freshman we’ve ever had.... easy to see. But we are in serious trouble if the upper class players don’t take a long look in the mirror. I’m embarrassed as a UConn fan for the way they played tonight. It takes away from the excitement of the future titles that Paige and her crew will bring us. The freshman, those are UConn championship players like we’ve had in the past. The three ALL THREE I don’t expect them to be starts at this point, but dont be scared and at least contribute. We are not significantly, but I think at least 10-15 points better than SC. The juniors need to at least do something positive because Paige is gonna need help to keep this thing going. At least DT3 had role players that did their part. These women aren’t as far as I’m concerned and it’s kinda upsetting to me. I believe these three juniors have what it takes. I’m not just saying that, I really think that. Maybe Westbrook was off because she usually does a little of everything, so I give her a pass, but the other two need to figure out what they can do besides shoot from the outside because they both aren’t the best shooters. Liv needs to focus on being a defensive force and just rebound like crazy and maybe get some easy putbacks. Williams needs to drive more and just maybe focus on defens. I’m not sure but don’t be a liability, she is too talented for that. I only watched her a couple of times and she was lost or out of sorts out there. Unacceptable at this point in her career. I love and want them both to succeed more than anything, but man it’s frustrating. We won’t win a title like this.

Thanks Geno. And bye.

 

[BBallF]

Because almost no one else showed up on offense.

Thank you. I could not believe the nervous shots being taken by ONO and CW also. I thought we were past that as an offense. It was clearly the SC game plan. Pack the middle and make everyone shoot from the outside besides Paige. Our juniors were very disappointing. Bad shot selection, missed key free throws, defensive lapses. Our underclassmen were another story. Aubrey played solidly, so did AE and Nika. They were engaged and fearless. Paige's performance was iconic.

 

[oldhusky]

Christyn didn't give us scoring but her defense was fantastic.

I will give her that. I remember wondering who Geno would put on Henderson, because she is so fast and creates a-lot of fast-break opportunities for them. We really shut down their running game completely, and CW was largely responsible for that, but on the other end she was terrible IMO.

 

[oldude]

i 100% disagree

We'll agree to disagree.

 

[HuskyNan]

Pretty painful game to watch aside from Bueckers heroics which were phenomenal. Big win for UCONN and should lock them up for a #1 seed in March.

SC:
-Boston was solid but missed a good number of chippies inside. She was hugely impactful defensively and a lot of UCONN misses in the first half were when her presence altered looks. I have no idea why they didn't go to her more. She had 3 shot attempts in the first half. She had no face up shots either which was unexpected. The last 3 attempt was way too quick and rushed, she should've just shot instead of trying to hit a step back 3. Good game for her but I dont know why she didn't touch the ball much at all in the 1st.

-Henderson has been great this year but was dreadful today. 8 turnovers and a lot of them were just dumb lazy plays. Poor shot selection on 5-17 shooting, 1-5 FT. Missed a good look end of regulation and turned the ball over at the end. Night and day compared to watching Harris run the offense vs UCONN a year ago. If they meet again, she'll definitely be motivated to play better.

-Cooke was somewhat of a no show. Take out the half court prayer and she had 8 points on 3-12 shooting. SC guards were a big let down tonight for Dawn.

-Saxton and Boston needed more touches. 3 shots for Saxton isn't enough when she's a great finisher inside.

-Amihere didn't look ready for a game of this magnitude. She has length but isn't a good finisher and had a couple of bad TOs. Still pretty raw.

-All that said, SC still nearly won and would have if they hit one of their 4 shots end of regulation, including three right around the basket. I think they're UCONN's toughest competition for a title.

For UCONN:
-the backdoor action was most effective offensively. I thought they should've utilized it more, especially with Edwards. Speaking of..

-I thought Edwards played terrific. Really good minutes and played physical defense against a bigger Aliyah Boston. Avoided foul trouble and made a lot of hustle plays.

-Muhl played composed and picked moments well.

-ONO did well passing out of the high post. Maybe a super fan can run numbers, but from games I've seen she hits like 25-30% of her shots from the perimeter. She shouldn't be shooting out there. She also has the Jantel Lavender problem of sticking her right foot forward so it becomes a long two most of the time. Several of those werent even close. Im surprised Geno is letting her continue to take shots from out there. Im not sure i saw her post up once all game which isn't a good sign. UCONN escaped today but needs production and energy from her against taller teams.

-Bueckers is ridiculous. Moving her off the ball is a great idea too since she can be more like a combo guard. She should be taking 20+ shots every game considering her percentages and the fact that she scores at will with defenders draped all over her. I thought SC for the most part played great defense on her and she still hit tough shot after tough shot.

-UCONN's offense really struggled but was most effective when they just gave the ball to Bueckers and let her create. I anticipate more emphasis on this in the coming games. I dont know what happened to Westbrook and Williams.

-Griffin was solid defensively and provided a lot of energy.

Lineups will vary by game, but I think Geno has a good starting 5 right now and can inject energy off the bench in AE and Griffin. It was effective today and they'll need high intensity off the bench in the NCAAs.

Evina’s knee has been bothering her and I saw her tweak it early in tonight’s game. She was kinda gimpy for much of the first half.

 

[EasyEd]

Jackie Stiles took SW Missosuri State to the final four (where D had her bad game against ND). That final 4 has opposite meanings for UConn. Either we lose because a great player had an off game, or one player can carry a team. So far it looks like Paige is following Stiles. I hope it continues.

 

[Sanka541]

If Evinas knee is bothering her which it must be given she’s been our most reliable and calming influence and usually plays 32 mins +, I can see her sitting out a couple easy games. We need her to be healthy in March. She’s had to play a lot of minutes recently due to Paige sitting a game, CW sitting etc

 

[HuskyNan]

i 100% disagree

Why?

 

[Blueballer]

I’m not sure why so many people are happy here. Yes Paige is the best ever as a freshman we’ve ever had.... easy to see. But we are in serious trouble if the upper class players don’t take a long look in the mirror. I’m embarrassed as a UConn fan for the way they played tonight.

In a super exciting game, we just beat the #1 team in the Country only hitting 2 threes the entire game and that's your takeaway? I feel sorry for you.

 

[MainefanSC]

Paige with 31 of UConn’s 63. Incredible end with 9 (all of UConn’s points in OT) straight. She’s a legend already.

Also, nice to see an OT game finally go UConn’s way

She also scored the last 4 points of regulation to get us to OT. Paige scored the final 13 points for UConn.

 

[Papa33]

i 100% disagree

Re: Christyn's defense was HORRIBLE! or FANTASTIC! ? According to my eyes, the truth is somewhere between those two extremes, a place it is fond of inhabiting. I think her defensive work in the last two games is clearly improved (more alert to postion of ball and person she is defending, therefore better positioned to respond to movement of either) and a notch better about getting to effective "help" position. But still gets beat to the basket. So . . . better, but not a lock-down defender.

 

[oldhusky]

Glad we won. Wasn't it curious how one of Boston's fouls disappeared.

It was a huge turnaround. We thought she had four and then she plowed into AE and I thought she was gone. Then they didn't call that, and a few seconds later she was back at three fouls!

 

[mattlow710]

Amazing game game. Lots of ups and downs much like a final four March madness game. So proud of the team and the freshman and Aubrey and the best player in college Paige Bueckers

• Paige - SC is a very good defensive team. She missed a few that she usually makes but she kept shooting when open and I thought in crunch time she took over and that’s what superstars do. I think Paige could start for a WNBA team right NOW
• Liv - thought she played ok. Made a couple of shots but definitely missed too many open shots for my liking as the game plan was to give Liv and Aliyah Edward all the space in the world to shoot. Liv needs to work on that foul like jumper every day because we need her to make them at a much better clip if we are to be unstoppable
• CWill - eh, can’t shoot and I think she needs to just defer those shots to others. Focus on drives amd midrange jumpers (even those look bad). Defense was ok got beat a few times
• Nika - played much better than expected. Thought she was solid and I’m starting to really like her contribution for our team
• Evina - had a tough day today. Not sure what’s going on but she isn’t as aggressive since the Arkansas game. I think she’s physically hurting. I just hope she can make it through for us
• Aliyah Edward’s - played great and wasn’t afraid of the moment. Just amazing her energy and effort. Tough assignment in Boston
• Aubrey - played really tough and was huge for us with energy and rebounding. Had that and 1 and saw that passion from her which was great.
  
  
  
  

i guess EW are hurting, when she defense looked not smooth and really slow

 

[Sched234]

Full assessment:

No South Carolina fan has been fully confident in the guards this season and tonight it showed. Both are talented but struggle with shot selection and turnovers. Gamecocks need more consistency and less damage from those two to be elite at season’s end. That said, both were a few degrees worse tonight than they typically are.

Boston was good but has issues finishing that I just cannot explain for a player of her caliber. Her rebounding is absolutely ridiculous and she cooly matched her season average in blocks tonight. She was good—not great—and that’s more than you can say for the others.

Saxton is so much better than she is recognized for. This game has a different outcome if she gets 6-7 shots instead of 3.

Bueckers was unbelievable (as an opposing fan, I hate her! lol). I’m not going to say a whole lot else because there really isn’t much you can say. She’s a professional. This isn’t news. If she isn’t a first-team AA, so help me god.

The rest of UConn’s non-freshman roster was dreadful which is part of what makes the loss tough to swallow. I do think both ONO and Williams appear to have regressed this year (they’re lower-usage, so it could just be optics, but Williams in particular seemed much better as a freshman than she does now).

I think South Carolina has more persistent deficiencies in its play (turnovers an issue, shot selection an issue, perimeter shooting as well), but as we saw, this team can hang and is very much in the national title conversation. But I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge UConn as the rightful favorite at this point.

 

[oldude]

i guess EW are hurting, when she defense looked not smooth and really slow

I thought E hurt herself last game against Marquette, when she got tangled with a Marquette player and came up limping. Hopefully she can play through it.

 

[BBallF]

Glad we won. Wasn't it curious how one of Boston's fouls disappeared.

I thought that was the announcers making the mistake since all they did was talk nonsensically. As I complained about in the last DePaul game, it seems as though they think they have to fill in the action because the women's game isn't engaging enough. I think it is insulting. That was a great and exciting basketball game. We didn't need the constant monologue. I also thought the refereeing was horrendous. They miss all kinds of contact on shots but call every possible moving screen. If you want to call it tight, call it that way 22 feet from the basket but also 2 feet from it as well.

 

[bballnut90]

Disagree. Diana had more offensive support from her teammates. DT led by being a leader.
Paige is still gonna need others to step up.

This ^^. I cant recall a single game where Taurasi singlehandedly won a game in the fashion that Bueckers did tonight.

 

[King Kong]

SC had 4 tries at the end of regulation, & couldn't get it to go. The 5th try went in, but the clock had expired. Paige played all 45 min, Nika & Aaliyah went 35 min. I've watched replays of Paige's dagger at 13 sec - Amazing!

 

[topogigio]

I’m not sure why so many people are happy here. Yes Paige is the best ever as a freshman we’ve ever had.... easy to see. But we are in serious trouble if the upper class players don’t take a long look in the mirror. I’m embarrassed as a UConn fan for the way they played tonight. It takes away from the excitement of the future titles that Paige and her crew will bring us. The freshman, those are UConn championship players like we’ve had in the past. The three ALL THREE I don’t expect them to be starts at this point, but dont be scared and at least contribute. We are not significantly, but I think at least 10-15 points better than SC. The juniors need to at least do something positive because Paige is gonna need help to keep this thing going. At least DT3 had role players that did their part. These women aren’t as far as I’m concerned and it’s kinda upsetting to me. I believe these three juniors have what it takes. I’m not just saying that, I really think that. Maybe Westbrook was off because she usually does a little of everything, so I give her a pass, but the other two need to figure out what they can do besides shoot from the outside because they both aren’t the best shooters. Liv needs to focus on being a defensive force and just rebound like crazy and maybe get some easy putbacks. Williams needs to drive more and just maybe focus on defens. I’m not sure but don’t be a liability, she is too talented for that. I only watched her a couple of times and she was lost or out of sorts out there. Unacceptable at this point in her career. I love and want them both to succeed more than anything, but man it’s frustrating. We won’t win a title like this.

South Carolina played very tough, lock down defense and made it very difficult to drive to the basket, or get off an open 3 pointer, or even a 2 pointer. Paige is one of those unique players who can make her own shots, and make very difficult things look easy. When you have a thoroughbred, you have to ride him/her. I am very happy with this win, and it bodes very well for the rest of the season, and tournament time!

 

[bballnut90]

Glad we won. Wasn't it curious how one of Boston's fouls disappeared.

Not at all...watch the replay, Boston didnt foul her.

 

[DEpup]

So stat gurus, when was the last time UConn won an OT game? I can't remember, its been that long.

 

[Reypl21]

It’s not much of a consolation prize, but I do hope this puts the conversation of ONO v. Boston to rest. It was almost immediately clear who was getting the better of that battle. Boston was the second-best player on the floor...unfortunately, there was a hell of a lot of ground between her and the best.

Boston was definitely the second best. Her two starting guards on her team hardly look for her and jack up terrible shots in the first 10 seconds of the possession. They should have gotten her more touches.

UConn has Bueckers. And SC has Cooke and Henderson.

 

[HuskyNan]

Full assessment:

No South Carolina fan has been fully confident in the guards this season and tonight it showed. Both are talented but struggle with shot selection and turnovers. Gamecocks need more consistency and less damage from those two to be elite at season’s end. That said, both were a few degrees worse tonight than they typically are.

Boston was good but has issues finishing that I just cannot explain for a player of her caliber. Her rebounding is absolutely ridiculous and she cooly matched her season average in blocks tonight. She was good—not great—and that’s more than you can say for the others.

Saxton is so much better than she is recognized for. This game has a different outcome if she gets 6-7 shots instead of 3.

Bueckers was unbelievable (as an opposing fan, I hate her! lol). I’m not going to say a whole lot else because there really isn’t much you can say. She’s a professional. This isn’t news. If she isn’t a first-team AA, so help me god.

The rest of UConn’s non-freshman roster was dreadful which is part of what makes the loss tough to swallow. I do think both ONO and Williams appear to have regressed this year (they’re lower-usage, so it could just be optics, but Williams in particular seemed much better as a freshman than she does now).

I think South Carolina has more persistent deficiencies in its play (turnovers an issue, shot selection an issue, perimeter shooting as well), but as we saw, this team can hang and is very much in the national title conversation. But I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge UConn as the rightful favorite at this point.

Aaliyah Edwards was bumping Boston and did a good job in fronting her. Her defense is annoying (if you’re not a Husky fan) kind of like former UCOnn guard Kia Nurse, a fellow Canadian. Both women came from the same AAU team. Edwards may have made Boston a bit uncomfortable, enough to affect her timing