SC Postgame Thread

[Gus Mahler]

Disagree with most of your observations.
Find it disturbing that Geno inserts Azzi with time running down in the 4th and expects (?) her to bail team out.
Zero redemption for any of our bigs-maybe you were watching some other game?
Check the box score- that’s where the game was lost.

I guess I was watching the same game as @Hayven. Liv went toe-to-toe with Boston and held her own. She was at times outstanding.

 

[Vancat]

It can't be true. Bueckers is human!

 

[Blueballer]

Not to sound like sour grapes since both teams were affected, but why was this game played at Noon? It should have been a primetime event with many more viewers. It would have given both teams an extra several hours of rest. Since when is the consolation game played AFTER the championship game? Oregon is playing USF now.

ESPN controls all

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Since when do you not intentionally foul a team at the end with 4 minutes to go. Instead you just let them use up the clock???

I think Geno was sending his team a message. It started when he put MIR in for Dorka and I was glad to see it. He also sat Azzi for a long stretch...another message. I was hoping he put Piath and Ducharme in the game.

 

[jaydee602]

LOL...Geno joked that he wanted to put Jamelle Elliot in the game. He claimed that it would have solved the rebounding problem.

 

[Urshurak]

LOL...Geno joked that he wanted to put Jamelle Elliot in the game. He claimed that it would have solved the rebounding problem.

In her day, it would have.

 

[southofnorth]

Other than Liv, our Bigs were awful.
On defense, Edwards, Fudd and Dorka are just awful. Slow-footed, don't box out, no anticipation.

And let’s reiterate how good Liv was in defense!! IMO this was her best game against a team with really good bigs!

 

[Tonyc]

A few points. A lot went wrong today alot. We need to get back to the fundamentals. Box out imo is number 1. We need to know our limitations and our bigs taking outside shots in critical situations is not one of them. We need more scoring. Evina and Paige are our outside shooters CW is dribble drive and today with SC height she couldnt. We lack experience and it will take time for us to get experience and play UConns BB. When Caroline Azzi Edwards and Dorka get that experience we will be fine.

With that said SC got to many easy points underneath. Why did we go to man to man and not stay in a zone which got us the big lead in the first qtr???? The zone kept us out of foul trouble, made SC force the ball and make turnovers and made it hard for SC to score. We went man to man and their quickness hurt us. Not staying in a Zone was huge. It changed everything. One huge change for SC was less turnovers in the second half and I attribute some of that to not staying in a Zone.

We lacked scorers today. We were dependent on Paige and thats fine but she needs help. Evina was really good again but we need more. Thats where Caroline and Azzi come in. When they get up to speed we will be fine but it takes time. Edwards isnt there yet either. She does alot of things well but there needs to be more improvement. She needs to become more of a scorer and crash the boards.

Alot was going right when in the first qtr with a Zone defense. Bottom line is we need more experience. So many talented underclassman that need time to develop. Today was a bit of a surprise. We were up 13 and lost by 16. Thats alot and theres alot to learn from it

 

[jaydee602]

ESPN controls all

Good point. ESPN wasn't going to interfere with all the Monday Night Football shows.

 

[HuskyNan]

Not sure how one concludes that ONO was "great." ONO is the starting center on the team that was out rebounded 42 to 25. She pulled down just five rebounds total, while fouling four times in 34 minutes. The opposing team pulled down nearly as many offensive boards as UConn had total rebounds- 19 to 25. And ONO was the leader of the front court, which together scored just14 points. That's not "great." That's getting killed inside. Enough with the rose-colored glasses. I doubt ONO will even get selected in the WNBA draft, let alone make it onto a WNBA team.

Olivia had 6 points (3-4), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 blocks, and 2 steals against the #1 team with the #1 front court. She’s taken a lot of heat for not showing up in big games but she shouldn’t today.

Anyone that thinks Liv or any other post player should have been scoring at will against Aliyah Boston, Laeticia Amihere, and Kamila Cardosa is fooling themselves. That is a formidable frontcourt.

 

[my2cents]

It works against 99% of our opponents.

And here I thought our goal was to win a National Championship, or keep this offense and lose the semi final game forever. lol

 

[meyers7]

They hit 5 of 18 3 pointers. That's not very good. UCONN only took 8. That's not good either.

Yea, if you're going to be a guard oriented team, you're gonna need more 3 pt shots than that. Only 16% of their 50 shots. (gonna need more than 50 shots also) Need to be more around at least 30%. Still wouldn't have been enough, but got us a lot closer.

 

[southofnorth]

Azzi didn't get much opportunity today time-wise. When she was in though, she really just hangs out on the wing and isn't very aggressive in getting herself open. It's almost like plays were happening without her, and she just stood there. Not bashing her -- it may be by design. Just an observation.

Iirc both KML and KLS were very similar early on in their careers. Geno changed them both for the better so let’s hope Fudd follows the same path to becoming a complete offensive player

 

[Gus Mahler]

Not sure how one concludes that ONO was "great." ONO is the starting center on the team that was out rebounded 42 to 25. She pulled down just five rebounds total, while fouling four times in 34 minutes. The opposing team pulled down nearly as many offensive boards as UConn had total rebounds- 19 to 25. And ONO was the leader of the front court, which together scored just14 points. That's not "great." That's getting killed inside. Enough with the rose-colored glasses. I doubt ONO will even get selected in the WNBA draft, let alone make it onto a WNBA team.

I could not disagree with your post more. Pure Liv-bashing.

 

[pvdoggy]

Have not watched the game but I can't imagine how a lineup like Uconn only scores 3 points in an entire qtr, no matter who the opponent is. Is that the lowest point in a qtr ever by a Uconn team? It may have happened once in the Stewie era, but I don't recall many Uconn opponents, no matter how overmatch they are, scoring only 3 points in a qtr. Not sure I want to watch the reply now.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

i don't think coach was too wiped aboot all this. i mean, 8 total 3 attempts? that doesn't happen unless he's trying to push them, mentally, inside on offense, prolly to find out if there is anyone beside dorka (led again with 3 o boards in 19 minutes) who will consistently go after it. im good with ae's ability in that regard. on the udder hand, 33 minutes and zero o boards? stop pretending some of youse, it's been four years. and oh, anyone can pass it to a wide open husky behind the line.
other than that, i expected to win, we didn't, yet i enjoyed this opportunity to watch coach puzzle out this squad. can't say too much bad aboot paige or cw's performance, they played with effort.
methinks this interior weakness will eventually be solved, much to our future enjoyment. as in spring, '22, future enjoyment. the whole azzi thing was odd, but coach has a plan. he always does.
on the udder hand, and until proven differently, opponents will be releasing players on our shot, instead of keeping them close to the rim, since we have demonstrated an horrible ability to o board. really, really, bad. a fatal flaw unless corrected.
it's called 'a nose for the ball,' cuz they can smell it, and get after it. some have it, some don't. i also think the turnover thing was an anomaly, and not to be regularly expected.

 

[BostonBay]

Geno's perimeter scheme (a weave??) is not working, period. And, its not fooling the opposition. All its doing is making our players run more (and get tired) and adds pressure as the player has to constantly make difficult decisions. why in the world would you have a Big like ONO running the post from outside the foul line when your team is getting destroyed on the boards?? Its not like we're getting layups from this. Need to simplify the scheme, have the 3 bigs stay in the post for easy 2nd chance points, and let the guards set picks for each other, create their own mid-range shots, or throw it into the Bigs and play more an inside-outside game. When things dont work, a bad scheme results in the embarrassing 4Q like we had today.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Not sure how one concludes that ONO was "great." ONO is the starting center on the team that was out rebounded 42 to 25. She pulled down just five rebounds total, while fouling four times in 34 minutes. The opposing team pulled down nearly as many offensive boards as UConn had total rebounds- 19 to 25. And ONO was the leader of the front court, which together scored just14 points. That's not "great." That's getting killed inside. Enough with the rose-colored glasses. I doubt ONO will even get selected in the WNBA draft, let alone make it onto a WNBA team.

Because many of the rebounds were long. Watch the game. She had 5 blocks (one if I recall at the 3 pt line) because ...she has to help on dribble drives...more than usual. And yes...she's the starting center, but that's a title...she's really a forward playing center. There's a reason she plays at the foul line on offense. She's not a true center. She also had 2 steals and 4 assists. She had 4 fouls because she was playing defense....at one point against 3 players her same size...with little rest.

 

[Stymie]

The coaching staff was right where they needed to be.

Do you mean physically?
Like on the sidelines?
Where permitted?
Certainly not making needed adjustments.
Amping their team down at crunch time?
Taking control of their team?
I WILL CONCEDE:
This team can beat SC and had them on the ropes at several times. Just couldn’t close the deal.
For their third game of the season, not to bad.
Gave Staley some things to think about.
Not seeing how coach can overcome deficiencies in the post.
DESTROYED ON THE BOARDS.

 

[jaydee602]

Iirc both KML and KLS were very similar early on in their careers. Geno changed them both for the better so let’s hope Fudd follows the same path to becoming a complete offensive player

Yeah, Geno addressed that yesterday. He said the only player who understood their role as a shooter from Day One was Maya. Everyone else took awhile to thrive with a shooter mentality.

 

[oldude]

While no one likes to lose, there's most certainly an element in Geno's thinking that tells him this was the best thing that could have happened to this team at this time. The Huskies have to play tougher, be less "Paige-centric", be able to execute their game plan for 40 minutes and so on. Nothing helps focus a team's efforts better than getting whipped by your chief rival. Let's see where it leads.

 

[Camiam88]

Not sure how one concludes that ONO was "great." ONO is the starting center on the team that was out rebounded 42 to 25. She pulled down just five rebounds total, while fouling four times in 34 minutes. The opposing team pulled down nearly as many offensive boards as UConn had total rebounds- 19 to 25. And ONO was the leader of the front court, which together scored just14 points. That's not "great." That's getting killed inside. Enough with the rose-colored glasses. I doubt ONO will even get selected in the WNBA draft, let alone make it onto a WNBA team

This is a tricky one. I agree with you that ONO clearly was outclassed by Boston/Cardoso. But I think ONO played as close to her potential today as we’ve seen her play in quite some time. She was way more aggressive, steadfast, and persistent than we’ve seen from her. My fear instead is that even if/when ONO plays to her fullest potential, it won’t be anywhere close to enough to even hang with SC. She flat-out isn’t big enough to have her way in the paint. If she can get the 12-15 footers cooking, and potentially AE can be that strong body in the post, she can be a major contributor, but her ceiling is just miles away from Boston’s floor IMHO.

Not to say Liv didn’t perform well today - she did, and certainly gave it her all, at least from what I saw. It just may not be enough.

 

[luminosity]

ONO was the best player not named Paige today. I'm not understanding criticism against her game today outside of a knee jerk "Must blame ONO for everything" reaction.

If any bigs should be catching flack today, it's Dorka and AE.

 

[Rb335]

Iirc both KML and KLS were very similar early on in their careers. Geno changed them both for the better so let’s hope Fudd follows the same path to becoming a complete offensive player

Third game of KML's career: #3 Stanford, 32 minutes 25 points on 10/17 shooting, 8 rebounds.

She came in with the role of needing to score to help offset the loss of Maya Moore. Azzi doesn't have that same pressure. But people often forget that KML led the team in scoring her freshman year. She was the most athletic version of herself during her first two seasons.

Agree about KLS, she often roamed the three point line early in her career, but blossomed into a much more complete and aggressive offensive player.

 

[nickp91]

Aliyah Boston is unbelievable