SC Postgame Thread | Page 4 | The Boneyard

SC Postgame Thread

my2cents said:
Its the little things that you do or don't do that wins games. Not grabbing rebounds, lazy passes, not boxing out, ...we were not good today.
However, when you have only one player that can beat their "man" off the dribble, and only one player that can make a pass when help comes, and its the same player , your offense looks terrible.
Why the heck do we dump the ball to our post players up top, only to have them either turn it over, hold it forever....its just a bad offensive scheme.
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It works against 99% of our opponents.
 
As noted yesterday South Carolina is a mature team who can make 3 pointers now with more success and we needed to position ourselves for rebounding or lose. They are very athletic and, if anything, I expected even more pressure from their defense. Our only hope was to force turnovers, score on transition and have the strongest rebounding we could. ONO surpassed expectations and I thought Dorka at least was a decent defender and rebounder, which is what I prioritize for her. We had to assume it was going to be difficult for this team to score outside of Paige and that is why I focus on players who can make plays against top competition. I STILL think Caroline is one of the major keys to this team's hope of winning this year. She can get a shot off over those SC guards and she can help rebound and defend as well. I'm sure she's not ready or Geno would play her but if she is not able to help in the playoffs it's not nearly as likely to be successful
 
Rblack335 said:
I tend to agree. Not backed by fact but my imperfect memory, but it seems like Evina always comes out guns blazing but defers as the game goes on. Almost the opposite of Paige. We need both of them to be aggressive offensively the full 40 minutes.
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Exactamundo! We need more assertiveness! Did you see the 4th quarter when Azzi, EW and Dorka all passed up relatively open jumpers waiting to pass to Paige. God, Paige is great great great but she's not the messiah--she needs some help from her teammates. I have to cut Azzi some slack because she's only a freshman, but the rest are far too tentative when the game is on the line. Remember all this redemption talk and "unfinished business"? Well none of the seniors except for maybe Liv handled their business in the 4th Q--they all got tentative and quiet and deferred to Paige.
 
LwrcasefaN said:
ONO was great if you ask me.
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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.
 
It’s early, and UCONN will get better, but so will S.C., they have a longer bench btw and I’m not talking height though they have that also.
It appears they are getting better at perimeter shooting, which is big trouble for everyone else if that holds up.
 
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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.
 
Urshurak said:
UConn played fine first three quarters (3rd quarter was just okay.). 4th quarter was just baaaaaad. UConn lost in quarters 2,3 and 4 points wise. After going up by 13 and losing by 16, you don’t win games with a 29 point swing…

Offensive rebounds by SC leading to second chance points was the big part of this loss. UConns offense was second part of it. Awful in 4th quarter. As bad as it gets.

And 19 TO’s. Yikes
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On the turnovers I felt like SC adjusted to the frequent back doors and in the second half we were forcing passes that were not there when other things were not opening up.
 
This iteration of UConn is not to be confused with teams of the past. This team will never be a great defensive bunch. They are an offensively minded team. Can they improve? Absolutely. It should materialize over the course of the year. However, this team will win based on how effectively their offense performs. Today, they were uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball, particularly late in the game. Some of them were mental errors and the others appeared to be due to physical fatigue. Early in the season, 3 games in succession can have this effect. Losing to a number 1 SC team is not a reason to be demoralized. In fact, other than the first quarter, they did not play well. There are plenty of areas for the team to work on. SC is the biggest hurdle to clear for UConn. It will be a challenge because in comparison to last year’s game, Boston, Cooke and Henderson have improved, and Boston significantly, as she has gained more fitness by losing weight. Suffice to say, UConn is still a work in progress. The pieces are there, but putting the puzzle together is incomplete, for now.
 
Stymie said:
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.
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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.
 
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jaydee602 said:
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.
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ESPN controls all
 
eggfit said:
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???
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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.
 
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
 
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Fairfield Fan said:
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.
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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.
 
LwrcasefaN said:
They hit 5 of 18 3 pointers. That's not very good. UCONN only took 8. That's not good either.
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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.
 
saywho said:
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.
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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
 
Fairfield Fan said:
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.
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I could not disagree with your post more. Pure Liv-bashing.
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Fairfield Fan said:
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.
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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.
 
uconnfan68 said:
The coaching staff was right where they needed to be.
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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.
 
southofnorth said:
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
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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.
 
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