So, I just watched the game on ESPN3. My thoughts, belated as they may be, if anyone cares:
First, I think you have to give South Carolina some credit for playing with poise. Their bench looked like an underdog's bench in terms of their reactions, and their post-game celebration was definitely that of an underdog, but the girls on the court handled their business. Yes, they got a terrific individual performance from Markesha (sp?) Grant, but as a team, they had a game plan and they executed it. Mind you, it was a game plan/level of execution that would get them beaten by 30 at Gampel or XL, but the bottom line is they didn't play like underdogs. They played like they expected to win. So congrats are due to them.
It's hard to tell from TV coverage, but the crowd sounded weird to me. Just not very loud or engaged. It was like our crowd for the South Florida game, except if there was a real chance UConn was going to lose. I have to believe that if UConn needed the crowd for USF, it would have gotten loud. Instead, I just got a sense of nervous energy and nothing that would have been intimidating for SC. Again, crowd noise doesn't always come through properly with TV coverage, but that's what I gathered.
I know LV fans love and are protective of Pat and their program, as they should be, but they have to stop with the "media is exaggerating Pat's disengagement" nonsense. Are the TV networks covering LV games being selective with their shots of her? Maybe...but those shots didn't exist in years past. In years past, Pat Summitt is stalking the sideline, calling out to her team, staring down anyone who she felt deserved it, holding her team accountable on the sideline during timeouts, etc. Show me one time in the previous 30 years when her team needed a kick in the ass where she was just sitting on the sidelines while her assistants were yelling out to the team. Come on now. Moreover, why would you want to put this season on Pat? How is that good for her legacy? I say this out of the utmost respect for the woman: this ain't a Pat Summitt-coached team.
One thing that has to be at the base of any athletic program, any sport, is strength and conditioning. And I'm going to say something that will be considered inflammatory, but here goes: from what I can tell, the LV S&C program sucks. At minimum, what's mandatory for all of their girls to participate in does. Look at Stricklen doubled over sometime after a stretch without a whistle and tell me that any UConn girl would be allowed to be in that shape. No freaking way. Look at some of their girls three, four years into the program who aren't any more cut than the day they set foot in Knoxville. I'm not trying to be a jerk or trying to rub it in. It's the damn truth. You want to know how you go nine-deep with high school AAs and lose to South Carolina on your own floor? Fitness is a big part of it.
Spani certainly wasn't the reason the LVs lost, but I'm still confused. She's obviously not close to the player she is at full strength. Why the hell is she even in there? You're starting Burdick, a top-5 national freshman who's apparently earned the right to be on the floor at the opening tip. Let her take her lumps, encounter tough situations, and grow as a player. What message does it send to her that she's earned the right to start but she can't be in there when the game is on the line in deference to a player that's still hobbled?
Speaking of messages, if I were Vicki Baugh or Alicia Manning, I don't what the heck my role is supposed to be on this team right now. Both good kids, hard workers, team players, very likable. But they can't possibly know what's expected of them given the way they've be shuffled in and out of and around the rotation.
Glory Johnson is going to be so good in the WNBA.
The LVs look like a team that hopes to win but doesn't expect to. They hope their talent and athleticism will blow you off the floor but they don't really have a Plan B if they don't. And they get tight late in games on both sides of the ball. case in point: up 60-55, the LVs a) didn't score another point, and b) allowed SC to get six points in a row in the paint (which was not where SC was doing most of its damage most of the game). That's not how a team that believes in itself goes out.
So that's it. I'm sure I come across as some UConn fan enjoying another disappointing result by Tennessee, but this is reality. Putting your head in the sand and denying it doesn't make it less true. You want to be great? Pay the damn price. Every workout, every practice, every game, every play, every loose ball. You want to tell me the LV team this year has paid the price? Hell no, they haven't.
And WCBB as a whole is the worse for it.
To quote Doc Rivers, "It's not supposed to be easy."
