For once, I'm not going to read the previous posts before posting myself.
I acknowledge that it's probably bad form and possibly UCONN-unreal-expectations syndrome, but, even though today was a 40 point victory, I find myself a little distressed witnessing today's game in person at Seton Hall.
Even though they shot very out of the gate (& for the game), I found UCONN starting off flatter than flat.
I hope that Serah heals quickly, but (even though she had a quick 2 assists) she was unable to cover or close in the first period (particularly on Valenzuela, who is really good and a lock for All Big East). It wasn't only Serah, but Seton Hall looked like the more well-coached and disciplined team in the first quarter. Cutters constantly got wide open layups or found stationery shooters who did not have defenders closing out on them.
Once more, for the game, giving up offensive rebounds (particularly on long bounces) was a problem.
Defensively, things got better as the game progressed, but, before getting to some positive things that I noticed, it seemed to me that, even though she can be unstoppable whenever she wants, Sarah's hands and passes lately have been less reliable and efficient. Even if her passes were not intercepted, they seemed to be frequently tipped and less sharp, and she didn't seem to be aggressive on offense (specifically, driving to the basket or even pulling up against Valenzuela).
Before getting to some good things, it also seems to me that KK post-Notre Dame seems to be experiencing a regression in her own offense. She is still a great on-ball defender and takes care of the ball on offense, though.
Some really good things:
Blanca immediately turned things around when she entered pretty early in the first quarter. She was very efficient and effective on offense and defense.
Allie was a one-woman zone buster. Whenever they left her relatively alone, she made Seton Hall pay for it.
Yanna looks healthy and is back to doing some wonderful things on the court.
Azzi's first half shooting and her defense throughout the game were great, to me.
While it might be a problem vs Tennessee without both Serah and Ice, Jana looks healthy and effectively aggressive (& obviously should benefit from increased minutes for the near future).
I'm sorry if I'm being overly harsh, but this is a team with a tremendous ceiling, going through a part of the season where they are not truly being challenged (& probably were fatigued and thrown off by the change in schedule and rapid turn around), and are starting to have increasingly long lulls where they are not playing up to their own standard. It is a trend I hope that can be rapidly remedied.
Lastly, I haven't read the other posts as yet and have no idea how things were perceived in the telecast, but, to me in the arena, the refs seemed to have as dreadful and one-sided a game with their calls as I can remember. I'm probably overreacting, but it almost seemed like they were trying to influence the final score so that an exotic bet was being covered. Probably an overstatement, but that's how it seemed to me sitting in my wonderful seat at Walsh...
