So, one month ago....

[Ozzie Nelson]

A month ago, we Baylor folk started asking the same question but from a different angle. You guys seemed in such a disarray offensively and limited in rotation options that we were wondering who else is out there and began wondering if we needed to look West toward a Stanford game. Deep down inside we knew we could handle Stanford, and had proven that Sims could outplay Diggins.

But having Auriemma is like having a 6th player on the court. He brings a men's game style of coaching to the women's game (being as hard on his best players as he is to get them to "get it"), so that occasions like Stewart's emergence can happen. KMulkey does the same thing, but at Baylor she can't get by with quite as much "challenging" as Auriemma can).

I thought you guys were going to just have to think of Stewart as a project for the next 2-3 years. And most of the posters here that I read felt just as puzzled. But wow. No way we match up with your guys next year. NO ONE nationally does.

As an outsider, when I watched Dolson being as uninvolved in the offense last night, and limping, I wondered even she becomes a 6th/7th off the bench player and a Stewart /(I'm blank on your frosh #5 whose given great minutes in the tourney) combo starts next year. Either way. Stewart is going to be a beast, and fortunately for you guys, that started in the last month, not in her second year.

The ONLY upside I see of Stewart's monster game/month is that perhaps the Brianna Turners of the world back off UCONN as a dream schollie, knowing that if Stewart stays healthy and on her game, between her and MLewis, there's not going to be a lot of offensive room for shooting max numbers of 3s every game. But if anyone can convince a national recruit to come and join your herd of national recruits, it's your coach, so who knows.

Again, congrats. Given that we hiccupped vs. Louisville and didn't make the show, glad to see your coach get his continued due reward.

Dolson will be an All American next year.

 

[meyers7]

H Not that long ago people were coming to the conclusion the Breanna wasn't what we expected.

That was what I expected. Just took a little while to get there. Just imagine what she can become with CD and Geno (and some weight room work) working with her over the next 3 years.

 

[hoopsdiva]

As an outsider, when I watched Dolson being as uninvolved in the offense last night, and limping, I wondered even she becomes a 6th/7th off the bench player and a Stewart /(I'm blank on your frosh #5 whose given great minutes in the tourney) combo starts next year. Either way. Stewart is going to be a beast, and fortunately for you guys, that started in the last month, not in her second year.

Again, congrats. Given that we hiccupped vs. Louisville and didn't make the show, glad to see your coach get his continued due reward.

I think you mean #3, Morgan Tuck, and yes she gave us some extensive quality minutes.

Glad we could get back at 'Ville for you guys, just as you got back at ND for us last year.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Prior to the season? Yes, though my prediction was we'd beat Baylor in the regular season and lose in New Orleans.

After the loss to Baylor? Less confident, but yes.

After two more Notre Dame losses? No. Figured beating both ND and Baylor would be too great a task, and they would have to do both. Liked what I saw from Breanna the second half of the BET final, but that gave me hope for the future...just not the immediate future.

My God, these performances by Breanna will go down as the stuff of legend. Certain events seem bigger in the moment than they do over time. I think Stewie's games will be the opposite.

KML and Stef in particular have to be giddy. They are going to have so much daylight now with teams trying to stop Breanna.

Kara Lawson called it "legendary" last night.

 

[UcMiami]

A month ago, we Baylor folk started asking the same question but from a different angle. You guys seemed in such a disarray offensively and limited in rotation options that we were wondering who else is out there and began wondering if we needed to look West toward a Stanford game. Deep down inside we knew we could handle Stanford, and had proven that Sims could outplay Diggins.

But having Auriemma is like having a 6th player on the court. He brings a men's game style of coaching to the women's game (being as hard on his best players as he is to get them to "get it"), so that occasions like Stewart's emergence can happen. KMulkey does the same thing, but at Baylor she can't get by with quite as much "challenging" as Auriemma can).

I thought you guys were going to just have to think of Stewart as a project for the next 2-3 years. And most of the posters here that I read felt just as puzzled. But wow. No way we match up with your guys next year. NO ONE nationally does.

As an outsider, when I watched Dolson being as uninvolved in the offense last night, and limping, I wondered even she becomes a 6th/7th off the bench player and a Stewart /(I'm blank on your frosh #5 whose given great minutes in the tourney) combo starts next year. Either way. Stewart is going to be a beast, and fortunately for you guys, that started in the last month, not in her second year.

The ONLY upside I see of Stewart's monster game/month is that perhaps the Brianna Turners of the world back off UCONN as a dream schollie, knowing that if Stewart stays healthy and on her game, between her and MLewis, there's not going to be a lot of offensive room for shooting max numbers of 3s every game. But if anyone can convince a national recruit to come and join your herd of national recruits, it's your coach, so who knows.

Again, congrats. Given that we hiccupped vs. Louisville and didn't make the show, glad to see your coach get his continued due reward.

Really enjoyed this post Prof - I think one of the secrets to Geno's post season success is that he uses the regular season to push and prod and remake players games, but come post season he stops that aspect of the coaching and lets the individual players just play to their strengths. It doesn't mean he doesn't coach the games and practices, just that he stops trying to micro-manage the individual players. I think it was Maya Moore who first spoke about the 'freeing-up' of the coaching in the tournament.
And agree with another posters comment - as long as Stef solves her physical issues (and hopefully that happens quickly) she will have a monster year next year. So much of the offense is run through her because in addition to being a good scorer, she is also a great passer. The triangle of her KML and Stewart will be a nightmare.
Good luck to Baylor next year BTW. It will be a major transition but there is a very good core of players there and it should be some exciting basketball they play.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

You might not believe me, but I always felt they would win it all.

Doggy!...did you not pick ND in semi? Or was that a sacrifice to mojo?

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I frankly had my doubts we would make it out of the regional after the BE Tourney. I read the stuff about how after that loss the team had rededicated itself, etc and put little stock in it. Well, low and behold, it was true. As Rich Elliot quoted Caroline Doty in an article today: "So we just really put stuff in the boat and sailed off together." Well, last night they steered the boat into the National Champions slip after 40 minutes of putting the boat hard to the wind with all hands hard on the upper rail. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable.

 

[vtcwbuff]

At the start of the season I thought they were a lock for the FF and they had an outside chance at a NC. I was convinced it was again Griner's year.

By the time the BE tournament rolled around I was starting to think a FF wasn't such a sure thing. The only thing that kept me hopeful was that there are so few really quality teams in WCBB. None of them had Auriemma.

It wasn't until Baylor lost and they dismembered Kentucky that I started to think they were going to win the NC.

 

[cohenzone]

The teams margin for winning it all was a little less of a problem than it might have appeared. I didn't think anyone but ND or Baylor could compete with UConn, but I thought we were better than we had played against ND, and they were about the same. Baylor was a different problem, and I wouldn't have been that optimistic, but we will never have to know. In a way, last night was as anticlimactic as I thought it might be. Game over early. You kind of want to know you beat a great team to win it all, and that wasn't the case. Louisville did UConn a favor, but took some of the drama away.

 

[housekeys]

Well said. I totally agree. To really appreciate it you had to see Stewie during the middle of the season. Against Baylor she looked totally lost. And that wasn't mainly because it was Baylor. That's just how she was playing. And then this.

I was 100% sure we would make the FF. After that I was not so sure. One other thing is that I felt one of Baylor/ND/Stanford would not make it to the FF. Just a gut feeling.

As for Stewart, this is what I wrote on the Boneyard after the Baylor game. What I wrote then, was not because I knew what others didn't, but because I believed in what others said about her coming into the season; that Stewart was a special player. They were right.

 

[CL82]

A month ago, we Baylor folk started asking the same question but from a different angle. You guys seemed in such a disarray offensively and limited in rotation options that we were wondering who else is out there and began wondering if we needed to look West toward a Stanford game. Deep down inside we knew we could handle Stanford, and had proven that Sims could outplay Diggins.

But having Auriemma is like having a 6th player on the court. He brings a men's game style of coaching to the women's game (being as hard on his best players as he is to get them to "get it"), so that occasions like Stewart's emergence can happen. KMulkey does the same thing, but at Baylor she can't get by with quite as much "challenging" as Auriemma can).

I thought you guys were going to just have to think of Stewart as a project for the next 2-3 years. And most of the posters here that I read felt just as puzzled. But wow. No way we match up with your guys next year. NO ONE nationally does.

As an outsider, when I watched Dolson being as uninvolved in the offense last night, and limping, I wondered even she becomes a 6th/7th off the bench player and a Stewart /(I'm blank on your frosh #5 whose given great minutes in the tourney) combo starts next year. Either way. Stewart is going to be a beast, and fortunately for you guys, that started in the last month, not in her second year.

The ONLY upside I see of Stewart's monster game/month is that perhaps the Brianna Turners of the world back off UCONN as a dream schollie, knowing that if Stewart stays healthy and on her game, between her and MLewis, there's not going to be a lot of offensive room for shooting max numbers of 3s every game. But if anyone can convince a national recruit to come and join your herd of national recruits, it's your coach, so who knows.

Again, congrats. Given that we hiccupped vs. Louisville and didn't make the show, glad to see your coach get his continued due reward.

You know, I like our Baylor guests. Always interesting and courteous. Keep stopping by Prof!

 

[jplotinus]

A month ago, we Baylor folk started asking the same question but from a different angle. You guys seemed in such a disarray offensively and limited in rotation options that we were wondering who else is out there and began wondering if we needed to look West toward a Stanford game. Deep down inside we knew we could handle Stanford, and had proven that Sims could outplay Diggins.

But having Auriemma is like having a 6th player on the court. He brings a men's game style of coaching to the women's game (being as hard on his best players as he is to get them to "get it"), so that occasions like Stewart's emergence can happen. KMulkey does the same thing, but at Baylor she can't get by with quite as much "challenging" as Auriemma can).

I thought you guys were going to just have to think of Stewart as a project for the next 2-3 years. And most of the posters here that I read felt just as puzzled. But wow. No way we match up with your guys next year. NO ONE nationally does.

As an outsider, when I watched Dolson being as uninvolved in the offense last night, and limping, I wondered even she becomes a 6th/7th off the bench player and a Stewart /(I'm blank on your frosh #5 whose given great minutes in the tourney) combo starts next year. Either way. Stewart is going to be a beast, and fortunately for you guys, that started in the last month, not in her second year.

The ONLY upside I see of Stewart's monster game/month is that perhaps the Brianna Turners of the world back off UCONN as a dream schollie, knowing that if Stewart stays healthy and on her game, between her and MLewis, there's not going to be a lot of offensive room for shooting max numbers of 3s every game. But if anyone can convince a national recruit to come and join your herd of national recruits, it's your coach, so who knows.

Again, congrats. Given that we hiccupped vs. Louisville and didn't make the show, glad to see your coach get his continued due reward.

Baylorprof

Glad you posted and that I saw it. I've been wanting to express sincere condolences for what should not have happened. I didn't want to see BG's college career end short of the championship game. I was also hoping to see her get the scoring record that she was within reach of.

It will be difficult to compensate for her graduation, but you still have Sims, as it doesn't appear she's going to opt out of her senior year and turn pro. I hope Baylor will win the Big12 next year and reach the final 4. I subscribe to the sporting proposition that losing hurts worse than winning feels good. I also understand that sports glory is fleeting and that winning the NC doesn't change our daily reality very much, if at all.

Baylor beat UCONN fair and square back in February. Your team was better that night.

 

[baylorprof]

cohen can say what a guest can't, but since he's cracked open the door a bit. I believe you guys deserved what you won, because you won it on the court (not in the press). Nevertheless, just as BU left one FF on the table three years ago vs. TAM in Dallas regional, and then left another FF on the table vs. Louisville in OKC, you guys may have actually backed in to a runaway national title because of Louisvilles lack of size and literally becoming real rather than the fairy tale run of late March/early April. Louisville's team last night didn't belong on the same court with your team, plain and simple.

Either way, you won it, and the last time I looked there are no asterisks on hung banners. 8 is 8.

I thought what ESPN did in immediately putting the Pat Summit quote on screen was forced and unnecessary--old news, nothing to see there, and perhaps the post game statement by Geno a bit. I thought his statement about his friend Jeff Walz was brilliant and quick. Has anyone been better than UCONN the last 6 weeks? Yeah, Louisville. Simple, honest acknowledgment that Louisville earned almost everything they got--16 of 16 3's vs. us, but at the end of the season, Louisville was/is not a national champion caliber team.

I'm still going to hold out that as important as Dolson has been, her career will end on a different trajectory than say, a Tina Charles, whom Geno challenged and challenged until her senior year and then told her, "Now, this is YOUR year!". I think Dolson, as legit an AA this year as she is, has had HER year(s), and that the future offense Geno puts on the floor will be run through Stewart, with who else being on the court other than KML not being as vital, thus my prophetic view has Dolson having to fight the younger talent for minutes in a way she hasn't had to since she inherited the #5 spot from Charles three years ago.

Geno typically proves he's smarter than a baylorprof, just as he devised a fourguard offense for several years because he didnt' have a legit scoring #4/#3, now he does (or whatever number you want to put on Stewart). And now the obvious thing to anticipate is, who else wants on the floor next year with Stewart and KML to be determined. If Dolson's conditioning and stamina/health had not been an issue in previous years, I might think Geno would not have to be as smart as a baylorprof, but the motivation to be a role player and lesser offensive player is far different, especially for seniors who have to work hard at conditioning, than for younger guns for whom everything is in front of them.

Question: do you already have 4 of 5 next year's starters determined? Lewis, Dolson, Stewart and Tuck at the #4 with Stewart a freewheeling #3, and thus, you're still just looking for a point guard to step up?

Or is Tuck a #5 waiting to happen and Stewart a legit #4 who steps out for the 3, and thus there may be TWO spots open for the taking--a more conventional two-guard offense. I have to admit, I don't know your bench/recruits in comparison well enough to prophesy, except to say, Morgan Tuck needs to be on the court.

Too long a post for a guest, but it's COLD here in Texas for April--right around 60 degrees so we Texans think everyone should hustle between buildings and cancel schools for a day. Sitting in a warm living room on your and other boards today is fun. Thank goodness for no Summer term teaching assignment.

 

[blackbird]

Hartley, Lewis, Dolson, Stewart and ?

The ? is likely to either be Banks or Jefferson. My guess is Jefferson, as Geno will like Bria starting off the game at SG, and he'll like Banks off the bench. Even if Tuck is the better player. (Although I suppose if Jefferson doesn't make the jump, he might start Tuck.)

 

[Scotter]

I'm still going to hold out that as important as Dolson has been, her career will end on a different trajectory than say, a Tina Charles, whom Geno challenged and challenged until her senior year and then told her, "Now, this is YOUR year!". I think Dolson, as legit an AA this year as she is, has had HER year(s), and that the future offense Geno puts on the floor will be run through Stewart, with who else being on the court other than KML not being as vital, thus my prophetic view has Dolson having to fight the younger talent for minutes in a way she hasn't had to since she inherited the #5 spot from Charles three years ago.

The offense will still run through Dolson next year because she'll be the best passer on the team. As good as Stewart was the offense wasn't actually running through her. Until her understanding of the offense improves to the point where she can create opportunities for her teammates, rather than just being the recipient. That's the the scary thing about her performance. She picked up her intensity, energy, and confidence, but she still didn't really have control of what was happening on the floor.

 

[Scotter]

You might not believe me, but I always felt they would win it all.

I believe you. And I felt the same way because I had confidence that despite the losses they were still objectively the best and most talented team. The Sagarin rankings pretty much reflected that all season, and more often than not the best team wins.

 

[UConnDan97]

I'm with doggydaddy. I was defending the women's team on the football board over a month ago, when certain characters were arguing that we didn't have what it takes to win the tourney. I think the thing that irritated me is that I was certainly in the minority with my belief in this team. I'm pretty sure I was in the minority all the way up to the ND game.

But here we are, and it's a great day to be right!!! UCONN!!!!

 

[Icebear]

I'm with doggydaddy. I was defending the women's team on the football board over a month ago, when certain characters were arguing that we didn't have what it takes to win the tourney. I think the thing that irritated me is that I was certainly in the minority with my belief in this team. I'm pretty sure I was in the minority all the way up to the ND game.

But here we are, and it's a great day to be right!!! UCONN!!!!

I spent a lot of time here defending the team and/or individual players against second guessing of Geno and who should start or this or that and against the constant presumptions of some that ND was somehow dominating us. The team always this in them they just needed to believe it. Once they started to believe and trust each other they were unstoppable.

 

[doggydaddy]

Doggy!...did you not pick ND in semi? Or was that a sacrifice to mojo?

Nope. I picked Uconn by seven.

 

[iri10]

I spent a lot of time here defending the team and/or individual players against second guessing of Geno...

One could argue that the "second guessing of Geno" wasn't entirely unfounded. Sort of. Geno has admitted that it took far longer to get the pulse of this team than many of his past teams.

But all's well that ends well. His assistants kept telling him that it would eventually come together, and they were right.

 

[Icebear]

One could argue that the "second guessing of Geno" wasn't entirely unfounded. Sort of. Geno has admitted that it took far longer to get the pulse of this team than many of his past teams.

But all's well that ends well. His assistants kept telling him that it would eventually come together, and they were right.

Second guessing Geno didn't solve the problem and in the end his use of players was more guided by injuries and other issues. He knew the parts he had the issue was their confidence and the will to compete.

 

[iri10]

Well, nothing we choose to harp on (or try to disregard) can "solve problems" for the UConn team. We aren't really problem solvers here - more like "problem discussers." Or perhaps more accurately, the panicking mob.

 

[Icebear]

Well, nothing we choose to harp on (or try to disregard) can "solve problems" for the UConn team. We aren't really problem solvers here - more like "problem discussers." Or perhaps more accurately, the panicking mob.

Exactly.

 

[UcMiami]

I really liked something that Jeff said in his press conference after the game ... He said Louisville has been unlucky to face a conference foe in the championship game the two times they have made it that far. I think that is something that gets a little overlooked in the blow out victories we have had against them now twice. One of the big things that happen in the NCAA is that teams are not that familiar with each other most of the time, and this allows for an element of surprise. This is a big advantage for a coach like Walz who is willing to try all sorts of things and was a big reason for their run this year. But with conference foes who have played one or two times every year there are few surprises that can be pulled.
Loved Geno's comment about the start of a second half against Louisville - Jeff had his team come out and set up on the wrong end of the court and Geno's brilliant charges immediately fell for the trap and followed suit. Jeff was furious that the ref's stepped in and corrected Uconn before the ball was inbounded!

 

[vtcwbuff]

"Second guessing Geno didn't solve the problem . . . "

And it didn't cause the problem.