So what do we learn from this game?

[JS]

JS, were you at the game?

Nope. Glued to my TV being grumpy to family members who tried to talk in my presence.

I'll make it up to 'em.

 

[ladybears4eva]

As noted in the game thread, SJU gave us a very tough game 2 years ago when we had Tina and Maya. They are a tough bunch.

they gave us hell in MSG this past fall...eventhough we didn't have Williams for the first half (suspension) and Condrey (lone senior, ankle injury)... they made it hard for Sims and the guards to pass efficiently... and McKenith was good...then... and even better now.

 

[ladybears4eva]

Remember, this is a rebuilding year. Only one Senior. I'm ecstatic with how well the team is doing this year.

I'm glad we also have one senior this year, so both our teams will be very similar in that sense next year.

Well... we will be mostly Seniors and juniors...

 

[huskybill]

I was at the game. At halftime I heard the following from two longtime Boneyarders

1 I'm not worried about this game.

2 I never thought I'd see St. John's leading UConn at the half.

As for the game, StJ had too many second chance points. They were great at running the clock down inside 5 seconds and getting a good shot. They beat us off the dribble time and time again. They were fast at getting back and stopping our transition game. One thing that was interesting was that the StJ coach called a timeout after they had scored in the first half of each half. I think that was to give their starters a little more rest as they were going to play most of the game with little playing time from their bench. Their 3 subs played 29 minutes. Our 2 subs played 59 minutes.

 

[tomcat]

I guess what's troubling to me as a fan -- and not a fair weather one, either -- is the way things are going. Before this season started, remember the "How many games will UConn lose this year?" posts? Estimates ranged from none to eight, as I recall. I was in the 3-4 range, myself. So this game is not the end of the world, to my way of thinking.

But what really disturbs me, as a UConn fan who wears it on his sleeve (just ask my ever-patient spouse) is that the disorganized play, turnovers and all the other crap that we all have enumerated over the last handful of games, has occurred late in the season, not early. Those of us who are believers in momentum and trends have to be upset at this. And, not to put too fine a point on it, the way the play is going it seems as though UCon's players are not really learning anything new. Okay, opponents have figured out ways to knock UConn off its game. Most of the time, UConn has played through that, but it doesn't seem to me that the reason why is that UConn has come up with new plays, new strategies or better execution. It has gotten by on talent alone.

For myself, perhaps the most wonderful thing about watching UConn teams of the past was being able to see the development of the players as a year went on. This was especially true when the team did not have as much of an All-Star cast as in its best years. Some people are going to hate this, but viewed through the lens of improvement and reaching its potential, IMHO, this team is disappointing.

 

[huskybill]

One reason UConn looked better earlier in the season then they do now is that they just went through a batch of better teams without any weakies compared to earlier in the season when we had weaker teams sprinkled in the schedule.

 

[msf22b]

I posted on the locked thread but there was too much invective and not enough analysis.
To paraphrase: its a loss...and the Knicks lost last night too.

St. John's played well, better than us. Plaudits to their team; it had a real New York feel, that's a little like great NY BB.

Its a little scary that at the near the end of the season, the team hasn't figured out how to feed the posts. Seems like that is something that can be taught but what do I know (?) and certainly don't want to point fingers. A crash course would be most welcome.

We played the game essentially with 6 players, its not enough! Again the great lesson from NY these last two weeks.
Are usable ready-for-prime-time bodies waning away on the bench? We'll never know. I must admit to becoming tired with the "its how they practice" mantra.

None of the four guards that played most of the game had a great game and more worrying, their play seems less effective over the last month, for whatever reason. It could very well be that if Caroline was hurt, it disrupted aspects of both offense and defense, but that doesn't explain the relative lack of effectiveness by the others.
But remember St. John's was also trying to win and has a very athletic, quick bunch. there's no shame i losing such a game (except for the fact that we rarely lose).

This season, most of the top teams have had difficult losses (except Baylor of course) and interestingly enough, I don't think it has to do with parity, but I have to think about that one

My biggest concern is that Notre Dame is a more coherent and much more gifted version of what we saw tonight

 

[willingtonfan]

The interesting thing is that there WERE things we could have done at the end of the game to at worst ensure getting to overtime.
1. After the second foul on the last SJ possession, which was our 6th, why not identify who is the worst free throw shooter in the SJU five on the floor, foul that person immediately and see if they can hit both of the 1-and-1. If not, we get the ball back with the lead and the shot clock off forcing them to foul us; even if they do, that just ties the game - worst case we go to OT - and we still have time to try to score to win. my point is, no way they can score three points on a 1-and-1.
2. After the three-pointer, since the clock was under a minute, the clock stops. Why not call time out? Maybe the officials even look at the tape and put some time back on the clock during the time out (they often do, since the timer often is late stopping the clock on a made basket sub one minute). At least this would give Geno a chance to diagram a play for them to try to tie or win; somehow I don't think a corner three-pointer would have been it since we were only down 2, so a 2 would tie.

I'm afraid this is one of a number of times that things could have been done to give us a better chance of a better outcome - even given the situation as it developed - but weren't done.

 

[huskybill]

After the second foul on the last SJ possession, which was our 6th, why not identify who is the worst free throw shooter in the SJU five on the floor, foul that person immediately and see if they can hit both of the 1-and-1. If not, we get the ball back with the lead and the shot clock off forcing them to foul us; even if they do, that just ties the game - worst case we go to OT - and we still have time to try to score to win. my point is, no way they can score three points on a 1-and-1.

This idea is just ridiculous. What happens if they make the first, miss the second and get the rebound or we knock the rebound out-of-bounds? Then they need just a 2 to win the game. And how many 'Yarders would, leading by 2, want to give a team a chance to tie without even working for it when we have the best defense around?

As for your second "thought" we had our most clutch player shooting to win the game. If you asked me who I want with the ball and a chance to win at the end I'd say Bria.

 

[johnnyc]

So what do we learn from this game?

It's gonna be a heck of a NCAA tournament.

 

[MilfordHusky]

So what do we learn from this game?

It's gonna be a heck of a NCAA tournament.

And a BE tourney before that.

 

[MarlboroughMike]

And a BE tourney before that.

Just to prove that I am not jumping on the broken down offensive bus as a Mikey come lately, here is my post of Feb. 7 :

"This is a flawed team offensively. Plays 4 on 5, too many turnovers, can't pass the ball into the bigs, bigs have poor hands (except Kiah), don't/can't drive ( except Tiffany) and can be turned into a jump shooting team are among the issues. If this team makes the FF, kudos to Geno and them for having the fight and willpower to get past the problem areas."

It is not the defense; listening to the presser Gino repeatedly pointing out that St. Johns scored only 57 points. There are only a few things of the offense issues that can be fixed before the end of the season - turnovers are the easiest (maybe the hardest with the way this group plays at time). Playing five on four and the post hands issue can be corrected by the coaches quickly, but I don't know that is a part of their philosophy or what the impact on team cohesion in the short run that would be. Yes it is going to be a real tough slog through the BET and the big dance.

 

[DaddyChoc]

We played the game essentially with 6 players, its not enough! Again the great lesson from NY these last two weeks.
Are usable ready-for-prime-time bodies waning away on the bench? We'll never know. I must admit to becoming tired with the "its how they practice" mantra.

I hate it

 

[Icebear]

I would disagree with Geno about the defense. UConn players regularly missed assignments on Saturday. SJ scored 57 points but they had 17 offensive rebounds and that is defensive play. As has noted elsewhere we could not stay in front of their guards.

One thing that I see looking back is that SJ really spread the floor and we went out chasing them where their speed gave us trouble. This opened the lanes for cutting and attacking the offensive boards and limiting the help defense. Problem is that SJ is not a good 3 pt shooting team and there was now need to chase them as far out as we did. They shoot 27.7% as a team for the year on 3s and only 25% against us going 2 for 8.

For those worrying about us being slow out of the box and still obsessed that KML should start that has not been the problem the last couple of games where we ran out to easy early leads and them gave them back. So that argument is moot.

 

[DaddyChoc]

I would disagree with Geno about the defense. UConn players regularly missed assignments on Saturday. SJ scored 57 points but they had 17 offensive rebounds and that is defensive play. As has noted elsewhere we could not stay in front of their guards.

upon further review, I hit my St Johns score on the head. Now I dont feel as bad..