Some game thoughts - UCONN vs. Houston

[BroadwayVa]

Umm, all due respect, the analysis was ok, at best. The team is on the road again for 6 of the last 7 games, playing against a pretty gritty team in Houston who according to Massey have the 63rd best SOS, ahead of Maryland, Kentucky, Florida State and Utah so their 6-7 record is a bit misleading.
The 4th Quarter with our bench was, once again, a struggle. That’s where the lead completely dissipated. That said, the bench needs time and Batouly needs the reps as does Mikayla Coombs. To call this a disappointing effort is not “positive” by any stretch of someone’s imagination.
You are an avid fan but not one of the rah-rah fans by any stretch. That’s ok at times but you let the unbelievable seasons of the Stewie/Mo/Tuck years cloud your view of what is a very, very good team. Enjoy the ride more is my advice. There have been UConn teams who have had 1 and 4 losses respectively that won titles so the world is not on their verge of the apocalypse.

It is positive to play Coombs and Liv many minutes. It's positive to see MW drill 3's and score under the basket. CW got a quiet 10 but could have had 25.
Those teams that won the NC with 1 or 4 losses had an at least 8 rotation. The rotation of this team fades beyond 5. No stomping the downtrodden, it is what it is and it maybe fixed before April, MAYBE!! Whether Uconn wins the elite 8, ff, Nc--nice. After the first 10--it become ordinary, while extraordinary. So I' didn't cry for Uconn the past 2 years nor will I cry for them this April. I'm happy with a win. UC hasn't always been the top of the heap, Men or women. Fan's are fan's good or bad. Yet we/they Monday Morning Quarter back, complain. Uconn fans are not Unique--but the team is.

 

[HuskyNan]

Throwing the bench players out in the 4th qtr with few if any starters do not seem like an ideal way to give them real game experience.

Moving the goalposts, huh? And here I thought Geno was giving the fans what they’ve been screaming for

 

[VaConnFan11]

When the starters are playing most, if not all, of the 3rd quarter and parts of the 4th quarter, the whole team gets credit for losing the 2nd half. All of the starters played a minimum of 30 minutes and KLS played 36. If it wasn't for a GREAT 2nd quarter, this game is uncomfortably close.

The fact is that of the TOP 25 teams that won by 20+ since Thursday (7 teams), UConn will be the only one that lost the 2nd half.

 

[oldude]

When the starters are playing most, if not all, of the 3rd quarter and parts of the 4th quarter, the whole team gets credit for losing the 2nd half. All of the starters played a minimum of 30 minutes and KLS played 36. If it wasn't for a GREAT 2nd quarter, this game is uncomfortably close.

The fact is that of the TOP 25 teams that won by 20+ since Thursday (7 teams), UConn will be the only one that lost the 2nd half.

Congratulations!!! You’ve just come up with the single most meaningless statistic in the history of sports.

 

[MD#12Fan]

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Coombs is getting much better, still has trouble with her shot, but it will come.
How about that? I didn't know Molly or Irwin were HS AA's? Just exactly what does it mean for a player to be a HS AA? What can they do that just really good basketball players can't do.
One comment about no bench. How many games did those with 120 points each night play? What was the level of competition? Did they play 35 to 40 to 45 minutes nearly every game for 3 seasons? Did they play with or recover from injuries (Phee, DT, KLS).
Medico's will tell you playing those minute 35 to 45 game after game is a sure plan to create injuries --short term and long term.

I recommend that 30 for 30. LMU lost in the Elite 8 in the NCAA tournament to eventual winner UNLV, after their star player, Hank Gathers DIED during a WCC playoff game against Portland. Gathers averaged like 30 ppg and 20 boards. What a frickin beast! He manhandled Shaq in college, after getting his first few shots blocks (he was 6’8”), for like 45.
They knew that the game was theirs when the opposing players would start bending over grabbing their shorts. BTW Westhead won a WNBA title with the Phoenix Mercury and Diana Taurasi. She loved him and his uptempo style. Geno no doubt knows Westhead, both of them from Philly. There is a “Philly Style” that all these guys have in their blood.

 

[pvdoggy]

Moving the goalposts, huh? And here I thought Geno was giving the fans what they’ve been screaming for

Nope, I have always been consistent with what I thought about playing mostly bench players in garbage time do not teach them anything.

 

[Zanzman]

Lyman depriest also shut Shaq down

 

[SLY63]

Throwing the bench players out in the 4th qtr with few if any starters do not seem like an ideal way to give them real game experience.

Agree completely. The best option would be to sub one or two bench players in earlier with the starters to simulate "real game" situations

 

[VaConnFan11]

Congratulations!!! You’ve just come up with the single most meaningless statistic in the history of sports.

Why don't we wait until the end of the season to see how meaningless it is?

 

[oldude]

Agree completely. The best option would be to sub one or two bench players in earlier with the starters to simulate "real game" situations

This is the 2nd time I’ve issued this response in the same thread. Watch the game more closely. There is a 5-7 minute stretch in the 3rd & 4th qtr when Geno subs in Liv and Mikayla with 3 starters.

 

[oldude]

Why don't we wait until the end of the season to see how meaningless it is?

I’m all ears. Please advise me how winning games by 20+ points, but getting outscored in the 2nd half can possibly be a meaningful statistic?

 

[oldude]

Nope, I have always been consistent with what I thought about playing mostly bench players in garbage time do not teach them anything.

Once more, Liv & Mikayla had a substantial stretch of PT vs Houston with 3 starters playing alongside them.

 

[boontonbomber]

Geno has said he wants his team to take 20 three point shots a game - they took 19 shots today. Crystal did make a nice pull up late in the game and I agree I’d like to see more of that. It seemed to me the team needed 1.5 quarters to get into sync offensively. Thats anissue thatneeds to be solved before the postseason

Perhaps it's because of this 20 shot "strategy" that they appear to be forcing many of them. Doesn't seem like 20 per is so many, but if this focus on throwing up threes is contributing to the lack of dribble penetration, then maybe not such a good idea. They've got to keep defenders honest, otherwise they will be in their faces all the time. Dribble penetration has not been a strong point of UConn offenses over the years, but I thought that with Williams coming in maybe Geno was going to go in that direction a bit more. I just don't think that this team will , in the end, be able to compete with the better teams unless they get past the perimeter defenders. It's not like they don't have the players who are capable of doing that. JMO

 

[JoePgh]

Beyond what has been stated above, an observation about the game that I would offer is that there were probably 3 or 4 occasions when Mikayla received a pass in the corner and was wide open, but instead of shooting (which would have been "in rhythm"), she either started a baseline drive or made another pass.

I understand why she did that; she lacks even a slightly reliable 3-point shot. But that means that there is a hole in the Uconn offense when she is on the floor, since opponents don't have to guard her when she is in a normal backcourt position.

That will, of necessity, limit her non-garbage time minutes against good teams. And I don't think she can fix this problem before the NCAA tournament.

 

[dtbtbtb]

Does Coombs have any offensive skills aside than charging to the basket from the left side?
One of the things that is limiting this team is that it's not as good a passing team as most of past UConn teams and because of that are not that patient on offense and take many more bad shots that we are used to seeing from a UConn team.
All in all it's a good team just not one that is a shoe-in for the final 4 unless there is a major improvement in different areas (defense, passing game, bench contribution, etc.)

 

[boontonbomber]

Geno put Camara in against Baylor to bang heads with Brown & Co. He praised her in the post-game presser, and said something to the effect that they needed to see more of her now. So much for that. I don't think she saw any time with the starters. She needs,and deserves, time with the starters. Some things just can't wait 'till next year. I just don't get it.

 

[oldude]

Geno put Camara in against Baylor to bang heads with Brown & Co. He praised her in the post-game presser, and said something to the effect that they needed to see more of her now. So much for that. I don't think she saw any time with the starters. She needs,and deserves, time with the starters. Some things just can't wait 'till next year. I just don't get it.

There was at least one starter on the floor the entire game, and there were two starters (Lou & Christyn) on the floor when Touly entered the game.

 

[JustinesGuy]

A 20 point win over a now 6-8 Houston team - Some folks thought UCONN would come out with a "purpose" (or pick any other word) after the Baylor loss. I say no, they did not. Solid game, but aside from the 2nd quarter, Houston basically played UCONN even. I would expect that against a team like Louisville, but not against a team like Houston.

Passing and decision making was just off - 18 turnovers, and probably close to half were unforced. So many bad passes and unforced turnovers, especially by Collier, Walker and Dangerfield. Just bad decisions. It was just an ugly game, particularly shocking coming off the Baylor loss. Geno said a few great things...

One regarding the Baylor loss - something like "you can't really expect us to win every single regular season game for 10 years". He also said that usually his teams are focused on April, but with this team, he knows they are not as good as teams in the past, and he said that he basically "wants them to enjoy every moment of the season". I thought that was some great stuff and an indication his expectations are lower for this team and he needs to coax them along gently instead of other kinds of motivation.

Lou and Pheesa are just tremendous. I thought aside from some really bad passes, Walker played very quietly, but was solid. Williams seems to have hit the freshman wall and aside from a scoring outburst in the 4th quarter, was largely invisible. Danger had some great flashes and it's hard for a great player to play great for 35+ minutes. She did not play great, but was very good for the most part. ONO showed a few good things, and that's all I will say about the bench because there is nothing else good to say about them. Yes I know people are tired of the much maligned bench hence no comment.

Overall, a win. No one got injured. Not a statement game, not a recovery game, not really anything overly positive. I think Geno will be happy because he realizes expectations for this team need to be lower, and we are now getting the closer games fans craved in the past.

Great post I felt the same way about the game.

 

[LIUCHusky]

Lyman depriest also shut Shaq down

Lyman never played against Shaq Oneal. I believe you may mean Scott Burrell. UCONN played LSU in the 1991 NCAA Tournament and Lyman wasn't part of that team.

 

[VaConnFan11]

I’m all ears. Please advise me how winning games by 20+ points, but getting outscored in the 2nd half can possibly be a meaningful statistic?

It shows to me the inability of the starters to keep the "pedal on the gas". After a GREAT 2nd quarter, I think most watching the game expected much of the same in the 3rd quarter. Instead UConn only won the quarter by 4 points.

In comparison, look at Notre Dame's win against Pittsburgh on Thursday. Notre Dame up 60-14 at half. Notre Dame comes out in the 3rd quarter and outscores them 25-10. That's keeping the pedal on the gas and then some.

Last season's team would have won today's 3rd quarter by 15+ points, maybe more.

It is obvious that this year's team is not as good as last years, but there is something missing other than talent. It looks to me that there is a lack of focus which leads to the turnovers and missed defensive assignments and there's just no flow. Can this be corrected? Sure. Will it? Maybe.

What does this all mean? To me it means that the inability to really put teams away gives other teams hope, which leads to much closer games and eventually an unexpected (aren't they all?) loss.

Like I said earlier. Let's see how the rest of the games play out to see if my stat foretells anything. I hope it doesn't.

 

[boontonbomber]

There was at least one starter on the floor the entire game, and there were two starters (Lou & Christyn) on the floor when Touly entered the game.

I wanted to see her playing with 4 starters, and I still do. 86 seconds with Samuelson and Williams was not exactly what I had in mind.

 

[oldude]

It shows to me the inability of the starters to keep the "pedal on the gas". After a GREAT 2nd quarter, I think most watching the game expected much of the same in the 3rd quarter. Instead UConn only won the quarter by 4 points.

In comparison, look at Notre Dame's win against Pittsburgh on Thursday. Notre Dame up 60-14 at half. Notre Dame comes out in the 3rd quarter and outscores them 25-10. That's keeping the pedal on the gas and then some.

Last season's team would have won today's 3rd quarter by 15+ points, maybe more.

It is obvious that this year's team is not as good as last years, but there is something missing other than talent. It looks to me that there is a lack of focus which leads to the turnovers and missed defensive assignments and there's just no flow. Can this be corrected? Sure. Will it? Maybe.

What does this all mean? To me it means that the inability to really put teams away gives other teams hope, which leads to much closer games and eventually an unexpected (aren't they all?) loss.

Like I said earlier. Let's see how the rest of the games play out to see if my stat foretells anything. I hope it doesn't.

If you had said that UConn has little or no depth, and the Houston game demonstrates that if the Huskies are forced to go to their bench in a big game, they may be in trouble, then I would agree.

Here’s why your argument doesn’t hold water. There are 200 minutes in a game to be divided up by 5 or more players. In the 1st half, UConn built a 20 point lead with the starters playing 98/100 minutes.

In the 2nd half, Geno substituted early and often, playing Liv and Mikayla for long minutes with the starters and also mixing in Kyla, Touly & Molly. The reserves played 36/100 minutes, and while it pains me to say so, UConn’s execution suffered whenever the reserves were in.

Last year’s team had Z coming off the bench. To pump up her minutes, Geno often left her on the floor through much of the 4th qtr, when she would dominate opponents mop up players with her 6’6” frame scoring repeatedly in the paint.

This is not about the starters taking their foot of the gas. In order for UConn to win it all this year, the 5 starters will have to do basically the same thing ND did last year: stay healthy, stay out of foul trouble and play almost all the minutes.

 

[oldude]

I wanted to see her playing with 4 starters, and I still do. 86 seconds with Samuelson and Williams was not exactly what I had in mind.

I don’t disagree. But to be clear, Touly played 5 minutes, all with Lou on the floor, and about a minute with Christyn also on the floor.

 

[Vowelguy]

Funny how no one had any problem with Geno's coaching style and priorities when he was winning 11 national titles. Now all of a sudden he's an idiot. Go figure.

 

[uconnfan68]

People have been saying thatGeno should give the bench more playing time. Well, he did and now fans will need to learn to live with such results as the bench gains game experience

We won... by 20. I can live with that. The kids need game time.