South Carolina Postgame Thread

[BBallF]

Outplayed, outcoached, and outclassed. Congrats to SC. It was a great ride up to the abrupt end. The things some pointed out as weaknesses were on full display today.

Not the ending anyone wanted from the UConn perspective. This team was NOT head and shoulders better than everyone else. Time to lick our wounds, have a great summer off, say goodbye to our seniors, and look forward to next season...

Last thing I will say for next year - I hope fans remember this when they start thinking about saying things like how great we are or how much steamrolling we are doing. We have to just enjoy the ride and appreciate how incredibly hard it is to win a NC. I enjoyed the ride very much this year and will miss Azzi, Carol and Serah.

Outclassed? I assume that is a veiled allusion to Geno. You have no idea what the back story is and neither does anyone else. Our team outclassed by Dawn and her team? Remember her mouthed words on the sideline last year? There is more to the story and I don't think we should be throwing Geno under the bus without knowing all the facts.

 

[msf22b]

Thoughts

-Actually, we didn’t play bad defense…held them to 38%…that should have been good enough except that we were worse.

-Geno had hinted at a few times that the team had weaknesses that he tried to cover up..noted by posters above…rebounding, hands of stone, a bad shooting night…but a lot of that had to do with SC’s impressive defensive effort…the lack of another real scorer...
Blanca didn’t quite have it tonight…she’ll be fine…wonderful, just not tonight...

I felt bad for Kayleigh,that missed layup didn’t effect the outcome…Too bad, but the game was lost prior
I’m sure she’ll be able to put it into perspective…She played a good game.

The real problem was that take away Azzi and Sarah…and there wasn’t enough to challenge a good team with perhaps more, cumulative, individual talent.

 

[Vowelguy]

If Geno was this concerned about fouling, he should’ve gotten a T early in the game.

 

[BigTenFan]

Unfortunately, the end of the game overshadows all the great players and competition....on both sides.
Coach should make a public statement and get ahead of it.

Two great teams competing at a high level

 

[Flyegirl]

What was that about?

Apparently, Dawn wouldn't shake his hand at the beginning of the game

 

[Ron and Vida]

The usual. UConn is a jump shooting team and rarely draws fouls in the midcourt. So Carolina scored mostly in the paint and the Huskies didn’t move their feet quickly enough to avoid the fouls

Like (unfortunately)

 

[and one]

We didn't play well, SC played better and won. In sports, teams have bad games and lose, sometimes in a tournament when it ends your season. No biggie, it happens, no team never loses. Soon enough the loss and season fade and the next season rolls around.

What will linger from this season will be the memory of Geno's lousy behavior in the loss. I hope he finds a way to make a decent apology but even if he does there will be a permanent blot on his legacy as a coach. As far as UConn women's basketballs legacy goes, todays loss is only a blip compared to the damage inflicted by Geno.

 

[Next 12]

Thank you Bone . Yard for a wonderful season of Uconn basketball. I have made many predictions during the season that came true UNTIL this untimely loss to S Carolina, and I give them credit, they wanted it more than Uconn. So I was wrong on my final prediction and I want to thank all thye mposters that commented on MY posts. Thank you Huskies for a wonderful season,38-1 remarkable!! Will see you in October when the new season begins. GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!

 

[ec33]

Making Hurley looking subdued

Don't. Please. Danny might take that as a challenge.

 

[oldude]

All good points, Dude. I disagree,a bit, about your use of the term " loaded" for next season. For that to be true, someone has to step up to Sarah's level. We have had Paige and Azzi up to now, but they are both gone. Everyone assumes Blanca will be much better, but she didn't show that potential today, and there are no guarantees. We''ll have four terrific guards, but no superstars. The Big O may be the game changer, and we all hope so. The Croatian recruit is a mystery. We'll be really good but, as we saw today, other major programs are not sitting idle. I do hate losing to South Carolina.

Jovana is Serbian and she is very good.

 

[TRest]

I wasn’t able to watch the game, but I looked at the stat sheet; UConn had 17 personal fouls vs. SC’s 8. It resulted SC’s 22 free-throws vs UConn’s 6. I don’t know what happened; so could someone kindly give some insight? I don’t mean to “cry a river”, I’m just curious. Thanks.

They can’t handle physical defense.

 

[jaydee602]

The refs let the players play, that doesn’t help us because of the overall lack of height/athleticism/individual ability to get shots (that were covered up all year by team play, fitness, press/depth, few competitive teams). The women played hard, but you are not going to win many national semifinal games by scoring 48 points. BTW, what was up with Azzi?

SC shot 22 free throws
UCONN shot 6

UCONN had 17 fouls
SC had 8, including ZERO in the 3rd quarter!

The refs let ONE team play! SC was the better team tonight, but the officiating was unbalanced!

 

[WiseWillie]

When your two first team All-Americans shoot a combined 7-31, not much more can be said.

A little too much Final Four celebration, award ceremonies and a little too much overconfidence? Whatever. This season was very successful but it's over in a loss where we were just simply outplayed and outmatched. Need to give SC much credit they played consistently, the press had absolutely no effect and from the opening tip they rattled and took our two best players completely out of the game. SC next year? Joyce Edwards will there for the next two years.

 

[mainerhuski]

I do wonder if calling off the press contributed to the lack of aggression all day. Yes, it wouldn't have worked, but it might have helped with the intensity.

You can’t press the opponent’s fast break, and we gave up so many offensive rebounds that they ran the break all night.

 

[Phil]

He was an idiot. I don’t know what his problem was but he shouldn’t have acted that way. Totally unprofessional

I plan to wait to hear more before leaping to conclusions.

 

[BobbyJ]

Pressure cracks rock, pipes, and people. From the start of the season there were three fairly obvious keys to beating UConn if a team had the personnel and toughness to execute them. 1) Defensively, hedge all the screens, overplay the predictable passing lanes, jam the handoffs, and get a hand up on shooters. UConn struggles to run their offense against pressure D and will get sloppy passing the ball. 2) Offensively, attack the paint for percentage shots which will allow you to pound the O boards. UConn's interior defense is passive with only one shot blocker. 3) Make anyone other than Strong and Fudd beat you. SC executed all three.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Apparently, Dawn wouldn't shake his hand at the beginning of the game

That seems unlikely. Makes no sense.

 

[msf22b]

I think Geno’s behavior in the handshake line almost overshadows the game. It wasn’t appropriate. I agree that he should apologize to Dawn.

Not only to Dawn but to all of us…to the BB community.

 

[uconnever]

Congratulations to SC. We seemed a little tentative, unlike last year, where we were the aggressor. It was not the ref’s fault we lost the game, but the foul discrepancy should be addressed. I hope Geno goes out and gets a big that can really grab rebounds. I love KK and I think our defense is amazing, but we really need her to score more.

Agree and like the men's team, need to get more athletic.

 

[boontonbomber]

I think we are. People mostly seem to be just disappointed with Geno,

Yes , the Boneyard handling the loss in a much more classy way than Auriemma. I'm very proud of the team and the Boneyard.

 

[JSB60]

They simply were tougher. The rebounding told the story.

 

[Scoe]

I'm not suggesting any such thing. What I'm suggesting is that Geno needs some serious self-reflection and an attitude adjustment if he plans to continue to coach basketball.

Can’t defend that I hope it’s a very rare out of character moment and a bad day at the office for Geno I never liked his look tonight can’t blame him for having frustration but you can’t loose your cool like that.

 

[WiseWillie]

Bad look for Geno not to congratulate the other team. Lot of frustration due to a lot of poor play but Dawn patrols the sidelines like no other, giving the refs a raft of crap, time and time again. Does it legitimize Geno’s behavior? No way, but again the refs need to put a figurative leash around the likes of Staley and Mulkey.

The refs? Or the NCAA?

 

[Rings R Us]

whatever it is, I have to believe what Dawn Staley said that Geno complained that she did not shake his hand pre-game is pure BS.

I watched the espn pregame special and they had video of all the coaches shaking hands, so dont know why Dawn said that. It had to be something else or about her swearing at the refs or something.

Geno should have at least shaken hands with the South Carolina players, really bad look in my opinion.

 

[UConnCat]

Geno did laugh early on in the season when people talked about this year's team being better than last year's team with Paige.

It was apparent that wasn't the case, even though last year's team lost regular season games. Sarah is young and Azzi showed signs late in the season of not being able to meet the moment when the spotlight has been on her rather than Paige.

The lack of toughness and rebounding in the post has been an issue all season. I wish Serah Williams well but she wasn't the answer and that was apparent early on.

 

[BobbyJ]

Outplayed, outcoached, and outclassed. Congrats to SC. It was a great ride up to the abrupt end. The things some pointed out as weaknesses were on full display today. Not a good look by Geno at the end either.

Not the ending anyone wanted from the UConn perspective. This team was NOT head and shoulders better than everyone else. Time to lick our wounds, have a great summer off, say goodbye to our seniors, and look forward to next season...

Last thing I will say for next year - I hope fans remember this when they start thinking about saying things like how great we are or how much steamrolling we are doing. We have to just enjoy the ride and appreciate how incredibly hard it is to win a NC. I enjoyed the ride very much this year and will miss Azzi, Carol and Serah.

They won't.

 

[Centerstream]

After the TN game last season, due to blood glucose issues, I started my tradition of not watching any of the two Final Four games live. Around two hours after tipoff, I checked the ESPN app for the score. When I checked both games, we were up big and the Championship game was actually over, I believe. I started to watch the games, from the beginning.
This season I did the same but began with the Sweet Sixteen game.
So.....I didn't watch tonight's game and never will.
Sad to be reading all these posts and my only input is that I hope that the Geno situation is made public and I am wondering how Geno feels about renewing the OOC games against SoCar?
On to the off season.

 

[uconnever]

Can’t win when you can’t make shots….😔

Exactly, we missed everything. Had plenty of chances but kept missing.

 

[HuskieDawg]

That seems unlikely. Makes no sense.

ESPN showed a pre game video and it looked like Dawn did shake Geno’s hand. So really not sure what to think.

 

[Stinger92860]

A complete lack of composure during and after the game. An apology is needed for the after game behavior.