South Carolina Postgame Thread

[LetteD]

Omg the pregame handshake is not what he’s talking about, so those videos prove nothing,

And I thought Geno was having a bad night! Smh

 

[JBK]

These games are just not entertaining. Ncaa going the way of the Wnba

Agreed. Not a good look for women’s basketball -

 

[Smp7598]

If

These games are just not entertaining. Ncaa going the way of the Wnba

ya it’s a joke! Unless your a fan of the team you are not watching!

 

[JBK]

I can’t wait for the next post stating Geno is out of touch and too old to coach women’s basketball and should resign. Let’s give Geno some grace and not forget all the wonderful things he’s done over the course of his career for women’s and for all those that wish to continue to bash him, shame on you all. Just shame !

He is human but needs to step up and apologize

 

[Flyegirl]

Neither team has hit 30 points and the game is going into Q4. And Texas is losing! Just a disaster of a FF.

An absolute disaster. I love womens basketball and I don't even want to watch.

 

[maple]

I love that the coach antics have given all of the UConn haters endless talking points. Not. Now nothing will matter except the asinine remarks and behaviors. Ugh. I get Geno was heated but I wish he’d just been the bigger person.

 

[GamecockFam]

No need. We all saw what we saw. Some people will excuse bad behavior no matter what, but not most of us. Good game by South Carolina. Good luck on Sunday.

Thank you!

As an aside, our game felt like a normal amount of physicality to me, maybe some extra scrappiness going for loose balls because a title is on the line, so idk what Geno was getting all flustered about. He seems to be 0-2 in accusations this game between the handshake and torn jersey comment.

 

[Aluminny69]

I saw video too, it was played during pregame on espn. They all shook hands.

I think Geno is talking about after player introductions, the two coaches get together and talk it up. I don't remember player introductions even being televised.

 

[bantamlaker]

UCLA 31- Texas 28 end of 3rd quarter. Cori Close says game is more like a rugby match and she feels sorry for the fans. Ain’t that the truth!

 

[NYCer20]

Cori Close whining about the officiating in the post third quarter interview...

 

[maple]

Cori Close whining about the officiating in the post third quarter interview...

And it’ll get none of the traction that Geno’s comments made in his 3Q interview, of course.

 

[Dynastic]

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

Yeah, they shook hands in the beginning of the before the game. I mean it wasn’t standing at half court having a conversation and then shaking hands for some reason I guess that’s what he expected.

 

[joea]

Whining, right. If enough people do it does that mean anything?
Madison Booker, one of the faces of the sport and the tournament, is 1-16, and has not been to the free throw line.

 

[maple]

Whining, right. If enough people do it does that mean anything?
Madison Booker, one of the faces of the sport and the tournament, is 1-16, and has not been to the free throw line.

Crazy how Booker and Azzi both struggled tonight. Booker was the player I feared the most in a match up.

 

[Dynastic]

Team was NOT ready, played scared.

Yeah, for instance Makeer is a good player for a freshman, and it seemed that she wasn’t a focal point of our scouting report. We look tight every game besides the Syracuse game they definitely didn’t play loose at all, and it really affected their execution.

 

[RitzLuce1]

Yeah, they shook hands in the beginning of the before the game. I mean it wasn’t standing at half court having a conversation and then shaking hands for some reason I guess that’s what he expected.

I don’t think we would have heard a word about a lack of a “second hand shake” had we won.

 

[DemonDeac22]

Geno needs to apologize for that behavior, regardless of whatever issue he had at that moment. This was a bad look and I’m praying that this does not impact his ability to get commitments from future potential recruits.

 

[GoCardinal]

Listen we had a bad game and our 2 best players in particular performed terribly for them, especially Azzi. But to make statements and assertions like that about KK is thoroughly ridiculous and without merit. She played unbelievable defense and had 4 or 5 assists a few steals and no turnovers and just shattered the UConn team record of Paige for assist to turnover ratio for a season. She shouldn’t be our starting PG and offered nothing; unbelievable!

Defense is all fine and dandy, but the objective of the game is to put the ball through the basket. I said at the very beginning of the season on here that she and Shade in particular would have to be better or else the season wouldn’t end like they wanted. Shade showed something tonight, Arnold did not. Azzi is no longer on the team, there isn’t really a guard on the roster that a defense would fear from the perimeter next year. Sure improvements can be made, but it’ll be very hard to imagine a legitimate championship run if it’s this many liabilities on offense again.

 

[maple]

Geno needs to apologize for that behavior, regardless of whatever issue he had at that moment. This was a bad look and I’m praying that this does not impact his ability to get commitments from future potential recruits.

Most recruits won’t care. They want exposure and to win. Look at the antics of male coaches in basketball and football who act wildly out of pocket and still get big players. Hell look at WBB recruits that go to other programs with known “problematic” people. It’ll only matter to recruits once Geno becomes irrelevant.

 

[DemonDeac22]

Most recruits won’t care. They want exposure and to win. Look at the antics of male coaches in basketball and football who act wildly out of pocket and still get big players. Hell look at WBB recruits that go to other programs with known “problematic” people. It’ll only matter to recruits once Geno becomes irrelevant.

Time will tell…

 

[packwrap]

Congrats to SC. Disappointed for Huskies that they didn't bring their best game today.

19 for 61 31%.

Credit a lot of that to SC defense. They closed out on threes, and contested drives in the paint.

Twice UConn fought back, getting within 1 in the 3rd qtr, and within 4 with 4:40 to go. Unfortunately, we went ice cold down the stretch.

Will miss all the seniors, best of luck to them.

 

[maple]

Time will tell…

Ole Miss literally has a coach on staff who was fired from his previous coaching job due to abusing his players. And yet Ole Miss still somehow convinces people to come play for them and they’re not even that impressive of a program.

 

[ABCDFE]

Omg the pregame handshake is not what he’s talking about, so those videos prove nothing,

Geno owes no one anything, least of all Staley, or the press, or us, or the players (who undoubtedly agree with him) or anybody else, and the game, with NIL and the portal and the trend toward 'Physicality" is changing in a way that is not particularly appealing.
Obviously still watching... for now. If I want the WWE that is on another channel.

Anyone who defends that postgame behavior, no matter the justification, is not being rational. Most people in the coaching profession, at any level, know you gain respect in ounces and lose it in pounds. Tonight was a perfect example of just that. JMO

Didn’t change my view of him one iota. Was he perfect in his behavior, no? Did he act so egregiously to be called names by people in this board and assume he’s losing his mind or lied, absolutely not. Dawn Staley obviously behaved a way that was yes “by the rules” as nothing states you have to meet the opposing coach on time, but isn’t this common decency or polite behavior. Plus this is Geno Auriemma. If Geno did this to Pat Summit and Pat said something to Geno at the hand shake how many of the ppl here and media would say why would a Geno do that to Pat, oh she was right to walk off how disrespectful of him.

 

[Dynastic]

Blame Geno. He seems to think he can win with a smaller lineup. Sorry, not against a tall, athletic team. Who was the last center that geno fully developed? I was disappointed with his inability to develop Serah.

We should’ve just had the same rotation of players that we did all season, we trusted all of them every game and frankly the ball just wasn’t fallen for us for a number of reasons. Turnovers, missing layups too many, the shots weren’t falling for our all Americans. I wish we had played Allie and Jana more but it was a good season. It’s just a shame it had to end this way.

 

[baggerbob]

Never bought into this team being better than last year. You don’t lose someone like of Paige’s quality and get better. But that didn’t fit with BY dogma.

Serah was a mystery. I’m stunned that she was getting double teamed at WI. She showed no offensive skills in the times I saw her.

And no one on this team is anywhere close to
Paige or any of the truly great Uconn players.
Sarah is a good player, but unless she improves a lot will never be in the top six.
DT, Sue, Maya, Stewie, Tina, Paige, and Rebecca.

 

[Rings R Us]

Geno needs to apologize for that behavior, regardless of whatever issue he had at that moment. This was a bad look and I’m praying that this does not impact his ability to get commitments from future potential recruits.

This is my concern too, how possible recruits and their parents are looking at what happened. Not ideal at all.

 

[JellyBean]

Hats off to Coach Staley and her South Carolina squad. They executed their game plan to the max. They used their height advantage and overall athletic ability to the max. Congrats, South Carolina.

For our beloved UConn squad. Tonight just wasn't our night. We just did not have our A game when it mattered. It happens. Azzi. Still a phenomenal player. Tonight, she just didn't have it. Same with Sarah. They gave it all they could.

Same with the rest of the UConn squad. They played hard but it just wasn't enough. South Carolina just outplayed us. Keep your heads up.

 

[NoSpamHere]

For those spun up about Geno’s behavior at the end, please watch his postgame press conference. You will get more insight into the situation. It’s not as black & white as it appears, and the videos posted of a handshake is not what he was referring to.

Whatever happened he should’ve stayed to shake hands with the SC players.

 

[BlueandOG]

Geno owes no one anything, least of all Staley, or the press, or us, or the players (who undoubtedly agree with him) or anybody else, and the game, with NIL and the portal and the trend toward 'Physicality" is changing in a way that is not particularly appealing.
Obviously still watching... for now. If I want the WWE that is on another channel.

You’re conflating two gripes. Maybe the refs let the SC players be too agressive, maybe not. Either way, Geom should have congratulated Dawn and shook hands with the opposition.

 

[Gael]

I never commented or made any predictions about the FF games on this site at all because I suspected that UConn wouldn't beat South Carolina or Texas.

My technical reasons?

Throughout the season, UConn scored a lot of points via press turnovers and uncontested 3pt shots, primarily against a lot of nonathletic and poorly skilled teams plus a handful of surprised decent teams. Against modestly good defenses, however, which could limit these forms of scoring, UConn had to generate points via two point scores out of their half court offense. The Huskies were never very good at this, unlike many of the backdooring and vivisecting UConn teams of yore.

Both South Carolina and Texas have tall and athletic basketball players, and I doubted that UConn could get press turnovers and wide open 3pt shots against their elite defenses, especially with its low scoring guards and centers.

Indeed, UConn's defense today performed decently even without an effective press, holding a powerhouse South Carolina offense to just 62 points on 38% shooting. Unfortunately, with their turnover and wide open three point offense shut down, UConn had to resort to an effete half court offense. All they were able to do was run handoffs off a weave way out beyond the 3pt arc, followed by some low quality long shots or missed drives against strong defensive pressure.

When a team does not have a Swiss Watch half court offense, sometimes games can nevertheless be won by quick and athletic self-creation scorers—streetballers— who have body and touch control at the rim. Unfortunately, too, this UConn team does not have such players, other than somewhat from Sarah Strong.