St. Francis Post-Game Press

[BlueDolphin]

Interesting that the two players are more articulate than the coach.

Posted the above while the players were at the table. I thought the coach did better afterwards. Especially in answering the Is This Bad For WCBB question.

 

[HoopsFan21]

What was this guy thinking. Not only did he have his team ill prepared, he had absolutely no response when his stupid game plan blew up in his face. This guy is not earning his salary.

They play in the NEC. The same league as St. Francis Brooklyn and Robert Morris, two teams UConn has faced in opening rounds of the NCAA tourney recently, and we all remember (or maybe not) how those games went. I really don't get why so many are hammering this particular coach.

 

[wallman]

No one in their right mind would try and speed up a game against Uconn, especially when you are that bad. If you do that you are asking to be beat by 200.

 

[HoopsFan21]

No one in their right mind would try and speed up a game against Uconn, especially when you are that bad. If you do that you are asking to be beat by 200.

OK so would you ask Coach Abe (UCF) to try and play an up tempo game when they haven't all year? Why would a coach ask his team to do something it was incapable of doing or at least inexperienced in doing? That to me is the bigger crime so to speak. Coach Haigh stuck to his guns and said we're going to do what we've done all year which won us 24 games. Sorry, but I don't see the problem in that. Geno would and does have the exact same mentality.

 

[Vowelguy]

What was this guy thinking. Not only did he have his team ill prepared, he had absolutely no response when his stupid game plan blew up in his face. This guy is not earning his salary.

lol

 

[wallman]

OK so would you ask Coach Abe (UCF) to try and play an up tempo game when they haven't all year? Why would a coach ask his team to do something it was incapable of doing or at least inexperienced in doing? That to me is the bigger crime so to speak. Coach Haigh stuck to his guns and said we're going to do what we've done all year which won us 24 games. Sorry, but I don't see the problem in that. Geno would and does have the exact same mentality.

If your team jacks up 81 shots within a second of crossing the halfway line, which damn they were launching them, then you should expect to get your ass beat by big numbers against Uconn.

For arguments sake, can you imagine if Geno had decided to leave his starters in for a full 3/4 instead of about half the game which btw, he has the right to do if he wants to get them up and down, it would have been 200 and there would be even more crying and this dude got what he asked for.

 

[Vowelguy]

SF won the 2nd most games in team history this year. Yeah that coach is such a failure.

 

[HoopsFan21]

SF won the 2nd most games in team history this year. Yeah that coach is such a failure.

The guy won 24 games this year. Two years ago the same team won a grand total of six games. Let that sink in for a minute. This SFU team won as many games as the Tennessee Vols.

 

[lne001]

Not Geno's finest moment in his presser. He was clearly embarrassed by the margin of victory, as he should be. But blaming the other team is beneath him. He shakes his head and says "I've never seen anything like that, ever", as if the fault for the margin is St. Francis's style of play. Two seconds later he refutes that statement by mentioning Paul Westhead, who used exactly the same system at Loyola Marymount.

Auriemma then used the excuse of keeping his starters fresh as to why they played as many minutes as they did (Nurse was close to 30!), as if 10 fewer minutes each would make a difference. Sorry Geno, the absolute size of the margin of victory is on you, not St. Francis. You want them to slow down and hold the ball so they only lose by 60 rather than 100. Great solution.

In closing, like it or not, games and scores like this will not entice new male fans to women's college basketball.

 

[HoopsFan21]

Not Geno's finest moment in his presser. He was clearly embarrassed by the margin of victory, as he should be. But blaming the other team is beneath him. He shakes his head and says "I've never seen anything like that, ever", as if the fault for the margin is St. Francis's style of play. Two seconds later he refutes that statement by mentioning Paul Westhead, who used exactly the same system at Loyola Marymount.

Auriemma then used the excuse of keeping his starters fresh as to why they played as many minutes as they did (Nurse was close to 30!), as if 10 fewer minutes each would make a difference. Sorry Geno, the absolute size of the margin of victory is on you, not St. Francis. You want them to slow down and hold the ball so they only lose by 60 rather than 100. Great solution.

In closing, like it or not, games and scores like this will not entice new male fans to women's college basketball.

LOL how many of the starters played more than 20, 22 minutes? Why do you guys keep doing this to yourselves? Do you even look at a box score?

 

[tomcat]

What was this guy thinking. Not only did he have his team ill prepared, he had absolutely no response when his stupid game plan blew up in his face. This guy is not earning his salary.

He got a team that a couple of years ago could not play its way out of a paper bag into a situation where they won their league and had a really good record for the year. They were ranked maybe second worst in the tournament and went up against the best team in the country and they got skunked. So what?

On the basis of your standards, Geno, who had what was acknowledged to be the best team in WCBB last year, should have been drawn and quartered when UConn lost to MS St. From what I can see, St. Francis' coach is doing a great job in a low-level conference. His team, or future iterations of it, may never be better than that, but that's okay. They are champions, in their league.

 

[tower1]

Someone should ask the St Francis coach if on hindsight he played the dumbest game plan ever in NCAA history.

"Yeah, let's run with them and get them lots of shots." And while we're at it, let's set a record for the most 3 point shots ever in an NCAA tournament. "Nah, don't worry if you miss 'em all"

I enjoyed the game. They came to play and play the way they played all year. Would you enjoy the game if they slowed the game down and made it a boring game? I know i would not of watch it . So i salute this team for playing their hearts out and not giving up no matter what the score was. Good Luck, St. Francis.

 

[JoePgh]

Not Geno's finest moment in his presser. He was clearly embarrassed by the margin of victory, as he should be. But blaming the other team is beneath him. He shakes his head and says "I've never seen anything like that, ever", as if the fault for the margin is St. Francis's style of play. Two seconds later he refutes that statement by mentioning Paul Westhead, who used exactly the same system at Loyola Marymount.

Auriemma then used the excuse of keeping his starters fresh as to why they played as many minutes as they did (Nurse was close to 30!), as if 10 fewer minutes each would make a difference. Sorry Geno, the absolute size of the margin of victory is on you, not St. Francis. You want them to slow down and hold the ball so they only lose by 60 rather than 100. Great solution.

In closing, like it or not, games and scores like this will not entice new male fans to women's college basketball.

I’m not sure exactly what you think Geno should have done when confronted with the game plan that St. Francis was following. Should he have told his team NOT to exploit the openings that their style of play allowed? That’s exactly the opposite of what any good team should be doing. A team that has aspirations for a national championship should ALWAYS take advantage of any opportunities it finds against what ever style of play its opponent chooses to use.

It seems to me that the ONLY thing he could have done (consistent with not fostering bad basketball habits in his team) would have been to play his starters less. But as he noted, Kia Nurse was the ONLY starter to play anywhere near 30 minutes. Azura and Napheesa played 15 and 16 minutes, and scored 23 and 24 points in that amount of playing time. Should he have instructed them to score less while they were on the floor? Or should they have only played 5 minutes (since you say 10 less minutes wouldn’t have any negative effect)?

I think the reasons why Kia got so many minutes are (first of all) that she and Napheesa are the only starters with no injury issues; secondly that bench players need one experienced player to be a coach on the floor; and thirdly that her 3-point shot has been off-target in recent games, and he wanted to give her a chance to recover it.

But he did play the entire 4th quarter with all 6 core players on the bench for that entire 10-minute period. Surprisingly, the bench players did very well, outscoring St. Francis (including Kovatch and other starters) by a margin of 20-4 (approximately; I’m working from memory). What should Geno have done about that? Put the student managers on the floor?

 

[lne001]

LOL how many of the starters played more than 20, 22 minutes? Why do you guys keep doing this to yourselves? Do you even look at a box score?

That was Geno's excuse. Why did Kia play 30 minutes? Are you telling me that a Hall of Fame coach, with complete control of the game, could not dictate the final score? He was embarrassed by the margin. And then he compounds his shame by stating that 'it could have been worse'. Yeah, we know Geno, that is the problem.

 

[JoePgh]

That was Geno's excuse. Why did Kia play 30 minutes? Are you telling me that a Hall of Fame coach, with complete control of the game, could not dictate the final score? He was embarrassed by the margin.

If by “dictate the final score”, you mean that he could have told his players to play bad basketball (e.g., not pass the ball to a teammate who was open under the basket), I guess he could have done that. But that goes against everything the program stands for, and that kind of “mercy” should never be expected of any coach.

As previously noted, the 5 players at the end of the bench played the entire 4th quarter, and they outscored St. Francis (who was still playing starters as much as ever) by about 16 points. What could he have asked them to do (other than play bad basketball) to hold the margin down?

 

[sarals24]

Kia is also a senior and this is one of her last games on campus. She can play 40 minutes if she wants. Why are we treating this like UConn beat up on a grade school team? St. Francis is a D1 team, champion of their conference, and this is the NCAA tournament. I don't think Geno would expect any team to show mercy against him.

 

[lne001]

I’m not sure exactly what you think Geno should have done when confronted with the game plan that St. Francis was following.

Hey, I don't know and I don't care. I just do not think he should be ashamed of the final margin and then blame the opposing coach for not playing how you want him to play.

 

[sarals24]

Hey, I don't know and I don't care. I just do not think he should be ashamed of the final margin and then blame the opposing coach for not playing how you want him to play.

I didn't get that he was blaming him for anything. He had just never seen a team try to run with UConn before like that.

Although I remember a game against Oregon when Paul Westhead was coaching them that looked really similar. Oregon just had better athletes so it wasn't such an insane final score. But same principle.

 

[lne001]

Kia is also a senior and this is one of her last games on campus. She can play 40 minutes if she wants. Why are we treating this like UConn beat up on a grade school team? St. Francis is a D1 team, champion of their conference, and this is the NCAA tournament. I don't think Geno would expect any team to show mercy against him.

Fine, then be proud of the ass kicking you administered. In fact own it with pride. Instead Geno whined about how St. Francis plays. Why would he even care about the magnitude of the final verdict. The bigger the smashing the better.

 

[lne001]

He had just never seen a team try to run with UConn before like that. Although I remember a game against Oregon when Paul Westhead was coaching them that looked really similar. Oregon just had better athletes so it wasn't such an insane final score. But same principle.

I think Geno actually said he had never seen a team do that before, and then immediately mentioned Paul Westhead, who ran that exact same system at Loyola Marymount when they averaged 122 pts per game. Geno was not happy with how the game transpired and was tripping over his excuses.

 

[DEpup]

Not Geno's finest moment in his presser. He was clearly embarrassed by the margin of victory, as he should be. But blaming the other team is beneath him. He shakes his head and says "I've never seen anything like that, ever", as if the fault for the margin is St. Francis's style of play. Two seconds later he refutes that statement by mentioning Paul Westhead, who used exactly the same system at Loyola Marymount.

Auriemma then used the excuse of keeping his starters fresh as to why they played as many minutes as they did (Nurse was close to 30!), as if 10 fewer minutes each would make a difference. Sorry Geno, the absolute size of the margin of victory is on you, not St. Francis. You want them to slow down and hold the ball so they only lose by 60 rather than 100. Great solution.

In closing, like it or not, games and scores like this will not entice new male fans to women's college basketball.

Hmm. Cherry pick facts much? Z played 15 min and Pheesa played 17. How much less could they have played? If you don't like watching excellence, find something else to do with your time.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

 

[lne001]

Hmm. Cherry pick facts much? Z played 15 min and Pheesa played 17. How much less could they have played? If you don't like watching excellence, find something else to do with your time.

The starters could easily have played fewer minutes, they weren't really needed. UConn could have called off the press earlier, put a leash on his offense, a myriad of other things that a Hall of Fame coach certainly knows. That game was hardly a display of excellence, and I anticipated your unsolicited advice and turned the game off after 6 minutes.

If you read what I've been posting you should know that I don't care by how much UConn won. Hell, lay it on. I do care somewhat, however, when Geno blames the other coach for the embarrassment that he himself feels.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Fine, then be proud of the ass kicking you administered. In fact own it with pride. Instead Geno whined about how St. Francis plays. Why would he even care about the magnitude of the final verdict. The bigger the smashing the better.

I must've missed the whining.

Geno is right. That game was a result of UConn being an incredible team, leagues better than the Red Flash, and St. Francis playing a style that resulted in UConn getting 90+ shots and many uncontested layups.

I've yet to hear anyone from St. Francis claim they were embarrassed. But what do they know.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

I do care somewhat, however, when Geno blames the other coach for the embarrassment that he himself feels.

This is ridiculous. Are you a psychoanalyst?

What should he be embarrassed about? St Francis set the pace and style of the game, taking a shot just about every time they crossed half court, and endlessly pressed. I suppose the Huskies were supposed to not take advantage of those things the other team did for nearly 40 minutes. Perhaps play the back of the bench the last three quarters, something you sound like you'd be a fan of.

I'd be more embarrassed by many of the shots the Red Flash took and the ole defense they often employed.

UConn is allowed to play and get something out of this game. They're not obligated to insultingly roll over for an inferior opponent.