St John’s postgame

[yhun89]

Husky dub!

March Jana and March Ice just might be a thing… Jana looked pretty good out there. Rebounds, making those layups, she’s the center we need for March Madness. And how about that block?


Paige is a bucket. March Midrange Paige is here.

Rough from the 3 today, but we won by 30 even with St John’s making 6.

Sarah with the easy double double and some monster blocks. FOTY incoming. Post season Sarah is looking good.

Azzi has the fastest release I’ve ever seen. She made some good defensive steals today. Not great from 3, but hey, win some, lose some.

Caroline’s first shot of the season. Hopefully she can be a 5-6 pointer off the bench

The second quarter was ugly. Can’t have that happening in a tougher game.

Our defense has been suffocating. However, we let Lavelle get to the perimeter more than we should’ve.

We got our first TO in what, the 3rd quarter? Great control of the ball.

Next up: Nova or Marquette

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[Bone Dog]

Worst shooting game in 45 years, according to Geno.

Paige scored 20 after deciding to take it over. Sarah grabbed 14 rebounds. Jana was 3-3 for 6 pts and 7 rebounds in 16 minutes. She was handcuffed by some dubious whistles. Oh, well.

And the DEFENSE was outstanding! In the 1st quarter especially, but throughout. Won the rebounding battle, 42-31, TOs 16-4, Blocks 7-3, steals 9-2. All around impressive.

Over all, I'd say Paige looks like she's getting ready to carry the team as far as she can. She's got her tournament face on.

 

[CL82]

Meg Culmo sighting in the background during paige's post game interview.

 

[fomalhaut]

Four turnovers (one intentional, and none in the first half) might be the most impressive stat.

 

[EricLA]

Defense was outstanding for the most part. Offense - well not sure the worst shooting game in 5 years (per Geno in the post game interview), but let's hope they got it out of their system going forward. 2-19 from 3 is nothing short of dreadful.

Saw some nice things from Ice and Jana. Sarah simply needs to be more involved offensively (but WOW on her rebounding and defense). Azzi with another inconsistent performance. Solid games for Ash, KK and Cait. And Paige - she really is amazing. Oh, and Carol making a basket - the place went bananas, and so did I!

Still, defense was a solid A. When shots aren't falling, not much you can do since most of the shots were good ones, and wide open.

On to Marquette/Villanova!

 

[victor64]

Business as usual: smothering D, Sarah owning the boards, Paige being Paige.

Surprises: 2/19 from 3, multiple missed layups.
Center play. Both Ice and Jana had good moments.

Sad: Aubrey being out. Not needed for the BE. Hope only precautionary.

Weird: winning by 31 and somehow wanting and expecting more.

 

[maple]

Defense was outstanding. St John’s chucked up a lot of 3s, so some were bound to go in, but overall their %s were very low and we forced a lot of poor shots/TOs/clock violations.

Overall the scoring for UConn was very balanced and they were getting decent looks, just an unfriendly rim with some bad bounces. (UConn only made 2 3PT shots!! That likely won’t happen again.) It’s hard to find fault with much in this game.

It was fantastic seeing Caroline get in and score a bucket!! I jumped out of my seat cheering.

 

[Centerstream]

Paige scored 20 after deciding to take it over. Sarah grabbed 14 rebounds. Jana was 3-3 for 6 pts and 7 rebounds in 16 minutes. She was handcuffed by some dubious whistles. Oh, well.

I feel the same way. We "committed" eight fouls and four were on Jana. No wonder she gets a little frustrated. She gets manhandled and no calls but if she gets near her player on defense, whistle alot of times. Surprised they let her get that clean block.
And what happened when they reviewed the St. John's foul when Gideon(?) dragged Ice to the floor? I thought it could be considered flagrant but I guess not the refs.
And the refs seemed even more focused on St. John's in the third quarter, getting us to the Bonus kinda quickly.
All in all, a good win even though we couldn't make layups or 3s. But we didn't need to.
And best of all Caroline SCORED!!!!!

 

[Centerstream]

Meg Culmo sighting in the background during paige's post game interview.

She usually sits with Mrs. Auriemma.

 

[RoadMaster]

Swipe..

 

[Basingstoke]

First off, thanks Nan for posting all the stats.
I actually expected them to be a bit ragged at the start of the game (layoff and tourney jitters), and, although they were dreadful the whole game from 3 and very shaky on layups (it certainly didn't feel that they shot more than 50% on layups), their first quarter defense was a thing of beauty! Unfortunately, they seemed to relax after that insofar as closing out on primary 3 point shooters was concerned...
After the game, Geno cited the poor shooting (worst in 5 years), but, aside from that UCONN played a really good game. Imagine winning by 31 while shooting 2 for 19 from 3. But, that's how good their defense and ball protection were.
Shout out to Paige for hunting out and converting midrange shots, Sarah for her rebounding and shot blocking, the dynamic duo of Ice and Jana, and congrats for Caroline for breaking into the scoring column!
It's probably got to be intimidating for whoever UCONN'S next opponent might be to think that, while UCONN's defense will undoubtedly be really good again, it's very unlikely that their 3 point shooting performance will be anywhere as bad as it was today.
Lastly, I know everyone is pulling for a rapid recovery for Aubrey!

 

[huskeynut]

Play of the game - Caroline making her first bucket in a long time!!!!!!!!!!!

As to the game - great defense. It's a weapon our opponents need to be aware of. And St. John's has some good guards that were rendered irrelevant. They could not get past the 3 point line most of the game.

Offense was sluggish but I expected it. Still Paige using the mid range because the 3 wasn't falling. She is almost unstoppable when its the mid range jumper.

Sarah, Jana and Ice working well as the front line. Some dubious calls on Jana. But that is the game today.

Next up!!! Bring em on!

 

[msf22b]

Concerns:

in addition to the missed layups and inability to hit 3's
(will come back to haunt you)

There was this play in the 2nd quarter(?) maybe 3rd
Where after a decent boxout, the ball dropped to the floor with 3 or 4 Huskies around it and no one could be bothered to pick it up. So a Johnny thought...ok, since no one wants it I'll do the honors.

Then it continued to happen (or almost happen) ...2 or 3 times, with a person on our side, reluctantly gathering it in...until finally KK became the designated gatherer... again somewhat reluctantly.

Never saw that before...

 

[Huskie837]

Ugly win but we advanced. Thanks to the good folks at the Sun for having both entrances open! Looking to tomorrow!

 

[TUCBTUD]

Geno Auriemma, Azzi Fudd, Ice Brady, Paige Bueckers

 

[HuskyNan]

Ugly win but we advanced. Thanks to the good folks at the Sun for having both entrances open! Looking to tomorrow!

Win don’t have to be pretty in the postseason. Tournaments are single elimination and teams are playing for their playoff lives. Every single team is going to play all out because they have nothing to lose but their chance to keep playing. So even programs that might be perceived as bad going to play as hard as they can - the better teams had better be prepared for a fight.

Another fanbase might see a 31 point win as a pretty good thrashing. Only UConn fans can see the negatives

 

[Kat]

Win don’t have to be pretty in the postseason. Tournaments are single elimination and teams are playing for their playoff lives. Every single team is going to play all out because they have nothing to lose but their chance to keep playing. So even programs that might be perceived as bad going to play as hard as they can - the better teams had better be prepared for a fight.

Another fanbase might see a 31 point win as a pretty good thrashing. Only UConn fans can see the negatives

Yes. I have the feeling that this will be the most disappointing UConn team to ever win a national championship.

 

[DEFCONN1]

Villanova tomorrow

 

[Scooter]

Better defend the three better tomorrow against Villanova. They had nine threes today and shot 39 percent from beyond the arc.

 

[fomalhaut]

Except for the lousy three-point shooting, I thought Connecticut played an excellent game. If they played perfectly, what would Geno have to complain about?

 

[Ozimoto]

Hard not to like a 31 point win but only shooting 10% from three is a problem. That needs to get fixed if they are to have a shot at the final four and a championship.