St Johns Postgame Thread

[oldude]

Some thoughts on the St Johns game:

• When was the last time UConn started 3 freshmen? With both Christyn & Aubrey banged up, that was the deal, with another freshmen 1st off the bench.
• Paige was lights out tonight, literally……….Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Paige scored 32 points and, at times, it seemed almost effortless.
• Aaliyah played her best game, and she mostly stayed out of foul trouble. Coincidence? I think not.
• Nika did a really nice job dropping dimes and she's starting to feel it from the arc.
• Mir was a rebounding force and provided great defensive energy off the bench.
• Correa is a big time player.
• Really impressed that Autumn doesn't play for a couple games, finally gets in during mop-up time and calmly buries a 3.
• For UConn to make a deep run in the tournament, Liv must do a better job avoiding cheap fouls.
• Nothing should be taken for granted this season. With that in mind, we can all take a moment to recognize and perhaps even celebrate UConn completing their 13th game of the season, thereby qualifying for the Big Dance.

 

[Kaizen]

Paige 32 pts 7 asts career high, AE 22 pts 8 rebs also career high, Mir 11 pts and ONO 11 pts..
Really wish Saylor can make her first point in this game ...

 

[SLY63]

Great summary.

- I predict we will be seeing a lot of the Bueckers-Edwards pick and roll over the next 4 years

 

[Vowelguy]

who did Geno just say sprained her ankle the other day but played

 

[hoopsfan22]

who did Geno just say sprained her ankle the other day but played

I thought Nika

 

[hoopsfan22]

Player of the Game: Paige Bueckers!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[psconn]

So cool that we had 4 frosh and a high school kid out there for awhile and not really in garbage time yet.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Also Paige fell 2 points shy of Tina's freshman record 34 points.

 

[oldude]

Geno commenting after the game, with the injuries he was playing 4 freshmen and a HS kid.

 

[Kaizen]

And Autumn hit a three ...

 

[jcoton56]

Lots to like, and this squad is really growing on me.

 

[ucbart]

Correa is very, very good. I was super impressed.

 

[EricLA]

My $.02

• Freshmen, freshmen, freshmen!!
• Paige, Paige, Paige. This is the type of game she needs to play every night. Not necessarily the scoring numbers, but the number of shots. Kudos to her.
• Liya - way to go!
• Olivia - good grief.
• Nika - she has improved in leaps and bounds this season
• Evina - lots of other good things in spite of 1-9 shooting. YIKES!
• Mir may or may not be the most athletic player on the team, but IMHO no one is more explosive
• Autumn - attagirl!
• Saylor - 0-America thus far, but hey, getting reps and practice with the team and bonding as well

Having said all that, this game was problematic. Arkansas scored 90 on us. SJU shot 50% for the game. That is flat out unacceptable and problematic. Sure we outscored them by a lot, but this SJU team was only able to put up 65 against Nova, 60 against UMASS, 62 vs. Marquette, 53 vs. Providence.

So yeah, we all can be thrilled for Paige and Liya, but we've already seen that our defense has cost us a game. It very well could cause us a shot at a NC, never mind making it to the NC game.

 

[BostonBay]

Stat of the game: UConn 15-17 from the FT line - 88.2%

 

[Ozimoto]

I thought offensively it was a very efficient effort with a short handed squad. The future is bright. The present isn't bad either.

 

[Husky fanatic]

Lots of positives in this game. But Debbie Downer says the defense isn't that good and still needs to improve. While Evina's shot was off tonight she still was contributing in other ways. Paige A+ Aaliya A Nika A Mir B Olivia B Evina B

 

[chrissaran]

Saylor will get there. We're going to need everyone during the tournament. Hoping Piath will get more playing time. If Olivia and Aaliyah both get into foul trouble, and they were close tonight, we might need Piath's big body against SC, Baylor and other teams with multiple bigs.

 

[Boreifs]

One probably has to go back to the 98-99 season to find a game where three Freshmen started.

 

[TWG236]

Freshmen scored 75 points tonight. Paige is now 28 of 48 (58%) 3 point shooting on the year. She makes it look effortless.

 

[Centerstream]

Correa is very, very good. I was super impressed.

Yup, she took 21 of their 44 FG attempts, making 11 and I am guessing that most of them came in the second half. I am thinking that she scored close to half of their second half points. We did pretty good defense on her in the beginning of the game but in the second half it seemed like every shot went in, regardless of the defense.
But I was more impressed by Paige. Just because.

 

[BostonBay]

Lots of positives in this game. But Debbie Downer says the defense isn't that good and still needs to improve. While Evina's shot was off tonight she still was contributing in other ways. Paige A+ Aaliya A Nika A Mir B Olivia B Evina B

ONO & EW B's?? I hate to think what an F is?

 

[Glenn]

A terrific performance, particularly given that we were missing Anna, Christyn, and Aubrey. I will have to give the defense a pass, given the unusual lineups

 

[ScottCT]

Considering all the important players we were missing tonight, I'll be lenient on the defense tonight. It was a joy to watch the freshmen do their thing.

 

[Vowelguy]

Hoping Piath will get more playing time. If Olivia and Aaliyah both get into foul trouble, and they were close tonight, we might need Piath's big body against SC, Baylor and other teams with multiple bigs.

No, no, no. And no.

 

[oldude]

As far as UConn's defense was concerned, while St Johns hit 50% of their shots, UConn also turned them over 27 times. Since I'm a glass half full kind of guy, I'll focus on the turnovers.