St John's Postgame Thread

[Cornell Lt]

1st time all season that Sarah kind of struggled scoring. Didn't harm the team in any way because she did have a good game defensively.

 

[packwrap]

People loved Aaliyah when she was here. 9 months later she's chopped liver. Ditto Muhl. They have left gaping holes, esp AE, that have not been filled. Yet.

Right now, I'd say last year's team was a little better. But there's a lot of time and healing left.

I feel like I must have a vision problem.

Last year we only played 6 vs Iowa! Freshmen Ash, KK and Ice, along with Paige, Aaliyah, and Nika.

Now 4 of those 6 are back one year better, and we add Azzi, Sarah, Chen, Morgan and Jana, soon Aubrey.

Sarah covers for Aaliyah and KK/Chen/Morgan/Aubrey covers for Nika.

Sarah is more versatile than Aaliyah, and Nika was a reluctant scorer that teams often chose not to guard.

It was a beautiful miracle we made final 4 last year, just on depth this team is better.

Lastly, everyone but Paige from last years team, currently comes off the bench.

 

[Bone Dog]

People loved Aaliyah when she was here. 9 months later she's chopped liver. Ditto Muhl. They have left gaping holes, esp AE, that have not been filled. Yet.

Right now, I'd say last year's team was a little better. But there's a lot of time and healing left.

It’s an interesting thought. I mean, mostly folks talk about the current team in terms of potential, not right now. I think it’s clear that the team that lost to Iowa in the Final Four was a little better than this team is right now. Nika and Aaliyah have left holes that haven’t been filled, yet.

The oddity in this thought experiment is that Sarah and KK and Ash as they are right now are not exactly accounted for on last year’s Final Four team. And there are other questions to ask.

Is Sarah a sufficient replacement for Aaliyah?
Is Ash right now a more effective player?
And KK?
Is Kaitlyn enough to balance the loss of Nika?
And what on earth do we think Jana and Ice can give us against a team like SC?

Most importantly, Paige may or not be playing with quite the same confidence as last season. One sign of this is the number of free throws attempted — last season she had 163 FTA compared to this season in which she has 43 FTA halfway through, or roughly half. Last season she seemed to risk more on every drive than this season. Is Paige 4.0 simply equivalent to Paige 3.0 or maybe better because wiser? Or worse because slightly more cautious?

And the hardest maybe to assess, because we lack any objective measure — what does Azzi bring to this team? No one on last season’s team adds up to what she might become, and we have no idea what to expect from her. A sign is that she’s either the greatest thing since sliced bread for most of us, or she’s utterly unreliable due to the likelihood of injury.

As for me, the eternal optimist, I’d say that we are definitely not yet as good as last year’s team was by the Final Four. Aaliyah and Paige were peaking and Nika was bringing the knuckles on defense, and Ash and KK were on an upward trajectory. This season, Sarah may well be better already than Aaliyah ever was at UConn, though this is really hard to judge. Some of Aaliyah’s muscle may need to be supplied by Jana and Ice to cover her absence. However, we could be potentially significantly better than last year’s team by tournament time.

 

[Dugway]

What we’ve learned is that Big East teams can hold the end of UConn’s bench to 11 points in a quarter. Woo

Who is your definition of our "End of the Bench"? Because in yesterday's 11-point second quarter, Qadance and Allie had a combined playing time of exactly Zero Minutes and Zero Seconds. Your argument that we have not score more than eleven, simply because our 'end of the bench' is out there playing, doesn't pass water.

How much do you think the end of the bench will play against supremely talented defensive teams? How many of those teams are there, anyway?

I would be surprised to see Qadance and Allie receive all that much more of playing time against South Carolina, then they received in yesterday's second quarter. It will almost certainly be Paige, Sarah, Azzi, KK, Kaitlyn, Jana, Ashlynn, and Morgan, all of which played the vast majority of yesterday's 11-point second quarter. Those are not our end of the bench players; those are our starters, plus the first three rotational players we have going. Fifty combined minutes, eleven combined points. Woo.

As for how many of those supremely talented defensive teams exist out there. All it takes is one! A few years ago, we ran up against Ohio State; they sent us packing in the Sweet-16. You are kidding yourself if you think we are not going to line up against somebody pretty stiff along the way.

 

[packwrap]

As for me, the eternal optimist, I’d say that we are definitely not yet as good as last year’s team was by the Final Four. Aaliyah and Paige were peaking and Nika was bringing the knuckles on defense, and Ash and KK were on an upward trajectory. This season, Sarah may well be better already than Aaliyah ever was at UConn, though this is really hard to judge. Some of Aaliyah’s muscle may need to be supplied by Jana and Ice to cover her absence. However, we could be potentially significantly better than last year’s team by tournament time.

You really think Paige, KK, Ice and Ash have regressed?

As often pointed out here matchups in tourney are important. Despite being a #2 seed we drew Duke, USC and Iowa. Duke and USC were a bit ahead of their time, and like UConn, Iowa was a small finesse team. We would have only faced a big, fast muscular team had we faced SC in the final.

Hopefully, we get a nice draw this year too.

 

[Zarathustra]

The big 3 did not play in the 4th quarter hence the low scoring stats.

EXACTLY! With the "starting line-up" in the first quarter the
Huskies scored 25 points. IMHO, both head coaches saw the
writing on the wall and the game was then played like a
practice scrimmage. See Geno's comments in the post
game presser about going for 100 points in this game (his
comments begin after (approximately) the 16-minute mark.

 

[Zarathustra]

Photo dump..

Great Photos! Thanks for posting them (scroll on the
right arrow!!)

 

[Zarathustra]

Very nice clarifying comments from Geno after about
the 16th minute of this Post Game Presser. EG... not
having to score 100 points, getting time for the "Subs"
and that, when he does that, it will LOOK "bad", and finally his short term and
long term thoughts on JANA.... If you did not watch the
whole "presser", try watching it and starting it at about minute 16.

I rewatch the link of GENO's Post Game presser. His comment
" 100 (points) serves no purpose" is after the 18:00 minute mark.
After the 19:00 minute mark Geno discusses Jana's progress and
future development.

 

[Bone Dog]

You really think Paige, KK, Ice and Ash have regressed?

I’m pretty sure I didn’t say that. If you think it, fair enough. Don’t fob it off on me.

I happen to think Ash is definitely ahead of her trajectory from last season. KK, too. I don’t know what to say about Ice yet. The Ice of the BE tournament last season played with more confidence than Ice has of late.

I offered a couple options for assessing Paige. FTAs suggest a less aggressive player, but it may also mean a wiser player. Which way would you prefer to interpret this data point?

 

[huskeynut]

I find it interesting that the last couple of seasons posters have been complaining about Geno playing his starters too many minutes. They won't have anything left come tournament time. Of course we know that's wrong. We made the final foiur last year with 7 or 8 players.

Now Geno starts subbing in the 1st quarter. He is playing his bench every game. The starters are playing around 20 - 25 minutes a game instead of 30 - 35. And the team is not racking up 80 to 90 points a game.

Geno is developing his very talented young players. Still complaints about the offense doesn't flow like it should are frequent. How many complaints have there been over the last few seasons that so and so is never going to get better if they don't get playing time in an actual game.

Geno has over 40 years of coaching experience. His track record speaks for itself. As Uconn approaches the SC and Tennessee games, Geno will shorten his rotation to 8 or 9.

You can't have both ways on these issues. Either Geno plays the staters 30 - 35 minutes to develop the chemistry or he subs in and gives the younger players valuable game experience.

 

[GoUconn7961]

So sorry they’re not living up to your expectations

That’s really not it and i’m allowed an opinion like every other poster on this site.

 

[JoePgh]

I just listened to the post-game press conference, and I see that Geno actually commented (without being asked) about Jana's strange way of handling the opening tipoff of each of the last (at least) three games, going back to Xavier. In all three of these games, Jana has easily outjumped her opponent, but she always tips the ball forward, where there are no UConn teammates. As a result, the opponents in each game have controlled the opening tip.

In his post-game comments, Geno said that "my Arabic isn't good enough" to communicate to Jana that he wants her to tip the ball sideways or backwards to where her teammates are positioned, so that they have some chance of grabbing the ball. Instead, she is doing "a volleyball slam" to send the ball forward "over the net" -- never mind that that is where her opponents are lurking.

It is odd (and surprising) that Jana never encountered this simple concept previously. I guess it shows that the language barrier (or the force of her established habits) overcomes the common-sense instinct to try to tip the ball to your teammates. Hopefully this will change in the upcoming games.

 

[HuskyNan]

That’s really not it and i’m allowed an opinion like every other poster on this site.

Please see your PM

 

[packwrap]

I’m pretty sure I didn’t say that. If you think it, fair enough. Don’t fob it off on me.

I happen to think Ash is definitely ahead of her trajectory from last season. KK, too. I don’t know what to say about Ice yet. The Ice of the BE tournament last season played with more confidence than Ice has of late.

I offered a couple options for assessing Paige. FTAs suggest a less aggressive player, but it may also mean a wiser player. Which way would you prefer to interpret this data point?

Sorry I was asking you for clarification, because I wasn't sure exactly what you meant in your post, Paige 4.0 v 3.0 etc. I just read it again and I guess you are asking the question if they are all better this year.

On that ? I think they are all better this year. KK and Ash has to get used to coming from bench, Ice moved from forward to center, and Paige moved back to shooting guard from power forward. It's hard to improve from national player of the year and first team All-American, but Paige stronger, smarter, better leader now. Ice now playing behind Jana, but had Jana not been hurt, she would have had to deal with that last year.

Free throws down for Paige. She's playing less minutes, and taking less shots, so that's part of it. She was also power forward last year, so battling in the paint more. Maybe I can find a shot chart for her to she if she takes more jump shots this year. I don't think it has to do with confidence or ability.