Stanford Postgame Thread

[FormerCTrez]

Surprised about the cold, no-look postgame handshake between Geno and Tara, after 35-plus years of being at the top of NCAA WBB coaching. Any thoughts?

I think she’s disappointed (rightfully so) in the loss. After all, most folks had predicted her team the winner.

 

[jeff30189]

Nika Muhl out rebounded Brink 8 - 7. Let that sink in

If you look back to the Dorka threads and the discussions around "who was going to step up when ONO and AE get in foul trouble", Evina and Caroline seemed to be the two most oft mentioned names. Evina was a difference maker with those three bombs and her 6 boards.

But the Croatian Sensation out rebounding Brink? It's that type of gritty, dirty-work play that earned her 18 minutes in a Final Four game. If she makes it a point to improve her offense and FTs this summer, Geno won't be able to take her out of the game.

(side note: did you see her smack the ball out of the Stanford players hands on her second foul? LOL)

You could easily argue that either one of them was the Player of the Game rather than Paige (good game but an uncharacteristic 5 turnovers).

 

[Blueballer]

What a strange game. But we’ve seen a lot of strange games this year. Both teams cold. I felt the team that hit the most threes would win but never thought it would be 5-4. I thought one team would maybe hit 12 and the other 9 or something like that. And to think we won without Paige or Azzi hitting a three astounds me.

 

[Childhood]

Key move was Geno sitting Liv and Christen after a very ooor 1st 1/2. Nika and Evina lit a spark and boy did thise2 seniirs come back strong. I can finally go to sleep now…happy. Can’t wait for Sunday.

I just saw the stat sheet. Evina played 31 minutes and Nika played 17 minutes. And CD played 7 minutes as well. This gave much rest to our starters.

 

[eebmg]

According to Tara in her interview UConn had nothing to do with Stanford not playing well tonight.

If we had nothing to do with it, then it is her and her staff's fault. Clearly overconfident. I actually thought Haley's comments at half time were a bit overconfident. First half was not Stanford Basketball yada yada

 

[FormerCTrez]

According to Tara in her interview UConn had nothing to do with Stanford not playing well tonight.

Possibly. But that means the loss squarely rests on the shoulders of her and the other coaches.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

Surprised about the cold, no-look postgame handshake between Geno and Tara, after 35-plus years of being at the top of NCAA WBB coaching. Any thoughts?

Yes, I think Geno knows Tara well enough to realize that she was not in the mood for
any perfunctory post game chit chat.

 

[Sifaka]

Good prediction of the UConn score!

 

[FormerCTrez]

In the postgame interview Tara made a very specific statement about Liv, and how physical her play was. This in response to a question about Stanford's difficulties with inside shooting and rebounding.

WOW! Compliments to Liv, from Tara. But let’s not forget this fact: UCONN does not have any All American on its roster this year.

 

[JordyG]

In the postgame interview Tara made a very specific statement about Liv, and how physical her play was. This in response to a question about Stanford's difficulties with inside shooting and rebounding.

I love you Sifaka, but rightly or wrongly, I think differently. What she didn't say was how that physicality affected her teams gameplay, nor the fact that Brink had so much difficulty getting off her shot. She did say that Brink was knocked down a few times, but in reality Liv wasn't the real physical one, but it was AE that was the bruiser inside. So she misidentified the real culprit. She also failed to mention that Geno pressed her wings and guards hard on the perimeter forcing them to dribble inside, which is not their game. As I mentioned, Geno stifled their high and low split screens into spit which made them run down the clock and take long contested shots. They really lost for two reasons 1) Because their vaunted 3 point game and outside shooting, was stifled. Lexi Hull was 2-12, and Tara said that her shooting, indeed the entire teams, was merely off tonight. 2) They also lost because Tara got out coached. Whenever UConn went small Tara's substitutions failed to take advantage of their height advantage inside and on the wing. How about running that little punch off that chin offense inside and post up against Nika or CW, or Evina?

 

[Childhood]

 

[JordyG]

So your just going ignore her saying ONO and Aaliyah did a great job being disruptive on the block?…be better

No. See my other post. However, perhaps it would have been better to say "little to do" than "nothing to do".

 

[ed4ourgirls]

Tara has had a thing with geno ever since KLS signed here. She stopped the UConn-Stanford series and has never renewed it. That’s on her. For the good of basketball especially since they both are good she should stop ducking UConn and renew the series that the fans would love to see again.

With Betts coming on board next year Stanford figures to be scary good for the next
four years at least. Renewing the series might not give us a win, but it would beef up
our strength of schedule.

 

[dabears17]

According to Tara in her interview UConn had nothing to do with Stanford not playing well tonight.

??? When did she say that?

Tara said Stanford "lost to a very good team and Connecticut played very well"

 

[Mdoggie]

With Betts coming on board next year Stanford figures to be scary good for the next
four years at least. Renewing the series might not give us a win, but it would beef up
our strength of schedule.

We just won. Remember?

 

[dabears17]

LOL...Nobody has ever accused Live of being physical. She can't muscle her way to the basket like Brink did. AE can be a bulldozer, but she was rather tame tonight.

Liv led Uconn in rebounds with 10, second only to Haley Jones who had 11.

 

[hoophuskee]

How the hell did UConn win this game? 20 turnovers. An in-bounds mistake. Passes to nowhere. Let's just hope it's not a trend, that they got all that nonsense out of their systems tonight.

They won because they scored more than the other team. The other stats are you cite don't matter as much. Many overrate them. The fact is, UCONN has different ways to score.

 

[BlueSkyGLW]

ESPN's Creme not budging on his Stanford or South Carolina for the NC. One disappeared but he says if UConn's 2 bigs don't hold their own, the game could resemble that first meeting this year with SC handing UConn its first loss in the Final.

Got news for you Charlie: you will be eating a pint of really sour cream unless your prefer crow.

These young ladies KNOW what they need to do.....and they have just discovered how deeply they can dig to win after these past two games.

NC12 about to happen.

 

[ThisJustIn]

Reminds of...2003 pregame of the Finals when Geno said, "if we can play from ahead we have a chance."

 

[hoophuskee]

Free throws have been a problem all season, but with the game on the line tonight they went 15-17 in the 4th quarter. I love this team.

That's why all the complaining about free throws all year was always irrelevant. When it comes to Free Throws - each game is a different animal.

 

[nickp91]

I enjoyed the south Carolina and UConn game more than any Lakers game

 

[hayman522]

According to Tara in her interview UConn had nothing to do with Stanford not playing well tonight.















































































































































































































sour grapes it



If we hagreead nothing to do with it, then it is her and her staff's fault. Clearly overconfident. I actually thought Haley's comments at half time were a bit overconfident. First half was not Stanford Basketball yada yada

 

[eebmg]

Game highlights

 

[fomalhaut]

As close as the game was, Connecticut trailed for all of 67 seconds (at three different times), and never by more than 1 point.