Syracuse Postgame Thread

[BobbyJ]

Just waiting for all the expert ONO bashers to come out to tell us how soft she is. Looks like you'll have to wait at least another game to start bitching about her. She looked like Cardoso really intimidated her.

 

[DEpup]

I think the young huskies took a while to deal with Nika not being out there and the Cuse style for the first time. Once they got comfortable and started cooking, it was over.

 

[Veteran]

Great play with some great contributions by everyone. The team has to continue playing like this. If they do, I’m confident we will be in the championship game.

BTW, I just checked my bracket and, ESPN is reporting UConn will play on Sunday. I hope it’s a late game because I have to be at my internship that day

It will probably be the late game so the network can hype the heck out of the Paige vs Caitlin angle to pull in the more casual end of the weekend viewers. So you should get to see it, which is good. Plus Sunday gives Nika another day for her ankle to recover, which is good, also.

 

[UcMiami]

This is what tournament time is about - how do you play your set offense and how do you play your set defense. As the rounds advance the transition defense becomes better and you need to be able to create offense five on five. Interesting to get this game in the second round - it usually comes later, the end of the second weekend. I thought Uconn settled into a really good steady rhythm on offense.

I thought Syracuse played really well - limited their live ball turnovers, and stopped Uconn from running. And the defense was solid, until Uconn unlocked it from the short corner.

The shift to zone really limited Cardoso's touches. And Syracuse was cold from outside. But their 17 offensive rebounds is not a good look for Uconn.

 

[Gurleyman]

Good game, great at times. I am surprised that Paige only had 4 assists. while watching the game live, I would of guessed 6 or 7 easy.

I always pay close attention to those. She had 3-4 that resulted in fouls as Cuse denied layups, so no assist but the team gets FTs and Cuse gets foul trouble. CW missed one in transition that she usually makes (EW and AM missed the open 3s she got them, but you can’t count on those going in). And a few hockey assists, finding players in the teeth of the zone where the next pass was a layup.

There was one they didn’t give her on an ONO bucket when she found her in the middle of the zone uncontested and she dribbled into a layup, but ONO paused to gather before making her move so not a mistake so much as a judgment.

So she had a good passing game that maybe didn’t reflect in the stats. The two turnovers were home run passes that didn’t quite connect this time, but the passes were there - EW didn’t pull a tough one in and AG caught it but too far under the basket and couldn’t keep it alive.

 

[jabstep]

This to me was very much a team win all of the players did what was needed of them to win the game. We definitely have an inside game with Liv and Aaliyah in the game at the same time. Paige, Evina, and Christyn controlled the pace of the game from the slow walk up against their zone press to fast break them to death off the missed shots. The passing against the zone in the 2nd half was phenomenal. Big G must have been jumping out of his chair at home.

 

[pvdoggy]

Despite not having an outside shot, Aubrey was a lot of fun to watch today. When she first came into the game, I thought she was a little confused and hesitant not knowing where she was supposed to be on the floor, but eventually, things seem to click for her. Great game for AG.

Mir only has one thing on her mind every time she touches the ball, try to score, no matter what, which may be why she is not seeing more playing time.

Other than that, great game by everyone.

 

[jaydee602]

Dont break up the winning chemistry, keep the "Old" coach on the recliner at home.

Go CD!!

LOL...Geno might agree with you!!

 

[UConnCat]

 

[dtbtbtb]

A real good game for UConn. It started slowly but the team played smart, took their time and performed well in the half court. AE is a beast and Kudus to Liv for a real good game and probably her best game in a UConn uniform against this kind of size.

 

[UConnCat]

 

[jaydee602]

Despite not having an outside shot, Aubrey was a lot of fun to watch today. When she first came into the game, I thought she was a little confused and hesitant not knowing where she was supposed to be on the floor, but eventually, things seem to click for her. Great game for AG.

Mir only has one thing on her mind every time she touches the ball, try to score, no matter what, which may be why she is not seeing more playing time.

Other than that, great game by everyone.

I think Mir knew the game was out of reach & wanted to get in the scorebook. She has been an unselfish player in past games.

 

[Boreifs]

Iowa is rated second in offensive efficiency by Massey. Defensively, they are 230th.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

AE had 15 and 5 before anyone said her name. She doesn't quite get the spotlight she deserves.

 

[chrissaran]

Why did Beth Mowins keeps saying next week's games? There are games this week on Saturday and Sunday. Next week is the Elite Eight and the Final Four.

 

[UConnCat]

 

[pvdoggy]

I think Mir knew the game was out of reach & wanted to get in the scorebook. She has been an unselfish player in past games.

I was not trying to call Mir selfish, just that she only knows how to play the game one way right now, most of the time.

 

[mhshuskies]

Just waiting for all the expert ONO bashers to come out to tell us how soft she is. Looks like you'll have to wait at least another game to start bitching about her. She looked like Cardoso really intimidated her.

She was a monster again tonight!

 

[Woof 101]

Great team performance, Olivia might have had her best game this year overall. Never put the ball on the floor for no reason. Rebounded and took shots without hesitation. Took no look passes and finished like it was routine. This may have been her corner turning game to the next level.

Great patience and execution on breaking the Cuse zone defense. A testament to how far and how hard the team and staff has worked in such a broken season.
The team as usual plays a team game and really did so again tonight in a ballet fashion.

 

[jaydee602]

I thought Anna really helped with the ball movement against the zone, seemed like we started to separate at that point. Aubrey was great at getting into good spots to score from.

Anna also worked hard on defense. Her size affected the shooting of Syracuse guards!

 

[JoePgh]

I checked, and unless I overlooked something, this is by far the biggest margin of loss for Syracuse all year. Louisville beat Syracuse twice by 13-point margins. NC State appears to have played Syracuse only once, at Syracuse, and beat the Orange by only 7 points. Syracuse's worst defeat before tonight was to North Carolina, on the road, by 24 points; later, at home, Syracuse won by 12. So the margin is truly impressive, especially considering that Stanford won its game tonight by only 12 or so.

It should be noted that the margin of victory in tonight's game exceeded either the Championship game in 2016 (with Stewie and company) or the 2017 victory in the same round of the NCAA tournament at Storrs. I re-watched the 2017 game last night and it looked like a complete beatdown, despite Syracuse having good players like Brittany Sykes and Alexis Peterson in that game. But tonight was an even bigger margin. (Of course, I don't think this year's Orange team is as good as its 2017 team.)

I was also REALLY impressed by how well the UConn offense ripped apart the Syracuse zone defense once they got the hang of it in the third quarter. Every point UConn scored in that quarter was in the paint, according to the announcers. Considering that Syracuse has played that zone all year against what should have been good ACC competition, whereas UConn was facing it for the first time in this game, that was and is a serious accomplishment.

 

[itsasport]

24-30 free throws for 80%.

If that could be kept up it could be a game changer in future close contests.

But not as good as Syracuse, which according to the ESPN box score shot 100%. It was changed later, as was Autumn getting credit for blocking a shot in the play-by-play. To bad I did not save that.

 

[jaydee602]

Syracuse was a one trick pony. Once UCONN broke the zone & exploited their weak inside defense, Syracuse had no answer. Their coach never changed defenses or tried to adjust their zone.

 

[UConnCat]