Tennessee Postgame Thread

[CTrefugee]

When she recovers, I say go with Ice. At the very least, she will not be a negative.

 

[WiseWillie]

UConn hasn't had much time healthy with Paige in and out, Azzi in and out, Aubrey back, multiple new pieces like Jana, Chen and Sarah. Whether it's in March or next season or 2028, there's always something to learn and grow from.

Spoken like a true, diehard Husky who is living in the past and who like us all reveled in the fantastic run of 11 NC's. But that ended in 2016. It's a different landscape now. It is time to move on and realize a run like that will never happen again. This is a good team with some talented players and deserves our support and commitment but it is time to realize that a NC is not going to happen this year and to keep hoping for another is maybe not the best way to support this team with the unending refrain of there's always next year or the year after ... or the year after that.

 

[GoUconn7961]

I've said this before, in big games the team lacks a killer instinct.
I'm not going to criticize any one player or point out the obvious.
We need another Taurasi style recruit. Someone that holds their teammates accountable like Jen Rizzotti did. You know the type of player - some selfishness and a LOT of attitude all in one.

EDIT: I think they really missed Ice last night. She's a better rim protector.

 

[jaydee602]

I hate to say this, but these Huskies are Not Ready for Primetime

The score was tied with 2 minutes left in the game. It was a two point game with 20 seconds left.
Give Tennessee credit. Our Huskies didn't have their best game, but they lost in the last 10 seconds.
Not sure primetime was the reason!

 

[Vancat]

I've said this before, in big games the team lacks a killer instinct.
I'm not going to criticize any one player or point out the obvious.
We need another Taurasi style recruit. Someone that holds their teammates accountable like Jen Rizzotti did. You know the type of player - some selfishness and some bad all in one.

Anyone who mentions The Rizz gets a thumbs up from me. And agree, we need a killer. I'm kind of disappointed in some of our players- won't mention any names.

 

[my2cents]

No one is disagreeing that the Big East could be hurting the Huskies. But there must have been 50 such observations over the season and, again, what can be done about it? It’s like complaining about the weather. After a while, it just becomes whining.

Have you ever noticed how close, 'winning' and 'whining' are words that are really close? lol.

 

[SLY63]

After a some time to let the loss sink in, IMO it came down to 2 things

1. Missing open shots (3's and lay-ups)
2. Inability to stop TN penetration and no inside presence on D. Think about it TN rarely hoisted 3's in the 2nd half because the got to the basket so easily.

 

[martyn]

What is your solution, exactly?

Don't think he suggested he has a solution, maybe because there isn't one, not now anyway.

 

[jumpstart]

UCONN will be the gold standard for WBB for years to come. You guys are going to lose some games along the way. This era is much different with the money and facilities upgrade with WBB across the board. The gold standard is still UCONN.

 

[Charliebball]

This loss came down to UConn's offense not performing up to its potential and the team's inability to keep their cool under trying circumstances, both troubling patterns that we've become all too familiar with this season.......UConn is still capable of beating any team in the country when they play their best but it remains to be seen if they can play their best against strong competition.......

 

[WiseWillie]

Even though I'm admittedly bad at math, I respectfully disagree. The team did shoot below their average. I also chose who I thought were the 5 best opponents so far this year (choosing a 6th was too subjective a call for me), and even averaging those numbers out, they still shot below average.

View attachment 106826

Thanks, OviedoFLHusky.

What stands out with these stats besides the overall shooting performance is the low PCT of 3's against better opponents. The players who were thought to be our strong perimeter shooters for many reasons, not the least of which is facing better, more athletic competition than faced in the BE, are simply not producing in those games.

 

[PacoSwede]

Not surprised to see the +/- for Aubrey. Something this team lacks is athleticism. It’s built with great shooters. The efficiency goes out the window when you can’t get open. Aubrey was able to match up on both ends of the floor. A dynamic we definitely need.

it's about time to revisit the "great shooters" myth. these great shooters are missing shots that are wide open, which i find most disturbing. if they were missing the tough shots that's to be expected, but they're missing (or refusing to take) shots that are invited by the foe's defensive missteps. oddly, this happens repeatedly in some games yet in others (never in the tougher contests) they morph into sharpshooters.

 

[ABCDFE]

Maybe 1-5. She made 2 threes, 2 pull up midrange Js from the foul line area, and had one mid range bank shot from about 10 (then missed another shorter one right after). She airballed a 5 footer early, threw up a wild shot in the paint to end the third and missed a 10 foot runner badly in the fourth right after she traveled. But she missed a couple 15-18 footers too, so maybe 1-5 inside of 15.

Whatever the exact numbers, her inability to get points around the rim or get to the line was a problem again. Your top scorer needs to find ways to score other than Plan A. If the jumper is off, get to the rim. Get to the line. We have Chen/KK/Fudd out there to rotate back - when’s the last time you saw Paige attack the offensive glass and get a putback or draw a foul? Shes averaging less than 3 FTs a game. The only two she got today were because Tennessee pushed their own player into her. And she probably should have finished that one and had one FT instead.

I honestly get frustrated watching her these days. As a freshman, I always felt like she had an answer to your answer. If you took one thing away, she’d beat you another. I don’t feel that way any more. You can let her shoot her 15-18 footers all night and even if she makes most of them, it won’t be enough. Her three is too inconsistent and she treats the charge circle like it’s hot lava, so she’s out of answers very quickly.

The point of our guards not driving and getting to the foul line is a great point. We can’t always count on our jump shot to be working. Really hope this teams upperclassman play with more urgency. We also need Shade to be more effective in these types of games. But wishful thinking is just that. Sometimes you are who you are. If you don’t have a killer mentality and that dawg and fight in you then it’s hard for someone to pull that out all of a sudden

 

[ABCDFE]

I thought the Huskies outplayed the Vols.
We did pretty good except we couldnt hit our bunny shots. There was at least 10 lay-ups or easy right-under-the-basket shots we usually make that was just not falling tonight.
10 shots is 20 points that easily would have made the difference.
One other problem is how we let them drive thru us and get some layups at the end of the game which THEY did not miss.

This will be a good thing for us to learn from. Now we know what to work on.

You’re saying we don’t work on layups?

 

[PacoSwede]

...

Something that someone observed in the chat was striking; I can't remember it word for word, but it was a question of How can everyone on the team go cold all at once? It's a good question. Does the answer have to do with a lack of leadership? -- A lack of someone providing that inspiration and motivation to the others to perform at their best? -- A lack of someone providing the example of performing at a high level for others to follow?...

someone like nika, a fierce dog, whose contribution was vastly underrated by many and, i often feared, would be lacking this season.

 

[Gusaford]

Start KK over Kaitlyn in the first and third periods. Nothing against Kaitlyn but KK's taken her game to a different level, especially on the defensive end. Continue to increase Audrey's minutes to improve the team's rebounding and defensive presence. Defense and rebounding are key to beating SC.

 

[Conndog]

If time after time Tennessee kept driving to the hoop, why wasn’t the defense changed to stop that? Put in a zone with someone clogging up the middle maybe, or something else expressly designed to stop the guard driving inside. Not a good game by Geno.

 

[WiseWillie]

It would be no different had they stayed in the AAC either. There's nothing the team can do about it. The WBB program doesn't control which conference they play in. Like HuskyNan said, this is a tiring topic because there's nothing that can be done about for now.

The only way to improve the competitive environment if stuck with the BE is to schedule more - or as many as possible - non-conference games against highly ranked teams, not teams who are trying to build but are no different than and sometimes much less competitive than what is faced in the BE.

 

[Tonyc]

The reason Tenn was able to drive on us was Paige and Azzi were in foul trouble. That allowed Tenn to take the ball right at them and they had to back off for fear of committing another foul. Foul trouble makes you defenseless.

Geno pulled them out of the game because of foul trouble and hoping a rest would get them going.

so What Happened??????

We were rushing and shooting to fast. It comes down to tempo. That comes from lack of poise. We needed to slow down thus a lot of missed shots and to many missed bunnies. We needed to play at our tempo which I will explain later in this post.


We have a lot of jump shooters. We need players like Paige Aubrey and KK who can put the ball on the floor and dribble drive. We lack that kind of player. Tenn and SC have many players who can put the ball on the floor and they have jump shooters too. The jump shooters primarily stay on the outside looking for their shot from their spot.

We play in the Big East and we dont have a big like many of us want. We are developing Jana and Ice who are coming along. Thats where we are.

My Solution

To avoid rushing and playing to fast comes down to who ever is handling the ball needs to settle the team down and be the coach on the floor. By doing this it will instill poise.

We beat a lot of teams badly because they are not athletic and dont have the players who can put the ball on the floor and dribble drive. To be able to put the ball on the floor and dribble drive means your an athletic player and you dont live by the jump shot. Griff and KK can do that. Paige can do both, put the ball on the floor and shoot from the outside.

I will say this. It wasnt the refs fault. In past Tenn games imo the refs played a big part. Not last nite.

We will bounce back from this game. We will because what we need to do is now very apparent. The solution is we need to play at our speed/tempo which means the point guard must settle the team down and keep them from rushing and playing to fast. When you slow yourself down your mind will control your game. When you play at your own pace your mind has time to react, when you play fast your mind reacts to emotions and your play at a pace your not familiar with thus speeding up and rushing your shot. Playing to fast makes you do things you dont normally do. Playing to fast makes you take bad shots, puts you under pressure and your self doubt settles in.

We have the talent and we have the players. the solution is we need to play under control at our own pace. Thats where patience and poise come in and it all starts with a coach on the floor controlling the pace the team needs to play at. Those of you who called me last nite know I was disappointed, frustrated and angry. I hate to loose. What happened last nite can be fixed and thats a good thing. We have a couple of games to work on it before @SC. If we make that improvement we can beat anybody.

 

[cancontent]

The only way to improve the competitive environment if stuck with the BE is to schedule more - or as many as possible - non-conference games against highly ranked teams, not teams who are trying to build but are no different than and sometimes much less competitive than what is faced in the BE.

Isn't this what the program is currently doing? And is it no different than when they were in the AAC? They're doing the best they can to ensure the real face tough competition. This season hasn't yielded the best results, but it's not like UConn is ducking anyone.

 

[Rowdy831]

We need a post player - I know we are not at practice but Ice did not play ???
We cannot go far in the tourney with no post players - we can still win the big east. I would bet on ICE vs Jana this year

Jana had 4 rebounds in 11 minutes, made a nifty move to score a bucket and is always on the floor getting loose balls. Sure some of those loose balls are because she didn't hang onto it in the first place but still. If she got the same amount of rope as other players that are in the game maybe she would be more developed at this point. To be honest I have given up on UConn coaches developing post players and have resorted to watching them try to win with a small lineup and I don't think that works against good teams.

Now did playing Jana 11 minutes cause UConn the game? No, I don't think it did but it is an issue that could be important against other teams. To me it comes down to one thing, your stars need to play like stars in the big games and last night two of the three really played poor offensive games.

 

[Rowdy831]

Don't agree; the Utenn press turned out to be a paper tiger

A press is designed to do two things, turn the ball over and change the pace of the game. On one hand you really can't expect (if you are Tennessee) a team as guard heavy as UConn to have trouble getting the ball up the court but they did speed up several possessions that UConn took poor shots that were rushed. So I think the press actually worked perfectly.

The second thought for me is playing under pressure takes it out of you physically. UConn plays in a league where they really only play half the game on a normal night and tonight down the stretch Tennessee was way more rested and ready to make the plays necessary to win the game. I know UConn doesn't want to beat teams in conference by 100 but they need to kick up the game conditioning to prepare for the tournament.

 

[Oldschoolbb]

Jana had 4 rebounds in 11 minutes, made a nifty move to score a bucket and is always on the floor getting loose balls. Sure some of those loose balls are because she didn't hang onto it in the first place but still. If she got the same amount of rope as other players that are in the game maybe she would be more developed at this point. To be honest I have given up on UConn coaches developing post players and have resorted to watching them try to win with a small lineup and I don't think that works against good teams.

Now did playing Jana 11 minutes cause UConn the game? No, I don't think it did but it is an issue that could be important against other teams. To me it comes down to one thing, your stars need to play like stars in the big games and last night two of the three really played poor offensive games.

Geno loves the quick hook, even if it undermines a player's confidence. You would have thought what happened with Ice Brady in the post season last year would have been illuminating. Apparently not. Personally, I don't think having players constantly looking over their shoulders is beneficial for their development.

 

[WiseWillie]

The reason Tenn was able to drive on us was Paige and Azzi were in foul trouble. That allowed Tenn to take the ball right at them and they had to back off for fear of committing another foul. Foul trouble makes you defenseless.

Geno pulled them out of the game because of foul trouble and hoping a rest would get them going.

so What Happened??????

We were rushing and shooting to fast. It comes down to tempo. That comes from lack of poise. We needed to slow down thus a lot of missed shots and to many missed bunnies. We needed to play at our tempo which I will explain later in this post.


We have a lot of jump shooters. We need players like Paige Aubrey and KK who can put the ball on the floor and dribble drive. We lack that kind of player. Tenn and SC have many players who can put the ball on the floor and they have jump shooters too. The jump shooters primarily stay on the outside looking for their shot from their spot.

We play in the Big East and we dont have a big like many of us want. We are developing Jana and Ice who are coming along. Thats where we are.

My Solution

To avoid rushing and playing to fast comes down to who ever is handling the ball needs to settle the team down and be the coach on the floor. By doing this it will instill poise.

We beat a lot of teams badly because they are not athletic and dont have the players who can put the ball on the floor and dribble drive. To be able to put the ball on the floor and dribble drive means your an athletic player and you dont live by the jump shot. Griff and KK can do that. Paige can do both, put the ball on the floor and shoot from the outside.

I will say this. It wasnt the refs fault. In past Tenn games imo the refs played a big part. Not last nite.

We will bounce back from this game. We will because what we need to do is now very apparent. The solution is we need to play at our speed/tempo which means the point guard must settle the team down and keep them from rushing and playing to fast. When you slow yourself down your mind will control your game. When you play at your own pace your mind has time to react, when you play fast your mind reacts to emotions and your play at a pace your not familiar with thus speeding up and rushing your shot. Playing to fast makes you do things you dont normally do. Playing to fast makes you take bad shots, puts you under pressure and your self doubt settles in.

We have the talent and we have the players. the solution is we need to play under control at our own pace. Thats where patience and poise come in and it all starts with a coach on the floor controlling the pace the team needs to play at. Those of you who called me last nite know I was disappointed, frustrated and angry. I hate to loose. What happened last nite can be fixed and thats a good thing. We have a couple of games to work on it before @SC. If we make that improvement we can beat anybody.

All good points, TonyC. So, what you are saying is that this team lacks a clear take charge leader on the floor like the role Nika played so well. As good as she is, that just is not who Kaitlin is. KK is very good but more a disrupter and not a floor general. That leaves Paige. Is she ready? Will coach allow it because it puts too much pressure on her? Takes her away from her other strengths? Whatever the solution might be, something needs to change if this team is going to go vey far this year.

 

[DallasDomer]

Again, go check JuJu Watkins shooting over her last 3 games, all of which were against unranked opponents.

Don't compare the two Paige is a better player now than JuJu the bomber. Her shooting was 7-24 vs Minnesota, 8-22 in the loss to Iowa, and 4-11 vs Wisconsin. She is not a shooter anyone should be compared to IMO.