The Glaring Weakness | The Boneyard

The Glaring Weakness

You don't need to be uber athletic to keep moving on offense. You don't need to be really tall or jump like a frog to put a body on an opposing player as soon as the shot goes up. After the first quarter, those were both sorely lacking from my point of view.
 
Jronp said:
1.We must become more athletic! So moving forward I would expect to see more Aubrey, Qadence, and KK on the floor as the season progresses. Especially against certain teams.
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The problem with more comes LESS. Who become less. Edwards? Paige? Nika? Azzi? Caroline? Experience in Div 1 is an asset. Qadence or KK--have grit--Samuels isn't affraid to shoot. Sometimes an asset, sometimes not. KK has great court vision and sense. The question David from Naples may answer: How many points did KK or Qadence give up?
I'm thrilled so many new Uconn's got minutes in a"must win" game.
 
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Bigboote said:
You don't need to be uber athletic to keep moving on offense. You don't need to be really tall or jump like a frog to put a body on an opposing player as soon as the shot goes up. After the first quarter, those wI ere both sorely lacking from my point of view.
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I may be mistaken but I thought Q, while a little confused, did actually go under the basket and put her butt in someones gut. The interesting thing under the board--small can move big using their butt/back and legs. But they can't (usually) out jump height.
If you paid attention to Paige (and who wouldn't?) she was in and out an rotating inside out. I.E. Movement with or without the ball.
 
TCC Kid said:
I may be mistaken but I thought Q, while a little confused, did actually go under the basket and put her butt in someones gut. The interesting thing under the board--small can move big using their butt/back and legs. But they can't (usually) out jump height.
If you paid attention to Paige (and who wouldn't?) she was in and out an rotating inside out. I.E. Movement with or without the ball.
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Absolutely, some players boxed out some of the time, but I didn't see them do it nearly enough. And everyone moved without the ball early, not so much later. I think UConn had an edge in rebounds after the first quarter, and they certainly had a significant lead. That all seemed to go out the window pretty quickly.
 
Plus.....I saw only 5 coaches on the bench; Aren't there supposed to be 5?
 
Bigboote said:
You don't need to be uber athletic to keep moving on offense. You don't need to be really tall or jump like a frog to put a body on an opposing player as soon as the shot goes up. After the first quarter, those were both sorely lacking from my point of view.
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I agree…but they were getting blown by on the defensive end At will. 92 points!
 
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TCC Kid said:
The problem with more comes LESS. Who become less. Edwards? Paige? Nika? Azzi? Caroline? Experience in Div 1 is an asset. Qadence or KK--have grit--Samuels isn't affraid to shoot. Sometimes an asset, sometimes not. KK has great court vision and sense. The question David from Naples may answer: How many points did KK or Qadence give up?
I'm thrilled so many new Uconn's got minutes in a"must win" game.
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Valid points,,,but I said as the season goes on. i feel defense is going to be the issue with this team. As it was Sunday…
 
Bigboote said:
You don't need to be uber athletic to keep moving on offense. You don't need to be really tall or jump like a frog to put a body on an opposing player as soon as the shot goes up. After the first quarter, those were both sorely lacking from my point of view.
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True…but they gave up 92 points! The issues i see are on the defensive end. They drove by us all night at will.
 
Things that need to be tweaked? Absolutely. "Glaring weakness"? No, that's an over-the-top emotional reaction. This team has all the parts and talent to be successful. We are "doomed" is popular in posts, but we are not doomed.
 
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Everyone is screaming the sky is falling, this was NC State a team that is better than most of the sports pundits thought they would be. At least it was someone that will most likely be very good this year. Right now Tenn is going into overtime against Memphis of the AAC in Knoxville. Memphis is currently #96 in the Massey Ratings.
 
AgStatesman said:
To me glaring would be the lack of a front court, which is exacerbated by AE shooting 18 footers leaving us with zero presence under the boards to offensive rebound.
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You are correct. However, i still think we could score enough points if we can shut down dribble penetration and driving. We outscored them in the paint.
 
MSGRET said:
Everyone is screaming the sky is falling, this was NC State a team that is better than most of the sports pundits thought they would be. At least it was someone that will most likely be very good this year. Right now Tenn is going into overtime against Memphis of the AAC in Knoxville.
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No we are not screaming the sky is falling! I and many others are just stating what we think are weaknesses that need to be addressed.
 
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I didn't read the postgame thread -- too long and (from past experience after losses) too likely to be hysterical ("UConn Loss Derangement Syndrome"?)

BUT ... what I don't see in this thread is any mention of an unusual weakness against NC State in UConn's 3-point shooting. Azzi was 1-for-7 from 3; if she hit 4 of those instead of 1 (about her expected performance especially when her looks were wide open), that would be 9 more points, and UConn only lost by 11. And maybe if Azzi had hit a few more of the 3's she took, she would have taken and made more. All of her 3-point looks were wide open, or at least that is how they looked to me when I watched the game on TV.

It is notable that both offensive rebounds (11 for UConn vs. 12 for NCS) and turnovers (12 for UConn vs. 13 for the Wolfpack) were essentially equal, and NC State only led in second-chance points by a margin of 12 to 6. As several posters have noted, UConn actually led in points in the paint by a significant margin: 42-30 (which refutes the "UConn is soft" argument).

So I think the emphasis on rebounding as the "glaring weakness" is misplaced. It's true that the Carolinians led in total rebounds by 41-29 because they got a lot more defensive rebounds than the Huskies, but that is merely a reflection of UConn's uncharacteristically poor shooting percentage (46.5%) and especially the Wolfpack's unusually high shooting percentage (52.5% -- when was the last time Geno's team allowed opponents to shoot over 50%?). There were simply a lot of defensive rebounds to be had when UConn was shooting, and not so many when NC State was shooting.

So I would agree with those who say that the glaring UConn weakness was defense, and the next-most-important weakness was 3-point shooting. The first should be correctible in practice sessions, and the law of averages should mostly take care of the second. But I won't be surprised if UConn has trouble in the future with teams who have very fast guards and small forwards as NC State did. I don't think there are a lot of teams like that on the upcoming schedule, however.
 
Pure and simple, our TEAM (with the exception of Paige) wasn't close to being ready to face the totally unexpected fire power of NC State. They out did us in every phase of the game. Their stars shined much brighter than ours. Everything they threw up went in. Rivers told Holly at halftime that they had nothing to lose, so they were just going for it. We were in a state of shock. Very similar to how we played against Ohio State to end last season. We appeared to have no clue what to do.

Those trying to make something positive out of the 81 points we scored, must be overlooking the fact that NC State knew they had the game won and ease up defensively as the margin of victory was totally unimportant to them.
 
Jronp said:
1.We must become more athletic! So moving forward I would expect to see more Aubrey, Qadence, and KK on the floor as the season progresses. Especially against certain teams.
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The players UConn recruits don’t lack athleticism and I don’t think that was the biggest weakness on defense. Lack of communication was evident all game long & cost several easy baskets, and when you give up backboard shots in basketball you are going to be playing uphill all game long. If you aren’t talking you aren’t defending. In my mind the most glaring weakness on defense was a lack of commitment to playing defense with your feet and your heart. This is one of the few Auriemma coached games that I felt like the players looked as if they thought they would win by out scoring the opponent. We all know that is not how GA builds his squads, and his best teams won games when they weren’t lights out on offense by making the other team play bad, and they did it without fouling. Whatever the defensive game plan was I sure hope we don’t ever see act II.
JMO
 
Gordo said:
Pure and simple, our TEAM (with the exception of Paige) wasn't close to being ready to face the totally unexpected fire power of NC State. They out did us in every phase of the game. Their stars shined much brighter than ours. Everything they threw up went in. Rivers told Holly at halftime that they had nothing to lose, so they were just going for it. We were in a state of shock. Very similar to how we played against Ohio State to end last season. We appeared to have no clue what to do.

Those trying to make something positive out of the 81 points we scored, must be overlooking the fact that NC State knew they had the game won and ease up defensively as the margin of victory was totally unimportant to them.
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So, either poor coaching or a lack of effort (something that Geno has said they never have to coach at UConn) - or both?
 
ccwarrior said:
So, either poor coaching or a lack of effort (something that Geno has said they never have to coach at UConn) - or both?
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It was that hard for you to determine?
 
“IF “. A big word. Make a better percentage of our shots. Rebound better. And slow down Rivers. If rivers scored 25. We got 10 more rebounds and scored 8 pts on those and had Caroline Azzi and Griff score 6 more points each it may have been different
 
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