The last 5 minutes -- yikes

[UConn82]

I am not sure what to say about this. They really do look terrible. Game after game after game.

OK, let's end this post on a happy note. BC played.

 

[HuskyNan]

Freshmen and sophomores.....

 

[JordyG]

What last 5 mins? When I rewatch games I ignore stuff like that.

 

[HoopsFan21]

We go through this every year. You'd think after 32 years people would have figured out the pattern by now.

 

[UConn82]

Geno does not ignore it. He notes it very well. Look, I still think at least one of the non top 8 (include BC) can make a big jump. We'll see.

 

[ConnFanInMich]

We all said the same thing 2 years ago when the Big 3 would come out and Gabby, Lou and Pheesa anchored the second team. I think they turned out okay...

 

[tomcat]

Yeah, they were all over the place, but I saw some things to like. While she was in with some of the regulars, Kyla Irwin had herself a nice five minutes or so, including a pass from the high post to low that would have done Kylie McLaren proud. I haven't been much of a fan of Irwin, but I thought she did well during that period of time. The freshmen, except for Walker, looked uniformly lost tonight. Molly Bent had some moments, good and bad,

 

[UConnCat]

Freshmen and sophomores.....

Who were facing a full-court press by DePaul starters who were trying to pretty up the corpse. It means nothing for the overall success of this year's team but posters here are going to be annoyed because, well, I don't know. Happens every year.

 

[HoopsFan21]

We all said the same thing 2 years ago when the Big 3 would come out and Gabby, Lou and Pheesa anchored the second team. I think they turned out okay...

And five years ago when the second team was anchored by Stewie, Mo, and Tuck.

 

[JoePgh]

There are at least two factors which make this worse than the normal UConn garbage-time disaster:

1. DePaul (playing at least 10 players) outscored the UConn end-of-bench crowd by 18-2 in roughly the last 2 minutes. The end-of-bench players entered the game en masse when the score was 101-51, and the final score was 103-69.
2. Mikayla and Lexi did not get in the game even in those circumstances. Geno has previously explained that: he does not believe in playing freshmen until he is convinced that they are doing everything they can in practice. So that must STILL not be the case with these two. When are they going to start “getting it”?

Offsetting these negatives was the fact that Batouly did play and looked as well as can be expected. She got a couple of rebounds, and had a chance to score after an offensive rebound but (like just about everyone else) blew the layup. But she looks like she has the potential to be an 8th contributing player.

 

[Biff]

[*]Mikayla and Lexi did not get in the game even in those circumstances.

Ummmm. Nevermind

 

[UConnCat]

Ummmm. Nevermind

Exactly. Couldn't agree more.

 

[noirwestern]

I think the last five minutes serves to underscore how meaningless the ratings out of high school are. All of the crowing about who got whom to sign is just more homer nonsense for at least a year or two. Or sometimes three. Oh, and how soon people forget all of the times this has played itself out over the years.

 

[HuskyNan]

I think the last five minutes serves to underscore how meaningless the ratings out of high school are. All of the crowing about who got whom to sign is just more homer nonsense for at least a year or two. Or sometimes three. Oh, and how soon people forget all of the times this has played itself out over the years.

No, all it proves is that some kids take longer to adjust to the speed and physicality of the game after moving up a level.

 

[CTrefugee]

Godawful bad.

 

[HoopsFan21]

How many times do we need to say this: Lexi and Mikayla stayed home to study for their finals. The reason they didn't get in the game isn't because they were poor at practice, or because Geno doesn't think much of them. They didn't get in the game because they weren't there.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Who were facing a full-court press by DePaul starters who were trying to pretty up the corpse.

Yup, and it was arguably bad form to do so. Lovely turn of phrase Cat; so much more yucky than lipstick on a pig.

 

[chrissaran]

Molly has had a lot more bad moments than good this year.

 

[my2cents]

I think it looks worse than it is because no one can handle the ball at this level yet. They dribble with their heads down and telegraph most passes. They need to have Crystal or Nurse stay with them so it doesn't look so ugly.

 

[BigBird]

Yes, the last 4 minutes were not pretty, but young players were getting some experience to build on. Why dwell on the negative?

 

[TitleTown]

There are at least two factors which make this worse than the normal UConn garbage-time disaster:

1. DePaul (playing at least 10 players) outscored the UConn end-of-bench crowd by 18-2 in roughly the last 2 minutes. The end-of-bench players entered the game en masse when the score was 101-51, and the final score was 103-69.
2. Mikayla and Lexi did not get in the game even in those circumstances. Geno has previously explained that: he does not believe in playing freshmen until he is convinced that they are doing everything they can in practice. So that must STILL not be the case with these two. When are they going to start “getting it”?

Offsetting these negatives was the fact that Batouly did play and looked as well as can be expected. She got a couple of rebounds, and had a chance to score after an offensive rebound but (like just about everyone else) blew the layup. But she looks like she has the potential to be an 8th contributing player.

It's kind of hard for Coombs and Gordon to play in a game in Chicago when they are in Storrs.

 

[Bleed Blue-XY]

When all the bench players came in I think we all were like “How much time is left to go?”

 

[UConnNick]

Relax. Extended garbage time is just that, even though it drives Geno and some of us nuts. The scrubs will start looking a heck of a lot better when they routinely get in during the third and fourth quarters vs. the junior college portion of our schedule (AAC games). DePaul is a pretty good team.

 

[DefenseBB]

There can a few different prevailing and divergent thoughts on this-
1st is 82 is absolutely correct YIKES! That was some ugly basketball. Enough about the DePaul starters (or bench for that matter) as the 5 out there were as heralded OR MORE HERALDED than any of those DePaul players. They practice with better players and 3 of them have been in the system for 2 years (freshman being the exception).
2nd is I would think better assimilation occurs when only one or two bench players are on the court with the starting 6 as they will know the flow and assignments vs. all 5 bench players kind of "thinking" about areas to cover on both offense and defense. Andra and Molly are supposed to be the ball handlers and they were dreadful. As much as we all admire Molly's grit, her decision making is not showing signs of improving. However as noted by Tomcat, Kyla is showing improvement in all phases-passing, dribbling, positioning and conditioning and maybe that is why she has been 8th off the bench at times. To me seeing Batouly play was really nice. She did look rusty but did "command" more of a presence than the others. Hoopfan21 is a bit mistaken in Stewie, Moriah and Tuck as in the first 2 players case, they did get significant time with the first team their freshman year and by Sophomore year were starters.

Yes it was garbage time and yes, not much stock should be taken in it, however they should have played better than that. As they were all schooled by Geno, they should be handling it much better than they did and play tighter defense than they did. As we have seen Andra get some better time with the starters on a occasion and with Batouly having played at Kentucky, I am probably more inclined to be positive on them. Kyla for all her improvement still is slow and not fluid yet, I do think it will come eventually. Molly, not so sure what to think even as I root hard for her, I just cringe at some of the passes and open looks she passes up. As I noted, some divergent thoughts and I hope it gets better as when the AAC season starts they will be getting a lot of garbage time...

 

[FairView]

There's nothing new about the performance level when the bench is emptied in a blowout. It annoys me when fans expect everyone to be Maya on day one. Funny, but I had a positive view of the final minutes. I saw flashes and improvements on the part of the sophomores against a team that was still playing really hard against them. Way to go.