The Nat Attack

[hoophuskee]

Jimbo -- As far as your take on Turner – I couldn’t disagree more. I just watched the 2nd half of the ND game on uconnhuskygames.com. To start with halftime report Lobo speaks of Stewie’s defensive impact to paraphrase “BS has made her presence shown on the defensive end of the floor. ND’s imagination with Stewie having 3 blocks and 8 rebounds.

But more importantly Geno is being interviewed at the 11:17 mark. And he is asked about Turner “coming alive.” - Geno said “That’s what happens when someone drives the lane and we rotate. We were keeping them out of the lane in the first half. . . “

And to add to that – Turner’s ten point in the 2nd half.

1 basket 17:00 mark – Pick and roll with Stewie defending Lloyd as Turner rolls to the basket. At 17:03 mark you can see Nurse inexplicably leaving Turner and Tuck not sure who to guard Reimer or Turner. They pass to Turner. Tuck wasn’t in position. She didn’t know where to go. IMO nothing to do with “not having an answer for Turner” here.

1 basket at 15:16 mark it was off penetration. Turner missed the shot and got her rebound and scored. The player guarding her was Nurse.

1 basket at 11:53 penetration – Stokes leaves Turner- Turner gets layup from the drive-and-dish once Stokes leaves to defend the ball-handler.

***These were the three baskets Geno was talking about “drive and create” for Turner.

1 basket 10:42 —BOTH Stewie and Stokes rush out to Reimer and Reimer throws an alleyoop to the open Turner. It was BLOWN COVERAGE. Similar to an unforced turnover. No way I call this “Turner having her way.” Anyone that is tall and athletic can have their way if you give them enough room on the inside.

1 basket at 8:48—Stewie fell down. Stewie fell down. Stewie fell down. Frazier goes down!! IMO this basket again nothing to do with Turner having her way.

1 basket at 7::34 beauty move by Turner.

1 basket at 6:30 she hit a straight-away bank shot at the shot-clock buzzer. That was extremely lucky.

Of all these baskets she made one real good low post move. As Geno said the 1st three baskets were rotation. And at *:48 –Stewie fell down.

I stand by statement and Geno’s .

 

[hoophuskee]

Jimbo—First off when you say you were referring to Stewie on the defense – I think we are arguing on the word “NEED?” More on that later. Bu we agree that BS is best in college as a 4. One of my disagreements on this thread was about his or her comment of BS taking a “serious pounding.” IMO it hasn’t been near that bad. I think we agree with that, right?

As for “NEED” - while I agree she has been better defending 4’s – but my posts regarding this subject have been disagreeing for those that say “WE NEED a 5.” IMO We don’t “NEED.” As you say in your last sentence “We MIGHT need . . . ,” I definitely agree with that. While I don’t think “WE NEED” I think we “MIGHT NEED.” As I said - I guess nothing is assured – one can say it is MORE ASSURED if we have Stewie play the 4. Is that what you are getting at? For anyone who thinks that then they must have thought we needed Dolson last year, Because last year – many feared / were concerned with Duke and USC’s frontline and then in the title game vs ND we got wiped out on the glass. Did we NEED Dolson?

And I think it is unfair when you say “. . . Stokes than when she's stuck manning the paint all by herself.” I think this is very unfair to Tuck. And you’re right Stewie can get outmuscled. But every player has weaknesses. Look at the greatest in UCONN History. DT wasn’t the quickest. Maya wasn’t the tallest nor was she big for a 4. She was small. KML wasn’t quick. I’m pretty sure Butler let the Cinci player drill an outside shot that Jones nailed a few times the game before. So yeah – Stewie can get outmuscled. She isn’t perfect. But in order to win it all- she is fine as a 5.

And regarding Geno – do we really want to quote everything he says and take it literally? I mean the poor guy has had a long-standing run of bad luck by continuing to get stuck with the worst post players in America. Sue Bird did say on the Geno show last year that Geno has a “formula.” And you know, -- maybe Butler is unguardable in the paint vs every team in America.


***IMO your IF statements are irrelevant just as I said before. I stand by my statements with your use of IFFS. IFFS mean nothing.

**** You keep speaking of one side of the ball. UCONN’s offense is terrific. Maryland had no answer for UCONN’s Stewie and Tuck. We outscored them. Not to mention Jones 5 turnovers and no assists. Basketball is not a one-0way game. Got to play on both sides. While Stewie isn’t as big brawn wise – Jones had no hope of guarding her or Tuck either.

*Geno had spoken of 01-02 team not being able to guard Oklahoma. And the clinching play was isolation with DT. Geno said afterwards he could have ran that paly many times but doesn’t want to play like that. But my point is Geno can’t be pigeon-holed. HE is not going to win one way. He may have a formula to coach players but he’ll coach a style of play differently and be very successful. In this case yeah – sure he wants better defense. And he also spoke at halftime of his crummy team’s turnover performance. But imo he knows md couldn’t stop UCONN either.

Do you recall a few years ago UCONN playing Griner-led Baylor without Maya? They interviewed Geno just before going to lcokeroom at halftime he said the key to the game is who can figure out ways to score. They interviewed Baylor coach and when she heard what Geno said she was shocked and said it’s the team that can best stop the other. Geno thinks out of the box. He knows as well as many of us- that Stewie is among the greatest ever and the opposing team this season has a far worse matchup than UCONN. IMO you can’t just think one way. And as we have heard Cd say often to paraphrase “We’re not a much concerned with what other teams do. We want to dictate that they stop us.” I doubt anyone can stop Stewie this year.

**You don’t have to play perfect in order to be invincible. It’s oaky if some other players have a good game vs us. We will more than likely have better.


****************Enjoyed the discussion. Thanks. And I appreciate we kept a good conversation without insults. Thanks. Got to watch UCONN men now.