The Nitemare continues

[Tonyc]

Let me make a couple of points. Azzi has been advertised as a great player. With what we've seen I think she can contribute more then those who are not scoring right now. As far as this team goes right now I agree, with the lineup on the court we dont have the firepower on the floor but we do have the firepower on the bench and its injured. So when they get back and I think I made a point of that, when they get back and up to speed we will be a tuff out. IMO Christyn Azzi and Paige should be good for 50 or more points. Thats alot better then we've seen from those who are not scoring. If those 3 dont come back and dont get up to speed that could be another story and we may to wait for next year. We imo have the talent and we have the players the problem right now is theyre injured. FWIW I would not be surprised to see Christyn and Azzi back soon. Christyn most likely if not infected within a week and Azzi by the first week of February. Paige will be most likely sometime after approx February 15. This is if all continues to go well. That hopefully will be enough time to get ready for the BE and NCAAs.

 

[CL82]

So here we are with 3 HS number 1's sitting the bench along with Griff

This is the big take away. Put any one of those kids in in things get much, much better. Put all three of them back in and all of a sudden we are a force to be reckoned with again.

 

[JellyBean]

Nightmare? Not bad. I would say it is more along the lines of, just getting our slice of the "Humble Pie". It happens. We just have to embrace these hard charging ladies and coaching staff on to the finish line. So proud of this team.

 

[#1florida]

Tony et al.....

It's not a nightmare....
It's a normal progression, just like the stock market, the world economy, other sports. gravity, Things go up, things go down.

The problem is: UConn stayed up so long that people expected it to last forever. So did the Romans. But it couldn't, shouldn't. And the fan base (unsurprisingly) developed a sense of entitlement.

Geno was so superior as a coach, so far ahead of his contemporaries.
But other's were going to figure it out, eventually.
Do you remember when he used to pontificate about the miserable level of coaching, nationwide...no more...I had an inkling about that some years ago, when we had a scare from Dayton (of all teams) in the Albany regionals...out-coached for a half by some unknown guy who left a year or so later with a heart condition...too bad...But the writing was on the wall...

Right now, we just don't have enough firepower...it's a fact...but we're going to play out the season the best we can. The team is a lovable bunch of really great kids, who at the moment just don't have enough health, ability, mental fortitude among other aspects to (irrationally) continue UConn's absurd winning ways...Too bad.

We have to accept the reality of us being a middle of the road team for now. As things stand now, we're not going to defeat the better teams. Accept it, enjoy increments of improvement, which will happern.
Don't be disappointed by adversity.

It's not a nightmare, it had to happen sometime, we're not immune from the laws of physics.

It's not a nightmare, its life.

Well said, and realistic thinking.

 

[Beemer]

The only advice I could give to these young women is this: Do.not.give.up. Not on yourselves and not on each other. Situations like this make or break a person and a team. Let this be the making of you. You have tons of support. Keep your heads up and take things one step at a time.

 

[Cornell Lt]

The improvement was a mirage, yeah they beat up on two pretty awful teams but the underbelly of this team remains the same. This is a flawed team and will remain so for the rest of the season, no matter who returns from injury. They will beet average/below average teams and they will loose to above average/great teams, that's reality.

 

[LoboDays]

Maybe Geno thought that Paige would be the point guard, the shooting guard and anything else he wanted her to be. So, he didn’t bother to recruit a true point guard. But, they are lost out there without a quality PG.

Fortunately, we are back to the BE schedule where everyone will look like a candidate for the Wooden Award, confidence will once again be over flowing, and all the planets will align.

 

[Postie]

The improvement was a mirage, yeah they beat up on two pretty awful teams but the underbelly of this team remains the same. This is a flawed team and will remain so for the rest of the season, no matter who returns from injury. They will beet average/below average teams and they will loose to above average/great teams, that's reality.

Totally agree.Against a one win Butler.They played like big bad bullies.Using a full court press.They didn’t try pressing Oregon because PaoPao would have had no trouble with it.The 50 point win covered up the fact that they cannot run a half court offense and make shots when the opponent is in a zone.There are people on the board who said they had to shut the game off last night.But you enjoy watching them beating up on patsies.Well if you couldn’t watch last night don’t tune in for South Carolina.

 

[Postie]

Just when things began to look better and we thought it couldnt get any worse, it did. This has got to be the craziest season we've ever seen. You cant make this stuff up. What are the chances of 4 top players getting injured all at once???? What are the chances of a few players all getting covid all at once? Well the good thing is we are leaning alot especially last nite. We got our butts handed to us and it will be a learning experience for everybody. By everybody I mean the players, coaches and fans. Another point is we may think we've hit rock bottom and we may not have and we may think our injured are coming back and the way things are going this season we dont know that anymore either. What can we expect? I dont know what else can go wrong. Personally I dont think it can get much worse.

So here we are with 3 HS number 1's sitting the bench along with Griff. All those kids who werent getting playtime and many fans screaming about getting playtime well now they are. It is obvious to me theyre not ready yet but still fans question why more players arent getting more time. Right now we are being forced to learn how to win without key players. Right now we are weakness's, and inexperience, are being exposed. The coaches cant do much more. We were out talented last nite. I do believe that if our injured were healthy UConn wouldve wont the game but were not and thats that.

Last nite was a learning experience and alot was exposed. Last nite we couldnt believe what was happening because we've never seen or expected this type of play from a UConn team. A light has gone on in both Caroline and Liv and that will pay dividends when Christyn Azzi and Paige get back.

UConn is a really good team when healthy. Ive been reading posts forever about why doesnt Geno play the reserves more? Why does he keep the starters in for so long? Well this season we're getting a reality check on why he doesnt. Now the reserves are playing and against good teams and they dont look good. They need someone to lead them and that was Paige and shes not there now. We have alot of good complimentary players who can play when someone sets them up and takes the lead. That is Paige and I think Azzi. One problem we saw last nite was Liv and Caroline tried to take charge but they didnt have any help. They were forced to take shots they woulnt have normally taken because nobody would or could find a way to shoot. That wont happen when we get healthy. Now I know Caroline has stepped up and is a star and will be even better when our injured return. At this point we dont have players who can put the ball in the basket outside of Caroline and Liv. We dont have guards who can handle the offense and we dont have enough good players who know how to play the game.

A few things have been exposed. We need to be able to go 7-8 deep with players who take it upon themselves to play much like Caroline has. We need a couple of Carolines coming off the bench and we dont have that right now. Our non starters do need time in games ala Deberry and Paith. The problem over the next few years is almost everybody who will be on the roster is ranked in the top 8 coming out of high school and theyre not coming here to sit, theyre coming here to play. They will all need playtime. So think about this. If you come to UConn out of high school and your ranked maybe 15 in the country you may not see playtime because everybody ahead of you is so much better. Thats how talented this team will be. Right now we have starters who are not ranked in the top 25 getting playtime and it shows. Think about this Christyn Paige and Azzi are all HS number 1's. Evina is a HS number 2. Liv is a HS top 15 as is Deberry and Patterson and Brady and KK and Shade. Is that unbelievable and we still have fans questioning can Geno recruit.

Our focus now is Seton Hall without Christyn Azzi and Paige. That is gonna be a tuff game. In fact most of the rest of our games are going to be tuff until we get our injured back. The goal now is to get everybody healthy and up to speed and ready for the BE tourney and the NCAAs.

Now for all of you who are thinking our seniors should play I will say this. We are now waiting patiencely for Christyn Azzi and Paige to return. Add Caroline and Liv to that as starters. Everybody else has proved theyre not there yet. The answer to why is they dont score. These last few games have only proved to me its time to get Azzi in the lineup and get her ready for the post season. I have a good feeling she will contribute more.

I expected the seniors to step up. Christyn wasnt available, Evina in her home game didnt show up and Liv was great. Its time to make changes. It you cant change your players then change your players. They arent getting it done and thats where we are right now. We are depending on a freshman right now and we were depending on a freshman last season. Play them. We have Seton Hall St Johns and SC coming up. There is no use in continually saying that we need our seniors to step up. We are what we are and we must accept that. Against weaker teams we should win. Against top teams we dont have enough people showing up. At one point last nite we were down 24 pts and thats after we led 10-0. Thats now suppose to happen to UConn but it did.
was #2
Right now we need to prepare for the BE and NCAA Tournaments. We have games against SC and Tenn and that wont be easy until we get everybody back. Even then we have to rekindle the team chemistry, and confidence and that will take time. We know now we cant become dependent on Paige even though when things get tight we most likely will. The difference is we will have a bunch of guards who can score and that will relieve the pressure on everybody.

So we have to suck it up until everybody gets back. Its not gonna be pretty all the time and we're gonna loose some more games but keep on mind when everybody gets back we are gonna be really really good.

You have to stop obsessing over the rankings.They mean nothing.Christyn was #1 She is not close to being the top senior.The jury is out on Azzi.The starting lineup that UConn used last night not one the them in my opinion would start for Oregon.

 

[visitingcock]

Totally agree.Against a one win Butler.They played like big bad bullies.Using a full court press.They didn’t try pressing Oregon because PaoPao would have had no trouble with it.The 50 point win covered up the fact that they cannot run a half court offense and make shots when the opponent is in a zone.There are people on the board who said they had to shut the game off last night.But you enjoy watching them beating up on patsies.Well if you couldn’t watch last night don’t tune in for South Carolina.

UConn can beat us just like Mizzou did. Just have to play with moderate defensive intensity and focus your offense by taking good shots. Avoid just throwing up anything because we are probably going to get thhe rebound. A slower pace than Geno likes, but he needs to settle CD on taking good shots and passing up the hurried shots.

 

[ochoopsfan]

The nitemare(sp?) made it to Spain as Maite Cazorla, who played at Oregon, met KLS for Lunch in Salamanca, Spain

Make sure you have the sound on to hear Lou speaking

 

[visitingcock]

UConn can beat us just like Mizzou did. Just have to play with moderate defensive intensity and focus your offense by taking good shots. Avoid just throwing up anything because we are probably going to get thhe rebound. A slower pace than Geno likes, but he needs to settle CD on taking good shots and passing up the hurried shots.

Oh, BTW:

https://twitter.com/GamecockWBB
GamecockWBB

@GamecockWBB

Update your calendars, FAMS – time change for Jan. 27 against
@UConnWBB
Tipoff NEXT Thursday is now at 6 p.m.!



8:29 AM · Jan 18, 2022·TweetDeck

 

[LoboDays]

Let me make a couple of points. Azzi has been advertised as a great player. With what we've seen I think she can contribute more then those who are not scoring right now. As far as this team goes right now I agree, with the lineup on the court we dont have the firepower on the floor but we do have the firepower on the bench and its injured. So when they get back and I think I made a point of that, when they get back and up to speed we will be a tuff out. IMO Christyn Azzi and Paige should be good for 50 or more points. Thats alot better then we've seen from those who are not scoring. If those 3 dont come back and dont get up to speed that could be another story and we may to wait for next year. We imo have the talent and we have the players the problem right now is theyre injured. FWIW I would not be surprised to see Christyn and Azzi back soon. Christyn most likely if not infected within a week and Azzi by the first week of February. Paige will be most likely sometime after approx February 15. This is if all continues to go well. That hopefully will be enough time to get ready for the BE and NCAAs.

Ya know Tony..it’s like my old Irish grandpa used to tell me: When life throws you lemons…..make vodka gimlets.