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Message: [QUOTE="JoePgh, post: 3347682, member: 1131"] I had a couple of hours in between leftovers to watch a replay of the recent Oregon-Syracuse game. Oregon is a very good team and deserves their #1 ranking. However, I don't think that they are at the level of the later Stewart era (2015 and 2016). Here are some random observations, mostly about Sabrina Ionescu. [LIST=1] [*]Sabrina is a fantastic 3-point shooter, seemingly at the Taurasi level especially with respect to range. And she doesn't need much time to get her shot off. Whoever guards her will have to be able to challenge that shot anywhere beyond half court. I think that requires a taller defender, as opposed to Crystal or Christyn. [*]Erin Boley is a KLS type of player, i.e., a very accurate 3-point shooter who needs help to get open and may be somewhat vulnerable on defense. I don't think Boley's on-ball defense is nearly as good as Lou's was in the latter part of her college career. [*]Minyon Moore is a Crystal-type player -- very fast and makes accurate passes to open players. I think Crystal should guard her when the teams play in February. [*]Hebard and Sabally are good rebounders and good post defenders. UConn will be challenged to get rebounds against them and may have to deal with a lot of second-chance opportunities. But I think Olivia will block more of their shots than they are accustomed to. Also, they both seem to be somewhat foul-prone. [*]I think that Moore is the only Oregon starter (and maybe their only player) to whom the descriptor of "quick" could be accurately applied. UConn as a team should have a quickness advantage over Oregon up and down the lineup. That means that the normal UConn offense of quick cuts and handoffs should be productive against this team, but there will be pressure to hit 3-point shots at the same rate of the Ducks do. [*]Oregon may end up playing a zone defense against UConn for just that reason, since they may recognize that they have a quickness deficit. That will put further pressure on the jump shooting accuracy. [*]I think Anna could guard Boley or even Sabrina without being overly vulnerable, since neither of those players seems to have a particularly quick first step, nor does penetration seem to be a part of their game. [*]I think that the Duck Dynasty may be vulnerable to pressure, including Sabrina. Near the end of the game, I saw Syracuse double-team her twice. The first time, she made a desperate pass that could easily have been picked; the other time she was called for traveling. Syracuse never really trapped the Oregon guards out of their zone, and I would like to have seen how well Oregon handled it. I see a big defensive and rebounding role for Aubrey Griffin in the February game to exploit these possibilities. [*]I predict and hope that the February game will be a high-scoring contest with the final score in the 80's for both teams. I think UConn will have an advantage in that kind of game. It should come down to a question of whether UConn's transition points exceed Oregon's second-chance points. If they do, UConn should prevail. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]

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