TN Postgame Thread [merged]

[OneTrickPony]

Some thoughts on the TN game:

• UConn finally played a game that generated some genuine anxiety relative to the outcome. TN’s length and athleticism provided a challenge that UConn hasn’t faced this season.
• While TN was a better defensive team then UConn has played this year, UConn missed open shots both outside and inside the arc, as well as a bunch of FT’s, appearing tentative until money time at the end of the game.
• This is a game where players need to make plays. Christyn made a bunch of plays for UConn. She wasn’t getting a whole lot of help early, particularly after Aubrey picked up her 4th foul.
• Evina stuck a dagger in LV fans hearts tonight. I’m sure she feels a great sense of redemption.
• Paige’s game tonight reminded me a little of DT’s game her freshmen year in the national semifinal. Geno knew enough to keep Paige in the game until she finally started making plays down the stretch, Ultimately Paige hit one of those legendary shots that we'll all be talking about for years to come, on a bad ankle.
• UConn really needs to play and learn from games like this if they are to have a chance to advance deep into the Big Dance. Let’s hope they learned a lot tonight.

I was thinking of Diana's game in the national semifinal, too. No quit in Paige, though, and that limping dagger at the end was sweetness itself. Very happy for Christyn and especially Evina!

Tough room to play ... welcome to the big leagues.

 

[Biff]

The double technical last night ....what was that all about? Obviously Uconn got the better end of it with possession after the foul shots.

It wasn't a double technical. Edwards got called for a foul. The Tenn player then mouthed off to Edwards and the ref called her for taunting( Technical). So Tenn shot the edwards fouls then UConn shot the technical and then got the ball after the technical shots.

 

[npignatjr]

Funny one of the UConn Tennessee games ESPN played yesterday was the 2004 game. Until the very end UCONN was terrible shooting free throws.

 

[Vowelguy]

There is a reason why they were being left wide open; just because a player is left wide open doesn't mean it is a good shot for them to take.

There was a green light from Geno to shoot.

Geno's complaint was that the shots were not coming from the flow of an offense. They were too quickly being settled for. He did not say they had no business taking those shots, which he has said about other players.

 

[CocoHusky]

Watch the coach's post game press conference.

There was a green light from Geno to shoot.

Geno's complaint was that the shots were not coming from the flow of an offense. They were too quickly being settled for. He did not say they had no business taking those shots, which he has said about other players.

Yea Geno covers this pretty well. Paraphrased: Yes the team was told before the game that the way TN was guarding they were likely to get a lot of open jump shots and they should take those shots. He also told them to do the other things move the ball, set good screens cut really hard and it seems like they "forgot about the other things" besides shooting open jump shots.

 

[oldude]

The double technical last night ....what was that all about? Obviously Uconn got the better end of it with possession after the foul shots.

It was not a double T. Aaliyah fouled the TN player as a shooting foul. The TN player then taunted Aaliyah and was T’d up. The TN player shot 2 FT’s. Then Christyn shot 2 technical foul shots with UConn getting the ball at half court.

 

[CocoHusky]

While some like to criticize our highly rated HS players for non-ideal performances, I'll note that TN's most prized recruit Horston was 1-11 with 2 reb 3 asst 4 TOs, 2 pts.

And this wasn't just one bad game for Horston either. She has really regressed across the board shooting 36% for the season. She appears to be playing the PG position which in the TN offense means get the ball over half court and become useless after that.

 

[oldude]

And this wasn't just one bad game for Horston either. She has really regressed across the board shooting 36% for the season. She appears to be playing the PG position which in the TN offense means get the ball over half court and become useless after that.

Something I noticed about Horston last night. She has added a lot of bulk to her frame. I assume some of that is muscle, but I have to wonder about her overall fitness level. Last year she looked to be long, lean and athletic. This year, not so much.

 

[bluedevil]

And remember Saylor is on the way...with more height and at least equal long range skills

When does she dock?

 

[MSGRET]

The double technical last night ....what was that all about? Obviously Uconn got the better end of it with possession after the foul shots.

It was not a double technical, it was a shooting foul on UConn and a technical foul on Tennessee for unsportsmanlike conduct, taunting.

 

[Vowelguy]

And remember Saylor is on the way...with more height and at least equal long range skills

Saylor and Anna are both 6'2.

 

[bluedevil]

The double technical last night ....what was that all about? Obviously Uconn got the better end of it with possession after the foul shots.

The call on Tennesse was for taunting...it was an an 1..no double technical was called.

 

[ScottCT]

I'm just happy we won. Over the past couple of years, we lost every game in close situations.

 

[BobbyJ]

And this wasn't just one bad game for Horston either. She has really regressed across the board shooting 36% for the season. She appears to be playing the PG position which in the TN offense means get the ball over half court and become useless after that.

Yeah, I've noticed that regression too. Although she was a somewhat typical Warlick recruit, short on fundamentals and long on athleticism, I'm surprised this has happened since she's been getting good coaching from Harper for a season and a half now.

 

[eebmg]

And this wasn't just one bad game for Horston either. She has really regressed across the board shooting 36% for the season. She appears to be playing the PG position which in the TN offense means get the ball over half court and become useless after that.

although She did have the sweet dish to Key on a fast break she led to cut the lead to 63-61. The talent is in there but then makes poor decisions.

 

[CocoHusky]

Yeah, I've noticed that regression too. Although she was a somewhat typical Warlick recruit, short on fundamentals and long on athleticism, I'm surprised this has happened since she's getting good coaching from Harper for a season and a half now.

Somewhere in the archives of the BY there is post from someone ( might have been me ) saying words to the effect that Jordan Horston has a set of DPOY caliber tools and unfortunately those tools will be waisted if she went to TN.

 

[Vowelguy]

Question for the TN visitors:
What is the status of the players who didn’t play?

• Green is out for the season — any sense if she’s going to come back
• is McCoy still in concussion protocol?
• is Rennie injured?
• Darby still injured?
• I assume Saunders is ok but not ready for prime time

 

[chrissaran]

Tennessee had every advantage. Playing at home, in front of the largest crowd this year for women's basketball, the size advantage, the experience advantage, the score advantage, UConn playing poorly and shooting poorly, especially Paige and Olivia, and yet the couldn't win. Their fans want a rematch. Let's go. UConn will not play that poorly again, and with Saylor Poffenbarger being added to the mix, I don't see UConn losing.

 

[VFLfan]

Question for the TN visitors:
What is the status of the players who didn’t play?

• Green is out for the season — any sense if she’s going to come back
• is McCoy still in concussion protocol?
• is Rennie injured?
• Darby still injured?
• I assume Saunders is ok but not ready for prime time

Yes Green is out for the season with an ACL tear. McCoy is still listed as “day to day” with concussion symptoms. Darby has been dealing with shin splints but has played sparingly in the blow outs. Rennie is fine to my knowledge but hasn’t really been used much since SEC play has begun. Saunders is still a work in progress. She gets minutes if Key and Kasi are in foul trouble.

 

[Charliebball]

Yeah, I've noticed that regression too. Although she was a somewhat typical Warlick recruit, short on fundamentals and long on athleticism, I'm surprised this has happened since she's been getting good coaching from Harper for a season and a half now.

don't forget there were a lot of disappointed folks here (including me) when she chose Tenn over UConn............as many commented at the time...........she certainly would benefit from a Geno education.......

 

[Centerstream]

ESPNU has a replay of last night's game scheduled for 9:05PM EST tonight.

 

[Bama fan]

?
At the end of the game ESPN immediately named Christyn as the POG.

Oh ,so they listened did they?

 

[eebmg]

ESPNU has a replay of last night's game scheduled for 9:05PM EST tonight.

Replaced with Hank Aaron documentary

 

[jazz]

My 2 cents on the overall game and guard play

Not the best game we ever played. Just hung around for the most part. But this was our first test and on the road. TN is a big team and we may struggle against bigger teams at least until AE is ready for big minutes.

I’m happy that despite the fact we just can’t shoot the ball well, we still find a way to win. We can’t make FTs either. If we just hit our normal %, which I think is 70%, we win my double digits on the road.

Missed three early jumpers where we were wide open. I don’t mind AG or Liv shooting them, just not so early in the shot clock. Gave up a lot of boards in the 1st Qtr and then I think we won the battle of the boards thereafter.

Playing more zone and looked pretty good though. 3pt defense needs to improve but we still played very well on defense considering the home team only scored 61 points and shot roughly 37%. But to be fair, that number is skewed by Horston and Walker who shot a combined 2 for 20. The rest of the team shot roughly 50% - not so good! But TN has good players too.

PB – ok she didn’t shoot well but I’m happy she isn’t scared to shoot and try to take over. It is obvious now that the team is looking for her to lead and take big shots. Loved the double clutch bank shot – most players never develop this and she already has it. Barely missed on several shots. I really think she got gassed which caused her to miss. TN played her tough the entire game and made her play defense as well. She really showed up on defense where she was very disruptive with her length. Will not get the credit for it, but caused 3 turnovers by my recollection (not counting the steals was credited with). Nothing easy for the opposing team. Gutty performance and obviously the big shot at the end to ice the game. We will remember that for years to come!

CW – Terrific game on the offensive end but she gives up so much defensively. She is really good when she is good and then she throws up bricks. Anyway, we have to live with that trade-off.

EW – Played more guard in the game and damn does she look good! Wow. Gets in the lane at will and hits the short pull up. Drains the three. Too bad she couldn’t do that in the late 4th – maybe she got gassed too. Before this she had a terrific stretch where she scored, rebounded and hit a shot. Played good defense in not allowing penetration but a bit late in covering the 3pt shooter.

She is starting to become a force and it could not have been easy to perform well in this game with all the emotions going through her. This tells me she has some ice in her veins. Great all around game.

Think we need a guard (either NM or Saylor) to give us some minutes because to me, PB and EW looked gassed at some points in the game.

Would PB have made that 3 pointer if she didn’t have the rest she had to take for the ankle injury??

 

[jazz]

My 2 cents on the post play:

Liv – well not the best game. Gave us little presence on offense in the post but GA used her mostly outside. Came up big at times on defense with key blocks and also was good on the boards. Too bad she missed all her jumpers and half her FTs…ughhhh.

AE – gave some good minutes. Will not be out-physicalled (my new word). Can be a bull in a china shop though and pick up unnecessary fouls. Hit a lucky bank shot…almost broke the backboard on another layup attempt.

She is like K. Malone going down the lane. Nobody wants to get in front of her because they know they will get trucked and may be missing some teeth. Very explosive athlete. I’m happy with what she did in this game and something to build on. We really need her big time down the road. I’m thinking she is a real key to our success against teams with skilled bigs.

AG – I like what I saw. Active but didn’t make as much of an impact as I hopped but still was impactful – still filled up the stat sheet. Showed off her open court dribbling skills (yes, she has a good handle) on one play with the cross over and lay in, and then on another where she had a nice dish to AE. Hit another jumper – 3 pointer this time. That makes 3 games in a row she has hit a jumper. Missed more than she made from outside as most did in this game. Needs to be smarter with perimeter defense vs smaller guards who can get by her if she overplays. Missed some assignments on defense.

Some may say she slowed down the offense but I don’t agree. If we hit a few more of our open shots and our FTs, we easily hit 80 and nobody mentions this. Scoring 80 on the road in our first test wouldn’t have been bad. We just can’t shoot the ball thus far this year.

AM – first game I can remember where she made little impact. She does draw out the defense but other than that, not much. One shot in the last 2 games...teams playing her closely on the 3 pt line.

MM – interesting that GA went with her for 5 minutes in the first half. Got confused in the half court against the zone. Decent minutes though.