TN Postgame Thread [merged]

[housekeys]

The problem with missing free throws, beyond the obvious effect on the score, is that it prevents teams from getting into any rhythm and maintaining momentum. TN best defense and method for preventing a UConn run, was to foul.

 

[cbraarj]

I agree it wasn’t a good look. However it looks like AG and ONO were told if they’re open to shoot it. Otherwise I have a feeling they both would have been pulled earlier. Geno couldn’t have been too unhappy with them or I can imagine them getting an earful.

Geno told them to look for outside shots to pull the bigs of Tennessee out from under the basket. I would bet money he didn't mean to shoot 5 3 pointers in the first 3 minutes. Olivia is not an AA. She is an average post against players her own size. Aubrey did well in the first half but the half court offense was terrible with her in there and you don't set a screen for one second and roll to the basket with your back to the ball. She didn't allow the player to use the screen and when you roll to the basket you look xfor the ball. Paige needs to stop hesitating with her shooting in the beginning of the game. She tries to get her teammates going all the time. How about getting yourself going with what's given to you. Edwards played really tough last night. I like the way she knocks people around. IMO she takes pressure off of Liv because of that. She needs minutes especially in these games.

Evina is the heart and soul of this team. She needs to look for her offense more. Those 2 threes were sweet and dagger like for the Huskies! She is tough plays hard and is a true leader. A totally different player from her Tennessee days. Her play today showed Rocky Top it wasn't her it was the environment at Tennessee!

Miss Williams came to play and what a game! She kept UConn in the game in the first half. She is looking for her shot and not just going to the hoop every time. She played real good defense on Rae Burrell in the first half but Rae couldn't miss. She is Tennessees best player and fun to watch. She also played tough defense on Paige all night. Paige had a decent game with 9-8-7 but that assist to Christyn when she hurt her ankle was pretty and the 3 of course at crunch time! Williams was the catalyst and POG!

As a team they nee to improve on rebounding big time and to box out a lot better. Weak side defense and rotating on defense instead of giving up lay ups. Spacing on offense to make the defense work. It was better in the second half when it was Liv, Evina, Christyn, Paige and Edwards. Lastly
FREE THROWS!!!
UConn should have won by 20!

 

[JordyG]

One thing I forgot to mention. I noted in the chat that Tenn started to wear down by the end of the game. They were winded, flat footed, and unwilling to push through. Even with a mere few games under their belt UConn had the better conditioned players. Also you all may note that Liv's game picked up dramatically and she had more rebounds once AE stepped into the game with her.

 

[Golden Husky]

You didn't see the game? u are suspened from the board for 24 hours..

Nick At Nite was running a "Golden Girls" marathon at the same time. I was conflicted...and, now, apparently, suspended.

 

[cbraarj]

Because as someone has already pointed out, probably Geno told ONO and Aubrey to take shots early on from the outside, to draw the Tennessee Bigs out to them, freeing up the paint.

He did in the flow of the offense and not 5 threes in the first 3 minutes of the game!

 

[da60]

Re: Paige....So vital for the team. She handled the finish like MJ....Thankful for ugly win tho....Her ankle as far as I'm concerned is so very impt. We have Georgetown coming up, who we should easily handle. REST Paige Please. She will get great medical attention,, I'm certain, but we must look ahead. Paige is a generational player and there is nothing like rest. As far as the Arkansas game, get the best medical advice because the kid is such a gamer and will push to play....use your intelligent mature heads....Use Paige only if she is truly ready. Go girls!

 

[eebmg]

Nick At Nite was running a "Golden Girls" marathon at the same time. I was conflicted...and, now, apparently, suspended.

Excuse like that. 48 hours

 

[cferraro04]

Uhhh, the #25 team was down to the #3 team by 2 with less than 1 minute to go. Yeah I'd be pretty pleased by that if I were the #25 team.

I don't want to rain on your parade but....and you are right Tennessee can hold their head up high they played the number 3 team well. I might be inclined to agree with you that maybe Tennessee should be ranked a little higher...and they will probably be rewarded for their play in this game in the next rankings.

I knew going in that 6'5", 6'2", 6'2", 6"2", 6'1" was going to be tough. UConn hasn't experienced that kind of length so far this year. UConn has missed too many games and hasn't really gotten into a rhythm yet. They were lucky to a certain extent...with ONO, Christyn and Aubrey on the bench with an already shortened bench...that they got out of there with a win.

The stat of the game was UConn was 10 for 21 from the line...they make 6 of those which would only be 76 percent from the line and UConn wins by 12 on the road. So far for the season they are shooting .689 from the line. Tonight they were only 25 for 61 from the floor...you have to credit TN's defense for that but, 41 percent from the floor is below their season's average of 53.1 percent. I think UConn was bothered by Tennessee's length. If this UConn team gets to see Tennessee again this season...I don't see them playing this poorly a second time around.

I think what may have gotten lost in all of this...is that our Freshman Paige Bueckers may have had an off shooting night but she was working on a triple double. 8 Rebounds, 7 assists and 9 points. If you throw in 3 steals and the dagger three pointer with 25 seconds to go in the game...and, what you have is a pretty solid all around game...that just about any player on the planet would be happy with.

In closing, Burrell was lights out...she did a great job. Rennia Davis had an off night. Christyn Williams played like an All Star and lived up to her high school number one ranking, Aubrey is the energizer bunny and having her on the floor is a blessing. Evina had an excellent game 15 points (two big back to back threes), 2 steals, 4 assists, 5 rebounds...she had to be an emotional wreck going into her old teams home gym.

 

[cbraarj]

On 4-8 shooting, plus two steals and the two dagger threes. She was the player of the game, IMHO.

I thought Christyn was but Evina is the heart and soul of this team!

 

[msf22b]

A few years ago,I made note of a young woman...a Las Vegas lass a bit mult-talented and reminiscent of Gabby...also from the same state; whose wildness and lack of discipline held her back a bit at Holly's (sic) UTenn...

Boy, wasn't Rae Burrell something tonight, a one woman wrecking crew, especially in the 1st half...has all the makings of a fine professional career down the line.

A credit to a lot of talent and decent coaching.

 

[cbraarj]

Tennessee fan perspective....that was WAY more competitive than I anticipated it being. Tennessee with a really hard fought game and they were right in it until Bueckers hit that huge three. Im shocked it was that close considering Horston was a no show and Davis didn't play well. Im not sure if Harper will get Tennessee back to a Final Four but she absolutely has the program headed in a good direction. Everyone played really hard tonight and went toe to toe with UCONN. Loved what I saw from Suarez, Burrell and Key tonight.

Not the prettiest UCONN game, but Westbrook and Williams were huge for UCONN. ONO had some nice moments defensively in the 4th but her continued inability to produce offensively against opposing bigs isn't a good sign going into the back stretch of the season. UCONN needs production from her to have a shot at winning it all, and she shouldn't be shooting three pointers. Bueckers struggled but came up huge down the stretch. She looked fairly pedestrian tonight but a lot of shots she missed that she's hit in other games. Going up against size and athleticism can affect that but I think she'll shoot better in the SC game. Made some great defensive plays and hustled hard. Griffin and Edwards were very good tonight too. UCONN has talent but the polish isn't there yet. This season has been so weird and inconsistent so who knows if itll get to the point of being a polished offense by season's end, but no team looks very polished right now so I think they're right in the title hunt but the SC game will be very telling. I think they'll crush Arkansas since Neighbors team doesn't play defense.

Despite Tennessee losing, I'm thrilled with how hard Tennessee fought and the direction Harper is taking the program. Good game and congrats on the win.

Like I mentioned before I love watching Burrell play the game! Best player on the court in first half! What hasn't been said tonight is Tennessee was winning the battle for loose balls most of the night. The zone hurt them in the second half. I liked the Suarez kid. She just plays hard and not like a freshman!

 

[bballnut90]

Like I mentioned before I love watching Burrell play the game! Best player on the court in first half! What hasn't been said tonight is Tennessee was winning the battle for loose balls most of the night. The zone hurt them in the second half. I liked the Suarez kid. She just plays hard and not like a freshman!

That was the difference in the 4th quarter...UCONN started getting the loose balls and stopped the barrage of offensive rebounds. Tennessee was winning that battle through 3 quarters. I was impressed UCONN only lost the rebounding margin by 4 after being down by 14 I think midway through the 3rd. Burrell looks like the real deal though which has been a huge surprise. She was a total wild child as a freshman and has drastically improved her decision making and shooting. You could tell she always had a ton of effort and motivation, glad to see she's putting it together.

 

[donalddoowop]

Liv battled and did some good things, especially in the 2nd half. Not dominating doesn't mean she isn't competing. I don't think she deserves some of the shade thrown her way.
Aubrey's 4th foul was not smart and could've really hurt us.. She hasn't had that worry coming off the bench but if she's gonna play starters minutes, she's gotta be smart.
Anna's in a spiral... Losing minutes means fewer opportunities to play through her funk. Starting to look like foul/injury insurance.
It's trendy to call the huskies soft but I'm seeing some money time swag from pb, ew, and cw. I like it.
It was fun to see a competitive game.

I re-watched the game and I did not see what Anna did that has caused some on here to say she played badly. She did not shoot but she did not hurt the team as far as I could see. She did not look lost to me. Also, at the beginning of the game, Tennessee had won more games than UConn had played. Not playing a consistent schedule and having games postponed or cancelled does not help a team reach their peak level. If UConn ever plays on a regular basis, Tennessee won't want to see them at tournament time.

 

[Cuango]

As Geno would say Tennessee's free throw defense was awesome. Surprised at the end when defense was crucial as we had a lead, he left a very gimpy Paige in and they go two baskets.

You did see that the “very gimpy” Paige made the three that essentially iced the game?

 

[Littlemin]

Yeah, a few weeks ago, Paige (or any other Uconn players) would have passed that ball to Anna for a more wide-open shot.

Since the shot clock ran out while the ball was in the air as it was there would have been no shot by Makurat.

 

[Cuango]

Liv battled and did some good things, especially in the 2nd half. Not dominating doesn't mean she isn't competing. I don't think she deserves some of the shade thrown her way.
Aubrey's 4th foul was not smart and could've really hurt us.. She hasn't had that worry coming off the bench but if she's gonna play starters minutes, she's gotta be smart.
Anna's in a spiral... Losing minutes means fewer opportunities to play through her funk. Starting to look like foul/injury insurance.
It's trendy to call the huskies soft but I'm seeing some money time swag from pb, ew, and cw. I like it.
It was fun to see a competitive game.

Poor Anna! I really believe she was going to have a great year! She came back from home in the best shape she had ever been in but was badly affected by the pandemic and (I believe) lost much of that conditioning. That had to be hard to take and I’m not sure she has recovered from that. I still have faith that she is going to be a good player for us. If she can regain her confidence and get her shooting back to last season’s second half level, she will be very hard to keep out of the game. She has a lot to offer if that happens.

 

[eebmg]

Lady Vols lose a heartbreaker to UConn

The No. 25 Tennessee women’s basketball team dropped a close matchup to No. 3 UConn Thursday night. In front of 3,553 fans, the largest crowd of any NCAA women's game

www.utdailybeacon.com

Rennia still off target after the game.

“It stings for several reasons,” Davis said. “Obviously, we were right there with them. Obviously, we feel like we are a better team than them. We just didn't do some things the right way. I still feel like we were close.”

 

[jayfromfla]

I guess I saw a different game. When Anna was in she positioned herself for several three point shots. Her teammates NEVER passed to her. on the base line on the left and mid side on the right. wide open and no passes. Can't get hot if you can't get the ball

 

[Huskygamble19]

this is the kind of game you would expect from playing non-competitive opponents for so may spaced out games. This was a good win and showed how many deficiencies that they have to work on to compete with the better teams. Paige"s shooting was distinctively off, but she contributed in other ways with steals and assists and that is important for her moving fwd. The free throw shooting was atrocious making the game closer than it should have been. Paige, to me, took a big step in maturity by showing that her shooting may be off but she can affect the game offense by other means. Christyn and Evina were the catalysts in this win. Tough and gritty making big shots with a no quit attitude. Aubrey affected the defense as always, but the fouls put a damper on that too early. ONO and Aubrey shooting 3's multiple times........I don't know about that.

 

[Skeets]

Re: Tennessee

As a Tennessee hater it was nice to see they have a good basketball team again. I think having a good Tennessee basketball team is great for the sport.. They are definitely up and coming.

It is nice to see this series again. I hope we go back to the 2 games a year format..

NO! With 20 Big East games there's not enough OOC games left to play anyone twice a year. If Tenn is going to maintain a quality team I would not mind once a year.

 

[mbr33ct]

I guess I saw a different game. When Anna was in she positioned herself for several three point shots. Her teammates NEVER passed to her. on the base line on the left and mid side on the right. wide open and no passes. Can't get hot if you can't get the ball

Not again...or "still" with Anna not getting passes? Is this going to be her legacy? Conspiracy theories all over again.

 

[UConnCat]

 

[eebmg]

Funny about the pregame concern of tough hostile crowds. I think Paige has seen that before. Different Venue, same results

 

[eebmg]

Don't forget the dish (best served cold)

 

[eebmg]

Some top flight analysis