tOSU postgame Thread

[TCC Kid]

Bad as they handled the press, ineffective as Fudd and Edwards were, etc, etc, they would have been in the game had they made just their usual percentage of foul shots.

Last I heard, didn't see the box score, Uconn missed 13 fT's enough to win?

 

[The deacon]

This may well have settled who our point guard is next year? Azzi will not survive at the next level being as tentative as she showed at times. Great ride ladies. No team in the country had to overcome what this team did. Great having Lou aboard and Dorka was a great addition and both were stand up women.

I trust you mean KK? I think we should wait for her to get a few games under her belt first...

 

[Carnac]

I would disagree that we did the best we could. If that is criticism then so be it. The team had a bad game, it happens. The coaches didn’t seem to be able to come up with any answers either. It happens. But I do not think we did our best, our best is much better than what we saw today.

Our team always tries to do the best they can. Sometimes it's not good enough. None of our players were trying to lose. They were not on the court by themselves. Ohio State had something to do with how they played. I get your point. I respect your opinion, but I don't agree. I think our girls did the best they could, but as I said, it was not good enough, and I'm not mad at them.

As I have said many times over the course of the season, this is not our year. When Paige and Ice went down, that was it. It's South Carolina's year. They will finish the year undefeated and win the NC whether opposing fans like it or not. I'm not going to crow about being correct in my observations after they win it. It was obvious from the beginning of the season.

 

[Twolf]

Some thoughts on the tOSU game:

• This was a difficult game to watch. After UConn raced to a 10-2 lead forcing the Buckeyes to call timeout, the roof collapsed on the Huskies.
• tOSU is a guard-oriented team that starts 5 players, who are all approximately 6’ tall, which is good if you’re pressing, creating turnovers and scoring in transition. That’s exactly what happened today against UConn who has struggled with the turnover bugaboo all season.
• While turnovers were a big part of the problem, so too was the fact that UConn felt the pressure, was rushed on offense and took some really bad shots. With that said, UConn missed a bunch of wide-open looks and even struggled on the foul line.
• Unfortunately, many UConn fans will get pretty ugly in their criticism of Geno and some of his players for this loss. I CHOOSE NOT TO. The Huskies overcame adversity and persevered all season long. The team feels far worse about today’s game than any of us could possibly feel.
• tOSU clearly flopped whenever Aaliyah was in the same zip code. If the refs call it, it’s a successful strategy to take an AA player off the court.
• As I watched Azzi struggle for much of the game, all I could think of was DT’s play her freshman year during the national semifinal. Just like DT, Azzi will be back with a chance at redemption.
• Yes, If Paige was healthy, she changes the entire complexion of this game, singlehandedly. She makes all the right decisions against the press and settles down Azzi and her teammates.
• Nobody wants to lose the last game of the season, and yet, just about every team in the country does. The loss today is disappointing for sure. But it should not obscure the overall success and perseverance of this UConn team.
• Sincere thanks and best wishes in the future to Dorka & Lou, our two wonderful graduate transfers, who both played their hearts out today.
• Finally, channeling my inner Brooklyn Dodger fan, “Wait til next year!” As of right now UConn’s 2023-24 roster looks incredibly strong: Paige, Azzi, Nika, Aaliyah, Aubrey, Caroline, Ayanna, Ines, Amari, Ice, Jana, KK, Ashlynn & Qadence. How many days until next season starts?

Good analysis of the game, just a couple of thoughts I might add:

• As soon as UConn got sped up midway through the first quarter things went south quickly. Anyone who has ever played has had it happen to them, & when it does poor decision making, rushing shots, and hesitation are soon to follow.
• As in any game when it’s over asking yourself which team got the best shots will usually give you the winner. Today that was OSU without a doubt.

*When is the last time an opponent fielded a team that appeared to be more athletic than UConn? I believe this was more of a mental issue with many UConn players than a physical deficit because OSU was playing loose, confident, and aggressive, while UConn was playing tight as the favorite.
* Players, like teams, have to build momentum as the season progresses, and and CD simply didn’t have that luxury which made them look a lot less like the players they truly are in a pressure situation as the vise tightened today
*. Lastly, the common criticism that Geno was outcoached today is laughable at best, and a comment I would politely describe as a load of horse puckey. JMO

 

[Conndog]

Do you really think Ohio St wouldn't have been destroyed by halftime by any of Stewie's teams?
Hartley, Dolson, Tuck , Nurse, and others would have run through or over that press.
And then they would have turned around and pressed them.

Don’t sleep on KK. A freshman yes, but very talented with speed.

We needed her today!

 

[Twolf]

Good analysis of the game, just a couple of thoughts I might add:

• As soon as UConn got sped up midway through the first quarter things went south quickly. Anyone who has ever played has had it happen to them, & when it does poor decision making, rushing shots, and hesitation are soon to follow.
• As in any game when it’s over asking yourself which team got the best shots will usually give you the winner. Today that was OSU without a doubt.

*When is the last time an opponent fielded a team that appeared to be more athletic than UConn? I believe this was more of a mental issue with many UConn players than a physical deficit because OSU was playing loose, confident, and aggressive, while UConn was playing tight as the favorite.
* Players, like teams, have to build momentum as the season progresses, and and CD simply didn’t have that luxury which made them look a lot less like the players they truly are in a pressure situation as the vise tightened today
*. Lastly, the common criticism that Geno was outcoached today is laughable at best, and a comment I would politely describe as a load of horse puckey. JMO

Should read and CD

 

[The deacon]

The only player that was calm enough to make plays. Why did Azzi not take the open 3's that she had when we were behind? Dorka did not play well, but at least she tried. The rest of the team looked like they never played before, really embarrassing, but that's the way the season went. They deserve credit for making it this far, and maybe we all were a little too optimistic. Wait until next year, we will be back.

Dorka 13 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks (and a relatively meager 2 TOs). Not great, but better than 'did not play well.'

 

[Twolf]

Should read and CD

Not sure why Azzi Fudd won’t work as

 

[todbo]

Yup. We'd have been "in the game," not necesarily "win the game." 7/15 FT vs 22/30 for OSU. Unlikely as it seemed from watching the game, we outscored OSU from the field.

 

[housekeys]

NCAA tournament offered much better competition than the Big East.

You can say that about any conference. Yes, any.

 

[Kaizen]

My feeling,

 

[SLY63]

Hard to believe Iowa put up 105 against this OSU team just 2 weeks ago

 

[NC28604]

As I contemplate the game I thought that Ohio State looked like we used to when we pressed every opponents possession after a made basket. My only question is, with 10 players healthy, why didn't we press the whole game too?

 

[Littlemin]

While I agree that Muhl is a net positive she is very turnover prone which haunts you against good teams.

Muhl can be TO prone period. She also gets the team easy baskets. But tell me this, how did Uconn beat so many good teams this year with her being so TO prone? So let’s look at the stats; I took the “good teams” we played -

OOC - Texas, NC State, Duke, Iowa, ND, Princeton, Fla. St., Tenn., SC (9 games)
BE - took the 4 teams that made the NCAA tournament (10 games)
NCAA - Baylor, OSU (2 games)

So, a total of 21 games; in those Muhl had 161 assists (7.7 per game) and 73 TOs (3.5) or a 2.2 assist to TO ratio, pretty good for someone with the ball in her hand as much as she did. In addition, Muhl had 2 games of 7 TOs, one of 6, and one of 5. Of those 4 games, Uconn won 3 of them, Iowa (6), Fla. St. (5), and Nova (7). Obviously, she also had 7 today. But the bottom line is, your premise of the TOs “haunting” Uconn just doesn’t fly. Just another point of reference, Bueckers has averaged a 2.3 assist to TO ratio for her two years and that is not omitting the stats for “bad teams.” Muhl plays a high risk, high reward game but the bottom line is it yields more than just a net positive and outside of today, has not “haunted“ Uconn.

 

[uconnever]

Neither does Bueckers sometimes or did you miss her not hunting shots against Arizona and SC the last 2 years? Both games begged for that and she didn’t do it in either of them. It happens, they are human.

I disagree, Paige I believe just off of memory scored at least 20 against AZ and fought really hard against SC. She was one of the more aggressive if not the most aggressive against SC. They both are killers anyways. Injuries have hindered their growth. It’s coming next year if healthy.

 

[oldude]

As I contemplate the game I thought that Ohio State looked like we used to when we pressed every opponents possession after a made basket. My only question is, with 10 players healthy, why didn't we press the whole game too?

I was wondering about that. In the last game vs UNC, tOSU had 23 turnovers to UNC’s 18.

 

[SARG 2011]

Geno has said it before, winning these games is hard but they make it look easy. This just wasn't our year. I felt we were good enough to be there in the end but we would need some help/luck too. I want us to be bad for basketball again, reinforcements coming next year.

 

[Carnac]

Ohio State played the way UConn use to and should have played today. They just outplayed UConn women at just about every facet of the game. It almost lookd like UConn was not prepared for this game. Well....here's to next season and every player healthy, happy and dedicated to an exceptional season. Good job to all UConn players who provided great basketball entertainment for this old man all season long. I would like to be around to see next season when Paige B will hopefully play again.

That makes two of us VOD. I hope to hear from you then.

 

[Carnac]

Geno has said it before, winning these games is hard but they make it look easy. This just wasn't our year. I felt we were good enough to be there in the end but we would need some help/luck too. I want us to be bad for basketball again, reinforcements coming next year.

Welcome to the club Sarg. If you get bounced out of the tournament, it's nice to win a few games before you do. But unless you win all six games, you go home empty-handed. 68 teams make the field. 67 of them go home sad and disappointed. Only one team raises the trophy and cuts down the nets. There are no duplicate NC trophies or "participation" trophies. I thoroughly enjoyed this season. Now I'm getting pumped about our fortunes next year with our returnees and the new freshmen coming in.

 

[Classof87]

I will disagree with you here.

 

[BobbyJ]

Me too. I could see where it was going. Ohio State's press was working. McGuff was going to keep it on the entire game, or until we proved we could break it. I figured if we won, I'd just watch the replay. I recorded it, but I won't watch it.

I commented in the chat room that McGuff showed the world today how to beat UConn. I'm pretty sure that will be something Geno will have the team work on once official practice begins again in mid-October.

There are plenty of coaches that know how to beat UConn. Their problem is that they don't have the tough, physical athletes able to play the full time, in the face, pressure defense needed to do it. UConn's sloppy ballhandling, passing, and inability to handle that pressure are well known to most competent coaches but you need the right talent and speed to cover the floor end to end to be able to expose it and OSU had it.

 

[Littlemin]

Did you watch the NC state game last year and Paige ( injured by the way ) carried them to the NC game not a sweet 16 loss . Phenomenal players make the entire “ team” better and are singled out in every sport.
She worked so hard in the off season to become so much stronger and would have made a huge difference in getting UConn to the finish line. I guess time will tell.
Why do you think we set the UConn record for the most turnovers this entire year.
Remember. We were “ somewhat” healthy today.

Yes I did, I also saw her not TRY to do the same against Arizona and SC when that’s what the team obviously needed. See here’s the deal, I acknowledge Bueckers ability and her great games but so many if you will not even entertain the thought that she is human and has come up short too. And I am not interested in the nonsense of what might have happened; Bueckers is a really good player but hero worship is for children; adults deal with reality, not conjecture about what might have been. The reality is no one knows what might have been because she couldn’t play.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Hard to believe Iowa put up 105 against this OSU team just 2 weeks ago

They have Caitlin Clark and we don't.

 

[oldude]

They have Caitlin Clark and we don't.

Exactly. Clark sliced through the press, making the right pass to open teammates or scoring herself. That’s exactly what a healthy Paige would have done for UConn today.