TWO more bite the dust. Texas and Oklahoma go down

[yhun89]

I am thinking double team here, with KK and Ash subbing in for Kaitlyn and Azzi hoping to wear the ND duo out by the 4th quarter.

Disappointed AG won't be back. I honestly feel like she's the factor we're missing. Our most athletic, fastest defender on the team by far. We could probably contain one of Miles or Hidalgo with Aubrey's help.

 

[Charliebball]

The upper echelon of ten to twelve teams will be knocking each other off for the remainder of the season.........one bad loss and you're out......that's why the rankings mean so little at this time of the year

 

[Plebe]

Harmon previously was a good outside shooter but last night she looked nothing like her old self. She used to be as bothersome as Hildago. Also, UConn had a rotation of seven and beat a number of teams with a larger rotation. Not many teams have a rotation of ten.

Harmon appears to me quite tentative, a step slow, and just not trusting her body yet. Not an unusual situation for a player returning from ACL injury, but a bit sad to see her nowhere near the level she was at 12 months ago.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Maybe so, but Texas lost because they have no reliable three-point shooters. Vic is never going to win anything until he changes his coaching approach to reflect the realities of today’s game. Look what is happening at Tennessee. A team with a rotation of six has no business beating a team with a rotation of 10.

Boreifs- - - true the refing didn't lose the game for TX, but I'm tired of lousy refs in WBB!
WBB need to fire all present refs and get competent ones!

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Disappointed AG won't be back. I honestly feel like she's the factor we're missing. Our most athletic, fastest defender on the team by far. We could probably contain one of Miles or Hidalgo with Aubrey's help.

yhun89- - Aubrey Griffin isn't getting operated on, Ayanna Patterson is on her shoulder!

 

[yhun89]

yhun89- - Aubrey Griffin isn't getting operated on, Ayanna Patterson is on her shoulder!

Is she expected back this early though? Thought it wasn't until January.

 

[Dugway]

Is she expected back this early though? Thought it wasn't until January.

Aubrey's ACL injury was against Creighton on Jan 3rd. In previous years, athletes would be active and playing on these repaired knees within about ten months of surgery. As someone pointed out in an Azzi Fudd thread, a player from the University of Texas actually had the same ACL, which occurred after Azzi's, and yet she was starting in the first game of the season while Fudd was still rehabbing.

All I can offer is that for the past several players, UConn doctors, training staff, and coaches have waited for a full year before the player is activated for play.

 

[oldude]

Is she expected back this early though? Thought it wasn't until January.

Aubrey keeps saying she’ll be back in December. Obviously, the medical staff and Geno have to approve that decision.

While I would like to see Aubrey back ASAP, at the end of the day, so long as she’s back healthy and is able to knock the rust off by March, then that’s a real plus for UConn heading into the Big Dance.

 

[cancontent]

Harmon previously was a good outside shooter but last night she looked nothing like her old self. She used to be as bothersome as Hildago. Also, UConn had a rotation of seven and beat a number of teams with a larger rotation. Not many teams have a rotation of ten.

Are we overlooking the fact she's coming back from an ACL? Just because she's not wearing a brace like others, doesn't mean she isn't working on improving her mobility. It still takes some time.

From what I saw, she still had her moments where she was a pest defensively against ND. Both she and Hildalgo had 3 steals last night. If that's how she is at the start of the season, imagine what she'll be like in February and March.

 

[Boreifs]

I don't know about that. My biggest issue with Texas was that ND had 3 of their 6 players with 4 fouls and TX made no effort to go at them and draw a 5th. They were settling for outside shots and couldn't break the zone.

Which proves my point. They missed their last 10 shots, most of which were beyond the arc. ND packed it in and invited them to beat themselves.

 

[Boreifs]

Aubrey keeps saying she’ll be back in December. Obviously, the medical staff and Geno have to approve that decision.

While I would like to see Aubrey back ASAP, at the end of the day, so long as she’s back healthy and is able to knock the rust off by March, then that’s a real plus for UConn heading into the Big Dance.

She is participating in warmups and appears to be moving normally.

 

[drweo]

I definitely agree that last nights game with Tex-ND was a BADLY officiated game. I will say I have seen quite a few other games where the refereeing was pretty good-including the Kentucky-UNC game and the LSU-Stanford games last night. It was noted that ND triple teamed Oldacre (due to Taylor Jones getting injured) and they were HACKING at her every time without a call. My fear is the same poor officiating will again occur at ND on Tuesday which protects their thin bench.

Texas is an offensively challenged team to begin with and only has Madison Booker who can shoot. The good news is we have more scorers but the bad news is our guards can't defend the way Texas can. While Harmon is an atrocious shooter, she is a phenomenal defender and Miles and Hidalgo still had great games. I worry about Kaitlyn both guarding one of them and then having Hidalgo guarding her.

I saw the ends of the Tx-ND and LSU-Stanford games last night. Both games went to overtime and in both games, the losing teams (Tx and Stanford) shot pathetically (2 points I think, for each of them) and the winning teams (ND & LSU) shot lights out. How does that happen?

 

[boontonbomber]

Stanford looked pretty good to me. Up 5 with less than 20 seconds left; found a way to let LSU tie it up.

 

[Plebe]

I saw the ends of the Tx-ND and LSU-Stanford games last night. Both games went to overtime and in both games, the losing teams (Tx and Stanford) shot pathetically (2 points I think, for each of them) and the winning teams (ND & LSU) shot lights out. How does that happen?

Overtime is a mini-game of 5 minutes. Choose at random any 5-minute segment of play and there's a certain likelihood that one team was cold and the other was hot. How often do we see a score midway through 1Q that is not at all indicative of the entire game?

 

[Jonathan14]

Are we overlooking the fact she's coming back from an ACL? Just because she's not wearing a brace like others, doesn't mean she isn't working on improving her mobility. It still takes some time.

From what I saw, she still had her moments where she was a pest defensively against ND. Both she and Hildalgo had 3 steals last night. If that's how she is at the start of the season, imagine what she'll be like in February and March.

I didn't see the TX-ND game, but I did see TX play WV on Sunday, and Harmon was wearing a very large brace. Given her relatively diminutive stature, it really stood out. You're right, for not even a year post-injury, she's probably still a work in progress, but an impressive work!

 

[ThisJustIn]

Joe Vaszily was one of the refs. He seems to have replaced Dee Kantner as an ESPN favorite.

As you know, the Conference Coordinator picks the refs.

That being said, I'm excited to see all the refs fired. There are PLENTY out there ready to step in to their shoes.

 

[mainerhuski]

Amen to that. I turn 85 in four days and constantly make dumb mistakes even when I have re-read what I planned on posting. But, I too, want to keep on going and posting until Geno retires.

Not dumb mistakes, just minor errors in proofreading. I found a few in a bestselling novel recently, and I’m quite sure those copy editors get paid, unlike the stalwart Boneyarders!

 

[Alydar]

She is participating in warmups and appears to be moving normally.

On a pre-game blog interview Geno told Bob Joyce that Griffin has participated in full contact drills and continues to improve.

 

[Cuango]

Harmon previously was a good outside shooter but last night she looked nothing like her old self. She used to be as bothersome as Hildago. Also, UConn had a rotation of seven and beat a number of teams with a larger rotation. Not many teams have a rotation of ten.

Yeah, she had multiple open looks from three and did not shoot!

 

[Cuango]

I’m with PacoSwede. It would be very nice if some/all of these vaunted shooters finally found their groove. That would make these next two weeks so much more enjoyable!

 

[Boreifs]

On a pre-game blog interview Geno told Bob Joyce that Griffin has participated in full contact drills and continues to improve.

Fabulous news. Like Azzi, she may make her debut with a lesser opponent. I can see lots of minutes with her at the four and Sara at the five.

 

[oldude]

Fabulous news. Like Azzi, she may make her debut with a lesser opponent. I can see lots of minutes with her at the four and Sara at the five.

Or Sarah at the 4 and Aubrey at the 5.

 

[oldhusky]

Agree with everything you said, especially your last sentence. On the subject of this thread, I hope when the month of December is over, UConn will still be on the unbeaten list.

In many ways our schedule is the reverse of most championship contenders. If we can get thru this tough upcoming stretch, we are in great shape. All the other top contenders are now in super conferences, where they will soon face many serious challenges in their conference. Uconn should breeze thru their conference schedule and the post season tournament.

I don't think any team from a power 4 conference will go undefeated in conference. There are just too many very good teams at the top of each of them. We still will have a threat from Tennessee and of course SC, but within a game or two our record heading into the NCAA tournament is largely determined by what happens in the near future, for other contenders most of their big challenges are still to come.

 

[HuskyNan]

As you know, the Conference Coordinator picks the refs.

That being said, I'm excited to see all the refs fired. There are PLENTY out there ready to step in to their shoes.

There seem to be a lot of new names this year. I’ve thought the reffing for UConn games has been quite good, calling only obvious fouls and letting the 50-50 calls go. This benefits the Huskies, who play a physical defense