UCF Postgame Thread

[Huskie02]

Tourney start is about 8 weeks away. Not a lot of time to fix this thing. Very disappointed in bench production. Can’t wait for the cavalry to arrive with the class of 2020.

 

[BostonBay]

This team hasnt figured out how to beat a zone. Teams are just clogging the middle & forcing UConn into shooting 3's or low percentage shots. No easy baskets.

 

[Ellie]

Some thoughts on the UCF game:

• Let me start out with the good. UConn played really good defense through 3 qtrs tonight. However, with Liv on the bench, and then playing passively with 4 fouls, UCF started to attack the basket more effectively in the 4th qtr.
• UConn seems to be starting their offense farther away from the basket, which is a problem. When the Huskies get the ball inside, good things usually happen.
• UConn is going to get a steady dose of zone defense until they start to do a better job attacking it. The high post is the key. In past seasons we’ve had some great players fill that role. So far this season, no one has been particularly effective. Unfortunately, the player that was most effective tonight in the high post was Crystal our pg. Unless they change the rules, Crystal can't run the offense and then pass to herself in the high post.
• Crystal continues to do a little bit of everything. She needs more help.
• Anna: 10 pts & 6 turnovers and a bad foul with 10 seconds left. I don't know quite what to make of her game right now?
• It doesn’t feel like it, but the Huskies are 15-1.

Great assessment of high post play when playing against the zone.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

This UConn team is regressing as the season goes on. I'm not sure if this team now could beat Notre Dame in a rematch. And we aren't even in the same league as Tennessee right now. UConn is playing so tentatively on offense, and as Kara Wolters pointed out, there is a shocking lack of hustle by all the players.

I've never seen a UConn team that didn't sprint down the court at every opportunity; these players job. I've never seen a UConn team in which everyone wasn't in there scrapping for loose balls; this team doesn't. I've never seen so many players pass up shots as this team. And have we ever seen a UConn team where on possession after possession, players just stand there as if they're stuck in mud?

The past two games against AAC opponents, they've been out hustled- pure and simple. And UConn teams are never, EVER, out-hustled.

Painful to watch.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Our pro player, Makurat, is playing as if she's a high school kid who was put on the floor in a Southeastern Conference game. She plays with no self-confidence. And when she does make an offensive move, she travels. Constantly. That's not what we expected. I"m guessing that Coach Geno is flummoxed as well.

 

[Dokey]

Anna can be the difference. Every time she fails to take a shot, including quick turn around shots, pull her and tell her, then put her back in ASAP. Keep doing it. If we get a game where she shoots 15 times, we might end up going somewhere. And by somewhere I mean deeper than Sweet 16. If we can get a game where she scores 20-25 points, she might get the confidence to do it night after night.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Anna can be the difference. Every time she fails to take a shot, including quick turn around shots, pull her and tell her, then put her back in ASAP. Keep doing it. If we get a game where she shoots 15 times, we might end up going somewhere. And by somewhere I mean deeper than Sweet 16. If we can get a game where she scores 20-25 points, she might get the confidence to do it night after night.

Could be, but tonight 32 minutes with 6 turnovers! Can't do that. Just can't.

 

[ochoopsfan]

This team isnt the most talented team, for a UConn team, nor is it a team with a High BB IQ.

Not sure where this team ends up.

 

[enigmatic]

A win is a win. I don’t know about the rest of y’all but I‘m having fun on this roller coaster even if I get nervous and uneasy going through the curves and especially going down. It’s quite the brain rush. Let’s keep the ride going because I’m still enjoying it.

 

[Carnac]

This team hasnt figured out how to beat a zone. Teams are just clogging the middle & forcing UConn into shooting 3's or low percentage shots. No easy baskets.

And you can bet that every team that UConn plays form here on will try using a zone until UConn proves it can beat it.

 

[Dokey]

Our pro player, Makurat, is playing as if she's a high school kid who was put on the floor in a Southeastern Conference game. She plays with no self-confidence. And when she does make an offensive move, she travels. Constantly. That's not what we expected. I"m guessing that Coach Geno is flummoxed as well.

Her defense is great. I follow her almost exclusively when UConn is on defense.It is her lack of quick decisions when it comes to shooting that is a problem. She has the shot. The turnovers tonight were brain freezes, trying too hard because she is not saying to herself, “I need to score.” Early on that mean assists. But this team isn’t getting in position where assists lead to scores. When that happens she needs to take charge and shoot. Sure, Aubrey is athletic and filled with promise (I hope) but right now she is out of her depth while Anna is a player who just needs pushing, hitting her head with a 2 X 4 pushing. Megan and Crystal are what they are and that’s damn good. Christyn is inconsistent but mainly a positive. Liv is good against weak posts but pretty much a bystander against tough bigs and there is no replacement for her. That means pushing Anna on those nights.

 

[UConn2SF]

An increasingly frequent refrain from Megan Culmo during games is, "I can't remember the last time a UConn team did that." I think that pretty much sums up the quality of play the last two games.

 

[oldude]

And you can bet that every team that UConn plays form here on will try using a zone until UConn proves it can beat it.

As I said in my OP, the key is the high post. In past years we’ve had Gabby, Pheesa & Lou all flash into the high post where they could shoot the jumper, drive to the basket, feed the low post or fire it out to a teammate for a wide open 3. Today the ball got stuck in the high post with Kyla, Anna & Megan. The only person that made something happen the two times she flashed into the high post was Crystal. One time she hit a quick turnaround jumper and the other time she fired a pass out to Anna who hit an open 3.

 

[Martin]

As hoopsfan commented in the chatroom, this is the 2nd AAC Conference win by less than 10 points. Before this season, that had happened only once in UConn's 6 years in the league, 63-60 at Tulane 2-3 years ago.
BTW, UCF out scored UConn in the 4th qtr by 7 points (25-18). Should this be cause for concern?

Final score: 59-52. Houston, do we have a problem? Query - Has Aubrey hit that freshman wall? Tis the season. This is about the time of the year when freshmen hit that wall, mid January.

Tonight's box score vs UCF

View attachment 49996

The whole team has hit the wall. The big 3 playing 40 a night are tiring.

 

[Martin]

Tourney start is about 8 weeks away. Not a lot of time to fix this thing. Very disappointed in bench production. Can’t wait for the cavalry to arrive with the class of 2020.

Peeps keep saying that but remember they are all freshmen and if they adapt the way these current freshmen are....well.

 

[todbo]

I share the BY frustration, but I'm wondering if the AAC is maybe improving enough to offer challenges where none existed before. (By the way, UCF at UCF was a brutal battle last year, regardless of the score.)

 

[wbball novice]

As I recall, UCF was a tough out for UConn last year, when the Huskies had more experienced, & probably more talented, personnel. They know how to put on pressure and they have enough depth and stamina to keep it up. They had at least 2 nasty traps in the waning minutes of Q4, & could well have caught up. Their coach is pretty good & knows how to get under UConn's skin. This time they were helped, in my opinion, by somewhat erratic refereeing, though as expected UCF's style of play resulted in more fouls on the Knights.

Considerably handicapped by Christyn's offensive drought in this one, considering UCF is not a high scoring team. Geno's remarks on his show, recorded before the game, re depending on Christyn's improved scoring seemed unintentionally ironic. Her outside shooting was clearly off, but I missed her penetration & layups, given the nature of UCF's zone defense. Not sure what caused this. CW's FT shooting was somewhat improved. FTs were important because UCF fouls a lot & in general most of the UConn outside shots weren't falling. Fortunately, CD, MW, and Anna were on target; not so with Olivia or Aubrey.

Another gritty Q4. Both Liv & Meg carrying 4 fouls but played smart and made key contributions. Liv didn't score big but rebounding was extremely helpful. Team really needed her defense around the basket & she came through. Anna's contributions were improved, though Megan Cuolmo noted that she was still passing if she couldn't get the perfect shot. But this was the second game where Anna Mak made a key shot in Q4, and her scoring overall made up for CW's low production. The traveling TOs -- refs were doing a lot of ticky tack calls, I thought, though some credit to UCF pressure. Not sure, but seemed to me she was playing more minutes though Kyla started as usual. (Maybe in part because Kyla had to sit for a bit because of a whack on the jaw from a UCF player).

Switching to Oregon-Stanford now!

 

[Urshurak]

Have to quickly say I am watching the Oregon Stanford game on ESPN. Yikes, this UConn team
can’t hang right now. Nope......

 

[ABCDFE]

My thoughts

• No offensive continuity. They look lethargic
• Defense was good the majority of time until Liv was out and we gave up some easy buckets as the interior was only Irwin
• CW had a bad game and didn’t do enough when she couldn’t score. I’m shocked that her shooting has actually regressed compared to her freshman year. It’s not like her shots are out of control, they are mostly wide open. We have no shot at winning in the tournament if she cannot be a big scorer. In a zone she should be able to attack the middle whenever she wants it for some reason Ashe deferred too much and didn’t Attack. Im just baffled how un aggressive our team is, even when Geno has asked them all to be more aggressive
• Liv played decently but the refs impacted the game with their whistles
• Megan was alright, but her carelessness and turnovers are just baffling
• Irwin made a shot, but she needs to take more shots especially when the zone was wide open where she catches in the high post
• Dangerfield was good.
• Anna played well but she could’ve easily scored more if she just shot when open and not hesitate and drive the ball. She needs to take at least 10 shots a game
• Aubrey was not great but she needs more minutes. I know she didn’t hustle for that loose ball but Her defense was good
• I’m hopeful we can get better but as each game goes by I’m relegated to think this is what our team will be. Unless something incredible happens like CW making threes, makarat scoring double digits. Aubrey playing significant minutes and contributing points and rebounds, Liv getting better down low and AT THE FREE THROW LINE. As you can see there are a lot to improve, ugh
  
  
  
  

 

[Charliebball]

I am not a coach, but it seems to me that in the second half, the refs took the game over, whether or not you agreed with the calls or not, neither team could get their stuff together and the coaches just couldn't do anything to correct the play.
I also found it odd that the camera caught Coach Abe "talking" to the gray haired ref and within seconds he called that really bizarre "swinging elbow" on Liv near halfcourt.
The refs definitely had an impact on this game.

I think she spent far more time talking to the refs throughout the game then she did to her own team........

 

[cferraro04]

UConn's offense may have been bad...but UCF's was worse. They shot only 34.5% while UConn shot 38.5% and while UConn's 3 point shooting was a paltry 23.6 percent UCF managed to do worse with only a 6.7 % from 3 point. UConn needs C. Williams to be more consistent on her ability to score. UConn was in foul trouble and that really hurt them in the 4th quarter. Assists and Rebounds were down...but, so was scoring. UConn took 52 shots while UCF took 58 shots. UConn must improve...it seems that they are stagnated at the moment. Maybe when they are back home they will get their feet under them and maybe get back into their offensive sets and some more shots may fall 5-19 from three...

 

[Urshurak]

Sue Bird was just asked on ESPN to comment on UConn. She said they are just in a rut. Also she said she can imagine the next practice they are about to have!

 

[Carnac]

Have to quickly say I am watching the Oregon Stanford game on ESPN. Yikes, this UConn team
can’t hang right now. Nope......

I just watched the first quarter of that game (ESPN), I agree.

 

[YSRFrisbee]

Well, that was a hard fought, gritty victory. UCF arena is a tough venue and the Knight's style of play slows the game down. And their defense creates a ton of turnovers (or at least an ugly offensive game by the opposing team). I attended last year's game and it was SO physical I thought one of our players might get seriously injured. But it's good to see the team pull out these past couple of games even though they are not your typical UCONN beautiful beatdowns haha.

The players are fine. In a bit of a rut, but they're smart and talented; Geno will have them ready. And hopefully Anna and Aubrey can play loose and really look to score more. Man, I can't recall this much parity in the women's game in a long time! it's been an exciting year for sure (well, maybe not in a good way for us ) South Carolina and Baylor seem to be a cut above the rest, but even they are vulnerable. March will be a lot of fun but like every year...it's all about the match ups in your bracket. No tall, physical posts please! kkkthanks. And back to the Stanford/Oregon game!

"In a world where you can be anything...be KIND"

 

[HuskyNan]

Her defense is great. I follow her almost exclusively when UConn is on defense.It is her lack of quick decisions when it comes to shooting that is a problem. She has the shot. The turnovers tonight were brain freezes, trying too hard because she is not saying to herself, “I need to score.” Early on that mean assists. But this team isn’t getting in position where assists lead to scores. When that happens she needs to take charge and shoot. Sure, Aubrey is athletic and filled with promise (I hope) but right now she is out of her depth while Anna is a player who just needs pushing, hitting her head with a 2 X 4 pushing. Megan and Crystal are what they are and that’s damn good. Christyn is inconsistent but mainly a positive. Liv is good against weak posts but pretty much a bystander against tough bigs and there is no replacement for her. That means pushing Anna on those nights.

I didn’t see what others did. From my seat in the 20th row, I thought Anna was pretty good tonight. Others were tentative but Anna’s issue was that she was deferring to upper classmen. Chris Daily started screaming across the court at Anna and then Anna started shooting more. Her defense was effective, for the most part. She poked away or slowed the movement of the ball when UCF had it. She’s got great hands on defense and moves her feet well. The travels are a habit she picked up in Europe, I think. She’ll grow out of it.

I was watching body language of the team tonight. It was awful in the first quarter, much better in the second quarter, especially when Wright went to the bench with foul trouble. Third quarter, the Huskies were back to playing tentatively. Not sure what’s going on with the team in that regard

Meg- I wonder if she has a flu or nagging injury. Her movement seems off, like she’s trying to push through pain or something. And she was getting ping-ponged around all night. That she could score 19 points while being constantly grabbed and held (one blatant off the ball takedown, too ) is impressive.

Crystal was great in the first half but her play tailed off a bit, probably because she was tired from face-guarding Wright all night. A heroic effort on her part.

Honestly this game was an improvement over Memphis. UCF is a better team and there were spells where things looked just fine, on offense and defense. This effort still isn’t what the team will need in March, but it’s a step forward