Anna, Megan and CW all tend to want to be standing still when they get the ball. Tough to run an offense this way. At least Anna cuts frequently. As great as Megan is, she is at her best standing around, making it tough for others to receive ball inside the 3 point line.
Those were the Rutgers games all the time. It's part of the game.
Yup.
It's not part of the game. I'm tired of "they're a physical team" as an excuse to let players get injured or for generally rough play. Nowhere in the rules does it allow for such.
Or Geno can tell her she can cut down on TO’s by shooting instead. That works for Meg. Am I kidding? Frankly, I can’t tell anymore.OK, I have to tell everyone's Geno's Anna secret. When the NCAA's come, he will start letting her shoot off the drive. Forecast 30+ points a game.Just kidding....maybe.
You never seen games like that? You ever play in games like that? It's been part of basketball for years! Where you been?
With all due respect, there is nothing wrong with physical play, but I agree with Hoopsfan22. Deliberate shots to a player’s head is not part of the game. Why else would the refs call a pair of flagrant fouls on UCF if head shots were a part of the game?
I wonder if her bad shooting is allowing defenders to play off her, impeding her drives. She showed a very confident, quick, and decisive first step and the ability to finish with either hand last year and even some early on this year. It was explosive, lethal, and she converted at a really high rate.
Christyn is not going to get many opportunities to drive against a team that plays zone, which UCF did for the entire game. But against a zone she has to do a better job knocking down perimeter shots.
I'm of the belief that every foul should be called. This stupid strategy of "well they can't call 'em all" is how we got here, and it just escalates until Liv gets her nose broken or the refs finally start calling them in the waning minutes of a close game and then everyone complains about the consistency of the officiating. Physical play is a cheap way of leveling the playing field and it only happens because the refs allow it. Sure it's been going on for years, but it doesn't make it right. The rules are the rules. We're either going to follow them or we're not.
The absolute worst games to watch are the ones where the refs are tweeting every 5 seconds. Physical play is part of the game. Basketball is a contact sport. Chippy play is a different matter.
I have to admit I am getting worried as well. Shooting is shooting and I guess that will get better. On the other hand, her driving to the basket has been non existent lately. I get there is a little sagging off of her due to her outside shooting slump but It is almost as if she is tipping off her drive moves. Never seems to get a step on the defender anymore.
Her game is ill-suited for a match-up zone. She can’t drive to the basket when the lane packed and she is a very weak three-point shooter. However, her defense has been much better in the last few games. Still, for her to be on the floor for 38 minutes and Griffin for 13 is mind boggling.
UCF DOES NOT play basketball, it's more like mugball. Almost the whole game Liv was being mugged and the refs let do it until AFTER she got hurt.
Contact sports usually require protective equipment of some kind. There's incidental contact, and then there's intentional contact to gain a competitive advantage. The latter is against the rules unlike a true contact sport like football.
If a player is assessed two flagrant one fouls, I believe they are ejected. A flagrant two foul is an automatic ejection. A coach is ejected if they get two technical fouls, so some of this is already in place. I too am tired of seeing our players beat up because that's how lesser talented teams can even things up a bit. The refs need to call the fouls. If that means UCF ends up fouling everyone out, then so be it. You can't correct bad behavior if you're unwilling to correct bad behavior. Being physical because refs can't call all the fouls should not be an allowed strategy the same way the strategy of having a really tall player simply reach up and grab every ball that's about to go into the hoop isn't allowed.
Future AA?!! On what basis? Virtually every two guard she has played against this year has played better. No one in the history of college basketball has become an All-American with the kind of FG, 3-point and FT percentages she has so far. Right now, she will be lucky to start on next year’s team; Westbrook didn’t transfer here to sit on the bench.
Two things about Aubrey underneath. One, yes she is holding the ball too low. Two, she never head fakes or pump fakes before she goes up. She has to do that to neutralize the height and length of the defender.
Against the zone her position to start out with is essentially the right wing/corner. Meg is either at the high post or 2 guard position. CW has a great drive move and then pure pull up jumper ( a shot Meg needs to get this summer) but ,as you point out, against the zone that move usually gets taken away. Of all the starters, CW moves the least on offense with Meg surprisingly second although she has been improving lately with the cut to the basket and layup off of the Liv feed to start the second half being an example of that improvement. As Kara Wolters pointed out in the post game, CW didn't have one rebound. Her defense I thought was good but she is not engaged enough in the rest of the game. Shooting slumps end, but if she doesn't move on offense she won't get the variety of offensive opportunities that she can score easily with.
Besides being a focus of the defense, I think the problem with her is that she is a two guard playing in the three position this year and it just doesn't fit her skill set well. Meg is a natural three but had to play the four this year but is both stronger and 3 inches taller than CW so that transition has not been as difficult such as in rebounding which she really worked on. Yes, CW is in a shooting funk but even if she gets hot this season, she still has to contribute all the other things her position requires.
Games get physical in all types of ways. Sometimes you have players who don't know there own strength( Stacey Hansmeyer ). Players who love the physicality( Nurse, Doty, Elliott and Pattyson)or the players that excelled playing both ways which Uconn had a lot of! They were tougher than the other team by boxing out hard,winning 50/50 balls and just outhustling them the whole game! Liv is not the first player to get a broken nose and won't be the last either. This team has shown hardly any type of toughness this year especially in the games they lost this year!
I am not arguing.
I was hoping Geno would leave the 5 seniors in the game until UCONN fell behind. But it was a classy gesture nonetheless.
