UCLA postgame | Page 4 | The Boneyard

UCLA postgame

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GG said:
Love Nika but her lack of shooting is a problem. Add to that the fact the KK has more offensive skills and I can’t help but wonder if a change is needed. We definitely are lacking in the height department. Wonder if the result of this game would be different if Paige and KK started the game a little more aggressive. It is difficult to play catch-up.
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The first quarter Uconn had 5 rebounds,all by Nika!
 
Didn't see the game just the play by play. Not surprised at this point. My two cents is that the offense needs to be simplified based on the existing talent, height challenges and the youth of the team. Shooting percentages are below average to average even though I expect improvement. Push the pace and get up more shots, preferably more twos than threes. In a month, the half-court offense will improve.
 
scotty0330 said:
Kind of like praising the waiter at end of meal for not dropping dinner all over the floor. Yes it’s a start but she is on full scholarship
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Not exactly, he praised her for twice pushing her player out (which resulted in two TO walking calls and two possessions sorely needed by Uconn in making their run). Unquestionably she has many other self-imposed short-comings to be overcome, where you may not be willing to trust the time in a closer game. But, drastic times call for drastic experiments
 
our biggest problems were they couldnt miss and we couldnt buy a bucket in the 1st and 3rd quarters. We only lost by 11 points so we did have some positive plays.
 
A lot of people diss Amari solely on the box score, solely on her statistics. I did not see the game, as was the case with most people posting today; however, the radio announcer said she played well guarding Betts and should get more minutes and her coach said she gave him good minutes. To me, that sounds like a departure from the past. I look forward to seeing her play earlier in games against some of the bigs UConn plays.
 
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bantamlaker said:
In the chat weren’t you the one who said it’s all on Paige including the loss in the sweet 16 when she was out the entire season. I guess that makes sense. It’s her fault she got injured so blame everything that went wrong on her. Next you’ll blame her for Azzi’s injury this season.
I’m guessing most of us on the BY are really thankful that we have Paige and are hoping she will stay healthy which will always give this team a fighting chance.
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Yup in the game chat, I said Paige got to own it. Similar to the adage that anything going wrong is the point guards fault, I think a double digit loss, second one in 5 games is unchartered territory for Uconn. And usually it is on your best player and leader to right the ship. But to your point it's not her "fault". Injuries are not her fault. They suck and are unfortunate. I was wrong for insinuating that and hate when ppl criticize ppl for injuries.
Uconnwbb talks about "The Standard." Liv and CW fairly or unfairly got scrutinized heavily for not living up to a certain standard. The 20' class has been a part of some of the toughest losses in program history.
 
Lack of size certainly did us some damage, but Rice and Osborne (uncovered again and again) shot the lights out from 3. Amari, when she was in, was a major annoyance to Betts, who had a decent game nonetheless. Nika only shoots under duress, so our opponents can go 5-on-4 when we're on offense. Lots to improve, nothing that we can't overcome in our next encounter with the Bruins.
 
Fairfield Fan said:
This went the way it had to go. With their front court coming in at 6'7" and 6'4", and ours at 6'3" and 6'3", what did we expect? Outrebounded by 13.
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Not sure which stats you're looking at, but the box score shows UCLA at +8 (44 to 36) for rebounds. However, UConn actually had more offensive boards (15 to 12).

UCLA's overall rebounding edge was entirely from the defensive glass, which in turn was because we missed WAY more shots than they did (12 more missed FGs and 3 more missed FTs).
 
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uconnever said:
I’m in the Nika should not start camp and she is limited in her abilities. But at least she fights and is tough. This team is not tough with a few exceptions. Paige can’t do everything and Geno has to recruit some talented size because he hasn’t gotten it done lately and needs to be held accountable. I love him as our coach and he can’t force players to come here but I’m starting to think that this is the beginning of the end.
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uconnever- - Geno recruited 6'5" Jana El Alfy, 6'2" Caroline Ducharme, and 6'3" Ayanna Patterson that are NOW sitting on the bench, injured and unable to play!
It's NOT Geno's recruiting, it's these da-n injuries that robs UCONN's ability to put a game plan together!
 
JBK said:
I am not sure what happened to Q
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She’s an overmatched freshman! This team is too short, too slow, not athletic enough, is clearly disheartened, and basically is undermanned! How did we come to this? If everyone were healthy, we could probably overcome our deficiencies but the simple truth is that the swallows (read; recruiting failures and injuries) are coming home to roost!
We have to throw any ideas of a championship out the window and Geno needs to reset this team back to simply trying to improve incrementally for the foreseeable future. We are far from a contender at this point! I don’t want to go overboard with the despair thing as it is true that we are missing much of our team to injuries but the simple truth is, we are just not very tough, and not very athletic! That is a very bad combination at a time when those qualities are on the rise all around the country! We do still have Paige but she is going to need lots more help than she got tonight!
 
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Watching the game was painful. Most UConn players were off their game - who knows why? But UConn was playing without two of this year's starters and without two other players who saw no time this year but would have had good chances to start. We lost to the number 2 team in the country by 11. Take 2-3 starters away from any other team and tell me what they would have done. They limited Betts' touches and had some nice moments. Unfortunately, UCLA shot threes much better than usual tonight. Now is when true fans will rally. The team needs us.
 
Cuango said:
She’s an overmatched freshman! This team is too short, too slow, not athletic enough, is clearly disheartened, and basically is undermanned! How did we come to this? If everyone were healthy, we could probably overcome our deficiencies but the simple truth is that the swallows (read; recruiting failures and injuries) are coming home to roost!
We have to throw any ideas of a championship out the window and Geno needs to reset this team back to simply trying to improve incrementally for the foreseeable future. We are far from a contender at this point! I don’t want to go overboard with the despair thing as it is true that we are missing much of our team to injuries but the simple truth is, we are just not very tough, and not very athletic! That is a very bad combination at a time when those qualities are on the rise all around the country! We do still have Paige but she is going to need lots more help than she got tonight!
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What's wrong with you?
 
uconnever said:
Geno needs to stop going over seas looking for talent and focus on the kids here. It’s ok to have a couple of players from over seas but we are always not as athletic or tough as the better teams we play.
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[ ]
Geno recruiting foreigner's brought us Dorka from Hungary and Lou Lopez from France! And Aaliyah Edwards is from Canada!
Svetlana Abrasinova was from Russia!
And of course Nika Muhl is from Croatia! And only se 2 UCONN assist records last season!
Jana El Alfy was headed to possibly be the outstanding player in the African World Tournament when she got hurt!
Talent is all over the world not just in the USA!
 
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Cuango said:
This will sound like sour grapes but Osborne may go the rest of the season without shooting 6/10 from three! I’m depressed.
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She was 6 for 11 against Bellarmine. Is that close enough? 20 of 36 on the year so far, almost exactly the percentage she shot today.
 
uconnever said:
Paige played very good. A lot of her misses were her shooting threes in the end of the game. And her being the only one doing anything she had to force some shots. Paige was definitely the best player on the floor it’s just her team wasn’t helping much. Kiki had help so we couldn’t just focus on her. She is really good too, I’m not saying she isn’t. But I agree about the firsts and as good as Paige is, I believe these other players aren’t up to UConn standards in regards to the kind of players we’ve gotten in the past. Some may disagree, but I’ve thought that for awhile. We aren’t athletic as a lot of teams and are to soft. Geno needs to recruit better. As I’ve said recently, these next two recruiting classes will be very telling as to where this dynasty is heading. We have two excellent pieces next year now he needs to focus on some tough athletic skilled bigs and more shooters, one is not enough.
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uconnever- - Please see my two other replies to your comments!
 
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FairView said:
Take 2-3 starters away from any other team and tell me what they would have done.
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I think South Carolina would still probably win. Or at least play a better game than we did.

And it really pains me to say that.
 
I looked at the 28 minute highlight reel and I did not see the team executing, much, two major elements of Geno's offense-- cutting to the basket and screen and roll. Again, too much standing around.
 
Cuango said:
She’s an overmatched freshman! This team is too short, too slow, not athletic enough, is clearly disheartened, and basically is undermanned! How did we come to this? If everyone were healthy, we could probably overcome our deficiencies but the simple truth is that the swallows (read; recruiting failures and injuries) are coming home to roost!
We have to throw any ideas of a championship out the window and Geno needs to reset this team back to simply trying to improve incrementally for the foreseeable future. We are far from a contender at this point! I don’t want to go overboard with the despair thing as it is true that we are missing much of our team to injuries but the simple truth is, we are just not very tough, and not very athletic! That is a very bad combination at a time when those qualities are on the rise all around the country! We do still have Paige but she is going to need lots more help than she got tonight!
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Cuango- - - Before this current round of injuries hit UCONN they were one of the 2 or 3 favorites to win the 2024 NCAA's!
Not bad for a team so handicapped as you pointed out!
 
RSHERMVIKES said:
uconnever- - Geno recruited 6'5" Jana El Alfy, 6'2" Caroline Ducharme, and 6'3" Ayanna Patterson that are NOW sitting on the bench, injured and unable to play!
It's NOT Geno's recruiting, it's these da-n injuries that robs UCONN's ability to put a game plan together!
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Plus there are a number of tall players Geno recruited that decided to go elsewhere.
 
Notyetready said:
I looked at the 28 minute highlight reel and I did not see the team executing, much, two major elements of Geno's offense-- cutting to the basket and screen and roll. Again, too much standing around.
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Based on previous games...they aren't cutting because there isn't the space to go backdoor and not surprisingly reads aren't in sync. They are playing a lot of new people and that takes time. And we have 3 really good pgs, but they are all ball dominant. Someone is going to have to adjust. That's hard because those dribbles are a cadence that is important to their shot...and passing. We have some athletic players, BUT some aren't as athletic in the half-court. Streaking up court is a different story. I say...press and run at this point. Put more pressure (force rotation or put them on their heels) on the defense. So far...once a defense gets back, they pretty much sit on AE and try and guard Paige. The rest...they let shoot. Pretty certain they (coaches) will figure it out. They only lost by 11.
 
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BYers, it's going to take a while to recover mentally from UCONN's recent injury news!
The players must be in shock that once again they are deprived of their regular talent!
These are young athletes that see their friends dropping like flies to assorted injuries for the 3rd consecutive year!
They must be going, "why us?"
Geno and his staff will put together the pieces asap so we'll look better in practices and games!
 
I think it's time for Paige to waltz right into the coaches meeting before tomorrow's game, and tell them who she thinks should be in the starting lineup with her.
 
Rings R Us said:
I think it's time for Paige to waltz right into the coaches meeting before tomorrow's game, and tell them who she thinks should be in the starting lineup with her.
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Is there really some magical starting lineup that Paige is somehow privy to but yet the coaches are clueless about? It's not like we have Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore buried at the end of the bench.
 
Cuango said:
This will sound like sour grapes but Osborne may go the rest of the season without shooting 6/10 from three! I’m depressed.
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Historically she’s played really well against bad teams and then shoots horribly in conference. Maybe this year she turns it around and puts together a better offensive season similar to Zia Cooke last year.
 
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