UConn-Duke postgame thread

[DEFCONN1]

What will stick in my mind about this game was the sight of Aaliyah going down hard and the whole team on the floor running over to help her up. We’re very fortunate she wasn’t severely injured.

 

[triaddukefan]

 

[temery]

According to who?

 

[flowerpet22]

I’m not worried about USC. They were sloppy against Baylor (a far more athletic and big matchup for us) and barely eeked out a win. And three of their starters are Ivy League transfers.

 

[tomcat]

Ugly, ugly, ugly. More than that, this is a team whose players seem to be out of gas.the best conditioning in the world foes not prepare them for playing the whole game without a break.
I have to believe the bect team will be ready to simply wear them out. Geno can do as he did in this game, keeping the starters in until they absolutely have to come out, or he can substitute more liberally, hoping to keep the legs fresh. There are risks to either. I think I would rather see the more players and less exhaustion.

 

[uconnfan68]

It looked like Paige was really tired the second half. Hope she gets some good rest.

Geno HAS to play the guys on the bench, just for a minute or 2 for the starters here and there. There were numerous boneheaded plays by some of the starters that wouldn’t look much worse from someone else.

 

[Centerstream]

I know that it's technically a foul but when Aaliyah got her 4th foul, she was on her back, the Dookie player had her foot up against Aaliyah's body, she did the natural thing and moved her arm in order to get up and the Dookie flopped backwards to pick up the foul. On replay it just looked so fake but it served it's purpose.

 

[Urshurak]

Survived is so right. Paige had (for her) an off night. Girls looked sloppy and tired and out of sync. Am so happy and proud of them for what they've accomplished this year. Will be praying for all on Monday but my expectations aren't high.

Agree.

This isn’t going to work going forward, but really no other choices. Maybe Q could help some, but Geno doesn’t think so evidently.

 

[uconnfan68]

Everyone was tired, I saw a real tired shoulder droop from Nika in the 4th...

Apologies for being dismissive of the coaching...but I knew when to take Edwards out...the last 2 or 3 minutes of the 2nd quarter...even the announcers expected it.

Arnold had a fine game; made some big plays.
Ice was ok.

KK had a 3 turnover streak going in 4th quarter. She has to figure it out.

 

[Geesworld]

Serious question. Why does my UCONN get mistreated by the officials. Physical play is only ok for our opposition. I hate to see how they treat Nika next game.

2nd serious question.
I know it's late in the season and we haven't had a different lineup for a long stretch of games. But maybe replace Shade in the staring lineup with Ice. Let Ice get a rhythm and Shade becomes the player who gives us a healthy 6 man rotation. Get some early inside toughness and throw off USC pregame preparations.

3RD serious question. Duke played 9 players. No way there 9th player is that much better than our 6th and 7th player? The Duke comeback was more about fatigue.

Great Game KK and Shade. It's the little things that add to a win.

 

[dtbtbtb]

As others said, an ugly game but somehow we hanged on to win...it looked really bad at times and the players were clearly tired.
Did it ever happen that the Elite 8 was the 4 number 1 seeds and the 4 number 3 seeds?

 

[temery]

You created the grades and made the claim.

 

[Happydad745]

Our lack of bench strength will be our downfall....this game really showed how important AE and Paige are to the team, and how weak our outside shooting really is, when pushed. I thought Duke played a little dirty at times, and that the refs kind of liked them better. Still, a win and a place in the elite eight.

 

[CTinLA]

That was an ugly win, but a win is a win is a win. I thought that Duke would go on a run at some point, and I’m just relieved that we were able to survive it (and that the clock ran out!). Thank goodness that KK was able to step up in the game where Ash struggled, and that Ice was able to provide solid enough defense for us to get through Aaliyah’s foul trouble. Mostly, thank goodness that the Huskies as a unit played excellent defense and thank goodness we have Paige. There is almost always a stinker of a game at some point in the NCAAT; now that we escaped this ugly offensive performance, hopefully we can get out there on Monday and hang at least 80 on the Trojans!

 

[BrianUC]

Both teams put so much energy into defense and it showed. These players were tired!

 

[RoadMaster]

 

[Zonepress]

AESerious question. Why does my UCONN get mistreated by the officials. Physical play is only ok for our opposition. I hate to see how they treat Nika next game.

2nd serious question.
I know it's late in the season and we haven't had a different lineup for a long stretch of games. But maybe replace Shade in the staring lineup with Ice. Let Ice get a rhythm and Shade becomes the player who gives us a healthy 6 man rotation. Get some early inside toughness and throw off USC pregame preparations.

3RD serious question. Duke played 9 players. No way there 9th player is that much better than our 6th and 7th player? The Duke comeback was more about fatigue.

Great Game KK and Shade. It's the little things that add to a win.

AE and ice in the game at the same time has not worked at all
Unless there is foul trouble it will
Be starters

 

[RoadMaster]

Swipe

 

[#12in21]

hasn’t really been acknowledged in the thread yet but have to give Nika props. No fouls and played hard all 40 minutes. Three O boards, 6 total, 8 assists and 4 steals.

 

[hoophuskee]

Duke is known as a Defensive team. They are going to play A Defensive game. UCONN isn't a high-powered offense. The chances the game would be pretty weren't that great. The idea is to win. Slowing down the game with less possessions requiring Duke to come back considering they are not a high powered offense is not such a bad thing to do. So, who cares if this game was ugly? Thus it isn't hard to believe that these teams would play this way.

 

[pvdoggy]

You created the grades and made the claim.

He can't be wrong. After all, he is the self-proclaimed "most rational poster".

 

[donalddoowop]

SO... Does anyone think we won the Sarah Strong Sweepstakes with the win over Duke? Sure hope so. Another big for next year sure would be good.

Strong is not a big.