HuskyNan
You Know Who
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Yeah, all those Final Fours and one championship game really sucked
We are one spoiled fanbase
UConn is prepared for March
- Thread starter Tonyc
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We are one spoiled fanbase
If the can't press teams like UCLA then they will not beat them. UConn will play their game and that game is pressure and speed to offset the size some other teams can throw at them.
He said "The only way this team could lose..."
He didn't specify, "before the final four" or "before the NCAA tournament". Implied is that winning it all is the ultimate goal since that is what happens if you don't lose. Sure, the other stuff is nice and there are other goals along the way but even Geno says that the ultimate goal is winning it all. So where do we draw the line on defining spoiled fans? The final four? Winning the Big East? Making the tournament?
If winning it all is the goal, those teams weren't "prepared" for that? If making the final four is the goal, one of those teams still wasn't prepared for that. So what, exactly, are we prepared for?
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It’s really worth watching replays of the 2024 tournament run. The team played brilliantly, for what they had to work with— Paige Aaliyah Nika KK Ash Ice and Aubrey. They fell short not for lack or preparation but because of lack of bodies. Watch those games just to see how exhausted they were. They played at a level few teams could approach and then tired in each game and let opponents back into the games. It started with Jackson St and then became more pronounced in each round. By the Duke game, they were visibly tired. By the USC game, it looked like they might simply drop from fatigue. And yet they held on. The Iowa game was simply a bridge too far. Personally, sad as it is from one perspective, I find that tournament run to be one of the most amazing in UConn history, though all of Paige’s runs were amazing in one way or another.
In short, I don’t think Geno has ever done a better coaching job. As for this year’s team, I think they’re as well prepared as any of the last several seasons.
MSGRET
MSG, US Army Retired
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No other team would have been able to do what UConn did in the 23/24 season with only 7 healthy players and a quick whistle on a bogus call that might have kept UConn from being in the Championship game.
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And all of those were enjoyable in hindsight because they still accomplished so much more than so many ever will.
.-.
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Geno has also said it's all about getting to the final Four. Competing teh last week for a title. Yes you cite an ulrtimate goal but you downplay the rest by caling it just "nice?" That's why some fans are called spolied.
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Click Bait!
Bigboote
That's big-boo-TAY
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Just a couple of ramblings:
Late in the 2016-17 season, I remember in a postgame presser Geno said (from memory, but pretty close to a direct quote): This team needs to lose, and lose badly. IIRC they won every game by double-digits that year. While this year's team has had similar outcomes, it's not really the same. The16-17 team wasn't challenged at all. This year's team had the scare against Michigan, were tied with Tennessee at halftime and down at halftime to Villanova just a couple of weeks ago.
In 2013, after Stewie's late-season growing pains and the loss to Notre Dame in the Big East championship, Geno said, I think on the Geno Auriemma Show, before the NCAAs that he told the team, I'm gonna teach you how to win the championship. If you listen to me and do what I say, you'll win the championship.
The 2013 team listened to him, and evidently continued to listen for the next three years. The 17 team, everything seemed to come so easily to them, I think they may have forgotten to listen. A few weeks ago Geno said something about Sarah Strong listening so closely that he's afraid she'll stare a hole through him. Assi listens. Ashlynn's role has changed so much year to year, we know she's listening to him. Kayleigh's high-school coach said Kayleigh's so smart and so attentive that she internalized everything the coach said, very quickly. KK has turned into a capable floor general with great defensive instincts, and she and Ash really communicate well in the press. Et cetera.
I'm not making any predictions, read into this post whatever you want, but I'm looking forward to the next few weeks.
Late in the 2016-17 season, I remember in a postgame presser Geno said (from memory, but pretty close to a direct quote): This team needs to lose, and lose badly. IIRC they won every game by double-digits that year. While this year's team has had similar outcomes, it's not really the same. The16-17 team wasn't challenged at all. This year's team had the scare against Michigan, were tied with Tennessee at halftime and down at halftime to Villanova just a couple of weeks ago.
In 2013, after Stewie's late-season growing pains and the loss to Notre Dame in the Big East championship, Geno said, I think on the Geno Auriemma Show, before the NCAAs that he told the team, I'm gonna teach you how to win the championship. If you listen to me and do what I say, you'll win the championship.
The 2013 team listened to him, and evidently continued to listen for the next three years. The 17 team, everything seemed to come so easily to them, I think they may have forgotten to listen. A few weeks ago Geno said something about Sarah Strong listening so closely that he's afraid she'll stare a hole through him. Assi listens. Ashlynn's role has changed so much year to year, we know she's listening to him. Kayleigh's high-school coach said Kayleigh's so smart and so attentive that she internalized everything the coach said, very quickly. KK has turned into a capable floor general with great defensive instincts, and she and Ash really communicate well in the press. Et cetera.
I'm not making any predictions, read into this post whatever you want, but I'm looking forward to the next few weeks.
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There was this thread on a HoopsHQ Geno interview which may be of interest to you:
Thread 'Geno Auriemma Builds His All-UConn Starting Five | The Hoops HQ Show'
- The relevant part (reproduced below) starts at 0:9:04 in the thread video.
Seth Davis: “Geno, you went 9 whole years between winning national championships… and so, your initial rush of all those championships was impressive in its own right .. but to me, going that long while the rest of women’s basketball caught up largely because of the standards that you set, to be able to now have all this rush not only winning it last year but also being the dominant women’s basketball team so far this year, what would you say went into that resurgence this year.”
Geno: “…Obviously the game has changed in so many ways, the NIL part, the transfer portal part, kids spread around all over the country, it’s a different landscape. You know, I think the 9 years, I never thought about we’re never going to win another one and I never thought we are. It’s interesting that 8 of those 9 years that we didn’t win, we were in the Final Four. So, you know, if your program is going to tank, and tanking means you’re in the Final Four with a chance to win it every year, you know, that’s the best you can hope for in an absolute utopia.”
Geno has been gracious not to mention the biblical injury plague that no other program has endured. And he sure is not going to touch upon roster construction limitations in the old paradigm, that sometimes left UConn with its Achilles heels.
- Deep high quality rosters (and the fast-paced mix-and-match maximizing those rosters, which I have previously opined is the fullest expression of UConn beautiful basketball) under the new paradigm had largely mitigated those.
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I think the difference with this team is how they respond to adversity through games. I look back at the Tennessee game when Tennessee had the lead for a brief time. Uconn didnt panic, or made uncharacteristic mistakes. They played thru it and beat Tennessee by 25+ points i think. That particular game convinced me the most, that Uconn, this squad, is final 4 ready.
Azzi and Sarah will be every opponent's main focal point on defense. This gives a golden opportunity for Ashlynn and Blanca to really shine during the Big East tournament and ncaa tournament. I would love for maybe Jana or Serah to be that dark horse for us.
Any scenario you put it in, Uconn is a literal nightmare to guard. Teams are going to just gamble and lock down at least two huskies, and have the rest of team win the game. Good luck to any team willing to shut down azzi and Sarah, not just in general, but in a single game. Goooooo Huskiessss!!!!
Azzi and Sarah will be every opponent's main focal point on defense. This gives a golden opportunity for Ashlynn and Blanca to really shine during the Big East tournament and ncaa tournament. I would love for maybe Jana or Serah to be that dark horse for us.
Any scenario you put it in, Uconn is a literal nightmare to guard. Teams are going to just gamble and lock down at least two huskies, and have the rest of team win the game. Good luck to any team willing to shut down azzi and Sarah, not just in general, but in a single game. Goooooo Huskiessss!!!!
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Yeah I’ve gotta say, I get really resentful when I hear these “sports” people talk about the “barren years” when we went to the FF almost every year but “failed to win a title”. What really gets my goat though, is when they never mention those three or four years where our team was decimated with injuries! I know it’s ultimately meaningless to say, but I’m convinced that had we been fully healthy from 2020-24, we would likely have won at least one more title during that time! It’s all water under the bridge now and we do have our #12, but it would be nice to occasionally hear some acknowledgement of that incredible string of injuries. I suppose though, I should just be grateful for what we have now! Which I am, of course!
.-.