UConn is scary Good | Page 2 | The Boneyard

UConn is scary Good

CL82 said:
This! We’ve looked terrific the past three games, and we aren’t playing anywhere near our best basketball yet.

The renewed commitment to driving to the basket has energized us, gotten us easy buckets, and gotten us on the foul line. And all of that happened while Azzi and Caroline aren’t back to 100%. Every step they make to getting back to form makes us an even more dangerous team.

Aaliyah is playing amazing basketball and seems like she can get her shot whenever she wants it. If she can eliminate those head scratching missed bunnies, she can add another 6 points or so per game.

Dorka is playing amazing basketball, right now. Her defense is good, she’s always a threat to block, and she can score under the basket or behind the arc. That’s awfully nice to have from a 6’5” kid.

Aubrey is an absolute pleasure to watch. I’ve said this before, but she reminds me of Gabby in that it’s worth a rewatch of the game just isolating on her to see everything she does with him without the ball. My only quibble is I wish she had a little more confidence in her three-point shot. She passes up on some really good luxe. I’m sure the trainers will get her back spasms worked out and she can be a one woman wrecking crew during the tournament.

What an amazing addition Lou was for us! Right now, she’s getting an awful lot of attention. Hopefully the referees in the NCAA tournament won’t allow all the grabbing and hitting she has to endure in the big east. In any event, the addition of Azzi and Caroline has spread the floor for her making everyone’s life a little easier, but Lou should especially benefit.

We are, potentially, a very, very good team. We just need to keep our focus through the grind of the tournament and this has the chance to be a special year.

All of that said, we are, of course, still doomed.
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No way. We are not doomed, but all who face us are.
 
LwrcasefaN said:
There's definitely a resurgence of sorts, but I'm not ready to proclaim them scary...unless we're talking strictly defense. Azzi still has some rust, Ducharme is touch and go, and Aubrey may or may not be injured. My definition of scary is playing poorly and you would still win. This team has already overachieved like 10 times this season. Proud of them, but realistically there's very little room for error going forward. Scoring 6 in a quarter won't do it.
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CL82 said:
This! We’ve looked terrific the past three games, and we aren’t playing anywhere near our best basketball yet.

All of that said, we are, of course, still doomed.
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You both make good points about where the team is now, especially compared to the end of the regular season. Based on Azzi's comment that her goal was to come back for the BET, the past 3 games were a good exercise for the team to get back into a positive rhythm, work CD and Azzi back into the flow of the game, let the other 5 starters get used to C & A on the court again.

Actual game experience provides film for the coaches to then work on items in practice that are a little rusty with the "new" group of players. They now have 10 days before the next game, 4 to prep for their 4 team Storrs bracket.
 
I think the offensive rebounds were a strategy by coach Dillon. From what I remember, they sent everyone to the boards in the 1st q, not defending against the break at all. They didn’t get a lot of points that way, and they were lucky not get burned by it on the other end. I suspect Dillon thought it too risky to continue after that.
 
NYCHUSKIES said:
I think Nova will get knocked out in the second round, third at best. They really aren't a good defensive team. Maddie is literally their entire offense. And Nova fouls a lot. A lot of coaches on Novas side of the bracket will expose that.
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Except there are not a lot of teams that are good enough to expose it, certainly no team from the ACC.
 
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Nolefan said:
The first quarter rebounding worries me a tad .. UConn should have been up double digits if the didn’t give up 10 offensive rebounds other than that the defense was fantastic .. switching was really good a tad slow once or twice but that was to Villanova’s credit .. Hopefully is the tournament it doesn’t take Azzi till the 3rd quarter to heat up .. but yea this team can be really dangerous if they are on and playing fast in transition
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I was a little concerned about the 1st qtr rebounding as well, until I rewatched the game again this morning. There were a bunch of long rebounds off of bricked 3-pt shots by Nova that landed in the hands of Nova players. From the 2nd qtr on UConn took care of business under the boards.
 
mhshuskies said:
Except there are not a lot of teams that are good enough to expose it, certainly no team from the ACC.
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Yup. If Villanova gets a 4 or 5 seed, they could get to the Sweet Sixteen or even the Elite Eight before that happens.
 
todbo said:
All those offensive rebounds came as a result of missed field goals, many of which came as a result of a stifling defense. Observe the silver lining!
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I can't. lol They had 15 more offensive possessions. If they had scored on less than half of those...we lose. And those are offensive possessions we didn't have.
 
LwrcasefaN said:
I sensed that in the Marquette game, but this game he didn't play Ines, Ayanna or DeBerry. Everyone who played could have been a starter and the 6 points in the 4th ..ugh. They were up 25 at one point.
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And whether directed from the bench or not, they played the last 13 minutes against the clock, not Villanova. They obviously were not looking to score until late in the shot clock on most possessions during that time.
 
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Bone Dog said:
Yup. If Villanova gets a 4 or 5 seed, they could get to the Sweet Sixteen or even the Elite Eight before that happens.
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Maybe further, Nova is very similar to Iowa (one trick ponies), and they are ranked #2.
 
Next 12 said:
I'm back! Uconn is 90% back. We will be 100% back when Paige plays. I was right, we won !!! They are a totally different team now and the next 10 days will be a healing and practice session blessing. You can't beat the Uconn spirit and legacy. WE ARE UCONN. The NCAA tournament is the next hurdle to overcome and we now have the tools to do it. GO HUSKIES!!!
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You won't see play Paige until next season. So this is 100% back
 
Great offense wins game. Great defense wins championships. And UCONN defense really is looking scary good.

The next few weeks will be fun.
 
Littlemin said:
And whether directed from the bench or not, they played the last 13 minutes against the clock, not Villanova. They obviously were not looking to score until late in the shot clock on most possessions during that time.
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They scored SIX. Come on, man. Scoring less than a point a minute isn't milking the clock. Geno was imploring them to keep it up..."no mistakes" if I heard him correctly in the huddle. It's March! Kill or be killed. Pedal to the metal time for 40 minutes.
 
LwrcasefaN said:
They got long rebounds so not sure why UCONN couldn't. Giving up 17 OF rebounds is a lot. No way around that. The good thing is Villanova didn't score off of a lot of them. Plus they took a mind-boggling 29 3-pointers.
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You answered your own query. The reason there were so many offensive rebounds is because there were so many missed 3s. On a missed 3, the defender is closer to the rim and missed 3s tend to bounce back beyond the defender to the offensive players especially when the bigs are boxing out (or not, I admit they can do better) under the rim.
 
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todbo said:
All those offensive rebounds came as a result of missed field goals, many of which came as a result of a stifling defense. Observe the silver lining!
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Yea, when a team shoots 30% / 17% there's gonna be lot's of rebounds available to be offensive rebounds.
 
Tonyc said:
Lookout here comes UConn. Finally they got their rest, their players back and if these past 3 games are any indication of what is coming then OMG. UConns a team that was running on fumes is now running on High Octane. We saw it, the announcers, said it. It was complete domination, overwhelming on both sides of the ball, and a complete shutdown of opponents offense. No other team has shown that. As good as UConn looked they werent firing on all cylinders. Azzi and Caroline can now use these next 10 days to get up to speed. Now thats really scary. With the ariel attack spot on this UConn team takes no prisoners' and there will be no mercy. They show that and they did that. We saw that during the BET. That wasnt just luck. That was the healthy UConn team that we saw early on before all the injuries. I think for me the most amazin thing was watching UConn shut down Maddy who I feel is just an amazin player. To listen to fans and pollsters say UConn is a 2 or 3 seed is mindboggling. What have you been watching. UConn has showed everybody why they are a 1 seed. Stop making excuses for why some other team is a 1 seed. UConn just proved it to you.
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They are playing better. But still think they are beatable.
 
meyers7 said:
Yea, when a team shoots 30% / 17% there's gonna be lot's of rebounds available to be offensive rebounds.
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Yup, and another effect is that for all those O-boards, Villanova only got one basket off it.
 
UConn is playing well now but being realistic, they are a long way from being scary, except maybe defensively. I believe Villanova won't get past the sweet sixteen. The six-point fourth quarter is not anything to be concerned about. If the score had been closer, UConn would have continued to place an emphasis on scoring, imo.
 
Eweconn said:
I'd like to go back and look at how many were long rebounds off of missed 3-pointers. They were jacking up a lot of long shots. Didn't seem like many of their offensive rebounds were under the basket. I could be wrong.
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Exactly....was going to post the same thing....so many missed 3's with long rebounds back to the perimeter....tough to get offensive rebounds when they're off terrible misses. Better missed shots than made 3's.
 
I'd say UConn can be scary good.................the question is whether they can maintain that quality of play for the next few weeks.......if Aubrey's back continues to be an issue that's a major problem........hoping for a healthy, focused team that can get back to the final four......
 
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NYCHUSKIES said:
I think Nova will get knocked out in the second round, third at best. They really aren't a good defensive team. Maddie is literally their entire offense. And Nova fouls a lot. A lot of coaches on Novas side of the bracket will expose that.
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I suspect this post will get a few <wow> smilies. A couple of weeks ago I received some <wow> and <dislike> icons from a few on this board who dislike anything negative or controversial, when I posted that Villanova is Maddy and 4 others.. Olson is a good player but she couldn't carry that team if Maddy had been out for the year. UCONN without its best player all year went 29-5 so far. Where would Villanova be without Siegrist?
 
tkaes said:
I suspect this post will get a few <wow> smilies. A couple of weeks ago I received some <wow> and <dislike> icons from a few on this board who dislike anything negative or controversial, when I poster that Villanova is Maddy and 4 others.. Olson is a good player but she couldn't carry that team if Maddy had been out for the year. UCONN without its best player all year went 29-5 so far. Where would Villanova be without Siegrist?
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I agree but we must recognize Siegrist and Morrow deserve the applauds
 
From France said:
I am glad BiG East teams to have good players earning recognition
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As I predicted when we joined the Big East, UConn is the tide that raises all boats. A good Big East is good for UConn. I wish our conference mates, well, except when they are playing us.
 
LwrcasefaN said:
They scored SIX. Come on, man. Scoring less than a point a minute isn't milking the clock. Geno was imploring them to keep it up..."no mistakes" if I heard him correctly in the huddle. It's March! Kill or be killed. Pedal to the metal time for 40 minutes.
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The salient point I made was that they started playing against the clock, not Nova. People who know ball understand the phrase, it means they took their foot off the gas. You can complain all you want about an essentially meaningless last quarter of a game that was long decided and walk away dissatisfied but I thought they had an absolutely terrific tournament. The last quarter meant absolutely nothing and I have made it very plain in my posts that I don’t think Auriemma walks on water, nobody does, and if he walked away with the same conclusion you did, I disagree with him too.
 
tkaes said:
I suspect this post will get a few <wow> smilies. A couple of weeks ago I received some <wow> and <dislike> icons from a few on this board who dislike anything negative or controversial, when I posted that Villanova is Maddy and 4 others.. Olson is a good player but she couldn't carry that team if Maddy had been out for the year. UCONN without its best player all year went 29-5 so far. Where would Villanova be without Siegrist?
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But they do have Siegrist, and I believe she will carry them to the sweet 16, and depending on bracket, possibly elite 8.
 
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