UConn @ ND

[Tonyc]

Well it doesnt get any better then this. After tonites game not much will change win or lose for either team as far as the polls go. Tonites game will come down to all the little things. Fundamentals for both teams are sound. Free throws are sound. For UConn they must stay away from making dumb fouls and getting in foul trouble. The bench is very short. Turnovers could be a problem for either side. For ND Ogunbowale can not go one on one. Allen will have to make crisp passes. Frankly I see who ever Mabrey and Westbeld defend well they will need help because of UConns quickness. Down low if things get a little out of hand Butler will make her presence known. UConn will open things up by hitting treys which will allow them to showcase their quickness and either score easily or create fouls on the defense.

Both teams will be up for this game. UConns quickness will win out. ND hasnt had a very difficult schedule. ND has scored alot of points against unranked teams. Againest ranked teams ND has scored approx 71 pts while their opponents have scored in the high 60's. Against UConn I expect ND to score less then 71 pts and I expect UConn to score more then 66 pts. Against lesser talented teams you can get away with mishaps. Against UConn you cant. Get ready for a roller coaster ride because tonite will be just that. I expect a very close game. Who will stand out, who will make the plays imo it will be somebody other then the stars tonite. In the end it will be

UConn 74
ND 66

 

[Rayvin56]

I like the way you think, Tony!

 

[magic]

Well it doesnt get any better then this. After tonites game not much will change win or lose for either team as far as the polls go. Tonites game will come down to all the little things. Fundamentals for both teams are sound. Free throws are sound. For UConn they must stay away from making dumb fouls and getting in foul trouble. The bench is very short. Turnovers could be a problem for either side. For ND Ogunbowale can not go one on one. Allen will have to make crisp passes. Frankly I see who ever Mabrey and Westbeld defend well they will need help because of UConns quickness. Down low if things get a little out of hand Butler will make her presence known. UConn will open things up by hitting treys which will allow them to showcase their quickness and either score easily or create fouls on the defense.

Both teams will be up for this game. UConns quickness will win out. ND hasnt had a very difficult schedule. ND has scored alot of points against unranked teams. Againest ranked teams ND has scored approx 71 pts while their opponents have scored in the high 60's. Against UConn I expect ND to score less then 71 pts and I expect UConn to score more then 66 pts. Against lesser talented teams you can get away with mishaps. Against UConn you cant. Get ready for a roller coaster ride because tonite will be just that. I expect a very close game. Who will stand out, who will make the plays imo it will be somebody other then the stars tonite. In the end it will be

UConn 74
ND 66

My thoughts are similar to yours Tonyc. With all the talk of depth, I believe neither team will go beyond 7 or 8 players. There is too much of a talent dropoff, and 4 or 5 trips down the floor is enough to separate these teams. That said, I think the combination of Dangerfield and Butler is more of a game changer. It will be easier for the Huskies to defend Turner and Agunbawale, than Irish to defend KLS and Collier. Huskies historically do a great job of defending opponents best scorer. I think in this case Agunbawale is the scorer that makes Irish go. Huskies are more battle tested, but the crowd will be CRAZY !

Uconn 71
Irish 62

 

[Fairfield Fan]

This is the game of the year. At least of the regular season, and the biggest game until the National Championship game.

Don't know how this will come out. Connecticut barely got through a very tough Florida State team that was without its star point guard. Texas fought Connecticut to a draw through three quarters, though it was without its own star point guard for half the game. I think it wasn't a strong UConn team that beat Texas, but better coaching that won the game. Texas time and again failed to force the ball inside to Lang. Kara Lawson was almost screaming for them to do that from early in the game. When Lang got the ball, it was almost automatic. And for those who were praising Butler's game, I watched it again. Not so much. In the second quarter, Butler was immobile while Texas guards sped past her three times in a row for lay-ups. And she's still getting rebounds down low, and instead of putting the ball back up, is passing the ball outside. That will not win the biggest games, at least not again.

Hoping for a UConn win, but I just don't know.....

But it's the biggest of the year. It's all on the line: top ranking for the remainder of the season, the winning streak, the top seed in the tournament.

Fingers crossed!!!!

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Also wonder if the pre-concussion Crystal Dangerfield will show up. Her play has been relatively subdued sine that injury.

Though a bit off-topic, sharing this column on a student's 10-month ordeal with post-concussion symptoms:

10 months of recovery: my struggle with post-concussion syndrome - The Occidental Weekly

This sentence jumped out at me: "Just days after my injury I noticed the tendency of my peers, professors and even medical specialists to understate both the severity of concussions and the difficulty of the recovery process."

Really hope Crystal recovers fast, and completely. And as a human being, I hope that Texas's point guard also achieves a speedy and complete recovery from her concussion.

 

[CocoHusky]

Connecticut barely got through a very tough Florida State team that was without its star point guard. Texas fought Connecticut to a draw through three quarters, though it was without its own star point guard for half.

UCONN beat Baylor, whose PG played the entire game and is playing the best basketball of of any PG in the country right now. That is a rather peculiar view of a draw. In the Texas game the score was never tied in the third quarter and UCONN held double digit leads in both the 2nd and 3 quarters of the game.

 

[huskyd]

Well it doesnt get any better then this. After tonites game not much will change win or lose for either team as far as the polls go. Tonites game will come down to all the little things. Fundamentals for both teams are sound. Free throws are sound. For UConn they must stay away from making dumb fouls and getting in foul trouble. The bench is very short. Turnovers could be a problem for either side. For ND Ogunbowale can not go one on one. Allen will have to make crisp passes. Frankly I see who ever Mabrey and Westbeld defend well they will need help because of UConns quickness. Down low if things get a little out of hand Butler will make her presence known. UConn will open things up by hitting treys which will allow them to showcase their quickness and either score easily or create fouls on the defense.

Both teams will be up for this game. UConns quickness will win out. ND hasnt had a very difficult schedule. ND has scored alot of points against unranked teams. Againest ranked teams ND has scored approx 71 pts while their opponents have scored in the high 60's. Against UConn I expect ND to score less then 71 pts and I expect UConn to score more then 66 pts. Against lesser talented teams you can get away with mishaps. Against UConn you cant. Get ready for a roller coaster ride because tonite will be just that. I expect a very close game. Who will stand out, who will make the plays imo it will be somebody other then the stars tonite. In the end it will be

UConn 74
ND 66

I'll take it Tony; cancel the game.

 

[Tonyc]

Uconn beat some pretty good ranked teams. Florida St was the first game of the season and I dont put alot of stock in that game especially after seeing every game after that. Uconn continues to grow as a team and improve. ND did not blow out Green Bay Washington or Iowa all top teams. All were close games at the end. One other point. UConn has a very balanced scoring attack. ND depends alot on Ogunbowale. You stop her and ND will have problems. I think UConns game plan is to blanket her and Allen. Keep the ND guards from distributing the ball and you win.

As far as Butler goes she has played very well. Maybe not great but very good and is improving every game and will be a force by March. She will make it difficult for ND Bigs in the middle much like she did in the second half of the Texas game against Lang. Hey speedy guards can get around alot of bigs not named Stewie. Watch what happens to ND when UConns ball handlers dribble drive. UConn can open up the middle with their outside shooters. UConn makes good decisions with the ball. Heck they may lose but they have played alot better then most thought up to this point.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

UCONN beat Baylor, whose PG played the entire game and is playing the best basketball of of any PG in the country right now. That is a rather peculiar view of a draw. In the Texas game the score was never tied in the third quarter and UCONN held double digit leads in both the 2nd and 3 quarters of the game.

Good point. UConn was up by 3 near the end of the third quarter. But that was well after Ariel Atkins went down.

Just saying that we're not invincible. As Kara Lawson said early in the Texas game, "This is not a great team." We're good, but are we good enough to go undefeated? We'll find out tonight....

 

[Tonyc]

Basketball is a team game and when someone goes down like Ariel Atkins it can hurt or if her replacement plays good it helps. In any event a few years ago UConn had Tuck Hartley KML I think it was those 3 and they played Stanford Penn St MD Ohio St and somebody else . The point Im trying to make is UConn won all those games if I remember correctly almost all those games were not at Gampel except for one. The point UConn won them all. So if UConn loses tonite and they have top players on the bench yeah they might have won if that player was playing but as a team they still have to find a way to win. Against Texas Lou was sitting in foul trouble for quite sometime and UConn found a way to win. Foul trouble is part of the game and players especially key players have to find a way to stay in the game. So the fact that Atkins was injured is not a reason for UConns win. The team has to find a way to win without her because they are a team. With that said UConn lost to ND during the Diggins era mainly because of all the flop calls which were changed recently. Refs dont fall for that much anymore. But still UConn shouldve found away around that to avoid the loss.

 

[GG]

I do not know which team is going to prevail, but I sure hope it is us.

 

[HopJim]

Well it doesnt get any better then this. After tonites game not much will change win or lose for either team as far as the polls go. Tonites game will come down to all the little things. Fundamentals for both teams are sound. Free throws are sound. For UConn they must stay away from making dumb fouls and getting in foul trouble. The bench is very short. Turnovers could be a problem for either side. For ND Ogunbowale can not go one on one. Allen will have to make crisp passes. Frankly I see who ever Mabrey and Westbeld defend well they will need help because of UConns quickness. Down low if things get a little out of hand Butler will make her presence known. UConn will open things up by hitting treys which will allow them to showcase their quickness and either score easily or create fouls on the defense.

Both teams will be up for this game. UConns quickness will win out. ND hasnt had a very difficult schedule. ND has scored alot of points against unranked teams. Againest ranked teams ND has scored approx 71 pts while their opponents have scored in the high 60's. Against UConn I expect ND to score less then 71 pts and I expect UConn to score more then 66 pts. Against lesser talented teams you can get away with mishaps. Against UConn you cant. Get ready for a roller coaster ride because tonite will be just that. I expect a very close game. Who will stand out, who will make the plays imo it will be somebody other then the stars tonite. In the end it will be

UConn 74
ND 66

In several of the past games, post players were dominating UConn but didn't sustain their performance due to fouls, poor guard play, or just general poor coaching. Will be curious since ND has all the right elements to play a low post game, how this works out.

 

[NewCorn]

I'm taking my clues from Geno. #1 He said, "I hope those other teams are as good as people say they are because we need our asses kicked." (not an exact quote). So Geno is not sure they are that good after getting reports from his scouts and watching film? #2 When asked how UConn would do against ND, Geno said, "We'll do the best we can." with a chuckle. One chuckle is worth a thousand words. UConn 85-57.

 

[bags27]

Right on, NewCorn! Geno said it was going to be fun, and let's have fun. Win or lose, it's just one game in a long season and in the richest, most successful tradition in the history of WCBB.

 

[bizarro aj]

ESPN is really pushing this game as they talked about it on Around the horn and pardon the interruption.