UConn - Notre Dame post game

[Zonepress]

Thank you, Nan! We needed that!!
This team played:
*with 4 freshman who are playing above expectations
*without 5 players who would start for any team in the country
*with an injured Paige who fell on her face for the 2nd time this week
*against a well coached, determined team with a superstar freshman
Many teams would have folded long ago faced with so much adversity. This exciting team has over achieved and shown a building confidence. They hit a stumbling block, but they will recover & continue to succeed. So, jump off the bandwagon at your own risk.
It is time to support them, not disparage & abandon them.

All true but it was 60-60 in the 4th quarter
At home with a great crowd
Let’s be honest nd met the challenge and
UConn did not
That’s sports

 

[hookshot]

Nika did a decent job on Hidalgo. This ended when Nika had to take a seat in the first in the first quarter. When Paige also got a breather in 1Q the team looked completely lost. When Nika returned, Geno switched to mostly KK on Hidalgo. KK cannot guard Hidalgo. Nearly all of those drives to the bucket were on someone other than Nika. Geno went to zone and that was even worse. UConn is not a zone team. I don't think these kids know how to play zone.

Bottom line, Nika doing nothing on offense and fouling out, bad. Hopefully this was the worse Paige game we will ever have to watch. I don't want to lay it all on KK, plenty of bad defense to go around. Geno needs to stay away from a zone defense.

Your right, Uconn is not a zone team because it takes a lot of practice time to optimize a Zone defense, and uconn's commitment is to live or die with Zone. Still, there is plenty of practice time available and it is unfortunate that more time isn't devoted to zone given the variety of circumstances that you may run into in an NCAA tournament where zone could be helpful, [particularly with the limited personnel options now available, e.g. Brady can't play man-to-man at this point in her development. ND could not score against a Syracuse zone, but Syracuse is a zone culture - Uconn just isn't

 

[freshler40]

Perhaps Geno should have put Paige in a pivk
And roll with AE 30 ft away from the basket or play isolation like nba
Where there was no ability to help no
Way ciitron could stay with Paige in isolation
And let the best player control the game
This is exactly what nd did with Hidalgo isolation
In fist half pick
And roll in 2nd half
It’s a players game but the nd strategy
Let them
Dictate how the game was played
UConn not so much

Our players often looked to the bench for what to do. Odd at this late point in the season. We do have a young team but this bench coaching with often poor concentration/or reset by the players seems a distraction. Why isn't this handled in the huddles or practice?

 

[hookshot]

Can someone out there please explain to me why Geno hates playing zone defense?

We needed it tonight. Need to make these adjustments when we are getting torched in man to man.

Some coaches feel that a zone gives too many open looks. Not necessarily - but. it takes a lot of practice time to develop an effective zone and Geno is simply not enough of a proponent of zone to spend enough practice time on it, to make it effective. When you coach youth basketball, you come to realize that zone is the easiest way to effectively organize kids who have a wide variety of athleticism. Geno expects, at this level, that everybody should be able to effectively play man-to-man, but some are are not ready / able to do so, and we have few or no options on this 9 player roster (a good reason to stress more zone)

 

[AnonChoice]

Another factor.... the pressure on these kids given the fact that they were playing such a big game with the UConn legends in the house, ceremonial honoring of past championship teams, reminders of the legacy of this program. They're used to sold-out crowds and national TV coverage, so I think the "legacy" factor is the thing that could have affected their nerves in this particular game (e.g., defense on Hidalgo). Plus all the other things others have posted here. Terrible time for both Paige and Nika not to have the kind of games that have become characteristic (and expected) from them.

Now we'll tumble out of the top ten again in the rankings. Let's see, when we lose a game, we're generally dropped.... four or five spots?

 

[Blond D.]

First off I HATE to lose but this loss might be an advantage later on.
It was a night when we was shooting very poorly for the most part and ND was hitting everything.
It was a night where our defense was not clicking on all cylinders and ND took advantage.
It was a night we need to study and learn from.
In the long run it just might benefit us. We needed a reality check.
GO HUSKIES!

 

[RadfordRam]

HH is very good, but UCONN not stepping into the lane to challenge her drives made her look better.

Much of this was Freshman (and Ice) not having enough experience to automatically back up whoever was guarding HH. When she drove around her opponent, nobody was there or stepped in. Geno will work on this.

Another Freshman problem is KK driving one on two or one on three without a plan.
This is another common Freshman error. They got away with it in high school. She will learn fast.

Nah she's incredible and UCONN'S lack of defense didn't make her look better, she's just that great. Easily the best player on the court last night.

 

[reelfan]

FOX announcers are TERRIBLE, don't stay with the play, drift off into never land. Best to MUTE.

 

[Ron and Vida]

Unfortunately our 28.6 % 3 PT % last night was more Doom Doom than Boom Boom

 

[AmeriConn]

When we play against teams like ND, SC, LSU, etc., Paige will need to take control from the tipoff and score in the 30’s in order to set an example and win the game.

 

[reelfan]

Geno kept Paige and Nika out for much of the first half, message sent. Message received ????

 

[reelfan]

At this point in the season the tendencies of a team are pretty much set. Is it time for UCONN to shake things up a bit even with the limited bench ????

 

[Huskee11]

The game was still winnable in the fourth quarter but the wrong players were taking the shots for us. Geno admitted after the game that it was a mistake to go away from Aaliyah in the second half.

Paige was clearly not herself but I also thought that Citron gave her problems.

Other than Aaliyah, our major advantage on the offensive end was whoever DeWolfe was guarding. It was Shade early. DeWolfe is very small and only played 14 minutes, she couldn`t stop anyone.

Brady needs to stop fouling. A lot of them are silly reach in fouls. Where is the coaching on that? Come on, clean that up. She also needs to put some air under her shots, everything is flat and long.

Nika`s fifth foul was inexcusable.

At one point in the first half we had four first year players on the floor with Aaliyah.

Hidalgo was going to go right no matter what and we still couldn`t stop her. We won`t beat Notre Dame until we figure out how to defend the high pick and roll.

 

[CTBballfan243]

Yeah, when NIka played dumb with faults why not try Ines to stop Hidaldo? Let Ines fault out if thats what it takes ?? Where is the coaching CHANGE ?? ( Just don't tell me putting Ines could lose more, so what ?)

The ND game was way above the level of play that Ines is capable of. She just isn’t that level of player.

 

[Rowdy831]

I don't know what to say.

But I knew that a different ND team should show up today compared to Thursday and look what happened. Sigh.

Missed bunnies and some absolutely devasting mental errors that just killed us every time we started to get momentum. You just can't have that, especially from the upperclassmen. There was one time when Paige tried to get cutesy with an extra pass when the easy bucket was right there ... why? Just why? Please just shoot the ball. Please just make the easy layups.

I love Nika but fouling out early into the 4th quarter is just plain terrible.

I don't understand how Syracuse was able beat ND twice and yet UConn just looked absolutely lost at time. The fact that they killed us on rebounding and points in the paint is just so hugely frustrating. How does that even happen?

Felt so positive about how much progression the team made this year and now I just feel like it's gonna be another out at the S16 again. Yes we're back to killing everyone in the BE but we haven't really been able to win the big games this year and it's worrying.

I know it's a young team and all that, but Hidalgo is also a freshmen. She put up 34 points! She practically single-handedly beat us, when we weren't beating ourselves with dumb fouls and/or TOs. And ND has also suffered from injuries as well, so it's not just us.

Not good. I don't know what they need to do but the SCar game is going to be a nightmare if they don't figure some stuff out before then.

I am trying really hard not to be a doomer but it's another bad big game. We are not where we need to be.

When your second tallest player on the court is 6'0 you have no chance to compete in the paint. ND would set a high screen with their post and Hidalgo would drive to the basket with now defense to pick her up. ND scored almost 50 points in the paint and UConn just isn't going to beat a quality team with size unless they shoot lights out and they didn't.

 

[maple]

When your second tallest player on the court is 6'0 you have no chance to compete in the paint. ND would set a high screen with their post and Hidalgo would drive to the basket with now defense to pick her up. ND scored almost 50 points in the paint and UConn just isn't going to beat a quality team with size unless they shoot lights out and they didn't.

Hidalgo is 5’6”. She’s not Griner.

 

[Rowdy831]

Two things that were obvious in this game. Geno was willing to play his players to the point where they had zero legs and consequently they lost the second and forth quarters badly. Secondly all those blowouts they had where he refused to develop Amari came back to haunt him.

The reality is they will still be very good when they match up which is a lot of the teams out there. One thing that will have to change in the big games is Paige will need to get open shots. They need to work on coming off screens, it seemed like every time they went past a screen they left enough room for the defender to slide through too. One game is not the end of the world.

 

[Redux]

Agreed. But I would think a national audience of basketball fans might be interested in a basketball game? What was happening, what were the official calls, showing and commenting on those calls. Who scored, who fouled, who came in or left the game, in a timely fashion. Which team had the ball, even, where the hell WAS the (off camera) ball? Was a national audience clamoring for a 9 minute interview with Diana to 100% pre-empt the game they tuned in for?

BTW complaining about officials and calls is a loser's game; I get that. But even if the lousy calls were exactly 50/50 it never really evens out and it disrupts the game from whatever it would have been, whatever that might have been (we'll never know). Doesn't help when the specific calls have greater impact. Nika had fouls before getting her sneakers tied: she was playing foul-challenged right from the start and even so it was a different defensive game when she was in there. Some comments here "that's just Nika being Nika, stupid fouls all the time" seem not to have been watching recent UConn basketball.

IMO the only reason UConn fans aren't irate over the calls (fouls, non-calls after muggings, the mythical traveling that only UConn seems to do, the OOB calls and no-calls) is because the replays were bizarrely out of sync, sometimes three plays behind, or non-existent at key moments, and the announcers were somewhere else. Traveling kills me because there are always discontinuities, stutters, that technically can always be called traveling but when the ball and the feet are moving they are rightly ignored by the officials, except when they're not.

A team like UConn can have a bad game and lose to a team they are better than, it happens all the time and UConn did not play their A game. But ineptitude in officiating, however random, screws up the thin margin of error this UConn has against good teams and creates a game that is different than what would have been.

 

[CTBballfan243]

It’s not a total lost weekend, the Men’s team is crushing Xavier!!!! Go UConn!!!!

 

[Centerstream]

Agreed. But I would think a national audience of basketball fans might be interested in a basketball game? What was happening, what were the official calls, showing and commenting on those calls. Who scored, who fouled, who came in or left the game, in a timely fashion. Which team had the ball, even, where the hell WAS the (off camera) ball? Was a national audience clamoring for a 9 minute interview with Diana to 100% pre-empt the game they tuned in for?

BTW complaining about officials and calls is a loser's game; I get that. But even if the lousy calls were exactly 50/50 it never really evens out and it disrupts the game from whatever it would have been, whatever that might have been (we'll never know). Doesn't help when the specific calls have greater impact. Nika had fouls before getting her sneakers tied: she was playing foul-challenged right from the start and even so it was a different defensive game when she was in there. Some comments here "that's just Nika being Nika, stupid fouls all the time" seem not to have been watching recent UConn basketball.

IMO the only reason UConn fans aren't irate over the calls (fouls, non-calls after muggings, the mythical traveling that only UConn seems to do, the OOB calls and no-calls) is because the replays were bizarrely out of sync, sometimes three plays behind, or non-existent at key moments, and the announcers were somewhere else. Traveling kills me because there are always discontinuities, stutters, that technically can always be called traveling but when the ball and the feet are moving they are rightly ignored by the officials, except when they're not.

A team like UConn can have a bad game and lose to a team they are better than, it happens all the time and UConn did not play their A game. But ineptitude in officiating, however random, screws up the thin margin of error this UConn has against good teams and creates a game that is different than what would have been.

Joe Vaszily has replaced Dee Kantner as my least liked ref. Oh, who am I kidding, it’s a tie.
And I agree about timely replays and would like to add that SNY consistently does the same thing. But I like SNY regardless.

 

[Cuango]

Wow! Tough crowd! I think people are reading way too much into this loss! Yes, it looked pretty bad but something like this was bound to happen eventually. We have five effective players and if one or more of those players has a bad night it becomes almost impossible to win against a good team. It becomes exponentially worse if one of those players is Paige because, as much as we like to think we’ve gotten past the, “Paige will save us“ vibe, last night shows we haven’t!
Time to move on! This team has and will continue to bring us lots of joy!
Surely we can accept a rare bad performance from a team that is basically outnumbered every game they play! Sure, our starting five is very good but that’s basically it for the foreseeable future! Notre Dame just kicked our @** ! So what? They lost twice to Syracuse! Time to move on!