UConn - Notre Dame post game

[Blacketh’D]

One of the biggest improvements with Alliyah is that she does not miss her layups. She was so frustrating in past seasons when she clanked open layups after receiving sharp passes.
Now, as soon as she gets the ball with position near the rim, it's an automatic two points.

Minus the beginning of the year when every pass slipped out of her hands in the post. She has shown much more patience though since the season has gone on.

 

[TheFarmFan]

Not always by any stretch; it tends to run in streaks. Two years ago we dominated them by 20 and then Paige had her flukish injury in the final minute. Since then yes, they've beaten us twice in a row, such kryptonite.

I don't see it as mysterious. This team is just vulnerable. Perhaps it was easy to forget that since we hadn't lost in two months. No depth and lack of size mean simply don't have much margin for error when a good opponent has a good game, and we simply cannot afford the failures and disappearances such as what we saw tonight.

Edwards played valiantly but one player is not enough. Other than that the best thing I can say about this game is at least no one got severely injured as happened in the last two Notre Dame games.

Since Tina graduated in 2010, UConn has lost in the Final Four 5 times. 4 of those losses were to the Domers. I'm also certain there's no other team that won 7 of 8 in a row against Geno like the Irish did between 2011 and 2013. For some reason the road just rises to meet them when there's a Husky on the other side of the court.

 

[Rings R Us]

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.

 

[Conndog]

This point is especially glaring when facing against an opponent who has a super talented player who does dominate from the start. Hildago never stopped trying to look to shoot and score. Never.

Hildago never stopped looking to shoot and score because no one stopped her period.

 

[maple]

I have a hard time dealing with the fact that when most every team plays UConn, it is the game of their season up to that point. Add to it a team that has been one of our "rivals" and seems to have won as many as they have lost. It sure seemed that ND wanted this game maybe a little more than we did.

[…] It's going to really, really hard getting to sleep this evening.

That’s basically my feelings in a nut shell …

 

[Zonepress]

Congrats to nd played a great game Hildago controlled the game
Few thoughts
I was curious to see how team play for the first time against a quality opponent without Aubrey Griffin: obviously, there was no margin for error and one of your starters is a non-factor due to fouls
And your best player doesn’t have a strong game
You get beat
Put simply the bench is not ready to play the game like this

Don’t believe that coaches get outcoached
It’s the players game
But will point out three things that’s a movie show less than stellar coaching
-Taking Paige Bueckers out for the last two minutes of the first half with both ice and cadence on the floor turned a three point deficit into nine
-Never adjusting to Hidalgo how many times are you going to let her best you one on one or pick and roll without sending another defender at her
Or maybe get some help from off the ball
-Down eight points with 3 1/2 minutes to go and instead of pressing all over the floor and gambling you just let Notre Dame come down the floor running clock in the pick and roll?

Playing against the big east teams (that while well coached ) is a real detriment they simply don’t have the talent or athleticism to test uconn
It’s just too easy for uconn
I think that lack of competition really hurt them today


Team has been really fun to watch this year
And I look forward to the rest of the season
But perhaps everyone should enjoy the season, not focus on what the outcome is going to be

 

[Plebe]

Since Tina graduated in 2010, UConn has lost in the Final Four 5 times. 4 of those losses were to the Domers. I'm also certain there's no other team that won 7 of 8 in a row against Geno like the Irish did between 2011 and 2013. For some reason the road just rises to meet them when there's a Husky on the other side of the court.

Your numbers are a bit off (missing at least one FF loss), but during that same period we also went a 5-year stretch when we didn't lose to them, including multiple regular season games, a national semifinal and two national championship games. As I said, streaks.

But why are we picking this over. We got dominated in this game much the same as in the NC State and UCLA and Texas games. Sometimes the reason is you're just not good enough.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Hard to win when you allow 55% shooting, get out-rebounded by 10, and your start player goes 5-17.

 

[boontonbomber]

Aaliyah scored her 23 points in the first 27 minutes. Why didn't she score in the last 13 minutes? Well, she didn't take a shot in the last 13 minutes. Nah, the coaches would have realized she wasn't getting the ball. No, really, she did not shoot in the last 13 minutes. Hmmm...,
Need more coaches on that bench. We'll, there are a bunch there already. That's true. Hmmm....

 

[Zonepress]

This was a bad loss. Not so much that they lost, but the way that they lost at home in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Where did the UConn suffocating defense go? It was porous. I know Hannah Hidalgo is fast & shifty, but how many times did she drive to the basket unencumbered?

It seemed that UConn reversed to the early part of the season where there was a lack of flow on offense. The ball movement was lacking and there was a lack of screens, and pick and rolls.

I love Paige, but playing passive, deferring to freshman has to end. Say what you will about Caitlin Clark, but some games, even when her shot is off, she keeps firing and shoots herself into a rhythm. That pass to KK underneath on a 3 on 1 was a prime example.

Give credit to ND. After laying up at home against Syracuse, they came out focused and determined. Although Hidalgo was the star of the game, Maddy Westbeld killed UConn with timely threes and Sonia Citron did a commendable job covering Paige. She never allowed Paige to get into a rhythm.

Completely agree re paige

 

[uconnfan68]

Since Tina graduated in 2010, UConn has lost in the Final Four 5 times. 4 of those losses were to the Domers. I'm also certain there's no other team that won 7 of 8 in a row against Geno like the Irish did between 2011 and 2013. For some reason the road just rises to meet them when there's a Husky on the other side of the court.

UConn 38, ND 15; UConn 12, Stanford 7.

 

[Huskie837]

We’re a #3 seed, maybe. Lulled to sleep by success in the Big East…
Terrible game…

 

[Zonepress]

This isn't a criticism or second guess! Just a question for the forum:
Do you think Geno benching Paige for part of the 2nd quarter motivated her or contributed to her offshooting night?
Or did it have zero effect on Paige?

I don’t know what effect it had on her, but let the lead go from two points to nine in the last two minutes of the game with her out

 

[maple]

This isn't a criticism or second guess! Just a question for the forum:
Do you think Geno benching Paige for part of the 2nd quarter motivated her or contributed to her offshooting night?
Or did it have zero effect on Paige?

Paige has said she likes to be coached hard. So one would assume it should be motivating her.

I think tonight however the effect was net zero.

 

[uconnfan68]

Trying to give her a break.

 

[jaydee602]

Paige got hurt in the first half. Geno said it affected her the rest of the game.
Except the announcers were too enamored with Diana Taurasi and the legend of Caitlin Clark to even notice it.

 

[Drfla]

There's absolutely no correlation with Nika fouling out and UConn losing. We were soundly defeated and Nika's performance tonight was marginal. Wow, you talk about disassociated logic...

Nika’s importance is because there is no bench. From watching the game I think UConn was a plus while Muhl was in the game but more than a -20 when she was replaced by Brady.

 

[Fishy]

I’ve seen this exact game more then a few times from this team.

Strong start, then the wheels start to come off until all four of them are gone in the 4th. They were resigned to their fate in the fourth quarter - what little fight they had in them was entirely gone when they failed to gain the lead at the end of the third.

The unforced errors put them down in the second and kept them from getting a gap in the third. Our fast break was a blooper reel….13 steals vs four for Notre Dame translated to only +6 for UConn in fast break points. Really need more there to offset the beating they were giving us in the paint.

All that aside….the no-call on the tackle by Notre Dame and awarding them possession to bank in a three at the half was about the worst call I’ve seen in a long time.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Did Hidalgo drive left on any pick and roll tonight? And I don't recall a single hedge. Granted I kept closing my eyes.

 

[todbo]

It's amazing to me, that as a senior, she still makes that many mental errors. That was the worst game she's ever played.

She only played about half of the game. With her on the bench, ND went on game-ending runs. Defense leads to offense, but you gotta have defense...

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Nika’s importance is because there is no bench. From watching the game I think UConn was a plus while Muhl was in the game but more than a -20 when she was replaced by Brady.

Nika's play is on Nika. She took herself out of the game.

 

[Zonepress]

I think the phrase "bad game" fits much better. It happens. And ND played very well coming off a loss.

Imho this is who we are since the loss
Of Aubrey
We’ve been beating BE teams that have no business being within 30 to 40 points of us and this is the first time we play the team with
Talent And we got beat badly at home.
Unfortunately, they play 10 more of these miss matches and have a nightmare matchup against South Carolina on the road as we simply don’t have a bench
Still a fun team to watch and look foward to rest of the season but expectations are not high

 

[Jbigfan]

We make the most head scratching decisions, I stg. We were absolutely killing them inside with AE and then we just .... didn't keep doing it. WHAT is the thought process.

i’ll always remember late 90’s, final 4 in St. Louis v ND, half time, up by 16. Kelly Schumacher having monster gm inside & they stopped going into her 2nd half. We lost. Still scratching my head

 

[Zonepress]

I don't think that fits either. It wasn't that they just played poorly, it was that they couldn't play well against this team. The length bothered them, the speed of Hidalgo killed them, the defense that the freshmen don't play well enough created opportunities on switches for Westbeld all game long. A game like this shows all of our weaknesses, including Ice's lack of development and speed, our thin bench, our size disadvantage, and our lack of a defensive stopper. We needed Aubrey, more size and power underneath, Caroline and Azzi's scoring and the list goes on. You are what you are though so we will see but you can't have one of your starters have a game like Nika did and win. Not going to happen.

Great post pretty much covers everything

I actually thought we could overcome the injuries until Aubrey got hurt
With her I thought we still
had a chance to do
Some great things

 

[Zonepress]

Azzi disappeared against quality competition and wouldn’t have made a difference.

Not fair she played like 5 games compltely
Healthy in two years at start of last seaon
And avg close to 30 against top comp
Texas no stste