UConn - Notre Dame post game | Page 7 | The Boneyard

UConn - Notre Dame post game

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Jumper33 said:
I somehow thought that UConn would be able to contain Hannah Hidalgo and I was sure that they would not be able to stop Paige. Both these assumptions were wrong.

I sort of scouted ND watching them play against Syracuse and they could not stop them. I wonder if they were looking ahead to this game?

UConn got outplayed, plain and simple. Unbelievable that ND got whooped on their home floor and then 48 hours later came in and did this. I know some were concerned that ND would be desperate and dangerous, but frankly I didn’t think they had this in them. Hidalgo looked the part of a first team all American.
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Considering that Syracuse had already beaten ND, I would highly doubt that.
 
What a beat-down, in front of one of the largest and most enthusiastic crowds ever. Tied at 60, we got crushed, 22-7, with the game on the line. Punished in every aspect of the game, at both ends of the court. Ice's totally ineffective minutes out there would have gone to Aubrey, but what's the use of crying over spilled milk. Hard to believe how much better ND would have been with Miles out there.

We were outplayed and out-coached. Hidalgo and the entire Irish team came in ready. Have to give all kinds of credit to ND's players and coaching staff in preparation for this game. Seemed like they totally ignored preparing for Syracuse, and just concentrated the entire week on preparation for this game.

This may sound like sour grapes, but the massive beat-down obscured some very questionable calls, and what was one of the worst telecasts of a big game I have ever seen. The nerve of that crew to take up so much live-action time interviewing DT. The camera was focused on the broadcast table, with two worshipful announcers not even watching the game, while a bunch of strange whistles were being blown with no explanation from the crew. A disservice to the fan-base of both teams. Shame on you, Fox!

Let's hope we can limp into the NCAA tournament with only 5 losses. We deserve whatever seeding we get.
 
Wow, I was out last nite and missed the game. I kept checking the score and could not believe we laid an egg in front of a sell out home crowd and distinguished alumni . I had been waiting for this game and SC to see if we were truly a top 5 team. I have my answer With the SC yet to come. The big East has given us a false sense of where we rank. I m now going to watch the game that I taped.
 
Very disappointed in the game , wow. UConn was outplayed in every aspect of the game. Paige was too passive! Why was she on the bench late in the first half? The players on the court at that time looked lost and confused. There wasn’t any offensive flow for most of the game. Great defense by ND.

KK ought to stop trying to drive to the basket against four defenders; throwing up crazy shots and ending up on the floor. She may be quick but against good teams it’s not good.

This game exposed the weaknesses due to the injuries. perhaps this loss will be the wake up call for Paige to get unleashed…
 
tchalla1 said:
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...
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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.
 
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maple said:
They mentioned in game that on Thursday vs Syracuse, Syracuse played a zone D against them and ND struggled to score the entire 4Q.

No idea why we didn't switch to that.
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Especially with four (4) freshmen like players on the floor tonight. Where was the detailed scouting??? This is X and O's. A speedy rim running guard shows up our man to man and weak interior defense. Ice has trouble sliding over or doesn't read what is happening. ND's guard always went to her right. Our coaches were watching a different game.
 
I went to sleep and only saw the score line when I woke up. Not what I was expecting! With everything that goes on in my region I have to say I'm probably less bothered about the L than most, but I really feel bad for them faltering like this at home.

Couple of thoughts:

1. As Geno always says, 'This isn't March', and if there was ever a good time for a spanking and a way to see where you're going about things all wrong, this is probably a good time as any.
2. In hindsight, maybe the excitment of the day with all the alumni and whatnot had a negative in fluence on the game? that being said, it'll teach the players (especially the freshmen) how to handle big game day nerves.
 
Skeets said:
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.
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I don't agree about the zone thoughts. Let the other team make some adjustments from what was an easy down-hill lay-up after lay-up. We don't have to play zone the entire game, just stretches. With four freshmen on the court, for much of this game, the switching man to man was a challenge. We were not up to doing this well and it led to many reach in fouls.

ND played zone for some of the game. We had few answers but for a good stretch in the third quarter getting the ball to Paige inside the foul line. This led to good scoring chances, many by Edwards off of feeds. Then we stop doing this with Edwards not getting the ball in her sweet spot in the fourth. Why????
 
Skeets said:
Geno switched to zone. Some of the worst defense was when UConn was in zone. The kids had no clue who to guard and they were leaving players open constantly.
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Genuinely asking, do players not know how to play multiple types of defense?
 
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AzzisBraids said:
I will respectfully disagree and agree here. Azzi was not consistent enough, I agree. But that doesn't matter. She can get hot or cold, but no team is going to take that chance. She's a superstar-level talent and her presence alone would be enough.

1-2 consistent 3 point shooters doesn't do much in this game. Muhl and Shade have been consistent this year and were there. The difference is when Paige touched the ball everyone payed attention, they wanted to reduce her to a playmaker and they did. They needed another superstar guard to attract attention and, though injured, on the current roster Fudd fits the bill. We can't resurrect LLS, KLS or KML.
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sun said:
She seemed to be transmitting instructions in a professional way by using hand signals & finger signs.
When the cameras focused on Geno, he seems to be either yelling or getting emotional.
I understand that coaches have different motivational styles & techniques, but it not very good optics for the natuonal audience & potential recruits to see Geno yelling & demonstrating to the players by faliing his arms around.
His delivery of instructions looks a little more haphazard.
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His styled seemed to work for the first 38 years seems you like to take the opposing side looking for a debate
 
maple said:
Genuinely asking, do players not know how to play multiple types of defense?
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I don't know what they know and what they don't. I do know that UConn plays man-to-man at least 90% of the time. I imagine that is how it goes in practice too. UConn's defensive is notably better when they are in man-to-man. Geno goes zone, like last night, usually in response to foul troubles. When in zone switching looks slower, players are left open, mental mistakes all around. The solution? Either stay in man-to-man or practice the hell out of zone defense. Practice until you can't get it wrong.
 
maple said:
Genuinely asking, do players not know how to play multiple types of defense?
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They do, albeit some teams don't play a lot of zone. And what they play is on the coach. I was shocked at the lack of adjustment to the ND pick and roll with a player who was only driving right! Looks like they decided to switch, which is fine, but that left Hidalgo on a big or slower player. They also could have hedged, and forced her back into KK or at least made her drive left. I wouldn't be surprised if Geno didn't put this on the coaches and poor preparation. The players were hustling.
 
freshler40 said:
I don't agree about the zone thoughts. Let the other team make some adjustments from what was an easy down-hill lay-up after lay-up. We don't have to play zone the entire game, just stretches. With four freshmen on the court, for much of this game, the switching man to man was a challenge. We were not up to doing this well and it led to many reach in fouls.

ND played zone for some of the game. We had few answers but for a good stretch in the third quarter getting the ball to Paige inside the foul line. This led to good scoring chances, many by Edwards off of feeds. Then we stop doing this with Edwards not getting the ball in her sweet spot in the fourth. Why????
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When you find out...let me know.
 
We were out-shot, out-rebounded, out-defended, out-hustled, and out-coached. The alumni in the building had to be disappointed and possibly shocked. Usually, we need 3 players to play well to get a win, especially against a good team, but last night we had only Liya. We need a much better effort at Villanova or we could have another 2-game losing streak.

Speaking of the alumni, the 4 championship teams in attendance lost a combined 9 games. The margins were 4, 1, 15 (at ND), 3, 3, 1 (ND), 6, 9 (ND in 3 OT), and 2 (ND). Four of the losses were to ND, and the only loss in regulation by more than 6 points was at ND. This year's team has already lost by 11, 11, 12, and 15.
 
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BBallF said:
That's exactly right. I don't understand it given all her hard work and who she is.
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She's a heck of a defender when she's in the game. She's fiery and emotional and sometimes I think that gets the best of her. I also think she has a lot on her plate. She has had to make a lot of adjustments to her role, become more aggressive on offense, play part-time PG. It's a lot.
 
MilfordHusky said:
Speaking of the alumni, the 4 championship teams in attendance lost a combined 9 games. The margins were 4, 1, 15 (at ND), 3, 3, 1 (ND), 6, 9 (ND in 3 OT), and 2 (ND). Four of the losses were to ND, and the only loss in regulation by more than 6 points was at ND. This year's team has already lost by 11, 11, 12, and 15.
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Those were the days. :(
 
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luminosity said:
You could tell the entire game that ND was going to win this game. They just had a certain edge that UCONN simply couldn't match. However, there are three reasons why UCONN lost.

1. Nika Muhl. The worst game of Nika's collegiate career. 0 points. Fouled out early in the 4th quarter. An embarrassing display of no game sense and being overly aggressive and she was ineffective in stopping Hildago even when she was in the game.

2. Paige Bueckers. Arguably the worst game of her collegiate career but was also triple teamed all night. She simply didn't show up and got outclassed by two different opponents (Hildago and Westbeld)

3. Geno. I know Geno is a coaching god and a legend but he simply refused to adjust to the Hildago pick and roll all night and the team continuously got burned by it. UCONN is very very prone to a quick guard torching them and it's happened time and time again over the past couple years and happened yet again.

The last big game of the year is South Carolina and they are gonna get torched by 30 if they play like they did tonight.
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I think that too much was made of this game with the teams being honored, the white out, the "Boom" etc. ND was coming off a bad loss and had nothing to lose and played like it. Loose as a goose as my high school coach used to say. We were tight from the start. Also, KK's defense disappears as soon as there is a pick and Ice does not know how to defend a drive. It's a very flawed team but there is really no one to blame because we are flawed for a reason. Instead of a team starting Paige, Azzi, CD, Jana( or Aubrey), and Liyah with Aubrey or Jana and Nika coming off the bench, or some combination of the above, and maybe Ash and KK and Ayanna, you have 4 freshmen having to carry the load. They can't do it. They, with the exception of Ash to a certain extent, are still trying to do things that they should have stopped doing a while ago. You root for this team because you love them, but they really disappointed last night.
 
Javafan said:
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 ?)
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Our answer was Ice. At this stage of her development, she is a step slow and has trouble reading what is happening. Why we tried to get her the ball in the 4th qtr is beyond me other than she was open. Edwards was the answer but our players/coaches didn't see that........... Yes, Ines could have given us some good Nika minutes. Perhaps our game preparation was suspect?????
 
hayman522 said:
Yes that was a mystery to me. They just kept letting her drive never made any adjustments.
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She went off a pick each time and nobody switched and stopped it and when she went in, Ice did nothing to stop her. See the pick coming, get through it or call the switch ahead of time.
 
luminosity said:
3. Geno. I know Geno is a coaching god and a legend but he simply refused to adjust to the Hildago pick and roll all night and the team continuously got burned by it. UCONN is very very prone to a quick guard torching them and it's happened time and time again over the past couple years and happened yet again.
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To me, this was the key to the game. Hidalgo went right every time and they never took that away. The defense on her was some of the worst I've seen UConn play.
 
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