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UConn - Notre Dame post game

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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.
 
CONNCAN said:
FOX and Gus Johnson HAS TO broadcast and call the game to a "National Audience" vs. SNY who broadcasts the games to a UCONN Audience
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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.
 
Redux said:
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.
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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.
 
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!:rolleyes: Time to move on!
 
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Perhaps we can resemble the 1996-97 Tennessee team that lost 10 games and was seeded 3rd in the NCAA tournament; they beat Old Dominion and Ticha Penicheiro in the championship game. Paige will have to channel Chamique Holdsclaw and Nika will need to do the same with Kellie Jolly. That Tennessee team did defeat an undefeated UCONN team in the final four and Kellie Jolly set an assist record in the championship game.
 
ucbart said:
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.
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As much as I love Nika you are spot on here. She looked like freshman Nika out there.

Nika simply cannot play like that anymore, the team needs her too much. She let them down.
 
victor64 said:
Tip your hat to ND. They were well prepared and played great.

Citron caused Paige to have one of her worst shooting nights probably ever.

First time I have felt the team really missed Aubrey.

I wish Geno would use those Big East scrimmages to let Q and Ines to log some serious minutes. The team was gassed in the fourth quarter.
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Q is not ready to play in these situations !!
 
SLY63 said:
Barring a miracle in Columbia, we are looking at a 3 or 4 seed (hopefully not a 4), and an uphill battle in the sweet 16. If we get a 4 seed, and face a 1 seed, I can't see getting out of the sweet 16.
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Two 1 seeds didn’t make it out of the second round last season. Could end up facing an 8 or 9 seed if we make it to the sweet sixteen.
 
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Huskee11 said:
Hidalgo was going to go right no matter what and we still couldn`t stop her.
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THIS.

Shocking bit of coaching malpractice, either in pregame scouting, or lack of in-game adjustments. Regardless of defender's physical attributes, failure to overplay her right, force her back left, anticipate the drive spot in the lane to get there first, draw the offensive foul. Time and again, with the ball between the circles, angle or not Hidalgo forecast the exact same move. And most every time there was no overplay or weak-side rotation to cover. Frustrating. Think that was where the loss of Aubrey Griffin was most impactful, as she's terrific at anticipating ball movement as a weak-side rotator.

Thought another key moment, right before half, was the refs missed call, as Edwards was basically shoved out of bounds chasing a loose ball, without reaction from the coach to the referees. Lost chance not only to work the refs, jazz the crowd, but to protect his player. Disappointing.
 
“When Nika wasn't in the game, it hurt us on both ends,” Auriemma said. “… On the defensive end, the communication breakdowns, they happen mostly when you're younger. The game is moving real fast, and things are happening real quick. … How do you learn? How do you become an experienced player? You just have to play more games.”

www.ctinsider.com

Why UConn women's basketball loss to Notre Dame could be learning opportunity: 'They'll figure it out'

The UConn women's basketball team came up short in its latest test, but the Huskies have time to learn from the loss to Notre Dame.
www.ctinsider.com www.ctinsider.com
 
Other teams often have a player go off on us, why doesn’t our best player (almost never) take over when it is needed? Generational talents can do that - no?
 
I thought this would be a dogfight not a blowout by either team. It was for 3 quarters. On any given night, there isn't a lot of difference from 2-20 in my mind. And even SC, were it not for depth wouldn't have the separation that they do. The margin for error on any given night is slim. On the other hand, on any given night they can beat anyone. I hear angst about Q and defense, when in reality they all miss assignments every now and again. But I would play her more in an up-tempo game and Ice when the pace requires a slower offense. And with this team...playing up-tempo is better in my opinion. It didn't bother me that they lost, but that they were so out of sync with one another.
 
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maple said:
Agreed with everything, but especially RE: the Hidalgo pick and roll. It was amazing to me that they could not stop her at all. Got the ball into the paint again and again, sometimes completely untouched. Did we watch any tape and game plan at all for this?
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Brady is showing real improvement the last few games. Another step in her development would be the ability to quickly close in front of a charging guard like Hidalgo and take a charge or two.

(Well, perhaps not a guard as quick at Hidalgo but your average guard perhaps.)
 
Soxx said:
Nika “took the game off”? A step too far with those words.
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19 minutes

Please

I loved her play when she's on the court. If you think we can win with her on the bench, so be it. We're just going to have to agree to disagree
 
cabbie191 said:
Brady is showing real improvement the last few games. Another step in her development would be the ability to quickly close in front of a charging guard like Hidalgo and take a charge or two.

(Well, perhaps not a guard as quick at Hidalgo but your average guard perhaps.)
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She's not quick enough for that. But, I was wondering why she was behind the screener versus on the side and hedge. ND intentionally used who Ice was guarding as the screener because eventually that forced her to take Hidalgo. That was smart offensive planning. To be clear...I'm not blaming Ice.
 
We're missing five of our first seven players. Jafy would have started, as would Azzi. Aubrey was always first off the bench. Caroline had been starting. Shade and Arnold are doing yeoman's work. But they would have been subbing in for others, had the injuries not occurred. Coach Geno is doing some of the absolute finest coaching of his entire career. But even he can't cover up all of the holes in the roster.
 
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CTBballfan243 said:
The ND game was way above the level of play that Ines is capable of. She just isn’t that level of player.
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NO, NO, NO. Let's NOT fall into the PRECONCEIVE understanding or, should I say, the CULTURE of Geno's practice-time philosophy/STRICT RULE or DECIPLINE in deciding the game-time PT ! ! We may get the impression of Ines was not CAPABLE of handling an assignment of guarding a player such as Hidalgo, but , WHO knows? Its a matter of MATCHUP . Hidalgo is 5"6, Nika is 5"11, Ines is 5"9. My point is: Smaller guy Ines maybe Matchup better than bigger Nika against much smaller Hidaldo? If you don't try, how would you know? You recruited Ines from faraway Portugal, you must have seen some useful quality in her for the good of the team. She is a sophomore, and she performed some decent games last season, why not insert some ENERGY of her into our depleted and exhausted player pool ?

The key word here is : just TRY ! . Don't be too stubborn and insistent ? ! ? !
 
Javafan said:
We may get the impression of Ines was not CAPABLE of handling an assignment of guarding a player such as Hidalgo, but , WHO knows? Its a matter of MATCHUP . Hidalgo is 5"6, Nika is 5"11, Ines is 5"9. My point is: Smaller guy Ines maybe Matchup better than bigger Nika against much smaller Hidaldo? If you don't try, how would you know?
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Ines with Hidalgo in her shorts would've resulted in a turnover probably every possession.
 
Plebe said:
I'm guessing you meant Westbeld, not Watson.

You've made some good points, but I'm not moved by the injury situation since Notre Dame was also missing an injured all American and they also played with only 7 players, 3 of whom played all 40 minutes. Yet they didn't have anyone foul out, and they didn't have their best player play one of the worst games of her career.
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It's fine.. as a freshman, you feel less fear and pressure than when you're expected to be the great. Notre Dame has absolutely no expectation from the Hidalgo girl. At not for this year... Hidalgo is the entire offense and next year her average will drop significantly because she is not in a Clark type of situation.

I believe Geno and his staff has to seriously start considering looking outside the top 25 for forwards and centers. I absolutely love aalyah, but it gets me mad that she can take over any game she wants, and yet she just doesn't seem to. Aalyah should be averaging 15 free throws per game but that hunger hasn't come out yet. Like I said, minus Aubrey Griffith, we needed to guard everyone else except for Hidalgo and make the freshman win the game.
 
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