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UConn - SC post game

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South Carolina's team makeup is the future of basketball...quick athletic players at all positions. The exact team composition that gives the current version of UConn problems. It's what LSU won with last season.

I hope Geno is recruiting quick, athletic players. If not, UConn's 'Final 4' days are over. May already be.
 
EricLA said:
Well... that was not what any UConn fan wanted, but what many of us feared. Congrats to SC for not only overwhelming us, but in beating us in every facet of the game. It's even more disappointing when one realizes that our result was no better than middle of the pack SEC teams vs. SC lately (Vandy lost by 17, Auburn by 22). What a get Paopao was for them from the portal.

The warning signs were there. A fair amount of lively debate recently by UConn fans over "who cares how you win - even if it's not pretty". Well, all the issues we saw, even in recent wins, were magnified and exposed in this game.

SC got contributions from almost everyone. Hall had an off shooting game, but SC had 4 starters in double figures, and got 19 points from the bench (UConn got 3 points from our bench - late 3 by Q).

Paige and Ash shooting 4-17 from 3 is not a recipe for anything good. The TO's and fouls from UConn actually weren't bad. We did show signs of life in the 4th quarter, but really had the end result of making the corpse more pretty. I think all our injuries really showcased just how little depth we have. When you start 2 freshmen and your only bench players are also freshmen, it's going to be inconsistent at best.

I think the team did do the best we could. Can't fault anyone for lack of effort or anything like that. SC is just the better team and while we are solid, all our flaws were exposed. I'm disappointed, but not down on the team. Look at what they have had to try to overcome this year!
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Have to agree. And if this was a "measuring stick" of UCONN's maturity and development as a team, it showed we are likely to make it through the first round of the Big dance. Beyond that, it depends on which team we draw, and if our players can perform at a higher level than they did today. No one on UCONN could make a shot. The stats for Paige and Shade combined ( on outside shots ) reminded one more of Xavier than UCONN. I actually thought KK Arnold was our best player today, and she provides no offense at all.

And let's be honest, UCONN bench depth does not exist at this point in time. ICE scored nil and Q hit a three when no one was paying attention. But both players were overwhelmed by the SC talent they faced.

Nikka Muhl is one of my favorite players, but she was giving the ball away like candy at Halloween today. And Edwards played as though Cardoso was in the game. We saw little of Edwards' explosiveness or fearlessness ( I do believe she was injured on an early fall to the court). And her outside shot looked like she was trying it out for the first time. UCONN is doomed if they cannot hit from the outside. And PaoPaou hit threes like MKL used to do for UCONN. It is demoralizing. That's why we were so great back then. And why SC is so great now.

I hate to do so, but we have to credit SC for much of the poor performance of UCONN. SC runs better, they shoot better, they defend better. And they are deep in talent, whereas ( realistically ) we have three really good players ( one of which is not a scorer). Even their freshman ( who comes off the bench ) played with star quality. Clearly, SC will be 2024 undefeated, national champions.

We can focus on the Big East.
 
PJCLaw said:
Two common things I have witnessed in our 5 losses, quick guards who can score give us problems, and when we get behind we resort to one-on-one basketball. We stopped sharing the ball and then it was a free for all. I have no doubt an experienced KK next year will be better suited to guard quick guards than Nika, but we really needed Aubrey's defense, Azzi's shooting and Jana in the paint to allow AE to come out more on the perimeter. Simply put, we are a team that can beat 98% of the teams in the country, but clearly are not capable of winning against the elite teams, not this season. I am okay with that and have resigned to just enjoying the remainder of the season and the BE tournament.
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It is hard for me to enjoy the BE tournament, because, really, the competition is pretty lame. I admit, due to the injuries, UCONN is descending a bit closer to the BE " pack." I think the real threat is that we don't get out of the round of 32 at the Big Dance. It is hard to win with all the offense designed to go through two players, and where the starting five has to go 40 minutes in any close game. Remember, earlier in the season, everyone was praising the offensive balance of this team ( five players in double figures ) now we have two players scoring 20, one scoring 13 and everyone else ranging from 0-6. KK, who played our best all around game, scored 2? ICE scored 0?
 
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jdote33 said:
I hate to be that guy, I'm a fan of everyone on the team but I do think this one is on Paige. They just don't have a great shot at winning these type of games if she doesn't play well. She missed a lot of clean looks. USC doesn't beat Stanford if Juju doesn't go crazy. Notre Dame doesn't win if Hidalgo doesn't go crazy. It's hard to win against a top 5 team if ur best player doesn't play well. I don't think it's for lack of effort but she struggled today.
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I couldn’t agree more, your best players need to play their best in the biggest game, if the team is to win. I hate to say it and a lot of people will disagree, but i would not vote for Paige as an All American. I’m each of our losses, she was not the best player on the court, not even sure she was the best guard on that respective day:

NC State game, rivers was better
UCLA - KK Rice had more impact
Texas - Harmon was amazing
ND - Hidalgo, no question
SC - PaoPao

While Paige will probably get the AA hardware, it will be on reputation more than results.

Agree, it’s not for lack of effort, but she looks like them team has looked for a number of years now, mentally tired as much if not more than physically tired.
 
VaConnFan11 said:
South Carolina's team makeup is the future of basketball...quick athletic players at all positions. The exact team composition that gives the current version of UConn problems. It's what LSU won with last season.

I hope Geno is recruiting quick, athletic players. If not, UConn's 'Final 4' days are over. May already be.
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Bingo, we have a winner
 
Darwin said:
Both teams suited up 9 players today.
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Seriously? UConn has 7 players, two of which are freshmen not ready to play in that atmosphere against that team. It's a 5-player team.
 
Unlike many here I was surprised we got beat so bad with Cardoso out. Guess I don’t know much.

I believe UConn still has a chance for the Final Four, but we’ll need 2 players to go off and have their best game of the season in the Regionals. Geno also needs to have a talk with 40 year old Geno to develop some game plans.

Go Huskies!
 
LCConnFan said:
My team has no dead horse. But some networks sure like to use them! The big difference would have been if we had them all year!
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But you don't and they literally put a graphic up talking about it however you complain about them talking about a player who is going to actually play in future games this year being missing. UConn injuries have been know for months now. Move on it is what it is, this is the team you have and will have barring no future injuries.
 
HuskyNan said:
I just love the men’s board posters that can’t be bothered to visit when the Huskies win come over to share their thoughts on how awful the team is. Gee, thanks guys
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Is that why I didn't recognize a lot of the posters? I've never been to the men's board because I like the women's game, it's below the rim.
 
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maple said:
Was expecting a loss but was also hoping it would be a closer game. :(

IMO, the game was lost in Q1 when UConn had many chances to score but simply struggled to put up points. Let SCar establish and dominate too early.

It sucks that for the last 3 seasons we have had to play “short handed” against South Carolina. How different things might have been for every game if we hadn’t been beset by multiple injuries. Not saying UConn would have won them all (or any of them), but it would have been a more even playing field.

We are average this year, unfortunately. Not unlike last year. Just gotta close out the BE, win the BE tourney, and hope for the best going into the Big Dance.
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maple- - - I agree with you 100%!
UConn had approximately 70 points sitting on the bench!
It's a shame this wasn't played by 2 schools with complete lineups, who knows how it would have turned out!
But IMHO UConn would have won!
So sad!
 
darrell said:
A lot of fans are upset at this, but I’ve come to accept the fact that if you practice hard, you’ll get playing time.

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And that my friends is the message from Geno that was like the shot heard off the battleship pertaining to those who are not among those 7 players (Sayonara ADB)
 
If Shade (or Paige) had just hit some more of their open shots, then this would be a much different discussion. It would have been a lot closer. It just seems as if Shade has hit a bit of the Freshman Wall - she's just in a bit of a shooting slump. If she had made just 3 more of those 3s, we're talking a single digit loss. So maybe it wasn't quite as bad as some folks think.
 
Fairfield Fan said:
And next year, while losing just two key players, they bring in three of the top 26 in the nation. And that's not considering that they might just attract some of the best players to come over as transfers.
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We'll need a longer bench for all those
 
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boscolino said:
At this point, very likely......
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And won't Dawn have to come up with game plans to keep all of these players happy/involved when it comes to playing time. She may get all these good/great players but keeping them happy, well....
And now thinking about this, what has this have to do with a post game thread?????? Boy, did I fall for it.
 
Millenial23 said:
If Shade (or Paige) had just hit some more of their open shots, then this would be a much different discussion. It would have been a lot closer. It just seems as if Shade has hit a bit of the Freshman Wall - she's just in a bit of a shooting slump. If she had made just 3 more of those 3s, we're talking a single digit loss. So maybe it wasn't quite as bad as some folks think.
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The final score flattered the Huskies. It was 25 after three Q's.

Making more shots would've helped for sure, but still.....
 
A lot of talk about Paige...not her best game...wearing down...missed too many shots...

Perhaps all true;

Is it possible that she is still not all the way back and still has a lot of growth to go in her game? I would not be surprised.

Nika was not very effective today...Too bad, we needed an exemplary one from her.

I'm in the camp of desiring playing time for Ines...Q may be more gifted but is not ready for prime time; Ines started last season and gave some decent minutes.
 
Rb335 said:
This is the reality of our injured season. The post Griffin era especially has highlighted the drop of between player 5 and 6 on the roster. It’s no margin for error.

Paige looked aggressive and battled. But was draped defensively and looks to be getting tired. Not rocket science that her efficiency is going down as the season progresses.

Aaliyah has been one of my favorite huskies. Reliable, steady. Wish she had played the full 40 as effectively as in the second half. But she was battling the boards especially in Q1.

Liked the confidence of Shade, but can’t help but feel like her many Q1 misses shot us into the initial hole. Would Azzi have been more efficient? Nobody knows but I liked the confidence.

Kk looks athletically like she belongs in these games. Just needs to refine her offensive game to score from all 3 levels. I hope next year she learns when to drive vs when not to drive.

Nika, oh boy. I’ve bitten my tongue on this for years. She’s just not athletically gifted enough. She’s the ultimate teammate, competitor, and energizer. Just doesn’t have the skills. She’s a defensive stopper yet in big games her mark goes off. She racks up assists in the big east but can’t create in big games. Doesn’t provide offense, is turnover prone, and foul prone. The irony, she’s still so much better than anybody on the bench. We need her, but in big games she consistently disappoints. Can she figure it out?

We just don’t have enough this year. I’ll still be watching every game, and rooting as hard as always. I can only pray that next season, we finally get healthy. It’s hard to stomach these losses when it feels like the injuries lost the games before we even had a chance to play the games. I’d like to see Paige and Aaliyah return. It’s doubtful, but I want a dominant season for them. They’re too good of players to not experience that.

Back to the big east we go. We’ll see if the team can figure things out before the tournament.
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Yeah, its easy, you need people open to get assists, there were not
 
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JellyBean said:
Wow. During this part of the season, that is not something you don't want to hear or see. Yikes.
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A lot of these players grew during the earlier part of the season when they were expected to be on the bench.
 
Centerstream said:
And won't Dawn have to come up with game plans to keep all of these players happy/involved when it comes to playing time. She may get all these good/great players but keeping them happy, well....
And now thinking about this, what has this have to do with a post game thread?????? Boy, did I fall for it.
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They looked pretty happy today
 
HuskyNan said:
I just love the men’s board posters that can’t be bothered to visit when the Huskies win come over to share their thoughts on how awful the team is. Gee, thanks guys
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Well said Nan. I have no idea which posters you are referring to because I don't visit the Men's board but I do notice many, many unfamiliar names in the post game thread and in the Chat Room during/after these types of games and the vast majority of them are not supportive of our players (or HOF Coach).
 
msf22b said:
A lot of talk about Paige...not her best game...wearing down...missed too many shots...

Perhaps all true;

Is it possible that she is still not all the way back and still has a lot of growth to go in her game? I would not be surprised.

Nika was not very effective today...Too bad, we needed an exemplary one from her.

I'm in the camp of desiring playing time for Ines...Q may be more gifted but is not ready for prime time; Ines started last season and gave some decent minutes.
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Today Geno needed scoring, and as good as Ines can be, she isn't a scorer, especially against athletic guards.
 
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