UConn-South Carolina postgame thread

[Padutch5]

Only one official missed the handoff - the official administering the inbound pass. The other two have other areas of responsibility to watch. If all three are watching the inbound pass, no one is paying attention to what is happening on the baseline, in the paint or at the 3pt line.

That being said, the inbounding official clearly missed it, and I guarantee he'll regret it when viewing the film. He and I worked high school games together back in the day. I had, and still have, great respect for his body of work. He's a class act, a stand-up guy, and will be haunted by it.

Based on todays game his time has clearly come and gone.

 

[Longtime fan]

I still don’t understand how this wasn’t reviewable.

Not only was that inbound an illegal hand off, but the SC player had signaled for a time out. And the refs missed it all and reviewed nothing. The refs were awful. As is almost always true in WBB.

 

[jabstep]

Cardosa was so far off anyone when playing defense. we needed 3 pointers at the end. I wish we could tell Amari I know you can shoot the 3pointer go in and take and make that shot. Use her to foul as well. We used her in the championship game last year why not today. I agree what the refs are allowing to do to Lou is shocking. It was a really good effort by All players. They should be proud of themselves.

 

[Soxx]

Cardoso sorry if spelled wrong, killed us

And 6’ 7”—not surprising.

 

[BRS24]

I still don’t understand how this wasn’t reviewable.

I orignally thought the ref was doing the count and not looking at the inbounder but then realized that's his only job. I mean, he was right there, FGS.

 

[HuskyNan]

So many times SC players drove in towards the basket and ran directly into UConn players with no attempt at making any sort of play, sometimes just plain out of control. I don’t remember a single offensive foul being called on SC for doing this either.

There was a call. The same play was an offensive foul on Aubrey on the other end

 

[Wonder 12]

Dawn also needs to be sure she takes those refs with her as well.

Sadly they all treat this team preferentially

 

[Zarathustra]

I continue to be amazed by Aubrey Griffin's abilities....Lou and Aaliyah were great. SC put Boston on Dorka to keep her from being a scoring threat, which worked. Nika did everything she could to keep us in the game...a really hard fought one. Ayanna is showing great maturity for a freshman. All in all, without Geno's Technical, this game could have gone either way.

Yanna value in this game doesn't show up in the scorecard! Nice game, Yanna!
Great Game for the starting "5"!

 

[RockyMTblue2]

We had little margin for error in this one. In this crazy 2 year pummeling of the Huskies I'm taking today's game as a win.

 

[Padutch5]

Game ended as I expected yesterday, but you gotta notice that again the difference is foul shots, just like last year's NCAA tournament, SC get more foul shots then anyone they play, and against the better teams, its the difference in the score!

I’d hate to see it as a tactic to follow, but she works the refs at every stoppage in play. I dont know why they put up with it but it obviously impacts their judgement.

 

[Zarathustra]

Both times when she thought about driving in the lane, it was a bit of paralysis from analysis, as she started, thought about it, then stopped and attempted a pass out. She'll get better.

I like YANNA! Her future is BRIGHT!

 

[hookshot]

Between a few good plays Aubrey is a negative relies on being athletic but still gets lost on team ball.

Would have been nowhere without Aubrey in this game When the offense was stalled, she was the only weapon we had. played tremendous defense

 

[Kaizen]

South Carolina player's foot is out of the line?

 

[Zarathustra]

And 6’ 7”—not surprising.

and a 6' 8" wing span. She NEVER jumps for rebound and NEVER lowers her arms with
the ball ( does not get 'tied up").

 

[BBallF]

I respect Dawn and Mulkey for their achievements but I will never respect their style of play for their teams. Yes they have had some success and while that is great for them, why do coaches not feel more inclined to play “beautiful” basketball? To each their own but I will never understand it.

How can you respect anything about a coach whose game plan is to knowingly violate the rules of the sport by having her players hold our guards? It was so obvious.

 

[freshler40]

Agree. I thought she looked very composed. Best game I’ve seen her play.

Agreed but our coaches need to loosen her leash on offensive. Nika was trying to feed her the ball but she didn't look for her shot. Why? We turned the ball over several times because of this.

 

[Longtime fan]

Uconn should be extremely happy about their chances of competing with anyone come tourney time. With potential reinforcements Uconn may just be the best team in the country. The coaches and players alike learned a lot today.

That is a logical conclusion, but I would not count on it. Azzi might help , but she will be double teamed. Caroline wont help much because driving to the basket is nullified. But it will help not having Patterson on the court. She is like the soccer player who always passes the ball backwards. In other words, her idea of offense is to give it to someone else and, if they are covered, just turn it over. But do not, under any circumstance, shoot the ball. Did she ever score in HS? How can the coaches let her be so ineffective on offense?

 

[BRS24]

One thought on Geno's technical - sometimes, when coaches do this, it has a demoralizing effect on the team. I didn't see anyone with a negative reaction. They just focused on next play, and during TOs, there was some great energy and understanding of what to do on next play. They were as locked in as possible.

 

[Lynx23]

Lou had 19 points

In spite of being manhandled the entire game.

 

[freshler40]

and a 6' 8" wing span. She NEVER jumps for rebound and NEVER lowers her arms with
the ball ( does not get 'tied up").

Our bigs should watch carefully how well Cardosa holds the ball up very high with a quick wrist release. She was every effective inside.

 

[freshler40]

It is easier to get kids to play bang bang basketball, harder to get them to work hard for artistic effect.

The game has left the station for hard play. This isn't figure skating at any level.

 

[boontonbomber]

It wouldn't have mattered. Just like Geno's pointless " walk about" ( for a technical foul) didn't matter. We could only score by miraculous effort. SC controlled the boards, shut down the middle, shut down the fast break ( they are faster than we are), covered Lou really well, and played such tight defense that Nika had zero assists in the first half.

Despite these physical and mental errors ...(see Geno technical )...the team competed endlessly. They did very well with the limited ammunition in the UCONN gun. Speaking of which, I am shocked by how unhelpful Patterson is on offense. She did get an awful foul called on her, when she beautifully blocked a shot and never touched the SC player...But for a top recruit, she plays like a person programmed never to look to the basket. Never to shoot or attempt to shoot. He unwillingness to play basketball on the offensive end of the floor is killing us. And I notice that the Uconn players seem to (purposefully) avoid passing her the ball, even when she is wide open. They know it won't result in a shot, will eat more clock, and may result in a turnover. I think. In any case, who would have imagined a top recruit would be a statue on offense? Someone please explain. And don't tell me "she is a freshman." After this many games and practices, she has to be more than that.

Wouldn't have mattered? Not a very deep comment. Last I looked UConn lost by 4 points. An awful time for a technical, and you don't let your best player get her 3rd foul.

 

[Kaizen]

You must forget or ignore Aubrey has 17 pts, 4 rebs today ....

 

[Littlemin]

I have criticized Auriemma and praised Edwards offensive game and criticized her lack of rebounding but here’s my overall take, fwiw.
This group overall again showed the heart of champions, all of them. They went toe to toe for 40 minutes with the #1 team in the country and had Auriemma not lost his cool they might have pulled this out. Even down 10 after the T foul shots and the SC 2 after the change of possession, there was not an ounce of quit in them.
I know some want to criticize the refs but I won’t, WCBB is reffed as a rugby match and all the moaning in the world is not going to change that; if Uconn doesn’t want another repeat in the NCAAs, they better decide to put a body on rebounders when the shot goes up and THEN go for the ball. Old school basketball! Box out, box out, box out!!!!
Uconn proved they can score on SC, 77 points is very impressive, unfortunately, not enough this day. Muhl, Edwards, Griffin and Senechal all had success breaking their defenders down and finishing strong, I thought maybe in the 2nd and 3rd qtrs they got away from that a bit and ran the conventional motion offense and they bogged down a bit. Edwards and Senechal missing foul shots after Cardosa’s T hurt as obviously did the inexplicable botch of the call on the out of bounds handoff. But again, this team leaves everything on the court, all game long, like few teams I have ever followed and that is all a fan can ask for; on to Marquette.