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UConn Tenn thoughts

CONNCAN said:
Either UCONN will end up beating Tennessee by 20+ Points on Sunday "OR" beware of a recently wounded angry bear.
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Yes -- one or the other. If you watch the Tennessee coach's postgame presser, she's pissed, and she's going to take it out on her players. Either they roll over, or they play their best game of the year on Sunday.
 
CONNCAN said:
Either UCONN will end up beating Tennessee by 20+ Points on Sunday "OR" beware of a recently wounded angry bear.
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Every game is an opportunity for opposing teams to take UConn down, and I'm sure Tennessee will be highly motivated...... I'm somewhat more concerned about Blanca's probable absence from the Tennessee game as she is UConn's most athletic big defender and an important interior offensive presence ......UConn is not nearly as strong a team without her......
 
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#1Genofan said:
Yes -- one or the other. If you watch the Tennessee coach's postgame presser, she's pissed, and she's going to take it out on her players. Either they roll over, or they play their best game of the year on Sunday.
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I was stunned by TN’s performance yesterday against MS St. While MS St deserves credit for taking it to the LV’s, TN appeared to be just going through the motions, lacking energy and motivation.

Obviously, if the LV’s play like that in Hartford on Sunday, the Huskies will lay one serious beat down on them. The 1st qtr is key. TN needs to get into the game early. If UConn puts on one of their 1st qtr clinics on how to play basketball it will be over early.
 
RockyMTblue2 said:
Seems like Tenn fans have had it with their coach's mass substitutions. I would think it would deincentivize their best players.
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The mass substitutions are one thing, but I'd put it on coaching more generally. Among the descriptions that have appeared in this thread: just going through the motions; hard time mentally battling through; mentally seemed to give up; bad body language. . . Either Kim Caldwell brought in the wrong players in or she's doing a lousy job getting them mentally prepared for games.

More than that, "Had trouble with Louisville's press"? This is a team that does mass substitutions, as quoted. They can obviously have full-team five-on-five in practice. That is, if they can practice their full-court press, they can also practice breaking the full-court press (all tautologies are tautologies). Is Kim just a one-trick pony? Does one and only one style of press for them to practice breaking? I can hear it, "Man press is one thing, 2-2-1 is a completely different beast, you can't expect us to deal with that."

As has been pointed out, this is a long, athletic team. With good coaching, they should be better than they are.
 
UConn cannot take Tenn. for granted the way Tenn. took MS State for granted. UConn has to prep for a team much better than Tenn. was against MS State, especially given what Tenn.'s coach had to say about her team after that loss. If Tenn. repeats that performance, so much the worse for them, but UConn has to prep for stiff competition. I firmly believe that Geno and staff will make that crystal clear to the Huskies. For myself, I hope the better version of Tenn. shows up, the better to show what UConn has and to repay last year's loss.
 
Tonyc said:
So tonite Miss St @ Tenn on SEC + if you want to get a look. UConn is favored by 24+. I dont think we have a problem. Tenn hasnt seen a defense like UConn and imo wont be prepared for it. No team can prepare for it. I am very confident UConn wins this game and wins it big barring any key foul trouble and injuries. I expect Serah and Blanca to be back as I believe Geno kept them out of the Xavier game for precautionary reasons. I dont see Tenn scoring 60 pts in this game and I dont see Tenn keeping UConn from scoring under 70pts in this game. If Tenn is sloppy, making TOs and UConn stealing the ball this game will be over in the first half. I expect everybody to step up in this game.

UConn needs to get healthy. This is a game on why the top players come to UConn. UConn will be focused and their execution on both sides of the ball will shine. UConn plays like the ultimate team.
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Sorry to jump your thread…but does anyone know of a bar/ restaurant that will be open before the game Sunday? I’ve had a couple of recommendations but one opens at 11:30 and the other doesn’t answer at all.
Thank you in advance!
 
huskiemaniac said:
Sorry to jump your thread…but does anyone know of a bar/ restaurant that will be open before the game Sunday? I’ve had a couple of recommendations but one opens at 11:30 and the other doesn’t answer at all.
Thank you in advance!
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Before noon on Sunday is a tough ask, particularly if you want to get a drink. Many years ago my dad dealt with that problem by joining the VFW. Of course, to get into the VFW you have to be a veteran or accompany one.
 
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oldude said:
Before noon on Sunday is a tough ask, particularly if you want to get a drink. Many years ago my dad dealt with that problem by joining the VFW. Of course, to get into the VFW you have to be a veteran or accompany one.
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I found a few at 11:00. That will have to do.
 
WBBZen said:
My one concern is the rebounding but that’s been a season long concern 😂
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Actually, a decades long concern, on and off. Connecticut has had a handful of rebounding powerhouses (led the country in 97, 99, 02; good during the Stewart/Tuck years). But despite the built-in advantage of a large field goal percentage margin, some years they're just decent enough for a team which shoots, passes, and defends better than anyone else.
 
fomalhaut said:
Actually, a decades long concern, on and off. Connecticut has had a handful of rebounding powerhouses (led the country in 97, 99, 02; good during the Stewart/Tuck years). But despite the built-in advantage of a large field goal percentage margin, some years they're just decent enough for a team which shoots, passes, and defends better than anyone else.
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The Huskies are outrebounding opponents this year.

Wow, Allie with a 48.2% field goal % from three. If she’d made 4 more threes, she’d be #2 in the country for 3pt FG% (requirement is 2 made threes per game)

IMG_4763.jpeg
 
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Regarding rebounding, out of 363 teams UConn currently is:
  • 169 in Total Rebounds Per Game (37.2)
  • 52 in Total Rebound Rate (54.2%)
  • 56 in Total Rebound Margin (5.8)
 
If you dig into the numbers UConn is a great rebounding team particularly on the defensive end. Against quality opponents (10 games) they are currently ranked 1st overall in Defensive Rebounding Rate (25.1%) and 30th overall in Offensive Rebounding Rate (31.3%).
 
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Stronga12 said:
Against quality opponents (10 games) they are currently ranked 1st overall in Defensive Rebounding Rate (25.1%) and 30th overall in Offensive Rebounding Rate (31.3%).
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Stronga12, could I ask what your source is for these data. Or a link to the ranking source.
 
Stronga12 said:
Analytics site Torvik defines quality games as Top50 opponents:

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Thank you. Very interesting and complex site. Others have cited it, and I'll have to become more familiar with it.

So, according to the Torvik parameters you selected, UConn is ranked 1 in DRB% and 31 in ORB% among the 85 teams who have played at least 5 games against Torvik's top 50 teams.

Playing with the selectable parameters for minimum games and number of teams, the ranks of course all constantly change.

For example, when I changed the minimum game parameter to teams who have played at least 10 games against top 50 teams, UConn's DRB% rank stayed at 1 and the ORB% rank jumped to 8. But only 12 teams, some not really good, met that parameter. When I change the minimum game parameter to 1, UConn's DRB% rank changes to 10 and its ORB% rank changes to 74, among 311 teams.

In any event, I'll accept that your parameter selection in Torvik-world shows UConn to be the top D-boarding team and a very good O-boarding team when looking solely at UConn's games played against top 50 teams. The meaningfulness of these data depend on the accuracy and reliability of Torvik's algorithms, about which I have no knowledge or opinion. (I do know Torvik's rankings have never won Pilight's fun bracket in the NCAAT since 2004.)

This makes me wonder why UConn is a better D-boarding team than an O-boarding team. It's obviously related to the fact that the top percentage shooting team in the country (UConn) will have the fewest available O-boards, and the top defensive team in the country (UConn) will have the most available D-boards.
 
Rebound Margin is a somewhat misleading stat: If Connecticut was an average rebounding team, they would still have a positive rebound margin just from their advantage in field goal percentage. In an average game, defense rebounds about 70% of missed shots, so a team with a high field goal percentage and a low percentage allowed will have more opportunities for defensive rebounds than their opponents. I don't even pay attention to rebounds per game; the only stats that matter are defensive and offensive percentages. I think that's what Torvik is showing. If I understand it correctly, the overall percentage in D1 is 29.9% for offensive rebounds, and Connecticut is rebounding 31.3% (pretty good) and only allowing their opponents 25.1% (best in the country). Hopefully he isn't including team rebounds, which rarelty show anything (except in the occasional instance of boxing out an opponent to allow a missed shot to go out of bounds).
 
Charliebball said:
Every game is an opportunity for opposing teams to take UConn down, and I'm sure Tennessee will be highly motivated...... I'm somewhat more concerned about Blanca's probable absence from the Tennessee game as she is UConn's most athletic big defender and an important interior offensive presence ......UConn is not nearly as strong a team without her......
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I'm not too worried about Blanca's availability although I did moderate my prognostication a little. As far as motivation is concerned, who was the poster that said UConn is every other team's super bowl? Tennessee is going to the super bowl. Crazy things can happen in the super bowl.
 
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#1Genofan said:
Yes -- one or the other. If you watch the Tennessee coach's postgame presser, she's pissed, and she's going to take it out on her players. Either they roll over, or they play their best game of the year on Sunday.
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I agree - the game on Sunday coming on the heels of this disastrous showing could be the make or break part of their season.

It's hard to tell from watching a single game but I wonder if the speculated locker room corrosiveness of Caldwell having to dismiss Ruby Whitehorn at the start of the season is starting to show up, or if this was just a one-off. You might recall that Caldwell said she had to do this to protect her teams in the years to come - possibly an indication that she knew saying goodbye to one of their most popular players wasn't going to go down well, no matter how justified.

I like Caldwell and think she was a great hire for TN. Given how angry she must have been, and justifiably so I might add, I thought she handled the presser incredibly well.
 
Skeets said:
I'm not too worried about Blanca's availability although I did moderate my prognostication a little. As far as motivation is concerned, who was the poster that said UConn is every other team's super bowl? Tennessee is going to the super bowl. Crazy things can happen in the super bowl.
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I think Blanca has become the player Geno has leaned on when the team is out of sorts and for good reason.........without her, who's going to be that difference maker? I'd say Heckel but she's not the dominant player that Blanca is, especially against bigger and more athletic teams like Tennessee......let's hope UConn doesn't need an "intervention" in this game.....
 
BBallF said:
I agree with this caveat- It's not about them being on, it's about them having open shots. that is what Louisville's press did to them. There is a big difference between shooting a 3 when open and with KK, Kayleigh, Ash or Azzi in your face.
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While I am predicting a 25+ point UConn win, If you consider a start like UConn made against Xavier with 10 straight missed 3's, with Tenn starting hot, it could be a close game. Unlikely since UConn has such deep talent, but don't want to have to rely on any player making 10 3's.
 
Actually you want low offensive rebounding numbers. I think that's because the object of the game is to make your shots.
 
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