UCONN-Texas post game thread

[veryolddog]

I really enoyed the game. What a very competitive team. Azzi really has the stuff and I think that we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg with respect to her talent and skill. Everyone on the team led by Nika came to play especially Aubrey. What a pleasant surprise to see how fluid that she moved after that tasking surgery and the relentless recovery afterward.

I think that they would have scored much higher if they were more effective in making foul shots. Apparently they were only 50 per cent. The lead would have been much larger. And, a few less turnovers. Their intensity was dialed up very high. They will need to continue at this level in order to play with this crazy highly competitive schedule that Geno created this season. To think that they will only be better going into the tournement.

 

[Wilderness]

Just heated my tar and cut open a few feather pillows for the genius who trash talked Azzi in the chat.

Speaking for so many of us. Thank you Mdoggie.

 

[HopJim]

Dorka played terribly. It looks like in the big games she doesn't really show up. Yes, she had 9 rebounds but she looked awkward out there. Taylor Jones was giving her the business. Her lateral quickness leaves something to be desired as the forwards were going baseline on her all night long. When she was the relief person for the inbounds passes she looked really nervous and fumbled a lot of the passes.

My view is to compare Dorka to Butler coming back from a broken thumb. Lack of strength in Dorka's wrist seemed to make her more tentative grabbing the ball, particulalry on contested rebounds. Predict as she gets more confidence in her wrist and we will see less of this. Regarding the Texas game, few teams will have as much height as the Longhorns so thank goodness Dorka was out there.

 

[ballerfan]

Just finished reading the comments. No need for me to repeat what others have said about’s Azzi’s amazing performance and her NPOY potential. I will, however, say that it’s interesting that UConn has gone from its best player being a pass first PG (Paige) to a shoot first SG (Azzi).

I love Christyn, Liv, and Evina, but this year’s chemistry is much, much better.

Lou scored 12 points in 14 minutes. She’s capable of scoring 30 with more minutes. As for defense, she seems more uneven than bad. She’ll get better. Vive la France.

Finally, Nika. Could the naysayers stop dismissing her value. She’s the leader of the team, a great passer, a motivator that makes others better, and a nightmare of a defender. I don’t think UConn would have won without her.

 

[HopJim]

One final comment regarding the Texas game. Apologies to Aubrey. While I have not posted much about her, I have not had confidence that she would contribute much this year. She was the unsung hero last night, getting rebounds, steals,and points when they were needed. She must has studied the UConn playbook while rehabbing her back because she looked great on both offense and defense. Will play key role for Huskies this year.

 

[eebmg]

Lou is definitely not bad on defense. She was competing all game, rode Morris out of bounds more than once and handled her chores on the traps pretty well forcing clock violations. I think she sometimes loses in comparison to Nika and Aubrey but she holds her own.

 

[huskeynut]

Can't play Dorka,Azzi and Nika 38-39 minutes. He's looking for trouble. So Ayanna fouls,so Lou can't play defense, so Caroline can't( I don't know what); so what. Just looking for trouble. Can't sit Azzi and/ or Nika last minute of a quarter? Really looking for trouble playing that many minutes. It's a really long season.

Getting a little tired of this mantra of who can play how many minutes. Its a false narrative. Always has been. May I suggest you look at the box scores of other teams. The starting 5 usually play the major minutes.

Geno played 8 last night. What more do you want? I would say following your suggestions is looking for trouble.

But as usual, you are entitled to your opinion. As am I.

 

[reelfan]

CD has a lot of rust to work off which she will in a few games. Her scoring punch & defense will be a huge help in the rotation.

 

[oldude]

For those asking about Taylor Jones not playing much in the fourth quarter until late, I don't know for sure.

I can tell you that she had shoulder surgery earlier this year while still at Oregon State. And, she was nursing a leg injury that kept her out of practice in October, and she was not cleared to play in the exhibition against DePaul, nor the scrimmage against Wayland Baptist. She played 23 minutes in the season opener this past Friday. She stated in the post-game presser that she was finally feeling 100%.

But, all that lost practice time for sure affects one's conditioning and endurance. Tonight she played 29 minutes (Q1: 7; Q2: 10; Q3: 7; Q4: 4 (the last 4 minutes only) despite taking a couple of falls to the floor. I can only guess she was exhausted and just needed some rest as the fourth quarter was underway. Perhaps she's being cautiously limited in total minutes per game.

UConn fans feel your pain......

 

[Bone Dog]

I managed to rewatch the game again and got a better sense of it. Three things really stood out.

1) flopping. Texas did a ton of it. Mostly the refs ignored it. I don’t remember Vic’s team bing floppers, but this seemed extreme to me. Trying to take a charge is good D for the most part. But this tactic can get out of hand, and last night I thought it did.

2) the refs mainly did an evenhanded job, but the touch fouls seemed a bit overdone. Some were absurd. AE got caught on this on a drive in the 4th quarter. Aaliyah Moore suffered from a couple of these, too. I don’t think it affected the outcome, at least not much. But it wasn’t encouraging in light of the contact on blocks that they didn’t whistle. Jones seemed to get away with a lot, though this can be hard to tell on video. Also, I can’t help feeling that Lou’s third fouls was a poor call and it kept her off the floor for much of the game.

3) Defense. Texas played really good D much of the time. There were a few comical lapses, but given it’s November they exceeded my expectations. More importantly, I think we played even better D and it was really satisfying to see Nika at work, but also Azzi is an awesome defender. And when Aubrey was on the floor, our switching D was dazzling. Both teams seemed tired at times, and this isn’t surprising considering how hard they worked. Texas got a late run because we were tired, though thankfully Azzi was ready for the moment. She has a real motor.

And, of course, as everyone in the nation now knows, Azzi is a tremendous talent, arguably the best in the land (absent Paige) if she can sustain what she did last night. When I think about what the possibilities were when she arrived in Storrs the year after Paige, Geno must have had NCs dancing in his imagination. The injuries that have beset this pair must have hit him even harder than the rest of us. He’s done such a tremendous recruiting job, and to watch it thwarted by the injury demon has to be crushing.

 

[HuskyNan]

My view is to compare Dorka to Butler coming back from a broken thumb. Lack of strength in Dorka's wrist seemed to make her more tentative grabbing the ball, particulalry on contested rebounds. Predict as she gets more confidence in her wrist and we will see less of this. Regarding the Texas game, few teams will have as much height as the Longhorns so thank goodness Dorka was out there.

She got whacked on the wrist when she was on a breakaway layup. I was concerned when Dorka held her wrist for a few moments. That play may have gotten into her head a bit

 

[VaConnFan11]

I though it was a very good game. The only issue I have is the same one I've had over the last couple of seasons. That is the inability to close out games against good opponents. Up by 17 with 4 minutes to play, you should not win by only 7. It looked like they stopped playing defense.

 

[Beemer]

This. As I said in the game chat, Jamelle Elliott needs to work with them on being more aggressive. Maybe she said something during half time because both played much stronger underneath the basket during the second half.

 

[Wilderness]

Also, I can’t help feeling that Lou’s third fouls was a poor call and it kept her off the floor for much of the game.

I thought it was Aubrey's play that kept Lou out. We saw others play major minutes with three fouls. Aubrey was a terrific wing in all the minutes she played - much improved from two years ago especially in her participation in offensive flow.

It's a challenge for Lou to play full on high level Div 1 after 4 years of what worked in Div 2. Based on Geno's take on her, she'll be better up to it soon.

When Caroline is back to prior form, we'll be have a superb rotation at the 3.

 

[Childhood]

I love Aubrey's game. She just made a difference when she came off the bench. I always imagined if she didn't hurt last year, we may have won the NC.

 

[ME Husky Fan]

No, I think he is right. Edwards is soft and slow, Dorka is soft and weak. Didn’t matter tonight, but it will. I want to be wrong, but am predicting points from the bigs will be hard to come by in March. And they both give baseline easily.

Tough to cast dispersions, given a victory against someone ranked higher then us, understanding there are serious flaws with that, this time of year. However, I have to agree with the assessment regarding Edwards and Juhasz, but they both worked their tails off last night. They both need to get quicker and more aggressive against more assertive biggies, such as Boston, understanding she’s in a class by herself. Azzi is incredible and turned it on when we needed it. Kudos to Aubrey and Nika for great contributions.

 

[JonathanXIV]

Like everyone, I thoroughly enjoyed last night's game. There was much to be excited about and I'm looking forward to this team continuing to improve. But watching last night's game, I couldn't help thinking how I cannot wait until Paige and Azzi play together at full strength. It will be something to see. Hard to imagine a better backcourt than the two of them together and healthy.

 

[Bone Dog]

One more thing to gush about in Azzi’s performance. At the 8:20 mark in the 2nd quarter, Azzi brings the ball up the floor against Sonya and blows past her at the top of the key. Sonya lets her go because the Texas bigs have her back, but Azzi doesn’t care. She’s at the rim before they could react. We all thought Jones Gaston and Moore were a formidable front court. It speaks volumes about Azzi’s renewed confidence that she was willing to challenge them… and win.

Another sign of the new Azzi: she wanted the ball in her hands against the press. Nika brought it up a lot too. And Azzi’s handles are awesome. Once she had the ball in her hands the Texas press seemed irrelevant.

 

[Beemer]

special KUDOS to the refs for not falling for TEXAS' attempt to
get Azzi into FOUL trouble with all those FLOPS . Watched
the AZZI highlights or the whole game. I counted so many,
that I lost count!

That was disgusting. Flopping/embellishment needs to be punished. I don't believe the NCAA has a rule about this. In the NHL if you flop/embellish to draw a call you can get 2 minutes in the box as well as your opponent. Unfortunately it isn't called nearly as much as it should be.

 

[hoophuskee]

Getting a little tired of this mantra of who can play how many minutes. Its a false narrative. Always has been. May I suggest you look at the box scores of other teams. The starting 5 usually play the major minutes.

Geno played 8 last night. What more do you want? I would say following your suggestions is looking for trouble.

But as usual, you are entitled to your opinion. As am I.

I wonder how many of the posters that thought Jones should have played more minutes are some of the same posters that complain that Geno doesn't use his bench enough. I guess "wearing down the opponent" doesn't it matter for the other team? Instead the other team should play their stars more but not UCONN?

Anyway, stars play in big games for Geno. They always have. There are many titles and many Final Fours that back up this philosophy.

 

[Sam.the.Man]

Azzi is a dream! Griffin was a lifesaver and will get lots of minutes this season. The Team as a whole played very well, but faded in the 4th quarter when they knew (felt they had) the game won. I don't think Geno will stand for that in the future.

It was good to see Caroline out there. Like many of us I was in denial, thinking she would probably start her first game back and slay dragons. In reality, she isn't ready for prime-time yet. I am a bit concerned that Geno gave her no additional minutes in the second half. I hope that doesn't mean a possible setback in her readiness?

 

[Stymie]

I though it was a very good game. The only issue I have is the same one I've had over the last couple of seasons. That is the inability to close out games against good opponents. Up by 17 with 4 minutes to play, you should not win by only 7. It looked like they stopped playing defense.

I agree.
A little more push and a minute less on the clock and we’d have seen Amari and Ines’.
I liked what I saw from both last game and would’ve liked to have seen more.

 

[Beemer]

Some random thoughts:

You'd never know Aubrey Griffin was coming off major back surgery- she was quick and smooth in her movements, like she'd never missed a game or a practice. So good to see her moving so freely out there, no hesitation at all.

Nika- damn I love that kid. What impressed me the most is she finished a tightly called game with just 3 fouls. Earlier in her career she would have fouled out by half time. I also loved it when she nailed that 3 pointer, she knew it was in right when the ball left her hands. Some great passes too. I think it was the best game of her career so far, all that hard work in the offseason is paying off for her.

Azzi Fudd- she is everything advertised and more. There isn't anything she can't do. Can't wait for her & Paige to finally play together, it's going to be one hell of a show.

Still not happy with free throw shooting. They stink at it and at some point those misses are going to bite them in the backside.

Still want to see the bigs be more aggressive underneath. They were not good in the first half but definitely picked it up in the second.

 

[Sam.the.Man]

Can't play Dorka,Azzi and Nika 38-39 minutes. He's looking for trouble. So Ayanna fouls,so Lou can't play defense, so Caroline can't( I don't know what); so what. Just looking for trouble. Can't sit Azzi and/ or Nika last minute of a quarter? Really looking for trouble playing that many minutes. It's a really long season.

Relax, it's early in the season and this was a very important game! He played eight, six of whom got significant minutes.

 

[Kmoney]

For those asking about Jones second half, she had her upper right thigh taped up in the second half.