Uconn , UCLA

[rt bb fan]

Uconn did not play well in the second half. I thought they had many poor passes. Gemo will not be happy with the effort in the second half.

 

[BigBird]

Correct on all points.

 

[Sonny44]

I thought they were tense most of the game. Treated the ball like the proverbial hot potato except for Saniya. Missed a lot of foul shots in the last period.
But it's all relative; we find a way to win, just not so smooth today.

 

[yifangd]

Correct on all points.

Except who's this Gemo guy?

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I was hoping for a sorta rough game today - cuz there always seems to be one - and now was the only time to get it out of the way. Still, it wasn't great fun to watch.

 

[ochoopsfan]

UConns last fg of the game(Nurse 3pt basket) was with 6.17 left in the 4th quarter.
UCLA only had 3 baskets left after that. With 6.02 left Korver hit a 3 point shot, followed by another 3 point shot with 3.01 left and the last basket was by Canada, a 2 pt shot with 2.01 left.

Not sure about UCLA as they now have a 7 month rest, but I think UConn might be running on less than a full tank.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

UConns last fg of the game(Nurse 3pt basket) was with 6.17 left in the 4th quarter.
UCLA only had 3 baskets left after that. With 6.02 left Korver hit a 3 point shot, followed by another 3 point shot with 3.01 left and the last basket was by Canada, a 2 pt shot with 2.01 left.

Not sure about UCLA as they now have a 7 month rest, but I think UConn might be running on less than a full tank.

My theory is Geno, Lou and (now) Lou have a cold. Nothing horrific, but it does knock you down a bit.

 

[JordyG]

All year long UConn has has trouble dealing with small quick guards off the dribble. Today was a good example of that. That has not only been their Achilles Heel, but its enabled the offense of opposing teams to involve their forwards on dishes and pick and rolls. Especially forwards that are long, lean and athletic. After today that changes. Oregon's guards, Ionescu in particular, is not small and quick, and Kia, ankle issue notwithstanding, should have a better time keeping her in front of her. That doesn't mean Ionescu isn't very, very good. Their forwards are not long , lean and athletic. They have size, but UConn handles size better than long and athletic. Baylor has no small quick guards, although Jones is very good. She depends more on her strength off the dribble and her shooting. I think Jones got jobbed out of 2nd team AA. Baylor has size upfront, but only Mompremier is really athletic, and she is a poor shooter. I don't expect another game where Kia and Lou are both poor from the arc. I expect UConn to be a better FT shooting team herein. I expect more from Crystal Dangerfield herein, and I also expect more Nat herein.

 

[HoopsFan21]

I don't think you will see Nat much the rest of the year. I guess it will depend on what the other team has in terms of size and whether Gabby or Collier get into early foul trouble, but it seems Geno likes bringing Crystal in first as a sub for Chong. That has been a pretty consistent substitution pattern the last few weeks otherwise Geno will ride with the starters for 35 minutes. Butler's one opportunity to shine might be in a possible rematch with Baylor.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

I could see Natalie getting some minutes against Baylor. She plays better against
big slow people.

 

[Ctpaul0825]

From what I remember Geno didn't call a single timeout during the game. UCLA cut the lead a few times and normally he would which I think was another psychological test to his players. "Figure it out" mentality.

 

[ctfjr]

Oy! The only good thing about today's game is there is another one on Monday

 

[BroadwayVa]

I was hoping for a sorta rough game today - cuz there always seems to be one - and now was the only time to get it out of the way. Still, it wasn't great fun to watch.

At this time of the year --Uconn tends to have one not so great game---I agree--this probably got it out of their system and it's upwards and onward.
However---don't dispel the UCLA Game plan and execution---it worked perfectly--Uconn found it near impossible for the first quarter to allow Napheesa to run as freely as she had---Gabby was the only bright lite to start with. It seemed for 3 quarters Uconn was toying with UCLA---they'd get a run --and Uconn would run the score up again---It was not my favorite game. But that UCLA coach did a magnificent job of scouting, planning, and execution-- two of their team were unstoppable Canada and the big blond on UCLA--did she ever miss a 3??? Not when it counted.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

This next game is, per Geno, the hardest in the tournament. If his theory about refs and the "home team" is correct, and it looked like that today, we have more angst and dispepsia coming in the Oregon game. Who pays the refs by the way? The NCAA or is it like high school. home school pays. Just wondering without wanting to get fined?

 

[JoePgh]

I watched the game in person and checked the box score afterwards. The box score gave me a completely different perspective on the game than the actual view of it did.

Watching the game, I would have thought that both teams shot in the high 40% range, and shot well from the arc also. In fact, that was not the case: UConn shot 55% overall and 45% from 3, while UCLA shot 38% and 33% from 3. So, given that box scores don't lie, why was the game as close as it was? It was because UCLA took 68 shots and UConn took only 54. When you get that many more shots than your opponent, you can afford to miss quite a few and still have the game stay relatively close. UConn did get 26 free throws to UCLA's 14, so maybe that was one reason for the shortfall in field goal attempts

Why else did UCLA get more shots? One big reason is that they only had 6 turnovers in the entire game (yup, that's what it says) while UConn had 14. Fourteen turnovers isn't bad, but when the defense can only force 6 turnovers by the opposition, that is a major shortcoming. Moreover, UCLA got 8 steals while UConn got only 2 -- also a cause for concern.

The conclusion that I draw from the box score (which I wouldn't have drawn from watching the game) is that UConn's offense (particularly its half-court offense) was working just fine, and its half-court defense was not bad, but the failure to generate UCLA turnovers and get offense from defense was the sole reason why the game was not a blowout.

I'm sure that the coaches have noticed this. I wonder what caused it, and how they will try to correct it.

 

[Wbbfan1]

UCLA played an extremely physical game and even though UConn went to the foul line more often then UCLA did, Refs could have and should have called more fouls on UCLA. Katie-Lou was getting mugged on some possessions. Reminded me of what DT used to go through. That's probably the biggest reason teams offense was having problems in the 4th quarter.

 

[donalddoowop]

Why does the game have to be a blowout? In spite of rarely turning over UCLA, missing a lot of free throws, and two of their normally efficient offensive players having low scoring games, they still won by 15 points. If they had just hit more free throws they would have won by more than twenty. They won't play flawlessly every game. If they average over 80 points the last three games as they have been, they will win it all, imo.

 

[JoePgh]

UConns last fg of the game(Nurse 3pt basket) was with 6.17 left in the 4th quarter.
UCLA only had 3 baskets left after that. With 6.02 left Korver hit a 3 point shot, followed by another 3 point shot with 3.01 left and the last basket was by Canada, a 2 pt shot with 2.01 left.

Not sure about UCLA as they now have a 7 month rest, but I think UConn might be running on less than a full tank.

Now that I have watched the game replay, I can tell you quite definitely that the lack of field goals in the last 6 minutes of the game had nothing to do with "less than a full tank."

It had everything to do with UCLA fouling on purpose to prevent UConn from milking the clock on its possessions to prevent a comeback.

That probably also explains most of the discrepancy in free throw attempts between the two teams, and helps to explain why the Bruins had so many more field goal attempts.

In other words, those things happened because the game was not close at the 6 minute mark, and they would not have happened if the game had actually been close at that point.

 

[Gus Mahler]

From what I remember Geno didn't call a single timeout during the game. UCLA cut the lead a few times and normally he would which I think was another psychological test to his players. "Figure it out" mentality.

I agree with you. In the second half I got the impression several times he was letting them play on to see how they would handle it.

Or, he "trusted" Saniya and felt comfortable with the situation. It's fun to try to get into his head from afar.

 

[connie]

All year long UConn has has trouble dealing with small quick guards off the dribble. Today was a good example of that. That has not only been their Achilles Heel, but its enabled the offense of opposing teams to involve their forwards on dishes and pick and rolls. Especially forwards that are long, lean and athletic. After today that changes. Oregon's guards, Ionescu in particular, is not small and quick, and Kia, ankle issue notwithstanding, should have a better time keeping her in front of her. That doesn't mean Ionescu isn't very, very good. Their forwards are not long , lean and athletic. They have size, but UConn handles size better than long and athletic. Baylor has no small quick guards, although Jones is very good. She depends more on her strength off the dribble and her shooting. I think Jones got jobbed out of 2nd team AA. Baylor has size upfront, but only Mompremier is really athletic, and she is a poor shooter. I don't expect another game where Kia and Lou are both poor from the arc. I expect UConn to be a better FT shooting team herein. I expect more from Crystal Dangerfield herein, and I also expect more Nat herein.

Bingo!

 

[Boreifs]

UConns last fg of the game(Nurse 3pt basket) was with 6.17 left in the 4th quarter.
UCLA only had 3 baskets left after that. With 6.02 left Korver hit a 3 point shot, followed by another 3 point shot with 3.01 left and the last basket was by Canada, a 2 pt shot with 2.01 left.

Not sure about UCLA as they now have a 7 month rest, but I think UConn might be running on less than a full tank.

Did you also notice that UCLA started fouling at about that point? Hard to score baskets under those circumstances.

 

[Boreifs]

I agree with you. In the second half I got the impression several times he was letting them play on to see how they would handle it.

Or, he "trusted" Saniya and felt comfortable with the situation. It's fun to try to get into his head from afar.

He also slowed the game down right from the beginning of the second half, no doubt with his lack of depth in mind. UConn always plays better in transition; I don't anticipate he will do the same thing against Oregon if he has a 17-point lead at the half. At that point, the team will have several days to recover.