UConn-USF game preview | The Boneyard

UConn-USF game preview

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msf22b

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I'm worried about this one.
Easy to look ahead.
Our team not firing on all cylinders.
Two of our bigs playing limited or no minutes.
No scoring from the starting backcourt.
Of course if Stewie plays well and Bria regains her touch, all should be fine.
But...
I'm worried about this one.
 

doggydaddy

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I'm worried about this one.
Easy to look ahead.
Our team not firing on all cylinders.
Two of our bigs playing limited or no minutes.
No scoring from the starting backcourt.
Of course if Stewie plays well and Bria regains her touch, all should be fine.
But...
I'm worried about this one.

Shocking...you are worried about this one.

Easy to look ahead. I agree. But they have been in this situation before. Hopefully they have learned from the past.

Our team not firing on all cylinders. What team is? It's a long season and they just won by 60 and 40. Hard to think they aren't playing really well.

Two of our bigs playing limited or no minutes. Stokes hasn't been playing minutes all season. And as Nan has posted, Tuck's knee acted up and they took precautions in limiting her minutes in the second half. Against South Florida, both can sit and Uconn would be fine against the weaker front line of USF.

No scoring from the starting backcourt. This is nothing new. Doty hasn't been scoring all season and Hartley has struggled with her shooting. Yet they are 26-2. It's time to accept that this is the makeup of the team and realize they can still win with those two not scoring as long as they do the other things. And Faris is a guard along with KML being guard like.

I love this team and truly believe they can win it all.
 

meyers7

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My contribution. (I wrote it, might as well post it). Didn't know if DD would be doing this game, thought it might be beneath him. ;)


Teams UCONN USF
Scoring/Opp 82.6/46.9 71.3/59.4
FG%/3pt 49.6%/37.7% 38.8%/34.2%
Def FG% 30.7%/28.9% 36.0%/28.5%
Reb 42.9/+11.7 45.0/+5.8
Assists 21.0 14.1
T/O 13.8/+6.0 16.6/+3.8
Steals/Blks 10.8/5.8 11.1/4.9

Starters (normal)
Andrea Smith - (5-8 G SR) 16.8 ppg / 5.2 rpg / 40.6% 3 pt
Andrell Smith - (5-8 G SR) 13.8 ppg /4.7 rpb / 34.1% 3 pt / 4.9 apg
Inga Orekhova – (6-2 G JR) 12.4 ppg /3.9 rpg / 34.2% 3 pt/ 2.8 apg
Alisia Jenkins – (6-1 F FR) 6.5 ppg / 6.3 rpg
Akila McDonald – (6-4 C JR) 3.8 ppg / 5.7 rpg


Bench (normal)
Courtney Williams - (5-8 G FR) 7.3 ppg / 3.5 rpg
Tiffany Conner – (5-9 F SR) 2.5 ppg / 3.1 rpg
Caitlin Rowe – (6-4 C SR) 3.2 ppg / 2.6 rpg

Wins -Louisville 73-62, Syracuse 68-66
Losses – Notre Dame 71-75 (OT), Creighton 74-91, Nova 49-52, St. John’s 59-65, Rutgers 56-68

USF was coming off 2 decent wins, Louisville and Syracuse but then gave C Viv her 300th win. The Bulls are a decent team, presently 7th place in Big East. 19-8 overall, 8-6 in conference. They can play well on occasion beating UL and Syracuse and taking ND into OT. But they are not on UCONN’s level. They certainly if taken lightly can cause problems. With ND looming on Monday, that’s certainly a possibility.

They have decent height. Although their bigs don’t score much. Most of their scoring come from the guards. UCONN has not always done a great job defending the perimeter (comparatively to their overall defending), so they will have to be on their toes tomorrow. USF likes to shoot a lot of 3’s. They have shot 517 as compared to UCONN’s 652. Orekhova has taken 190 3pt shots as compared to KML’s 169. So it’ll be raining 3’s tomorrow. The Smith sisters (twins) and Orekhova are their 3 pt shooters. Which according to the Dailey hypothesis means subs Williams and Conner will go off.

With USF taking a lot of 3’s, if we can get the long rebounds, UCONN should be able to get some fast break points.

UCONN will have to take care of the ball, that could give UCONN problems if anything does.

UCONN should be able to win this one fairly easy. However, travel to FL and then anticipation of the ND game on Monday could cause problems. As long as they take one game at a time and stay focused on the task at hand, UCONN will be fine.

Don’t think USF will slow the game down, so could be a decent scoring game.
I’ll go 86-62.
 

ChicagoGG

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I know that we can/will win this game. But I hope that the team does not overlook USF. They play physically very tough, and if you take them for granted you will pay - they only lost to ND by 4 points. And it did come down to the bitter end.

The Smith twins are good for about 35 a game between them, Inga O. can shoot the 3 from NBA range, and Akila McD is a darn good shot blocker at 6'4".

They are hungry, and want to go to the dance. Before they lost to RU, ESPN had them as an 11 seed. They want to go out as best as possible for their 8 seniors.

And for those lucky enough to be at the game in the lovely warmth - USF put many millions into remodeling the arena. It's very nice. And the new practice facility is one that UConn looked at long and hard when designing our new one.

Like I said, we will win, but if we don't put the hammer down early, we will know we were in a game. And I would prefer the team not to be too beat up going to SB.
 
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I'm not worried about this game. We are not going to over look any team the rest of the season, going into the Big East tourney. Just pure focus and taking care of business. Go, UConn!!!
 
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It's crunch time and the posts in this thread seem to recognize as much and are worthy of the the occasion. Key words to me are "taking care of business." They incorporate many of the underlying issues, such as fatigue from a lengthy season, extra motivation among teams playing for tourney berths (USF among them), the need for a little good fortune--shots need to fall and bodies need to stay upright (no more injuries).

I think the team will stay focused and come away with a 15 point victory, much like the early season contests with, say, Maryland and PSU.
 
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UCONN is looking ahread to ND a little and has a tough one especially in the Sun Dome but comes away with a 74-57 win.
 
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