UConn vs Arizona

[Jingo]

I am more concerned with how Geno uses his bench. I wasn’t happy with how he used players in Baylor game. I realize that he was combating their bigs, which is why AG was used so much, but as exciting a player as she is, the offense suffers. I suspect if we had had Nika supplying that defensive energy, it would have been Anna, not AG, who would have racked up minutes. So given Nika’s absence, I give Geno a pass.

Aubrey was game-changer vs Baylor by stopping Carrington mid-game. Indeed, Aubrey should have been all over Carrington at the end of the game - "crunch time" - when everyone knew she was their "go to" guy. Geno almost cost us the game with that decision AND the CW foul shots, eh?

 

[chrissaran]

I agree. Uconn needs to come out of the gates guns blazing. Ari will score her points. We just need to hound them defensively. Arizona does not have the personnel to stop Paige, CW, Evina, and Liv. My hope is to have a 30 point lead heading into the 4th quarter and rest Paige and Evina as much as possible. However, we cannot look ahead and think of the championship game just yet. Remember with Mississippi State. I expect Arizona to come out of the gates like a bat out of hell. We cannot sleep on this Arizona team. They are in the final 4 for a reason.

and Aaliyah.

 

[chrissaran]

Saw that too. I don't know why with UCONN as an east coast gets the later game and Stanford, a west coast team, gets the earlier time slot. 9:30 PM EST is really not prime time viewing for the east coast. The same for 6:00 PM EST for the west coast.

All the games are in San Antonio.

 

[Jingo]

We have enough scorers; we needed to STOP THEM from scoring, eh?

 

[diggerfoot]

Aubrey was game-changer vs Baylor by stopping Carrington mid-game. Indeed, Aubrey should have been all over Carrington at the end of the game - "crunch time" - when everyone knew she was their "go to" guy. Geno almost cost us the game with that decision AND the CW foul shots, eh?

I’m surprised by this response, since you seemed to grow more balanced in your commentary over the course of the season. Carrington’s shooting % was not great for the game. Meanwhile, Smith is widely acknowledged as Baylor’s most dangerous player. Most coaches would decide to prioritize coverage of Smith over Carrington. But if that is happening to your best player a well coached team is trained to adapt to that. Baylor did that when Carrington took charge. It also might be that with Richards out Baylor was not as offensively capable of getting the ball to Smith and a guard now needed to take over, but you still need to prioritize Smith’s coverage. Otherwise, Smith might have trued to take over the game late instead and that could have been worse for us.

As for Williams taking the foul shots, she was not supposed to. To blame the coaching for something that was not their intent is disingenuous. I suppose you could say that the team should have been coached better so that in their on court decision making Williams does not end up taking the foul shots, but that is really desperately reaching to find fault, which I suspect is what you ate trying to do.

 

[Jingo]

As for Williams taking the foul shots, she was not supposed to. To blame the coaching for something that was not their intent is disingenuous. I suppose you could say that the team should have been coached better so that in their on court decision making Williams does not end up taking the foul shots, but that is really desperately reaching to find fault, which I suspect is what you ate trying to do.

As the accompanying photo shows, it's pretty obvious that CW was the 'intended' foul shooter as she is seen racing towards Liv - the inbounder - in an effort to get open, which she did. Paige meanwhile is off the court, down in the corner, eh?
So Geno's plan was not a good one. Did you watch the game?

 

[oldude]

As the accompanying photo shows, it's pretty obvious that CW was the 'intended' foul shooter as she is seen racing towards Liv - the inbounder - in an effort to get open, which she did. Paige meanwhile is off the court, down in the corner, eh?
So Geno's plan was not a good one. Did you watch the game?

According to Geno, Paige was supposed to wait for a screen and then cut off it to get the ball, which gets the ball in the hands of your best foul shooter. Evidently, Paige didn’t do what she was supposed to do.

Geno went on to complement Christyn, who evidently saw the inbounds play break down and took it upon herself to get open. In that situation the worst possible outcome for UConn would have been a 5 second call.

 

[diggerfoot]

As the accompanying photo shows, it's pretty obvious that CW was the 'intended' foul shooter as she is seen racing towards Liv - the inbounder - in an effort to get open, which she did. Paige meanwhile is off the court, down in the corner, eh?
So Geno's plan was not a good one. Did you watch the game?

I double down on @oldude’s response. Not only did I watch the game; I listened to the commentary after the game as well. Apparently you missed that.

 

[Jingo]

According to Geno, Paige was supposed to wait for a screen and then cut off it to get the ball, which gets the ball in the hands of your best foul shooter. Evidently, Paige didn’t do what she was supposed to do.

Paige is too smart to make a mistake like that. Paige was obviously a 'decoy' because she ran off the court down into the corner, allowing Williams to receive the inbounds pass from Liv.
Don't forget, CW was picked by Geno to shoot 'technicals' earlier this season. IMO, Geno gambled on CW and lost!

 

[Longtime fan]

I am hoping uconn beats Arizona Friday night so they can get to the national championship game where uconn is 11-0 in.

It is meaningless to everyone and everything except the data entered into a book Otherwise it would not be necessary to play the games.

 

[oldude]

Paige is too smart to make a mistake like that. Paige was obviously a 'decoy' because she ran off the court down into the corner, allowing Williams to receive the inbounds pass from Liv.
Don't forget, CW was picked by Geno to shoot 'technicals' earlier this season. IMO, Geno gambled on CW and lost!

Maybe so, but as Paige supposedly said to Geno when he was getting on her after the game, "We won."

 

[diggerfoot]

Paige is too smart to make a mistake like that. Paige was obviously a 'decoy' because she ran off the court down into the corner, allowing Williams to receive the inbounds pass from Liv.
Don't forget, CW was picked by Geno to shoot 'technicals' earlier this season. IMO, Geno gambled on CW and lost!

? You can hear Auriemma screaming at Bueckers during the play. Bueckers later confirmed that Auriemma was mad at her for not fighting through a screen, whether justified or not. If it was a ruse it was an elaborate one.

Meanwhile, is Auriemma the only coach who is supposed to have brains? Would not Mulkey instruct her team to make anyone but Bueckers the one to shoot. Arkansas successfully employed this very strategy at the end of that game.

You really seem determined to pin this on Auriemma despite people’s own words to the contrary. You rather think Auriemma and Bueckers are both fibbing to the public rather than an opposing coach was smart enough to strategized against a go to option.