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Message: [QUOTE="JoePgh, post: 2653967, member: 1131"] Having just driven back from the game and not having watched the replay yet (that’s next), I have a different and more positive take on the game than most of the posters here. The shooting was bad, both from the field and from the free throw line. Before I saw the box score, I expected to see UConn’s field goal percentage for the game in the low forties or even high thirties. It was actually 45%, which certainly surprised me. But I really thought that was the ONLY thing that was wrong. I didn’t see any problems with offensive flow — what I saw was an offense that was producing open, “easy” looks on nearly every possession, and then too many of those shots were being missed. Napheesa especially was missing in a completely untypical way — she made some very difficult shots and missed a lot of (for her) easy ones. It looked to me as if UConn was playing against Duke’s zone pretty much the way that they have played against other defenses that they have seen this year. In the second quarter especially, Duke’s defense was being shredded on a regular basis. In the other quarters, it was more a matter of missed shots than of having difficulty getting shots. I did not think that Duke’s running the shot clock down on so many possessions was the result of an attempt to slow the game down and lose by a respectable margin. Instead, I thought they were just having extreme difficulty getting a good look against UConn’s defense. Duke was far more visibly stymied by UConn’s defense than UConn was by Duke’s zone. One other observation that I’m surprised that no one has made: I thought Megan Walker played really well in the limited minutes that Geno gave her, and played a significant role in keeping the lead. She hustled for rebounds (looking like a very strong rebounder, as she has in other games), and I did not notice her missing defensive assignments. If she can do that for three more games, Crystal can get some more rest. I also watched the South Carolina game against Buffalo. My general reaction was, “If you think UConn has problems, ...”. Based solely on what I saw in both games today, I would much rather be in Geno’s position than Dawn’s going in to Monday night. [/QUOTE]

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