UConn women

[dsturdy5]

Just a few quick things I noticed...

1. As many others noted, they could not defend the constant motion and pick and rolls/pick and pops.
2. Their rebounding was pathetic.
3. If either team had made their ft's at a reasonable clip in regulation, that game is over with 2 minutes left.
4. UConn took some really bad shots, especially in the first half. A lot of threes from four feet behind the arc with 15+ seconds on the shot clock.

All of this is correctable. They will probably still be in the final four and likely playing for a championship again.

 

[mauconnfan]

Just a few quick things I noticed...

1. As many others noted, they could not defend the constant motion and pick and rolls/pick and pops.
2. Their rebounding was pathetic.
3. If either team had made their ft's at a reasonable clip in regulation, that game is over with 2 minutes left.
4. UConn took some really bad shots, especially in the first half. A lot of threes from four feet behind the arc with 15+ seconds on the shot clock.

All of this is correctable. They will probably still be in the final four and likely playing for a championship again.

 

[Leebo]

If you only read this thread, you might think they were run out of the gym by an unranked team at Gampel.

 

[Scoe]

KML is like the female version of MELO similar build great shooter but isn't a great all around player, and can't play D.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Geno's a great coach that is more than obvious. But let's not protect him from criticism. He's 0-5 in OT games the last 10 seasons and that doesn't happen much now does it? And how many games during the season do they play where you can actually critique him or the players because they are not winning by 80? Geez they aren't untouchable for crying out loud!

the fact that people are looking to critique arguably the greatest coach in women's bb is telling. the fact that people like you only do this after he loses which is maybe once a year is even more telling.
Never said Geno was untouchable. just not sure why his coaching ability is even a question or point of criticism at this point.
If you tell me that if Geno went 2-5 in OT that he could have 10 or 11 NC's I'd care. The guy is at the pinnacle of his career. In 50 years, this will likely be viewed as the golden age of women's basketball. and thankfully, we have people like you pointing out these facts to prove that the program/coach weren't perfect.
why don't you go back when Wooden was coaching and winning everything that his team only shot 78% from the free throw line meaning he didn't coach fundamentals, or that his team was outscored in the first 3 minutes of the 2nd half suggesting he couldn't motivate during half-time.
Put away the magnifying glass and stop looking for complaints. Teams lose. Get over it.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

I have to laugh at the piling on here after one loss by one hoop in OT 3.000 miles from home.

I was thinking the same thing. We're up 3 with 2 seconds left on the road against #6 team in Country and somehow it's the worst UConn team in recent memory.

 

[Marty Jackson]

93% of time when 95% of those were by 80. Please if anyone is spoiled it's you people who believe they can't be criticized. That's ridiculous!

the point is, your criticism is weak and only coming after a loss. And, since you keep pointing out, yes they do beat teams by 80. don't you wish Ollie and Diaco could play Kentucky in BB, Alabama in football and beat them by 80 every year? Geno has always scheduled the top teams (Baylor, Stanford, Duke, Tenn), and he's beaten them. Yet somehow you are using this point as a negative and I don't get it. Doesn't that show how dominate Geno has been against the other top programs?
I guess when you are looking for some small tidbit to prove a point, the glaring obvious fact that Geno is a great coach, built a great program, and will likely retire with the most NC's ever in his sport get lost. so please, tell us again he isn't perfect, that he isn't untouchable, and that his OT record isn't good.

 

[mauconnfan]

the fact that people are looking to critique arguably the greatest coach in women's bb is telling. the fact that people like you only do this after he loses which is maybe once a year is even more telling.
Never said Geno was untouchable. just not sure why his coaching ability is even a question or point of criticism at this point.
If you tell me that if Geno went 2-5 in OT that he could have 10 or 11 NC's I'd care. The guy is at the pinnacle of his career. In 50 years, this will likely be viewed as the golden age of women's basketball. and thankfully, we have people like you pointing out these facts to prove that the program/coach weren't perfect.
why don't you go back when Wooden was coaching and winning everything that his team only shot 78% from the free throw line meaning he didn't coach fundamentals, or that his team was outscored in the first 3 minutes of the 2nd half suggesting he couldn't motivate during half-time.
Put away the magnifying glass and stop looking for complaints. Teams lose. Get over it.

You're kidding me right. You don't know me do you? Do you know how I actually feel about Geno? if not STFU.......no one questioned his coaching ability he is the absolute best in the women's game bar none EVER. You are the typical spoiled POS womens fan - how dare anyone criticize my women? Geez they are great but they certainly weren't last night and they played against a team which will end up losing 5 games and isn't all that good! KML is overweight and slow - it's a fact. Teams will bully the crap out of Stewart - maybe he should play her on the wing then where a chick like the big unathletic one that hammered her all night can't guard her? Just saying - but hey Geno can't do wrong? Jim Calhoun was the greatest to me too but he had a outgo night here and there, game plans were't great.

Live with it and get over yourself. You don't like the criticism - stay on the ladies board and have your own little party over the loss. pitiful!!​

 

[mauconnfan]

I was thinking the same thing. We're up 3 with 2 seconds left on the road against #6 team in Country and somehow it's the worst UConn team in recent memory.

The problem people aren't getting is they have beaten the #6 teams by 40 the last few years....rankings mean squat in women hoops. They go beat it's not a big deal, but they have some early season flaws to this team and Geno will need to figure that out. They're still going to be great - but please no one even talk about why they lost or who was awful!!!!!

 

[dsturdy5]

If you only read this thread, you might think they were run out of the gym by an unranked team at Gampel.

Or that the men struggled with a team from the NEC...

 

[mauconnfan]

Or that the men struggled with a team from the NEC...

But don't we expect that and take it with a grain of salt. We as fans let out who could've played better, who was rusty and who was off their game early in the year with very little backlash. No one in this thread said they sucked or they won't be good, they just said certain things will need to change if indeed this team is to be as goos as always expected. But how dare we? It's actually funny the fans reaction to people critiquing their team a little. I watched it because I was rooting for them. I love Geno, great coach. Please it's a discussion like any other - of ouches unless you're not allowed to?

 

[UCweCONN]

KML's game is a lot like mine. If you leave me open, I can nail three pointers all day. This works well for me against old men. However, when I play young kids, they defend me and my shot, shut me down and embarrass me. I've learned my limitations and we've all seen KML's.

 

[Vancat]

My view: Kiah Stokes really let us down. Where was her head at?

 

[jibsey]

The next time someone is blabbing a about how fundamentally sound women's basketball is..

1. Down 3, drive for a layup with 2 seconds
2. After missing the first free throw... making the second is so crazy it's hard to quantify.

You see this all the time and I still can't figure it. Getting a rebound off a miss takes more than a second.

 

[dante]

What is the name of this assistant?

She alright, but the woman in purple with the weird looking necklace in the background Marisa Moseley OMG she's so freaking hot. ~ drools

 

[imno1]

This is why we need Diamond Stone. I don't think they lose this game if he were on the team.

 

[ctchamps]

the fact that people are looking to critique arguably the greatest coach in women's bb is telling. the fact that people like you only do this after he loses which is maybe once a year is even more telling.
Never said Geno was untouchable. just not sure why his coaching ability is even a question or point of criticism at this point.
If you tell me that if Geno went 2-5 in OT that he could have 10 or 11 NC's I'd care. The guy is at the pinnacle of his career. In 50 years, this will likely be viewed as the golden age of women's basketball. and thankfully, we have people like you pointing out these facts to prove that the program/coach weren't perfect.
why don't you go back when Wooden was coaching and winning everything that his team only shot 78% from the free throw line meaning he didn't coach fundamentals, or that his team was outscored in the first 3 minutes of the 2nd half suggesting he couldn't motivate during half-time.
Put away the magnifying glass and stop looking for complaints. Teams lose. Get over it.

You are way off base on this. mau is one of the few men's posters who regularly goes to the women's forum commenting on the games. He's frequently quite complementary. I don't think anything he's saying is unfair to Geno or the women's team.

 

[blackbird]

I thought they were going to miss Hartley and Dolson, at least in the beginning of the year..and it showed.

At the end of the day, in close games..it was those two (even with Stewart) making decisions with the ball. Moriah's never had to do that. Chong didn't even play in big games last season (and she had a great showing last night. I don't blame her for what happened at the end of the game. She shouldn't have been the one who got the ball, but KML and Stewart ran away from it.)

Stewart's a great player. Probably good enough to win the tournament by herself. But there are going to be some bumps in the road this season, because the team is going to be dependent on a Freshman (Nurse) and some backup players who are just now learning how to play in big games. (Tuck, Stokes, and Chong.) Not to mention, it's silly to think that Dolson and Hartley's loss doesn't effect Jefferson..who now is the lead guard, KML..who isn't going to get as many open shots because perimeter defenders are focused on her, not Hartley and Dolson isn't there to set screens for her, and Stewart..because the second and third best players from last season aren't on the team any longer.

It's actually very similar to the season where Bird, Cash, Williams and Jones left. Stewart has more talented pieces around her, but there's a huge impact.

 

[Inyatkin]

UConn looked inept on a shocking number of plays -- as if they had no idea what they were doing. And yet they led almost the whole game, and only went to OT on a nearly last-second three. They had many chances to win in overtime. This on the road against a top ten team.
It's fair to say if they make some tweaks and play semi-competent basketball in crunch time that they'll be fine.

 

[CL82]

According to this, Jasmine Lister

She played at Vandy, apparently. She looked smokin' hot last night. Oh and apparently she's a twin...

Jasmine and Cinnamon.

 

[CL82]

Agreed. There's jealousy even in here. People ripping kml for her is size when she can ball and has one of the best looking shots I've seen. It's honestly pretty pathetic.

They lost to a good team, that always plays them hard, in ot, away, and without dolson. You can tell how badly they miss dolson. New pieces, new places

Going to disagree. KML looked flat footed and slow. It's fair to talk about her conditioning. I'd be surprised if you found any jealousy on this board. Most of the posters here range from enthusiac supporters of the woman's team to entirely disinterested. Jealousy, not so much.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I can see why it's a sensitive issue, since there is a lot of talk about women with body issues, etc., but KML is an athlete, and she's not in great shape. It's not like Khalid's conditioning wasn't discussed every time he had a poor game. She's still a very good player, but I think it's hard to make an argument that she wouldn't be better if she dropped some weight.

 

[ctchamps]

Lot of players struggled in this game and they still barely lost.

Agree with @Gurleyman. Chong and KML struggle to contain players. Stanford exploited this by making Stokes move away from the basket. She's too slow to come back and contest shots. So it was a layup drill for Stanford's guards. Keep Stokes in the post and she's a very good shot blocker. Kia Nurse and Mo Jefferson are much better on ball perimeter defenders but neither is reliable at hitting perimeter shots. And that presents problems on offense because Stokes isn't a reliable scorer in the low post, nor does she draw double teams like Dolson, which provided Stewie freedom of movement last season.

Tuck is a better all around player than Stokes, but she hasn't regained the mobility she had prior to her injury and surgeries so she has problems moving laterally. Furthermore tall players that Stokes is able to neutralize, can shoot over Tuck. However on offense Tuck is a much better player than Stokes. She has a good to very good inside outside game and she showed it in the Stanford game. Most of her shots were quality shots but she missed a lot she's capable of making. It will be interesting to see if she can regain her speed and her reliability on offense. That would go a long way to fixing some things because teams won't be able to double and triple team Stewie like Stanford was able to do with Stokes in the game and guards won't be able to drive so easily to the basket.

Two or three times last season Mo Jefferson had woeful games. But she had Bria Hartley to bail her out. Last night her game was as bad as anything she did since early in her freshman season. Mo struggled with dribbling, shooting, passing and even her defense wasn't as sharp as it usually is. Even her decision making was poor. Granted her player was not a great 3 point shooter, but to leave her wide open when Stanford needed a 3 at the end of regulation was an awful choice. But I think this game is an aberration and am not worried about her.

Chong really has improved on offense and outside of her decision to drive to the basket in OT instead of taking the 3, I liked the tremendous improvement on offense. As I've mentioned her problems come on the defensive end, but I believe she will get much better with containing her player, the same as we've seen with many of the men's guards who have improved from freshman to sophomore season.

KML has taken a lot of grief from the women's forum posters about her weight. She gained a lot of weight to start last season even before her injury. Personally I think it's her body type. On offense she didn't score a lot but she was effective at spreading Stanfords defense and that is a valuable weapon. Geno is going to have to set up picks for her to give her better shooting options. On defense she's never been a great defender, but in this game she was really exposed. Agree with @Gurleyman on this as well. In the past with Bria Hartley and Kelly Farris this was not a major issue. If Chong improves on defense and Tuck comes back from the injury, then Geno will be able to keep KML in the line up. Otherwise he'll have to resort to more zone or put Nurse in for KML.

 

[amory]

I haven't watched them nearly enough to know for sure, but Stewart doesn't seem like much of a leader. She's clearly the most talented player on the court at any given time, regardless of who the opponent is, but in a close game like that she should've been demanding the ball.

She didn't need to lead last year with Dolson and Hartley there, but she'll have to step up this year if they want to win #10.

 

[Gurleyman]

They lost one game... It's post like that make this place so impossible. Are you really extrapolating that a coach who has won 9 championships and done it by challenging the other top teams each year, can't coach because his team lost in mid-November. The guy is so good, any loss is unexpected. And yet people here expect more. And these are the same posters that set the tone for men's bb and FB.

You're missing my point. I don't care so much that we lost. Stanford exposed some personnel flaws on both ends that we'll have to work on (defending the 2-3 positions off the dribble, how to attack double teams). Had they won by just simply making one more shot than we did down the stretch, c'est la vie. It's November. Those things can be improved on.

My point stemmed from the fact that I expect a coach to be able to gather his team with one last desperate chance to win a game, and have them take the floor with some sort of a bloody clue of what they are supposed to run. I certainly wasn't expecting to win the game at that point, but our team didn't know who was supposed to inbound the ball, the ref started the 5 count before we even had anyone there to inbound it, and then we gave it to a center 80 feet from the basket and dribbled out the clock with the slowest player on the floor. If we had tried to run a normal desperation Hail Mary play in that situation and it didn't work, I probably wouldn't have posted (or I would have been more likely to focus on our defensive problems). But that moment harkened back to my absolute shock that he tried to run a high degree of difficulty weak side alley oop with 17 seconds left in a conference championship game and the shot clock off, turned it over and lost when the other team never should have gotten the ball. That was flunking Basic Principles Of Coaching 101 in a championship game.

The other mistakes we made yesterday were what I consider egregious late-game player errors (leaving them wide open on the tying 3 by helping but not really helping, going for 2 down by 3, shooting twice with 15-20 seconds on the shot clock up by five with less than 2 minutes left). I'd let those slide as kids not used to late game pressure situations losing their heads, and early season teachable moments, without the cluelessness of the last possession. But these are all kids with at least one full year of college coaching behind them (other than Chong, the rest have 2 or 3) and they played like they didn't know basic principles of time and score. They aren't in those situations much, but that doesn't mean they should look so unprepared. Less than two minutes left, everything is predicated by time and score. Basic stuff. Would rather get a shot clock violation up 5 than have centers shooting 20 footers early in the shot clock.

Geno's obviously the best coach in the biz. Recruiting? Check. Motivating? Check. Scouting opponents? Check. Game planning? Check. Halftime adjustments when needed? Check. Nobody better at any of those things. That's why we blow everybody out so regularly. Those rare occasions he is in a tight game late, though, have been a glaring Achilles heel. His team consistently looks unprepared in those moments (0-5 in overtime in the last 10 years, for example). At first glimpse, I don't think his team this year is good enough defensively or athletic enough to just blow everyone out, so he may need to coach in the last two minutes in the tourney a little this time around, and our team may need to know what they're doing under pressure.