UMass-Lowell Postgame Thread | Page 3 | The Boneyard

UMass-Lowell Postgame Thread

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Finally the season is here!

Quick takes from the game: Paige was by far the best player on the court today. I loved Edwards aggressiveness/strength and how she attacked the basket (I wish she could give a little bit of that to Liv). Edwards is young so once she learn how to harness some of that aggression she will definitely be a force. Mir wants playing time and I’m here for it, she made the most of her minutes. Evian looked good but you can tell she is coming back from being out a while and I’m not sure if she is 100% back yet physically. As for the returning players Liv, CW and Mukurat they look pretty similar to last basketball season, good and bad.
Oh yeah, can’t forget about Aubrey, she is an instant firecracker off the bench, love watching her do her thing.
 
After seeing Paige play today, I came away with a lot of thoughts. The main thought is.....you want the ball in her hands. We’re a better team when she has the ball, because when it’s in her hands, it will get where it needs to go.
 
oldude said:
I want to go back to the idea of a 9-player rotation, that’s heavy on long, quick guards & wings. UConn can press and trap teams all game long, and not worry about fatigue or foul trouble. Can’t wait to see how this team develops.
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9 player
Cuango said:
I am fairly sure that we didn’t score 100+ by design. There is no way that Geno would allow a humiliating score line when they are playing Shea’s husband’s team. I’m sure Geno is extremely grateful that he accepted the game at all. I thank him as well! We finally got to see what we have been waiting for.
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this fake news. UConn didn’t pass up any scoring opportunities
 
Wbbfan1 said:
I wasn't impressed with Christyn and LIv's play today. They should dominate this level of competition. I thought Evina's play was good considering she hasn't played for two years. Paige was the best player on the court today. She played under control and should have had a double/double if not a triple double.
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Your right Liv missed far to many layups and free throws and CW still haven’t proved she can hit the 3. But I gave them the benefit of doubt because it was the first game and 2020 has been weird
 
psconn said:
My initial impressions are:
Except maybe Piath, none of the freshmen looked overwhelmed or lost. All of them have justified continued minutes and seem ready to play at this level. Very mature group. They make this the deepest UConn team in a really long time.

I had hoped for more from Anna and CW. They were good, but not the big step up from last season that I anticipated. It's very early though. Not giving up on that yet.

Three players in particular caught my attention:
Paige - Just blended in as a natural leader by example, didn't force anything and still showed her skills and put up some good numbers. Great job.
Aaliyah - Welcome back Asjha Jones? All she needs is that little mid-range J. She looks totally ready to be a major contributor.
Mir - Active, disruptive and a finisher. Aubrey II? I know some here have touted her for a while. I'm a believer.
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Mir looks like Gabby2 to me, unless you think Aubrey is Gabby2. Then she becomes Gabby3. Nika showed the effects of her injury, but she is going to be a player. There is a reason why she was the first guard off the bench.
 
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Mir winning the tip last season:
 

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Liv did not miss 4 layups on one sequence and a bunch of free throws to avoid running up the score. And Williams just does not look like a number 1 high school recruit. It took until Junior year for Walker, Wolters, and even Tina to hit their stride, but Williams is there now. She knows it is time for her to show up big time. Time will tell. Hoping like mad this is just Covid madness, all the interruptions, etc. which is maybe why S. Car. Baylor and others have had bad nights. A month from now we all hit our stride.
 
CTBballfan243 said:
I’m not talking about playing against UMass-Lowell. I am talking about playing legit D1 competition. Even today they had break downs where players were wide opened.
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Agree, but most of the defensive mistakes were from over-aggression. It'll take most of the season to develop the communication necessary. They have the bricks and just need to build the wall.
 
UML had a bunch of open three opportunities early on. If they had hit a couple of them and gained some confidence, they might well have lost by a significantly smaller margin. Open threes have been a thorn in our paws for the last few years. Hoping that this team can cut down on them.
 
Re Nika:

I think the image that I will carry away from this game is her facial expression whenever the camera was able to capture it. Other players such as Paige and Aaliyah are very competitive, but their facial expressions during play look relaxed. Nika, on the other hand, had a facial expression that I associate with Jen Rizzotti or Jamelle Eliot when they were players -- like they were ready to start a fight if the opponent contested a rebound.

I also noticed her comment about how defense in America is soft, and everything that she is used to doing is called a foul. She seemed like a very good defender, getting a really good block near the basket in the third quarter, mostly because she was determined not to be beat.

During the "all access" segment at the end, did you catch the dialog where Geno was talking to Paige and (predictably) needling her:

"It's a good thing that you wear 5 and Nika wears 10, because she's twice the defender that you are. But that's OK -- other teams have lots of bad offensive players that you'll be able to guard."
 
Wbbfan1 said:
I wasn't impressed with Christyn and LIv's play today. They should dominate this level of competition. I thought Evina's play was good considering she hasn't played for two years. Paige was the best player on the court today. She played under control and should have had a double/double if not a triple double.
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Christyn and Olivia are who they are; fine basketball players but not all-Americans. Evina and Paige are the leaders of this team, at least at this juncture. What improvement we see from the sophomores and freshmen will determine how successful this team is, at least IMHO.
 
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Ralph said:
not wanting to be a downer but:
18 turnovers against UMass Lowell????? Better be first game jitters.
Once again the other team played great free throw defense against Liv. She got bailed out of one miss by a UConn lane violation. As Geno said, "I don't know why the other team doesn't foul her all the time." I kept hoping she could move from a 50% shooter to at least 60% or maybe 65%. Nope. Remember when we all said Charlie Collier's great games were against weak teams. But she did shoot 90%, averaged over 30 points, etc. Liv missed 4 or 5 shots on one possession. The type of sequence when Geno says she was building up her rebound numbers.
If Paige cannot overcome bias against a freshman AA, I don't see an AA on the floor today.
UMass Lowell got a number of wide open shots, defense just broke down.
Seemed like a lot of dribbling at times.
Some long stretches with no points.
UMass Lowell is a team that past UConn teams would score 110 points on. This team would not have won us free wings if we were allowed in the stands.
I think we need to see big improvement on Tuesday, and more on Thursday. But I will settle for just seeing us play.

but with all that, they all played better than I could, even Chassion.
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What would you post if you did want to be a downer? Re the total number of points, UCONN was grateful that UML was willing to schedule a game with them at the last minute. No way Geno was going to let his team run up the score. Also, UML is coached by Shea Ralph's husband. Another good reason to not run up the score.
 
After watching the game, I took a long walk to digest the action, and waited to post, so here are a few thoughts; ( I keep in mind the opponent was who they were)
Paige is the real deal, this kid can score/assist at will!
I honestly believe Edwards will be pushing Olivia to be a better player, or O will be getting more pine time as the season progresses
Anna is solid.
Evina is going to make us forget that Walker left a year early.
Christyn is overthinking the game, and needs to just "let it go".
Aubry and Mir are terrific athletes who will contribute greatly this year.
Nika is Anna at the beginning of last season.
Piath is big
Why didn't Autumn play???
 
I was happy to see the Team play. What I saw I liked. Lot's of talent on the floor no matter what time of play. Paige.....she is a phenom. She will be one of the greats in UConn history. With the addtions next season, jeepers, they will give anyone a run for the money. I sense and smell a National Championship coming. Have to make an effort to see it.

Geno won't be Geno unless he has something to bitch about. That makes the team great. At least he won't say, that his bench does not contribute.
 
Jordy said:
Mir looks like Gabby2 to me, unless you think Aubrey is Gabby2. Then she becomes Gabby3. Nika showed the effects of her injury, but she is going to be a player. There is a reason why she was the first guard off the bench.
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I get that. She also reminded me of Swin at times. Whatever... she's got a chance to be pretty darned good.
 
Jordy said:
Christyn and Olivia are who they are; fine basketball players but not all-Americans. Evina and Paige are the leaders of this team, at least at this juncture. What improvement we see from the sophomores and freshmen will determine how successful this team is, at least IMHO.
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Liv has the ability to be a dominant post player, and I think she showed that in the first half of today's game. I would attribute the sequence in the third quarter where she missed four or five shots on one possession to her being tired and not really in game shape. I would not expect to see that continue, but note how she relentlessly went after all those rebounds!

After she made several shots in the first half on aggressive moves to the basket, she attempted and missed a fade-away that looked unnecessary late in the second quarter. Megan Culmo attributed that to tiredness, and I think she was probably right about that.
 
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Outside shooting is going drive how good this team will become. They also passed up quite a few open looks, Williams in particular had some wide open looks and hesitated and waited for someone to guard her before doing anything.

The freshmen looked good, but this wasn’t much of a test. But this is going to be the worst UConn will be for a while.

Enjoy this run.
 
Ralph said:
not wanting to be a downer but:
18 turnovers against UMass Lowell????? Better be first game jitters.
Once again the other team played great free throw defense against Liv. She got bailed out of one miss by a UConn lane violation. As Geno said, "I don't know why the other team doesn't foul her all the time." I kept hoping she could move from a 50% shooter to at least 60% or maybe 65%. Nope. Remember when we all said Charlie Collier's great games were against weak teams. But she did shoot 90%, averaged over 30 points, etc. Liv missed 4 or 5 shots on one possession. The type of sequence when Geno says she was building up her rebound numbers.
If Paige cannot overcome bias against a freshman AA, I don't see an AA on the floor today.
UMass Lowell got a number of wide open shots, defense just broke down.
Seemed like a lot of dribbling at times.
Some long stretches with no points.
UMass Lowell is a team that past UConn teams would score 110 points on. This team would not have won us free wings if we were allowed in the stands.
I think we need to see big improvement on Tuesday, and more on Thursday. But I will settle for just seeing us play.

but with all that, they all played better than I could, even Chassion.
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IMO it's not unusual to have that many TO's given the situation. So many new players and different combinations of players. That will reslove as time goes on. But it will not happen overnight.
 
Cuango said:
I am fairly sure that we didn’t score 100+ by design. There is no way that Geno would allow a humiliating score line when they are playing Shea’s husband’s team. I’m sure Geno is extremely grateful that he accepted the game at all. I thank him as well! We finally got to see what we have been waiting for.
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I’m fairly sure that’s not correct and you can easily check the box score to verify that UCONN had the same number of FGA in the first half (32) as it did in the second half. Several UCONN players played poorly to keep the final score below 100. Unless you think the design was for CW and Liv to combine to shoot 10 for 26.
 
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JoePgh said:
Liv has the ability to be a dominant post player, and I think she showed that in the first half of today's game. I would attribute the sequence in the third quarter where she missed four or five shots on one possession to her being tired and not really in game shape. I would not expect to see that continue, but note how she relentlessly went after all those rebounds!

After she made several shots in the first half on aggressive moves to the basket, she attempted and missed a fade-away that looked unnecessary late in the second quarter. Megan Culmo attributed that to tiredness, and I think she was probably right about that.
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Where has Liv ever shown the ability to be a dominant post?
 
Let me ask some of the most loyal fans in the world this question. When was the last time that five Freshman played 39% of the game minutes in the teams first game of the season at UConn? Also, when was the last time a Freshman was selected as the Player of the Game by SNY In their first game ever played. Paige played 36 of the 78 minutes played by the Freshman and except for a couple of plays she DID NOT look like a Freshman. I think we have a PG for the next 4 years.
 
Really great to finally see them play.

Only one game, so don't want to jump to many conclusions, but Paige looks like she will be the best player on the team by the tournament (if not sooner), Edwards is very strong and won't get pushed around by anyone, and Mir looks very athletic. Evina looked good and really let the game come to her (didn't force it). The juniors were OK (but this was only 1 game). I really like the overall defensive effort/potential, we have some really aggressive 1:1 defenders.

We'll know much more in 10 days (assuming they play)
 
Paige is superb; she's everything I expected. All of the things she did at Hopkins, she was able to do in her first college game. She never forces anything; everything she does is calculated. Her centeredness is rare except in great players. She is never out of control. She can score as much as necessary, but she makes everyone around her better. Note the very quiet 17pts. Please note, too, the 9 rebounds. Like 'Pheesa and Gabby, Paige seems to know exactly where the ball is going when it comes off the backboard--a natural rebounder.
I love that I get to watch her for (at least) 4 years . . .
 
As usual I am late to post, most has already been said, so briefly and mostly about the newbies Paige is the Bomb, Aubrey and Mir, there is some greyhound in those Huskies. Evina looked smooth. AE will be a load. Nika looks a half step slowed by her foot injury. Piath will improve. For the most part not bad for a first game with so many new players, when the court spacing gets better and the players blend we will be awed.
 
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