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UNC Postgame (merged)

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Lots of work left before this team reaches its potential...missed, open shots, trouble finding the open player, and not enough help from anyone not named Bueckers or Strong.
We did lots of things right, but really need to get better before playing ND, SC, USC and others.
 
The team shoots 7-29 from 3 take away one player they are 3-21 and still win comfortably. Not going to have that shootong (3-21 nom=Paige) happen very often.

And Sarah Strong is special. Her strenghth is her knowledge of the game and her passing. Every game a terrific 3pt shooter could be off as we saw tonight. But a very good passer will more consiistently be a very good passer. UCONN has 2. Thus the opposing defenses will more than likley always have to hope for misses like what happened tonight. So many were great looks.

I am so eager to see Sarah staritng hitting 3's. She may take more mid-range for a time but if she can hit 3's, her and Paige will be devatasting.
 
Paige is all world, and Sarah is already one of the better players in WBB. Question is: who will step up to be that 3rd option?
By the way, Sarah got some of the best hands in UConn history...reminds me of Phee in that aspect.
 
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oldude said:
Some thoughts on the UNC game:
  • The Huskies passed a Big Test today against a very good team. The last time UConn WBB won a regular season game on the road, against a ranked, non-BE team, in that team’s home state, with actual fans in the stands was almost 6 years ago, in December 2018 at Cal. It’s about damned time that streak has ended.
  • The Huskies were on a roll until UNC went to a zone. After putting up 16 in the 1st qtr, Paige only had 2 in the 2nd qtr. Other players needed to step up. In the 3rd qtr, UConn got some offensive production from Paige’s teammates and the Huskies were able to extend their lead. In the 4th qtr, UConn slowed it down and hung on.
  • Sarah continues to impress with her all-around game, poise and ability to stuff a stat sheet. She had a nice game in front of her homies. I am amazed at how many times Sarah gets her hands on the ball, making steals, blocking shots and coming down with rebounds in traffic.
  • Some really nice post defense from both Ice and Sarah. UNC's starting forwards, Gakdeng & Ustby were a combined 2/10 with 5 points in total.
  • I hate the double 3-pt line. Twice during the game, Kaitlyn buried a shot from the corner that Rebecca called as a 3, but she was only behind the inner line which made it a 2. I have no idea why Greensboro still has the inner line. It serves no purpose. :(
  • UConn missed a bunch of open 3's tonight. Azzi can't get back in the lineup soon enough.
  • This is a game the Huskies learned some things about themselves that they can build off of.
  • So let the celebration begin. Geno and CD have tied Tara for the most coaching wins in the history of college basketball with 1,215 wins. I’m going way out on a limb here. ;) Next Wednesday at Gampel against FDU, with many former players in attendance, Geno & CD will become the winningest coaches in the history of college basketball!!!
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1216!
 
Happydad745 said:
Lots of work left before this team reaches its potential...missed, open shots, trouble finding the open player, and not enough help from anyone not named Bueckers or Strong.
We did lots of things right, but really need to get better before playing ND, SC, USC and others.
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It's the 3rd game of the season...
 
Paige and Sarah were great. Can you imagine when the 3s start falling?

Ice was really solid and what was needed. If she can do that in games against ranked teams, her place is solidified. Although one more point and rebound would have made it just right.

I agree Chen seemed nervous and the double arc screwed her a couple times. They need to outlaw the inner arc now that the line has changed.

Shade was disappointing. She has a tendency to struggle in big games and she needs to get over it. That's probably the one thing that hurts her the most in the decision to keep her spot versus Azzi.

Well we know Jana will be the official's phantom foul getter... a couple of those were complete jokes.

I hope they learn from this game and gain maturity to sustain leads and work in a zone. After this game a lot of teams are going to try it.
 
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A game of several phases...Paige was all world in the 1st quarter...There was nothing anyone could do about her ability to get into a position to score. Somewhat less so thereafter until the last few minutes in which she hit a few timely shots to end any thought of a North Carolina comeback

After the first quarter, certainly in the 2nd half it was more of a grind it out game in which our 43% shooting basically tells the story.

Courtney Banghart is an excellent coach, set up some excellent defenses.made it difficult to get good shots, especially in the paint and tonight, UConn's three shooting was unexceptional....which made it almost a game. But UConn's defense, notably Strong made it an even more miserable experience for the better NC shooters.

A gripe...not against either team...Being an old-timer...I remember when the purpose of the announcers was to tell us what was happening on the floor, to acknowledge who came in and out of the game, to tell the score (perhaps not necessary with it on the screen) and to clearly indicate who fouls are on...Did they even say that Chen fouled out?...If they did, I must have missed it.

Among eligible players Q never got in...Is Geno relegating her?
 
Happydad745 said:
Lots of work left before this team reaches its potential...missed, open shots, trouble finding the open player, and not enough help from anyone not named Bueckers or Strong.
We did lots of things right, but really need to get better before playing ND, SC, USC and others.
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I don't know of any team that will reach its potential after playing its first three games of the season.
 
It bothered me during the game when we were well in front that Ashlynn, Morgan, Allie and Sarah were missing almost every 3 they tried. I was wondering why he was using Morgan and Allie under these circumstances but Geno knows what he was doing...giving them experience while resting others. And Ashlynn and Sarah were in there at the end.
All in all, a good win and I never felt we were going to lose it in the end, we have Paige and Sarah and Ice. And hopefully Jana learns from this game and continues to improve.
And I have it recorded!!!
On to FDU.
 
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I promise that I will not be one of those fans who questions Geno's substitutions after every game.
But I hope that Quadence Samuels doesn't fall by the wayside with all of the newcomers taking away her playing time. Q was a valuable teammate off the bench last year & she accepted every role asked of her. I am anxious to see how much she has progressed after her freshman year.
 
jaydee602 said:
I promise that I will not be one of those fans who questions Geno's substitutions after every game.
But I hope that Quadence Samuels doesn't fall by the wayside with all of the newcomers taking away her playing time. Q was a valuable teammate off the bench last year & she accepted every role asked of her. I am anxious to see how much she has progressed after her freshman year.
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Her defense isn’t yet up to the level that was needed tonight.
 
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Few observations
Geno put Allie Ziebell in a very tough spot
No minutes in the first half and goes in in the 4th
With no Paige in the game and the game getting
Close her defense will need to improve to get meaningful minutes
Morgan can play
Best overall game I’ve seen from ice
Few minutes of the four guards and SS was impressive
Offense flows better with Kk at point
SS is a very good 3 point shooter unfortunately
It hasn’t showed
Can see why GA aggressively recruited
Ciera toomey very impressive after multiple surgeries and not having played for 2 years
 
When Geno finally gets the starting rotation right, this team is going to be real dangerous. KK and Jana should be starting now and the second Azzi is ready, she will start also. KK plays much better defense and Jana's floor is the same as Ice's while her upside is much much higher. Jana needs those minutes to develop. 3-21 from 3 for those not named Paige. That's lower than 15%.
 
Centerstream said:
Did Kaitlyn actually foul out? I don't remember her being mentioned for being in foul trouble Or the announcers mention it when she left the court.
Edit: upon instant review, it was at the 54.3 mark of the 4th. The announcers missed it.
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That's where we are with announcers...producers etc...blab, blab, blab
They all missed it
 
ConnManFan said:
When Geno finally gets the starting rotation right, this team is going to be real dangerous. KK and Jana should be starting now and the second Azzi is ready, she will start also. KK plays much better defense and Jana's floor is the same as Ice's while her upside is much much higher. Jana needs those minutes to develop. 3-21 from 3 for those not named Paige. That's lower than 15%.
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I agree with you regarding KK
You and I must have watched different games
If you think Jana is a more effective player than ice right now
 
Allie didn't enter the game until the mid-4th quarter, when no one else was hitting 3's. I think Geno was hoping that she would hit a couple of 3's and light a fire for the rest of the offense. But her two 3-point attempts weren't especially close (the second one was an air ball, which might be a new experience for her), and on defense she gave up a 3 by not guarding the opponent closely enough.

I think it was nerves. We probably won't see the "real Allie" until she gets enough minutes to get her nerves under control, and I'm not sure when that is going to happen against good competition.

Sarah's 3-point shooting difficulties are harder to explain, since she shows absolutely no nerves in any other aspect of her game, and she obviously gets plenty of minutes. One has to assume that she will eventually revert to her long-term average for 3-point shooting, which is much better than what she has shown in the first three games.

This is the first game where Ice clearly played better than Jana. They both rebounded at about the same rate: Ice got 9 rebounds (3 offensive) in 25 minutes, and Jana got 4 rebounds (1 offensive) in 12 minutes. UConn as a whole out-rebounded UNC by 41-37, and both teams got the same number of offensive rebounds (11). Since both teams had post players who were about the same size and level of experience, that was a creditable performance for UConn. It helps that UConn's most inexperienced post player (Sarah) had 13 rebounds (2 offensive) in 38 minutes -- not to mention 5 blocks. Those who said that she prefers to hang out on the perimeter are dead wrong.
 
The UConn half court offense continues to be ineffective and painful to watch. Way too conservative approach always against tough competition. Forget the “play not to lose” approach and play up tempo full court basketball now that there is serious depth with more help on the way. Should have won this game by 25 plus despite the abysmal perimeter shooting.
 
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ConnManFan said:
When Geno finally gets the starting rotation right, this team is going to be real dangerous. KK and Jana should be starting now and the second Azzi is ready, she will start also. KK plays much better defense and Jana's floor is the same as Ice's while her upside is much much higher. Jana needs those minutes to develop. 3-21 from 3 for those not named Paige. That's lower than 15%.
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No way KK and Jana should be starting (yet). KK doesn't look to score enough and Jana isn't ready in multiple ways. Just a case of getting more reps but not as a starter yet. Coming off the bench for both of them serves the team very well.
 
My thought at the end of the first quarter was that as nice as it is to see Paige dominate the offense and put up big numbers - and it really is fun to see all the things she can do - I don't want UConn to be a pretty good team with one superstar. I don't think that is the case, no, I know it isn't the case, not with Sarah in the house. But as the game went on and open shots weren't falling it did get frustrating. I know the team is young and will get better against good competition, but as yet the team still needs to prove that they can win on days Paige is having an off night. I think they can and will. Hopefully.

We got a road win against a pretty good team. It was closer than it should have been but still a win. I'll take it.
 
REB1094 said:
It’s a game of runs, and our runs were better than theirs. Got a little scary at times but we clamped up on defense when it mattered to put the game away. I will happily take a double digit win against a top 15 team where we led for 39 minutes

We saw aggressive Paige tonight. She can truly drop 25+ any night she decides to. What a game from her

I said it after the first game this season, but I think we’re all really going to like Sarah Strong. I feel pretty confident saying she’s our 2nd best player already

Let’s go Huskies!!
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We tend to play off the ball handler giving them open 3 pointers. In a couple of other cases, we missed defensive assignments when NC inbounded. If we tighten that up and keep a good pace of play, not many teams can keep up with us. Our three-point shooting can only be better. We have a lot of upside. Loved our inside defensive effort, especially Sarah and Ice were terrific tonight. We seemed to play much better at a faster tempo and have the bench to make that a hallmark of this team.
 
Paige played 37 minutes... sigh. Need Azzi back soon.
Sarah was awesome even when she couldn't buy a 3. If she'd merely hit 2 out of 7 the game wouldn't have been close. 3 out of 7 and we'd be calling it a blowout. I doubt she stays this cold for much longer.
Morgan played good D even though the stats don't really show it.
Allie couldn't get anything going -- @Zonepress is right, Geno put her in an impossible situation
Kaitlyn still has some work to do, though the stats (except PFs) suggest otherwise.
KK looked better than the stats show.
Ash couldn't hit anything, though she played decent defense
Jana was hamstrung by 2 early fouls, but held it together and was an intimidator for her 12 minutes.
I liked Ice's game. She faced a tough challenge and played good D and controlled the boards for her 24 minutes. Interestingly, Geno sat both of them for 4 minutes and played small ball with Sarah in the post. This is a workable model for him.

It was their first game against a ranked opponent and they learned something from it -- I hope. One thing they had to recognize is how much better than every player in D1 Paige is. They got a glimpse of greatness tonight and saw how much they need her.
 
3rd game. Away. New faces. Still experimenting. Went about as I expected. Geno could have put Paige back in earlier when the lead dwindled, but I think he was seeing what a little game pressure would do. If you downgraded Azzi...see why she's important? I rarely complain about refs, but a couple calls on Jana were TERBL!
 
Surly1 said:
Great win and our freshman had their welcome to big-time basketball in a hostile environment.
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Did not feel like a hostile environment. The crowd was at least as loud for UConn as for UNC.
 

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