UNC Postgame Thread

[Woof]

UCLA beat MN by 24. But MN got called for 19 fouls whereas UNC only got called for 9!!! The refs are our biggest concern. You want to know why KK was less aggressive on offense, fouls weren't called. Why did we have missed layups? Fouls weren't called. Why we couldn't get open looks from three as often as we usually do? Fouls weren't called.

It is comical that anyone would criticize KK at this point. She is an absolute menace on defense, handles the ball extremely well, runs the offense well and even her shooting has been good this year.

I agree that Blanca needs to play more. The more she plays, the better she gets, period. But it shouldn't come at the expense of Serah, who also needs more reps. And we WILL need her. Yes, her hands could be better but, also, fouls.

Ash is the one that needs to play less. I love her hustle and toughness but she is also a liability on defense and her shooting has been off most of the year. Blanca needs to play more but not at the expense of Serah. At least, not entirely. Those minutes should also come from Ash. Hell, Allie should be taking some of Ash's minutes too.

 

[ABCDFE]

Excuse me but your criticism of KK is unwarranted and your analysis is erroneous. I agree that Blanca and SS had very good games and carried us offensively but to say that we were playing 4 on 5 due to KK and that “our guards” have to play better to take pressure off Azzi is ridiculous. Azzi (who’s the best SG in the country) is the guard who plays the most minutes on the team and had an off night shooting, Ash plays the 2nd most minutes and is a guard and had a bad game compared to her usual high standards. Meanwhile if you were watching KK she made great passes and handled the ball well but her usually reliable shooters were just missing shots that they usually make so her assist totals were down but she was still relentless and incredibly effective on defense, NC only had 30 points through 3 quarters!!! My point is that she did her job as usual and maybe had to slow it down a bit because circumstances so dictated, but to say it was 4 on 5 due to her is egregiously wrong. So what supposed guards are supposed to be playing better to take the pressure off of Azzi,who actually thrives under pressure? We beat a 4 seed decisively despite a sub par offensive performance, let’s just leave it at that rather than unfairly and mistakenly assign blame for no reason.

Let’s agree to disagree. KK, Ash will NEED to play better because Blanca is a freshman and we can’t expect her to play lights out in the biggest games even though she has this far. So in reality when we play the top teams like SC, Texas, UCLA and LSU it will be a tight game because those teams have the personnel to score even against our vaunted defense. So if we’re not playing well on offense at two our guard spots it will DEFINITELY be an issue. Another reality is NC lost to ND by 23 I believe during the season so it is absolutely important not to get too ahead our ourselves in thinking we can just weather any storm because YOU believe we have KK who can pass and defend and Ash plays a lot of minutes and we beat a top 15 team by 21. That’s why the eye test and watching all the games matter. Scoring margin doesn’t really tell the whole story.

Furthermore it’s not just me who has said KK needs to be more offensively and can show defenses she can hit a shot. Geno himself has said as much in interviews when talking about KKs development. So are you also calling Geno’s comments on KK needs to be a scorer and not let defenses sag and play off of her erroneous? Unfortunately nothing you’ve said changes my view and I don’t believe anything I’ve said is erroneous.

It looks like you’re relatively new to BY. However your usage of the word “erroneous”has me thinking of another poster here….hmmm 🤔

 

[hoophuskee]

She was diving all over the floor for loose balls. I think her stamina was fine.

It was "non-stars" I would consider her a "star" at this point (or at least "star adjacent").

UConn needs larger offensive contribution for the "role players." They are too reliant of Sarah and Azzi plus what Blanca can find a way to contribute on her own.

I don't agree with the context. OFC you don't want several players shooting 24% but they will go as far as their superstars take them.

 

[hoophuskee]

Let’s agree to disagree. KK, Ash will NEED to play better because Blanca is a freshman and we can’t expect her to play lights out in the biggest games even though she has this far. So in reality when we play the top teams like SC, Texas, UCLA and LSU it will be a tight game because those teams have the personnel to score even against our vaunted defense. So if we’re not playing well on offense at two our guard spots it will DEFINITELY be an issue. Another reality is NC lost to ND by 23 I believe during the season so it is absolutely important not to get too ahead our ourselves in thinking we can just weather any storm because YOU believe we have KK who can pass and defend and Ash plays a lot of minutes and we beat a top 15 team by 21. That’s why the eye test and watching all the games matter. Scoring margin doesn’t really tell the whole story.

Furthermore it’s not just me who has said KK needs to be more offensively and can show defenses she can hit a shot. Geno himself has said as much in interviews when talking about KKs development. So are you also calling Geno’s comments on KK needs to be a scorer and not let defenses sag and play off of her erroneous? Unfortunately nothing you’ve said changes my view and I don’t believe anything I’ve said is erroneous.

It looks like you’re relatively new to BY. However your usage of the word “erroneous”has me thinking of another poster here….hmmm 🤔

Don't agree with your context at all. ND beat UNC by 23 on Jan 11th. If we're going to go back that far then lets go back to the UCONN vs ND game. IMO you're cherry-picking.

 

[Centerstream]

UCLA beat MN by 24. But MN got called for 19 fouls whereas UNC only got called for 9!!! The refs are our biggest concern. You want to know why KK was less aggressive on offense, fouls weren't called. Why did we have missed layups? Fouls weren't called. Why we couldn't get open looks from three as often as we usually do? Fouls weren't called.

There was one instance where Serah missed a layup and it looked like Geno was going to go ballistic. Then the foul was called on her defender. So, I'm not sure who Geno was going to go after, Serah for the miss or the ref for the miss...

 

[uconnfan68]

UConn got 30 minutes on the court at 5:30 am. These double regionals are great for ESPN; disaster for the players.

Thought this was to guarantee sellouts. Saw lots of empty seats there.

 

[H Dog]

Let’s agree to disagree. KK, Ash will NEED to play better because Blanca is a freshman and we can’t expect her to play lights out in the biggest games even though she has this far. So in reality when we play the top teams like SC, Texas, UCLA and LSU it will be a tight game because those teams have the personnel to score even against our vaunted defense. So if we’re not playing well on offense at two our guard spots it will DEFINITELY be an issue. Another reality is NC lost to ND by 23 I believe during the season so it is absolutely important not to get too ahead our ourselves in thinking we can just weather any storm because YOU believe we have KK who can pass and defend and Ash plays a lot of minutes and we beat a top 15 team by 21. That’s why the eye test and watching all the games matter. Scoring margin doesn’t really tell the whole story.

Furthermore it’s not just me who has said KK needs to be more offensively and can show defenses she can hit a shot. Geno himself has said as much in interviews when talking about KKs development. So are you also calling Geno’s comments on KK needs to be a scorer and not let defenses sag and play off of her erroneous? Unfortunately nothing you’ve said changes my view and I don’t believe anything I’ve said is erroneous.

It looks like you’re relatively new to BY. However your usage of the word “erroneous”has me thinking of another poster here….hmmm 🤔

We can agree to disagree but you have misinterpreted much of what I was saying. All our guards ( including Azzi) need to play better than they did tonight for us to be performing optimally or close to it which is ideally what we would like to see in the elite 8 and hopefully FF. Ash and Azzi in particular were off as were others but saying or implying it was KK’s fault or that she and Ash need to be better so Azzi doesn’t have pressure on her to perform is wrong was what I thought I was trying to convey. In particular Geno’s comments that you were referring to were made at the beginning of the season and he’s since said that KK has exceeded all of his expectations and is probably the most improved player on the team. She has shot 57% from the field and 35% from the 3 point line and leads the nation in assist to turnover ratio and spearheads the nations best defense. so I don’t know how you can say or imply that we are not playing well at 2 guard spots when our SG (Azzi) and PG (KK) are performing as well as anyone in the country at their respective positions most games. As for your eye test comment I go to most of the home games and all Mohegan games and watch the others on tv and have for decades and reiterate that it was still a good win even though I acknowledge that several players were a bit subpar based on our standards of excellence. But it wasn’t just Ash or KK and they should not be singled out, especially KK.

 

[donalddoowop]

KK and Ash are what they are at this point. They are basically seniors. Next season is going to be the Sarah and Blanca show, but they need to find a third star that can put the ball in the hoop reliably many times per game.

They have one but she is not getting many minutes. If she got as many as Shade gets, we would see a reliable third scorer.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Geno said in Post game presser arena guys put brand new rims on before the first game and it made shots go off long!

 

[Aluminny69]

Based on the two games played today, I wonder if the rims are super tight, or the sight lines for shooters are really bad. Total points scored by 4 teams in a combine 80 minutes was 236 pts, or 59 points each. And field goal percentages was 90-245 or 36.7%. Subtract layups and I am sure it was below 30%. 3pt shooting was an abysmal 14-77 or 18.2%. Yeah, good defense but these are good shooting teams, and it was terrible.

I was worried that ND having shot 6% from three would explode against us in the elite 8, now I am not as worried since Uconn shot so poorly themselves.

Otherwise steady as we go. Blanca and Sarah getting to the rim saved the first half, while defense was great throughout.

Geno provides an explanation