USC Post Game

[DefenseBB]

Ashlynn does not get enough love. Her 3-ball is a thing of beauty. I am glad that she is still being aggressive with her shot. What really stands out about Ashlynn and what I love, she is always in motion and working the angles on both ends of the floor. That is what makes her such a huge rebounder, especially on the offensive side of things.

Ash is the most effective “blue collar player in the WCBB game” right now. Love her grit, tenacity, vigilance and “team first” passion but I would not call her shot a thing of beauty. Her arc trajectory is fine but her guide hand comes off the ball too soon, which can result in awry shots on the 3-pt attempts, she also has too much back spin on her shot. You don’t have to look far-Azzi’s shot is a thing of beauty.

The profile of Ash’s shot is why she is “streaky” as some nights her shot alignment is dead on and she looks awesome, other nights…not so much.

But yes, I do think she is a bit under appreciated by pundits outside of our program. I also think the other teams find her a bit of an agitator, who is constantly in their face, disrupting them and not quite sure how this can be happening…

 

[Huskee11]

UConn was behind 9-8 with 5:14 to go in the first quarter. They were up 32-11 until a basket by USC made it 32-13 with 2:50 to go in the second quarter.

So, over a stretch of over 12 minutes, USC scored two points.

To me, that was the story of the game.

UConn left quite a few points on the board with missed layups and missed open shots. There were some beautiful back cuts, and some outstanding stretches (especially the third quarter, 30 points) but overall the level of offensive execution was probably not quite up to UConn's lofty standard. However, it did not matter at all since their defense was so suffocating.

I have mentioned before that I had the opportunity to see their open practice on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and the intensity with which they practice defense translates to how they play in the games. They are individually outstanding defenders but they also practice obsessively on defending as a team, so an opponent who manages to get by her defender is invariably met by someone else. They switch seamlessly and they can defend multiple positions.

Blanca seems like the perfect player to come off the bench midway or late in the first quarter when the opponents' starters are starting to feel a little tired from the intense pressure they have already faced. We saw that against USC.

 

[YKCornelius]

My memory must be getting worse than I thought. Who's the blonde on the end?

Kelly Schumacher

 

[Huskie837]

Just started watching the game. Wife had me on a holiday party leash all evening. Blanca, KK and K9 at the top of the press seems like a lethal weapon. That’s a whole lotta aggravation! AND…I think it’s pretty clear that UCONN players will not be taking part in the untucked jersey thing. I do see why players find it more comfortable. Just an observation.

Yep, those "holiday party leash(es)" got me big time when we played USC in Hartford last year.....

 

[MSGRET]

Xavier scored more first half points against UConn than USC, 25 to 17.

 

[dtbtbtb]

Defense, Defense, Defense...this game was an amazing display of individual and team defense. What impresses me more than anything about the defense is how well in tune the players are with each other to constantly communicate and cover for one another on all switches. This is a national championship level defense.

 

[BobbyJ]

BobbyJ, don’t confuse talent with a lack of a coaching scheme or system. Gottlieb will never be accused of being an “Xs and Os” savant. This team has plenty of highly ranked talent but no coaching plan to get them to play together and elevate each others game. Losing Juju, who basically had card blanche to do whatever she wanted (ie volume shooting) masked a lot of the coaching ills but now, with her out, they were relying on Jazzy to fill that void…

Yes, I’m well aware of Gottlieb’s deficiencies. However, the only highly ranked talent I see is Smith, Davidson, Watkins who is out, and Saniyah Hall who doesn’t arrive until next season. And unfortunately for Gottlieb they all play various levels of the same game and positions. The rest are nothing special. The reason USC was good last year was because they had Marshall and Iriafen inside to play defense and get the ball for Watkins. They don’t have that now and won’t have it next year. Someone better explain to Gottlieb how to get everyone involved in small ball or next year could be another problem.

 

[huskeynut]

Another one here who had a Christmas party late yesterday. Tried to follow on my phone but I ran low on juice.

As to the game, our defense is probably the best I seen in a number of years. When we saw UConn play USF, we saw the intensity in the eyes of the UConn players. They were determined to stop USF on every play. Last night was the same.

USC's offense is leaderless. Who's the point guard - Jazzy? Their offense is stagnant. A lot of that was probably do to UConn's defense. Gottlieb looked confused when the cameras caught her.

Sarah was sick and the team picked up the slack. That's huge.

I am curious as to why Geno's sub pattern was so different. Outside of Blanca and K9, the rest of the bench was invisible.

 

[BBallF]

What’s the saying? This is the worse she will ever play. Blanca has a wonderful place to grow her game.

Only once last night I saw her build up speed going to the basket and miss the shot with only one defender. Yep, just a little out of control.

Once she learns to slow just enough to still be in control of her body. . .
😎 👍

..."it's Katie bar the door" if you know who Les Keiter was.

 

[Suebird10fan]

Kelly Schumacher

Ahhh, Schuey! I’m always happy to be reminded of one of my all time faves, and probably my all time favorite game, the Block Party, aka championship #2.

 

[Suebird10fan]

There is a clear stratification in WBB. At the top there is UConn, TX, SC, UCLA & maybe LSU. After that there’s a handful of good teams: MI, OK & ?. Then there’s a bunch of teams that are ranked in the top 25, like USC, but seem deficient in one way or the other. Then there’s a vast amount of cupcakes that give up 100 pts to the BIG girl teams.

Agree x 1,000 on stratification but a) Michigan is definitely in the first group imo and b) it’s the first group and everyone else.

 

[rugbymate]

How did I forget this and surely others have said this above. USC's shot selection was horrible. I have to believe that is a reflection of UConn's defensive pressure getting into their heads. "Shoot it quick, they're coming!" Surely they are a better team than that. Gottleib is a very good coach, but some of those shots were inexplicable. I have no recollection of time outs other than the obligatory feed the commercials ones, but tell me Lindsay took a few???

In the post game press conference Gottleib said that our defense forced the to play fast offense and hence the ineffectiveness. She implied that they are a much better team in a slower paced game. The coach and players said the right thing in particular that their team could learn from this experience and grow their game. It struck me how our quality and depth of players allows our defense to be so disruptive that it becomes a huge competitive advantage.
On another note, at the beginning of the press conference Gottleib, a Brown graduate, was informed of the tragedy. It was incredibly sad. Not sure how she got through it but my respect for her is has grown a lot.

 

[oldude]

Agree x 1,000 on stratification but a) Michigan is definitely in the first group imo and b) it’s the first group and everyone else.

We’ll see about MI. I know the Wolverines gave the Huskies a scare. But they were down 20 when UConn went ice cold and Swords couldn’t miss. I tend to think that was a “one off.” But time will tell. If they give UCLA a run for their money in the BIG, then I agree that MI belongs in the 1st group.

 

[DefenseBB]

Yes, I’m well aware of Gottlieb’s deficiencies. However, the only highly ranked talent I see is Smith, Davidson, Watkins who is out, and Saniyah Hall who doesn’t arrive until next season. And unfortunately for Gottlieb they all play various levels of the same game and positions. The rest are nothing special. The reason USC was good last year was because they had Marshall and Iriafen inside to play defense and get the ball for Watkins. They don’t have that now and won’t have it next year. Someone better explain to Gottlieb how to get everyone involved in small ball or next year could be another problem.

So,, we may have a very different opinion of talent but given there are 356 teams in D1, this Trojan team has 7 active players that were all ranked in the HoopGurlz top 100 not counting Juju. Of course this cannot match up with UConn but is still as talented as most teams outside the top 8 in the country and less talented than Duke who is no longer ranked.

Smith was the highest ranked at #6
Londyn Jones was #22
Vivian Iwuchukwa was #47 (6'3")
Malia Samuels was #49
Lian Forrestier was #54 (another small guard)
Kara Dunn transfer from Georgia Tech and that you noted as 5'11" was ranked #61
Laura Williams #92

Gerda Raulusaityte is from Lithuania 6'3" for size and would not be ranked
Yaya Milton is a transfer from Auburn at 6'5" who is supposed to help inside.
Dayana Mendes is 6'3" transfer from Wash State and from France where she played in their professional league so she does have talent.

So you size comment is spot on but still this team has talent and some size-it's not like we played Serah and Jana together and they only played 29 min combined so the size disparity was not the sole reason for their loss.

20 turnovers, 16-53 shooting (30%) will cause more issues from the guard play than solve issues.

 

[BobbyJ]

So,, we may have a very different opinion of talent but given there are 356 teams in D1, this Trojan team has 7 active players that were all ranked in the HoopGurlz top 100 not counting Juju. Of course this cannot match up with UConn but is still as talented as most teams outside the top 8 in the country and less talented than Duke who is no longer ranked.

Smith was the highest ranked at #6
Londyn Jones was #22
Vivian Iwuchukwa was #47 (6'3")
Malia Samuels was #49
Lian Forrestier was #54 (another small guard)
Kara Dunn transfer from Georgia Tech and that you noted as 5'11" was ranked #61
Laura Williams #92

Gerda Raulusaityte is from Lithuania 6'3" for size and would not be ranked
Yaya Milton is a transfer from Auburn at 6'5" who is supposed to help inside.
Dayana Mendes is 6'3" transfer from Wash State and from France where she played in their professional league so she does have talent.

So you size comment is spot on but still this team has talent and some size-it's not like we played Serah and Jana together and they only played 29 min combined so the size disparity was not the sole reason for their loss.

20 turnovers, 16-53 shooting (30%) will cause more issues from the guard play than solve issues.

Yeah, I don't pay much attention to HS rankings and what the better players do against HS competition. I evaluate what I see them do against D1 college players. And I don't see these USC kids doing much at this level. This team has only played 3 decent teams this year, SC, ND, and Washington and they couldn't get out of the 50s against any of them and only won one. They can't shoot, don't pass well, and can't get into an offense. Teams with serious talent can do those things against most teams and they can't. So I'm comfortable with my assessment of their talent level.

 

[Husky fanatic]

I am slowly but surely leaning into the idea that this team may be the best defensive team that UConn has ever put on the court. The Huskies depth, connectedness, relentless effort, size and quickness make them an absolute nightmare for everyone they face. What other team in WBB could hold a talented USC team to just 17 points in the 1st half?

Texas?

 

[HuskyNan]

Please stay on topic

 

[oldude]

Yeah, I don't pay much attention to HS rankings and what the better players do against HS competition. I evaluate what I see them do against D1 college players. And I don't see these USC kids doing much at this level. This team has only played 3 decent teams this year, SC, ND, and Washington and they couldn't get out of the 50s against any of them and only won one. They can't shoot, don't pass well, and can't get into an offense. Teams with serious talent can do those things against most teams and they can't. So I'm comfortable with my assessment of their talent level.

I tend to agree with your assessment. But at the same time, Gottlieb has gravitated to a “ball dominant” offense, featuring one superstar. The last 2 seasons it was Watkins. Now it’s Davidson. If Watkins comes back next year along with Davidson and Hall, it will be interesting to see just how well they play together with only one basketball between them.

The buzz out of USC following the departures of Kayleigh, Howell and others was that there was a two-tiered system that favored the stars (JuJu & Iriafen). This lead to some resentment and the eventual departures of several key role players for the Women of Troy.

 

[oldude]

Texas?

Not even close.

 

[uh-no]

We all know what Azzi can do offensively, but yesterday I was most impressed with her defense. Azzi had a reputation as a good defender, but her injuries have prevented us from seeing it before this year. Her defense on Jazzy was a master class.

she worked insanely hard on her defense the past summer.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

In the post game press conference Gottleib said that our defense forced the to play fast offense and hence the ineffectiveness. She implied that they are a much better team in a slower paced game. The coach and players said the right thing in particular that their team could learn from this experience and grow their game. It struck me how our quality and depth of players allows our defense to be so disruptive that it becomes a huge competitive advantage.
On another note, at the beginning of the press conference Gottleib, a Brown graduate, was informed of the tragedy. It was incredibly sad. Not sure how she got through it but my respect for her is has grown a lot.

I'll go look for her conference. Thanks

 

[Linart]

I don’t care who is the NPOY or 1st team AA in any substantial way. But it is a convenient way to measure our favorite players. Azzi and Sarah’s stats won’t be the gaudiest in the conversation unless maybe it’s some advanced metric like BPM. But what is likely to become obvious, assuming we win out in the regular season, is that they are the anchors of a dominant team in D1. That context will likely count for something. It seemed to have in Paige’s first season.

The only major tests that remain are Iowa ND and Tennessee, and it’s not clear how major they really are at this point. As the conference schedule begins, our SOS is likely to decline quite a bit and stats will tell even less of the story for Azzi and Sarah.

But 1st team AA gets you on The Wall.

 

[skidroe]

While watching the game last night, alone with headphones on, I noticed the score and was compelled to text a good buddy "there's 7:54 left in the third quarter and USC has 17 points." As I wrote the text, I actually laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all. I've been thinking as I watch all the games that at some point we are going to play some team that can actually make shots (like MI) and not all the cupcakes we play (like DePaul). But after watching USC's futile attempts to score, I'm starting to think maybe no one is going to "make shots" against our defense. Still, I worry about Texas, UCLA, Oklahoma, LSU, etc; confident teams that are putting up 80, 90 points per game.

 

[FanSince17]

I tend to agree with your assessment. But at the same time, Gottlieb has gravitated to a “ball dominant” offense, featuring one superstar. The last 2 seasons it was Watkins. Now it’s Davidson. If Watkins comes back next year along with Davidson and Hall, it will be interesting to see just how well they play together with only one basketball between them.

The buzz out of USC following the departures of Kayleigh, Howell and others was that there was a two-tiered system that favored the stars (JuJu & Iriafen). This lead to some resentment and the eventual departures of several key role players for the Women of Troy.

But they were still able to pickup the #1 recruit, Hall, who was also the MVP of the USA team she played on. Go figure! People liking the warm weather? LA?

 

[oldude]

While watching the game last night, alone with headphones on, I noticed the score and was compelled to text a good buddy "there's 7:54 left in the third quarter and USC has 17 points." As I wrote the text, I actually laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all. I've been thinking as I watch all the games that at some point we are going to play some team that can actually make shots (like MI) and not all the cupcakes we play (like DePaul). But after watching USC's futile attempts to score, I'm starting to think maybe no one is going to "make shots" against our defense. Still, I worry about Texas, UCLA, Oklahoma, LSU, etc; confident teams that are putting up 80, 90 points per game.

MI had exactly 5 pts at the end of the 1st qtr, but did manage all of 27 at the half.