USF Postgame Thread | Page 3 | The Boneyard

USF Postgame Thread

Team didn’t come out until game resumed. Let’s hope he did more Xs and Os and less of the screaming he did on sidelines. It is getting tiresome. But the team bailed his poor first half coaching out.

The team doesnt do what he tells them to do & you blame the coach?? He keeps stressing moving, cutting, etc. and all you saw in the 1st half are players standing around, while someone is holding the ball. Then, there is no hustle on rebounds, loose balls, etc. He should be screaming at them at halftime until they actually try to do the things he tells them. Enough of this "be nice" BS. Thats never been UConn's culture and should never be our culture. If players dont like it, they shouldnt play here.
 
It wasn’t a subpar game for Anna. It was a dreadful coaching job by Geno. Anna’s makes a slight mistake and gets pulled and USF rolls. Why not pull the three players who denied her assists in first few minutes. I watched her on the bench show a look that said, “When is the next flight to Poland?” The problem Geno has only one motivational technique—screaming and punishing. I suspect he may have ruined her. Crystal and Liv saved the day and it was Aubrey’s best performance. But this is the worst game I ever saw UConn play and I put it solely on miserable coaching.

Stop watching Anna and watch the game that's going on.
 
It was hard to watch in the first half. :confused:

Instead of suffering along with Bob Joyce in the 2nd half (yeah, I know they did better).

I spent a most enjoyable afternoon alternately watching L'ville wack Notre Dame big time and
A&M squeak by UTenn in Knoxville...while keeping an eye on the UConn score at ESPN

Now, knowing they pulled it out, I can go back and watch the 2nd half without heart palpitations .

Note: after open heart surgery this fall; I'm not sure I can survive watching first half play as described by Bob.:)
 
I chuckle every time I see it. One of the sets Geno has been using to generate movement is the Flex. It is at least 40 years old. I used it when I started coaching in the mid 80s. A clear indication that nothing in basketball ever really dies.
 
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It wasn’t a subpar game for Anna. It was a dreadful coaching job by Geno. Anna’s makes a slight mistake and gets pulled and USF rolls. Why not pull the three players who denied her assists in first few minutes. I watched her on the bench show a look that said, “When is the next flight to Poland?” The problem Geno has only one motivational technique—screaming and punishing. I suspect he may have ruined her. Crystal and Liv saved the day and it was Aubrey’s best performance. But this is the worst game I ever saw UConn play and I put it solely on miserable coaching.
Hey are you sure you watched the game ? The game only changed when Aubrey came in. She totally shut down their best player and caused turnovers to boot.
Anna couldn’t stay with guard who was too quick for her.
 
Did you notice team played better today with Anna on the bench she can’t handle athletic players offensively or defensively
I noticed that she would have had three more assists if plays had been completed, I noticed she had three steals, two rebounds, and started fast breaks in very limited minutes. I noticed she allowed one three, made over her in position reaching hands, followed by uncontested threes made against out of place UConn players. I noticed she played great defense while other UConn players allowed short jumpers over them. She did fine against players who were not better athletes. So, no, I didn’t notice what you did. The truth is that, as much as I have defended Geno’s coaching countless times, today I realized he was right when he said UConn won because he got great players. This year, for the first time, in ten, twenty, twenty-five years (I would have to check) he doesn’t have a legitimate first team All American on the roster and he doesn’t know what to do, how to develop and bring along the players he has. It’s one thing to coach with the absolute best, another to coach with the merely very good. He’s had a good run getting great players. Other teams are now getting their share and more. His coaching style just might not be what some recruits want. That’s life.
 
I noticed that she would have had three more assists if plays had been completed, I noticed she had three steals, two rebounds, and started fast breaks in very limited minutes. I noticed she allowed one three, made over her in position reaching hands, followed by uncontested threes made against out of place UConn players. I noticed she played great defense while other UConn players allowed short jumpers over them. She did fine against players who were not better athletes. So, no, I didn’t notice what you did. The truth is that, as much as I have defended Geno’s coaching countless times, today I realized he was right when he said UConn won because he got great players. This year, for the first time, in ten, twenty, twenty-five years (I would have to check) he doesn’t have a legitimate first team All American on the roster and he doesn’t know what to do, how to develop and bring along the players he has. It’s one thing to coach with the absolute best, another to coach with the merely very good. He’s had a good run getting great players. Other teams are now getting their share and more. His coaching style just might not be what some recruits want. That’s life.
He won because great players. No sh——
 
In more important news, Colorado failed to make one of two free throws in last seconds and allowed Stanford to win on a Hail Mary three pointer as time expired. A Stanford loss might have given UConn a higher seed.
 
Anna is fine. This team is fine.

What Anna needs to do, as Meg said in the broadcast, be ready to shoot. Good players often try to do too much. Concentrate on what you are good at, and what the team needs. Everything else comes naturally. This is the advice Geno has given to all. "Whatever it is you do best - go out and do it"
 
It wasn’t a subpar game for Anna. It was a dreadful coaching job by Geno. Anna’s makes a slight mistake and gets pulled and USF rolls. Why not pull the three players who denied her assists in first few minutes. I watched her on the bench show a look that said, “When is the next flight to Poland?” The problem Geno has only one motivational technique—screaming and punishing. I suspect he may have ruined her. Crystal and Liv saved the day and it was Aubrey’s best performance. But this is the worst game I ever saw UConn play and I put it solely on miserable coaching.

We have seats 4 rows up from court side. So our view of game action is really good. It was a poor game for Anna because she could not keep up with either Tsinike or Harvey. Both ran her off screens with ease. Geno made the right decision. Molly fared a little better.

As to the rest of your comments - I'll ignore your lack of insight into coaching.
 
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Putting Aubrey on the USF point guard completely took them out of offensive rhythm in the second half. It really was the difference maker to my eye.

By the beginning of the 4th quarter, Pinzan was at the mercy of Aubrey. Pinzan would cross center line with the ball and immediately turn sideways to try and protect the ball. Aubrey was a complete nightmare for Pinzan.
 
Team didn’t come out until game resumed. Let’s hope he did more Xs and Os and less of the screaming he did on sidelines. It is getting tiresome. But the team bailed his poor first half coaching out.

Get your facts straight. There was 2:25 on the clock before the end of halftime.
 
Team didn’t come out until game resumed. Let’s hope he did more Xs and Os and less of the screaming he did on sidelines. It is getting tiresome. But the team bailed his poor first half coaching out.
Please coach, tell us one thing, and just one, that as coach you would have done differently.
 
Love the job Aubrey did on defense (and Geno taking a risk putting her on a small guard). Not sure what he was thinking putting Anna on one of the quickest guards. Anna often matches up ok to a player of similar size but not who you would want to keep up with a quick offensive player. Would not have wanted Megan or Williams to have to guard her either.
You just answered your own question. If you don't want to put any of those players on a quick guard (and Crystal is on the other one) the only remaining option among the starters is Liv. How's that going to work?
 
It is funny to me that alternately Griffin and/or Makurat are either the second coming or horrible depending on performance game to game. IMO, Makurat was not abused on defense remotely to the extent described by some here but got a quick hook in both halves for whatever reason, coaches prerogative. The team played very well with Griffin in the 2nd half and she didn’t come back in, rightfully. But come on, Griffin had a very positive impact on the game and deserved the time she got but still made her share of poor plays. Makurat’s body language on the bench was extremely positive and engaged. Much ado about nothing IMO.
 
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I started to read this thread without having seen the game or the final score. The comments caused me to be sure we had won by no more than 12 points, more likely under 10. I was shocked when one poster mentioned the score. Hey, guys, on the road against a team that is usually tough to play, we won by 20!
 
It wasn’t a subpar game for Anna. It was a dreadful coaching job by Geno. Anna’s makes a slight mistake and gets pulled and USF rolls. Why not pull the three players who denied her assists in first few minutes. I watched her on the bench show a look that said, “When is the next flight to Poland?” The problem Geno has only one motivational technique—screaming and punishing. I suspect he may have ruined her. Crystal and Liv saved the day and it was Aubrey’s best performance. But this is the worst game I ever saw UConn play and I put it solely on miserable coaching.
To quote the inimitable Max Bialystock, "There's a lot more to you than there is to you. WTF."
 
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As usual, I think the tone of these postgame comments is unduly negative. Here are some positive things that (as far as I noticed) no one has commented on:
  1. UConn won the last three quarters by a margin of 54-28! The 4th quarter score was 21-6 in UConn's favor. Where did all those posters go who were complaining about poor fourth quarters, and thought that UConn's starters were getting exhausted because of underutilization of the bench?
  2. The main reason why USF won the first quarter was that they were 5-for-6 from 3 in that quarter. They then proceeded to shoot 1-12 for the rest of the game as the law of averages kicked in (plus some more effective UConn defense).
  3. Olivia was amazing and is really showing game-by-game progress, including in her case the South Carolina game. Those who say that UConn coaches cannot develop post players (who have a short memory to begin with, considering what they did with Stef Dolson) should take notice of what she has accomplished this year. Although the minutes are not yet shown in the ESPN box score as I write this, I don't believe that she ever went to the bench -- and had plenty of stamina to play effectively for 40 minutes.
  4. The offensive rebounding by USF, which was a major issue in the first half, became a non-issue in the second half. USF ended up with 17 offensive rebounds to UConn's 12, but the great majority of those came in the first half. I assume that was the result of some "X and O" adjustments done by the coaches at halftime. Another reason was that Aubrey was really effective on the boards at both ends, no mean achievement given that she started on the perimeter in every defensive possession. For the full game, the rebounding margin was only 37-34 in favor of USF, despite a much larger difference early in the game.
  5. As in all recent games, Christyn earned her minutes despite her poor shooting with the rest of her game, particularly her contribution on the boards (5 rebounds).
  6. For the full game, UConn shot 48% and USF shot 32% -- very creditable numbers against a team that was 7-3 in the AAC and was in second place at the start of the game.
  7. UConn had 17 steals to USF's 5. Despite an orgy of turnovers in the first quarter, UConn ended up with only 12 turnovers for the game, compared with 22 for USF.
@Dokey: I agree with you that Anna did not play poorly, but it was not one of her better games, and Geno needed to see if either Molly or Aubrey could make a greater contribution. It turned out that Aubrey had an outstanding game, so he "rode the hot hand", as any good coach would and should do in any sport. There have been games where Anna came off the bench to replace Kyla or someone else, played great, and got a ton of minutes for that reason (e.g., Oregon).

Don't worry -- it won't break Anna any more than similar treatment broke Megan, Olivia, Tina Charles, or numerous other players in recent history. Even stalwarts like Kia Nurse and Kelly Faris got benched in games where they simply weren't playing as well as their teammates. Anna shouldn't see it as punishment, and I don't think she will. After all, she saw Olivia getting greatly reduced minutes when she wasn't playing well, and today she got 40. If and when Anna plays better (and better than her teammates), the minutes will be there.
 
Another win by the “Not ready for prime time players “ or The gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Good effort by Liv start to finish. Meghan and Crystal do their job and Aubrey actually makes 4 layups in a row plus energized defense. Sit back and relax until mid March.
 
Get your facts straight. There was 2:25 on the clock before the end of halftime.
Stop being such a nit picker. 2:25 on the clock isn’t a lot of time to warm up for the half.
 
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