Rebounding is about positioning and desire. Players that are out of position can often overcome this with desire and hustle. Smaller teams with plenty of desire and hustle can also be out rebounded by taller teams that consistently get better positioning. Teams that are taller with positioning and both desire and hustle will always out rebound a smaller team no matter that team desire.
It’s way too early to declare Ducharme a non factor. And we don’t know what’s up with Nika, but when she started last year, Geno said we were a “different team” - and that was in a good way! Let’s wait till we start playing more cupcake teams to see how things play out. I suspect that by mid-season, Griffin, Muhl, Ducharme will be contributing.
Full court press? You mean like buy her a car or something? Auriemma recruited her out of HS and she wanted no part of his program. She wanted no part of SC either until the second time around.
Basketball at it's core is still a game played inside out so it doesn't matter how many perimeter players you have even, if they are great shooters so, until Uconn can get consistent production from it's bigs we will alway struggle and or lose when it counts . how many championships have we won without a dominant big ? the answer is none how many final fours have we lost because we didn't have a dominant big? the last four. How many have we won with a dominant big ? 11 look it up. The ability to score on the blocks or in the lane is what opens up the perimeter and so far Liv and Dorka are not performing up to par we may have to wait for Amari and Ice before we can become truly dominant
The more I watch this team I see it as an 8 deep club, but without Aubrey. At this point, would rather see Evina get more minutes and see if CD can continue her aggressiveness and polish her shot. While we are getting burned by the 30+ foot 3 pointer, overall our defense is fine. Aubrey will have her moments but we need more consistent offense.
The blow outs were generally when Jose would let his team try to run with UCONN, because, "That's who we [USF Bulls} are...." The close games were always when Jose coached his team to "grind it out" - it's a "choose your poison" situation. Update: 26-0 vs. USF, but always entertaining IMO.
Would take it with a grain of salt what Geno says about playing time at this point. In offseason made it seem like Ducharme could step in and play right away, four minutes. Dorka could push to start, she is closer to tenth person off the bench than starter and Nika can't ever score.
Our strength literally isn’t inside. When has this team shown that? The posts usually don’t produce much (points wise) when playing against good competition. Our strength is very obviously our guards. We have the best guard in the nation in PB, if CW can be more consistent that’s another elite talent and then Azzi is also likely in that category. Do our posts need to step up? Yes but our strength is and will continue to be our guard play.
Agreed! It's a physics thing - leverage & mechanical advantage plus understanding crest and using your center of mass to push your opponent off their intended spot... particularly when no fouls are being called!
I’m not implying that Ducharme isn’t or won’t be a good player, but the question is who is she going to take time from. Griffin & Muhl don’t provide enough offense and Geno obviously trusts Williams & Westbrook more. You can’t keep Beuckers & Fudd off the court. Eventually Edwards will straighten out and you have the rotation of the two bigs. Time might be available in blowouts, but in tight games, the rotation is going to be tight
Paige's scoring from three was best last year when Nika was running the point. I hope Nika gets her groove back tomorrow, or we will have to wait for the rematch in January to see the beauty that this team will show as they approach the part of the season that truly matters: NCAA tournament time!
At risk of being taken with one of those proverbial 'grains of salt, I'll continue to lean on what Geno said in pre-season about Dorka and Caroline.
It does not matter when they happened. They happened.
My post was about more than last year. Sometimes USF would play UConn close for a half then get blown away.
