USF ties up ND at 41

[MilfordHusky]

Great 3-point shooting.

 

[Blueballer]

Good. Let ND get pushed and make them work. I love it.

 

[msf22b]

USF up 2, making shots, pressing on D

 

[MilfordHusky]

Watch and learn!

 

[Coler]

I really hate how ND gets calls left and right.

 

[ghostmutt]

McBride is the key to their team.

This is the key stretch for USF with McBride on the bench, because Skylar is going to start taking hero shots that may sink the Irish.

 

[msf22b]

McBride just hit 2 circus shots, she's really something.
(after doing nothing for most of the game).

 

[ghostmutt]

Skylar didn't start shot-jacking like I thought. To her credit, she got the supporting cast involved while McBride was out.

McBride is still the one to put your best defender on. She makes clutch plays. Better to let Skylar hoist 30 shots for the win than help off McBride, IMO. She always kills us.

If USF could have built a 4-5 point cushion with McBride out, they'd have won this. Now they're cooked.

Good! UConn needs to get the Irish jinx out of their system, anyway.

 

[BRS24]

Someone explain to me that turnover call ? USF inbounds the ball and Skylar sets pick (or something) and the call goes against USF? Don't get it.

 

[uconnell]

ND getting the ND treatment from the refs. USF played them great except toward the end, ft shooting did USF in and the over-the-back no calls on ND.

 

[RadyLady]

To me, sometimes it looks as though ND is just dialing it in, playing only as much as they have to to get the W, nothing more.

JMO

 

[Blueballer]

Someone explain to me that turnover call ? USF inbounds the ball and Skylar sets pick (or something) and the call goes against USF? Don't get it.

Those are the "Skylar Rules".

 

[UConnCat]

ND's guards shoot 13 for 43, including Diggins' 5 for 21. But 35 FTs will make up for a lot of missed FGs.

 

[ThisJustIn]

Those are the "Skylar Rules".

True. Of course, if the UConn players did as Geno and some of the Board members and got the calls ND, it wouldn't be attributed to favoritism, bribery or kowtowing to ESPN, but brilliant playing...

 

[ghostmutt]

Someone explain to me that turnover call ? USF inbounds the ball and Skylar sets pick (or something) and the call goes against USF? Don't get it.

I think you're referring to the inbounds play to Andrell Smith, right after McBride came back in the game and scored two quick baskets, extending ND's lead to 63-57 with about 4 minutes left.

Connor(?) inbounded the ball to Smith, who caught it on her left hand and took two steps, spinning to her right. Diggins charged her and set the most egregious example of a moving screen occurring far, far away from the basket, since, oh...last Monday in South Bend. Right in front of the ND bench. I don't think Smith actually lifted her pivot foot (the right), but she picked up her dribble and pivoted her upper body backwards to avoid losing her balance. Tweet! Travel on Smith. Skylar pumps fist; ND bench erupts, blah blah.

Classic case of the baseline ref making a call according to the momentum of game flow and not the contact itself. Personally, I'm just glad they didn't give Diggins the foul shots at the end of the first half. I felt sure they would. Thought the officials were pretty fair, considering it's ND.

USF was in this game not only due to the hot shooting of the Smith twins, but because they gave good fouls right from the start (so that ND's perimeter players could not finish on their drives to the lane). UConn should take note of that.

 

[alexrgct]

Why do we keep losing to these clowns? They're freaking mediocre.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Why do we keep losing to these clowns? They're freaking mediocre.

Yeah, but there are 8 of them to only 5 of us.

Their style of play has degraded WCBB.

 

[ghostmutt]

Why do we keep losing to these clowns? They're freaking mediocre.

It's not like they stink, but they play up or down to their level of competition. Like Rady said, the Irish do just enough to win. That's why I think Baylor will dominate them again, if they meet in the NC game.

We keep losing to them because our players are afraid to fail. The games are so back-and-forth that the players must expect it by now. But ND has Diggins and McBride, who shrug off their mistakes with a "next play" attitude. Whereas our Huskies make one bad play, then uncertainty takes hold, and then one mistake snowballs into many.

 

[RadyLady]

UConn decimates their opponants, and ND just does what is necessary to get the W and no more. Look what they had to do to get by Connecticut...3 OT....their day is coming, and I'll wager that their reignof gold will turn into leprechaun gold in the BE final. UConn will win it. And they won't look back....