UTSA Postgame Thread | The Boneyard

UTSA Postgame Thread

oldude

oldude

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Some thoughts on the UTSA game:
  • UConn’s quest for the National Championship kicked off today, one game at a time, six games in a row. Time to go to work!
  • UTSA is the Cinderella champion of the AAC Tournament, winning 4 straight games as a 6-seed. But just like Cinderella, the clock struck midnight today for the Roadrunners against the #1 Huskies.
  • After a 12-day layoff, UConn was ice cold starting the game. Azzi picked up 3 fouls in the 1st period, followed by KK picking up her 3rd foul in the 2nd period, earning both spots on the bench for the rest of the half.
  • No Worries. Sarah did Sarah things and the Huskies barely allowed the Roadrunners across midcourt while forcing a ridiculous 19 UTSA turnovers in the 1st half. 😮
  • While many freshmen struggle in their 1st NCAA Tournament game, Blanca isn’t one of them. She did a little bit of everything today. But most importantly, Blanca played under control, like a seasoned veteran from the Italian pro league…..😎
  • I continue to marvel at Ash & Kayleigh. They are CONSTANT MOVEMENT, jumping the ball every time an opponent picks up their dribble, chasing down rebounds, running the court, making sharp backdoor cuts and basically causing havoc and mayhem.
  • Geno invoked the “Mercy Rule” in the 2nd half, taking off the press and dropping into a 2-3 zone.
  • I'm just guessing that Stewie was really happy to be in Storrs today watching her Huskies, after spending most of the last 9 days locked in a room, hammering out an agreement with the WNBA owners.
  • Next up is the winner of Iowa St and the Cuse. GO HUSKIES!!!
 
Underwhelming performance. Expected much better with the time off, and preparation for the tournament. Foul problems for Fudd and KK in the first half, 3 point shooting, and not much more than 20 minutes of really high quality basketball by the team. And you can't blame the performance on the "layoff". Gave up 38 points in the 2nd half. Other 1 and even 2 and some 3 seeds absolutely blew out other teams.

The 2nd quarter was great tho, and on the good side, Blanca seems to be back. Nice stat filling game by Sarah too. Great game by Ash. Solid game by Kayleigh. And for some good stretches, the defense was REALLY elite. But this team needs to be able to put together close to 35 minutes of great basketball to win the NC.

Survive and advance, but boy was it ugly for a lot of the game.
 
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The officiating really dominated the first half and not in a good way.

I hope this is the end of UConn’s 3PT and FT shooting woes. Just dismal numbers today.

Survive and advance. Shoutout especially to K9, Ashley, and Blanca for stepping up and playing very well today.
 
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Never let basketball get in the way of the commercials. 17 mins for Sarah and Azzi which is what I expected. All the rust off? Pretty much see the game as @EricSD saw it. Win and advance.
 
The officials were rustier than the Huskies. Whatever. This stuff happens. It was probably good for the team to figure out how to play without Azzi available all the time. Ash and Kayleigh really stepped up, as did Allie.

Another plus from a less than crisp performance: lots of material for Geno to use tomorrow to get something better from them.

And by the way, UTSA is a pretty good team. Not great, but they’d probably compete for third place in the BE along with SJU Marquette and Creighton. They gave us a game. Good on them.
 
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Geno called off the dogs early in this game. Azzi and KK on the bench in the first half and the name was in the bag. No to concerned about anything. We had 12 days off against a team that was not competitive and we sloughed off a little. We will be on cue on Monday. No worries.
 
Brad Stevens of the Celtics, in an interview when he was coaching, said, before you shoot a three you should at least get your feet in the paint. I don't like our O as much, when it feels like we're just chucking 3's. When the team runs their stuff, the team always gets a good look.
 
Azzi is so important to the offense. If she is not hitting; the offense becomes a lot more predictable and one dimensional.

UConn hasn’t been officiated this way all year either. So, for both KK and Azzi to be in foul trouble… that could be a concern if it happens against good teams. Fortunately, UConn still has K9 to bring in if they need another guard.
 
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maple said:
The officiating really dominated the first half and not in a good way.

I hope this is the end of UConn’s 3PT and FT shooting woes. Just dismal numbers today.

Survive and advance. Shoutout especially to K9, Ashley, and Blanca for stepping up and playing very well today.
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Gina Catanzariti is the ref who called most of the fouls on Azzi & KK. She is an G League ref who has never officiated UCONN & she wouldn't allow any soft contact.
Tom Danaher & Tiara Cruse are Big East veteran refs who allowed most of the physical play.
 
pvdoggy said:
The only thing I would say is that if you shoot FT like that, you will lose one of these games when it matters.
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Agree. Lost points that are free and uncontested can be a bad reason for losing. Hope they get it together. Also a dependable third shooter is necessary. Last year's team had Paige, Azzi, & Sarah, with a little help from KC at the point. This year we have Azzi & Sarah. Allie is excellent shooter but passive on defense. Good teams will do everything to take away Sarah & Azzi. Somebody will have to step up to relieve double/triple teams.
 
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One bright spot for me was the game face on Quinonez. Her will to win and excel was on full display today. She may very well be the difference maker in the tougher games. I Think she will be even better than today as the competition gets better. Fingers crossed.
 
hoopsfan22 said:
Why do we even have to have a 2 week layoff? They should have just started everything a week ago. They call it March madness but it doesn't even start until March is almost over and the most important games are in April.
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Look at all the shoulder and other braces and some extra time may be just what the Huskies need. The key isn't to play well the first game but the later games against the toughest teams.
 
cleobel60 said:
Agree. Lost points that are free and uncontested can be a bad reason for losing. Hope they get it together. Also a dependable third shooter is necessary. Last year's team had Paige, Azzi, & Sarah, with a little help from KC at the point. This year we have Azzi & Sarah. Allie is excellent shooter but passive on defense. Good teams will do everything to take away Sarah & Azzi. Somebody will have to step up to relieve double/triple teams.
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Um, we scored 90 points with Azzi only scoring 7 (and spending most of the 4th quarter in our prevent offense - running time off the clock mode). I would call that dependable scoring from multiple shooters not named Sarah or Azzi.
 
I believe UTSA played above expectations to score 52 points, good for them to play hard.But in reality they played the bench after the first half and the bench responded well. 5 More games to go and I can spend the summer happy and wait for 26/27 to start in November. I have read where Ashlynn needed 10 points or 16 points to reach a 1000. did she make the 1000 or is there more she needs to score ? I wish to know thank you. GO HUSKIES!!!!!
 
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