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Villanova Postgame Thread

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Some thoughts on the Villanova game;
  • UConn and Nova have had their battles through the years. But this year’s Nova team reflects the cruel mathematics of the Portal & NIL for any non-p4 team, not named UConn. The Wildcats lost 6 players to the transfer portal, 4 to P4 conferences, including 2 of last year’s stars: Olsen & Dalce. Nova brought in 4 transfers, only 1 of which came from a P4 program, a reserve wing from Vandy who grew up in nearby Warminster, PA.
  • As for the game itself, UConn ran a bunch of textbook pick and rolls, particularly with Paige and Sarah involved. Paige dropped a season-high 9 dimes today in sadly, limited activity.
  • As for Sarah, she scored an extremely efficient 21 points on just 12 shots. :cool:
  • Paige got her knee rolled-up on by a freshman who had no idea what she was doing. It was clearly a dumb foul, and now we can all hold our breath once again until the results of yet another MRI on Paige are determined….Ugh….:(:(:(:(:(
  • Jana continues to be a work in progress with some good and some not so good. I’m not certain what to make of Ice right now. She appears to have had her PT cut as Geno seems more comfortable going small. That’s fine vs an undersized Villanova team. But it’s difficult to envision in March.
  • KK with another really nice game. I'm sure that everyone was thrilled to see her confidently bury a 3 from the top of the key. :)
  • Next up the Musketeers at XL on Wednesday. Go Huskies!!!
 
IMG_3454.jpeg
 
Should be happy after a 30 point win but we're all holding our breath...but my highlights -
  • Sarah Strong is a monster. We get her for 3 more years, that is simply not fair. 21 efficient points in 3 quarters
  • 30 assists on 35 FGM
  • They made Paige play as a passer and she responded. 9 assists and 0 turnovers, with 15 points as well. Hopefully that injury is nothing serious..... :(
  • KK Arnold wanted to score today and it worked out really well for her. Love that confidence and hope it builds momentum for her
 
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Wishing Paige the best.

Sarah was her usual tremendous self.

KK continued her roll with 15.

Jana scored 7 on 3-4 shooting. Ice chipped in another 4.

The starting lineup was Paige Azzi Kaitlyn Sarah Jana, and I was beginning to think this would be the lineup for the rest of the season. But I’m beginning to wonder if KK will crack it and take Kaitlyn’s place.
 
Hoping Paige okay. She needs a break!

Great effort by team today. Boxed out better. Rebounds still a bit of a problem though. Pleased with Jana overall. Still needs to hit those bunnies but better. KK was incredible today. Sarah a given as always. Azzi had some nice work put in. Ice, yeah, just leaving that alone…..

On to Xavier!
 
I am glad Morgan was able to return. Two quick fouls got her yanked though; she really is a foul magnet right now lol. (The third foul was bogus though, a defender has the same right to space as an offensive player.)
 
As I like to complain about the officials and the "physical games" that seems to have taken over WBB...I paid attention to Jana on the offensive end at the beginning of the 3rd quarter. She was getting absolutely mugged!!! If she was 1/10 as physical on the defensive end, she would have gotten rung up.
But overall, the refs did let them play, only calling 11 PFs on us and 12 on Nova.
It was a good game to watch on a snowy afternoon in NC.
 
Another typical dismantling of a BE team. I can see nobody in the BE that will be able to beat Uconn. Every body ate except Chen and Q. Q only played a few minutes. Pretty even scoring from the players and each up to their potential.I am looking forward to the rest of thee schedule in the BE and another Title. JANA is making strides to playing better and KK was great but, out of character with 4 turnovers. The Huskies are progressing into the team they are gifted to be. GO FRESHMEN!!!! GO SOPHOMORES!!!!! GO HUSKIES!!!!
 
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(Mini rant - I know most of the weird plays/fouls that injured our players weren't intentional, however could we just please get some protection mojo for these #$%^& things?) Sigh.

Ok, saw a lot of good ball movement. Announcer said we had more points in the paint than Villanova had in the game. Lots of good drives to the basket. 59% from the field, 30/35 (85.7%) assists on made baskets. Four players off the bench in double digit minutes, KK 6 for 7.
 
Few Thoughts:
Hopefully Paige's injury is not severe! This kid went through so much...please let her finish the season playing.
Pretty good game by UConn.
Sarah Strong shows again that she is special. her basketball IQ and hands are truly amazing.
Jana is clearly a project, but the potential rewards are easy to see. i still believe that during her UConn career. she'll be one of the best centers in the country.
Till her injury, Paige played real well. Her ability to get to the open player when double teamed is a great weapon, as she is guarded so tightly and everyone on the other team is aware of where she is at all times.
KK had a real good game (aside than few bad decisions with the ball than became turnovers). That 3 she took and make is promising.
I really like what Morgan brings...smart, tough player. Just needs to control the fouling.
Q played little but showed a lot of energy and wasn't forcing anything.
 
I really liked that everybody was lookin for their shot. Thats confidence and that will help this team grow and get better. So now as Azzi gets going and shes another big option and from what I saw today everybody seems to be gettin it goin we're gonna look really good when we all get it goin and come;re together. All of a sudden over the past few weeks we've made a huge jump. That for me is huge because now we're playin with alot of confidence and knowing we can do it.
 
I hate seeing those types of knee ankle injuries. Praying for the best.

Today we shared the basketball at a high level that was pleasant to see. Sarah looks like she is the go to player for us. She has a mixed bag over everything. Feels like KK is starting to catch her groove. Tenacious on the defensive end but adding more on the offensive end as well.

Looks like the small ball lineup is starting to gel. With the limited amount of minutes from the post players looks like small ball is where we'll l be hanging our hat.
 
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As expected, Geno played everybody, A variety of combinations with big and small lineups. Noticable was the lack of drop off in play. This will pay dividends down the road. Excellent ball movement today. They have to keep it going. The roles of the players are evolving.

Jana played well again. The improvement is coming. She needs more time on the court. Ice showed a spark in the 4th quarter. A plus.

Ash coming alive offensively. Her defense is fierce.

KK does it again. She is going to be a menace as the season goes on. She makes the offense better.

Morgan will be a force. She's aggressive which is good.

What can you say about Sarah. I know she's a freshman but she plays like a senior. Her basketball IQ is off the charts. She is just so calm on the court.

Paige - I've had my knee rolled a couple of times. The initial pain is rough on the mind. She was able to walk off and came back to the bench. Lots of ice wrapped on the knee and ankle to keep the swelling down. Uonn will do the test when they are back in campus. I'm cautiously optimistic.
 
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Sarah is amazing. I have the same feeling about her I had about Paige when the latter was a freshman. I knew coming in they were really, really good, but I didn't know they were really, really, really good. And I would take this year's Sarah over last year's Hannah or JuJu all day and all night.

Morgan is also very impressive. She is way better than I thought she would be. Today, pre-injury, she held her own as the '5' in the small lineup. And I like that Allie drives confidently to the basket. This is quite a good class.
 
All thoughts with Page. Listened to Bob and Deb. Hope Fox lets us watch the replay later.

For a game where UConn won by 30, our posts were a combined +1 over the 27 minutes they played. Yikes. Glad we more time for them to gain confidence and more understanding of the offense.

Thanks for the stats Nan.
 
Stagnant said:
I am glad Morgan was able to return. Two quick fouls got her yanked though; she really is a foul magnet right now lol. (The third foul was bogus though, a defender has the same right to space as an offensive player.)
Expand ...
Morgan is learning a new position: substitute Center when
Jana and ICE are not in the game. I agree that she really only
had two fouls, but she was playing smothering defense under
the basket!! I look forward to seeing her do it again when I
rewatch the game tomorrow!
 
Barkin Out said:
For a game where UConn won by 30, our posts were a combined +1 over the 27 minutes they played. Yikes. Glad we more time for them to gain confidence and more understanding of the offense.
Expand ...
Yeah, I noticed that too. I thought each had her moments and they were pretty good. Most of Ice’s time was without Paige. We know that things, uhmm, don’t flow as well without Paige in the game, but they did get it together eventually.

I love wathing Shade play. In spirit, she’s very Muhl-esque. Boxes out on EVERY shot that goes up on the defensive end. I was glad to see her get some rebounds today, as last game other UConn players got rebounds becausee of Shade’s boxouts. And as someone pointed out above, her defensive stance is fierce.

I’ll hop onto the Strong bandwagon. She’s a breath of fresh air on a team that misses so many bunnies.

I hate seeing a player with ice packs on her knee. And ankle. I was glad to see there wasn’t one on her calf.
 
I have just recently come around to the view that KK should start in place of Kaitlyn, and I think that Geno will reach that conclusion very soon, judging by his comments.

However, have you noticed how FAST Kaitlyn is when running up the floor, with or without the ball? She appears to me to be as fast as KK. Maybe that is the reason why Geno has delayed pulling the plug on her as a starter.
 
GA appears to have valued KC shooting/scoring
More than KK defense, passing and ability to get to the rim (very surprising!)
while both are good players imho
KC is not a point guard and playing her out of position has as much as anything led to lapses
In offensive execution
 
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So the big takeaways, Paige excluded and embracing optimism, are the assertion of KK, not just for the home town fans, and small improvements with Jana. As for KK, a lot more confidence and she even shot a baby pull up which we have been calling for. Just always the fastest player with the ball on the court and you can see the bursting out of a different player. Very big for us. With Jana, I have come to the conclusion that she needs to shoot baby jumpers insrtead of layups so she can control her shot better. It's a project but there were some slight improvements. I think this is the way it is going to be. Players firing their own pistons individually at different times until March when they all do it together.
 
MooseJaw said:
Not only dumb, but after the initial hit the player continued to roll for no reason, in my mind it was the unnecessary continued roll that was the problem. Don't believe it watch it a few more times. IMO it was on purpose and dirty. You all on the BY may not agree, In the South You all does not mean everyone. Reference bullet point 4
Expand ...
Just stop. The Villanova player turned to get the ball. It was not a dirty play

 
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