Just as most boneyarders, I watch every Uconn game and am a huge fan of this team and program for decades. If anyone follows my posts they would know that even though I love this program I still can be critical of the team, or the future of the program. After watching the early season schedule(with some great wins) and now getting into the conference portion of the schedule I feel like theres something missing with this team. Im thinking to myself other than the obvious that has been discussed and discussed is there anything else going on? Watching today It hit me what is kinda been killing us, and thats not having an experienced 2 guard. We all love CW and early on she was playing on such a high level but she has hit a freshman wall as of late its its really killing us. When UCONN is firing on all cylinders the guards turned the ball over and lead to easy fast break points. With out Kia and Gabby this year we just cannot defend and create these turnovers. Today when CW was out of the lineup in foul trouble we had one ball handler on the floor!!! I mean Pheese and walker are ok at handling the ball and Lou is not much better and you can really see the offense just doesn't look like it has in past years.
We won today by like 20 something but it was so ho hum, we just are more talented than Temple but we really didn't play that great! We didn't play like last past years Uconn. My other concern... Yes this is going to be very unpopular is Geno. Im not debating the greatness of Geno, im worried for Geno!! I heard his comments with Lobo and Frede at the end of the last game and he was just shaking his head talking about the modern Uconn athlete, that there going to do what they want and nothing phases them etc. If he mentioned it once then it would come off as a joke but he actually kept talking about it and how when he subbed all five out, there was no lesson learned cause the players knew that they would be back in at some point soon!!! He looked like he had it with this team!! Fast forward to today. Did you see Geno on the bench with his hands on his head and head on his lap?? Geno never looked like or acted like this in years past. All I can infer from this is Geno is not going to get a heart attack over this team. When you add in the transfers, decommitments of the past few year, and the recruiting class of one(with many misses) its only going to get worse around here before it could get better.. Is Geno going to be able to take that? Im not so sure..
I hope I wrong! The games just seems lacking that finely tuned uconn we have all come to love and expect....
Totally true. It's not just the lack of an experienced second guard, it is the complete lack of a tall presence in the post. This is the first time, I believe, in years that UConn doesn't have strong support in the post. ONO simply is nowhere near commanding any sort of attention by the defense down low. KLS is misfiring because everyone can double-team her because they don't have other big guns they have to be worried about.
And it is going to get much worse next year. There's a question about actually fielding a competent starting five. It's going to be like 2005 (?) when we lost eight games. Or worse.
I hope that recruiting will pick up again next year, but there are no guarantees. There's a question with each year that passes whether, or how long, Coach Geno will remain. And if the pain increases, will he feel that he's done his bit and wants to hit the links?
The years from the start of Tina Charles' arrival on campus through perhaps this year with KLS and Napheesa leaving could be seen as a Golden Age of UConn women's basketball. Yes, we had great years before this. But we didn't have so many great years and great players all together for such an extended period.
I am crossing my fingers for next year's recruiting. And the next year. And the next. But it will take at least three really strong years to bring Connecticut back from what we will experience on the court next season.
