Was That An All-Time OOC Defensive Performance?

[CamrnCrz1974]

I mean, they suffocated the tree. That was incredible. They made the top-ranked team look completely incapable of crossing the halfway line. I can't remember the last time they so thoroughly humiliated a team that good. Maybe one of the games at Duke when Gail was there?

Considering Gail went 2-2 against UConn while she was at Duke, she was able to recover.

The game you are thinking of was in 2003, when Duke and UConn were #1 and #2. UConn won 77-65. UConn led by 28, but Duke cut it to 6 with one minute remaining. Same beginning, different ending than the Stanford game.

 

[msf22b]

That's the team I want to hammer and then hammer some more. I'll never concede that either last year or before, they were the better team when they eliminated us from the tournament. Buzzyboy

I wrote about it at the time to universal derision on the board.
Notre Dame got themselves organized 2 years ago with the talent they had and were a more coherent team, especially last season, with all that experience of fifth-year seniors and the combativeness of Ms. Skylar who could be silenced for large portions of a game and still be an assassin in crunch time. Yes, they learned how to jolly the officiating, but it was a well-honed thought-out approach that paid dividends and was an important part of their arsenal.

They beat us fair and square, more than once; it was no fluke and I look forward to returning the favor two or three times this season.

But don't expect it to be easy, they're combative and have lots more skill players than Stanford.

 

[Phil]

I wouldn't say suffocating. We knocked them on their keister with a 17-2 run during the first half, and they simply never recovered. By the time we started the 8-1 run at the end of the 2nd half, the game was already over.

Negate the margin those two runs gave us and we won only by 4.

Actually, you can look at it the other way around.

I'll bet you can take just about any game between two top 25 teams, and cut out a relatively small portion of the game, with the result that the other team wins the game.

As a test, I took the ND Purdue game, which ND won by 27.

I removed three segments, adding up to 10 minutes, and Purdue outscored ND by 4 in the remaining 30 minutes.

In contrast, you removed two segments, adding up to 14 minutes, and UConn still won by 4. I'd say that speaks to the dominance by UConn; unlike most games, you can't remove a small portion of the game such that the losing team prevails in the rest.

 

[OneTrickPony]

There was a point in the first half where there was a shot of a Stanford player on the bench where a look of fear and, "Oh my, what the ... is this?" was on her face. She and Stanford knew they were in big trouble early on.

There was a great moment toward the end of the first half when every Stanford player was tugging on their shorts trying to breathe and every UCONN player is erect...that would make a great locker photo...

 

[Icebear]

There was a great moment toward the end of the first half when every Stanford player was tugging on their shorts trying to breathe and every UCONN player is erect...that would make a great locker photo...

Yes, I remember that shot, as well.

 

[pinotbear]

That is so ridiculous it hurts.

Basketball has always been a game of runs. Due to defense or offense, it doesn't matter.

The game was never close after 5-5.

Why am I reminded of the saying "Other than the ending, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"

 

[Phil]

There was a great moment toward the end of the first half when every Stanford player was tugging on their shorts trying to breathe and every UCONN player is erect...that would make a great locker photo...

I went back and watched again - happened about 22 seconds before the end of the half. I assume off-season and on-season conditioning isn't the best part of the sport, but this was the pay-off, although one always does feel a littler peppier when winning

 

[OneTrickPony]

I went back and watched again - happened about 22 seconds before the end of the half. I assume off-season and on-season conditioning isn't the best part of the sport, but this was the pay-off, although one always does feel a littler peppier when winning

One of my favorite quotes..."fatigue makes cowards of us all"...Lombardi