Was the second half last night a turning point for UConn?

[alexrgct]

It's interesting how seasons ebb and flow. Had one thing of many possible gone differently against ND, UConn is #1 and the notion that the team needed a "turning point" would seem a bit silly. The fact of the matter, however, is that UConn needed to lose that game to have any chance of becoming a championship team. Notwithstanding the early season loss, Baylor is still Baylor. UConn wasn't beating Baylor playing like it did against Maryland or Penn State...or probably even Stanford, for that matter (a win that, though still impressive, seemed a bit like fool's gold after Stanford's loss to Cal). Sometimes losses, even ones that could have been avoided, are necessary to get things going in the right direction.

But for 20 minutes, that didn't seem to be the case. Duke was hanging around, but it was clear that it wasn't because Duke was executing better than they had against UConn in previous years. UConn just wasn't playing the way it has against Duke recently. Maybe the loss to ND wasn't a just a bump in the road. Maybe this was what UConn was going to be this season- a top 5 team, likely to make the F4 given the favorable location of the regional, but not a legitimate threat to win it all.

And then the second half happened.

Now, part of me says Duke was clearly a pretender in the first half, too, so one shouldn't read too much into the second half. However, UConn absolutely dominated Duke on both ends of the floor. They won the second half by 28 points, and it wasn't that close. Even if Duke isn't substantially better than, say, Penn State (and they may not be), that was still a huge step in the right direction.

If you want to view the second half as a turning point, you've got to believe that Kelly is capable of delivering that caliber of a performance whenever it's needed. Is she? I don't know. I've seen vestiges of that urgency before (see the end of the national semis last year), but can she do it consistently when it's needed? We're going to find out on February 18.

Three other things that will need to happen for UConn to be firmly in contention to win a national championship:

1. Bria needs to get healthy and play like Bria again. Last night was a gutty performance, but the young lady who can absolutely take over any game hasn't shown up yet this year. This team needs that kid.

2. Breanna needs to play like she did in the second half last night on a more consistent basis. She is simply too talented not be impactful. She was last night. She doesn't have to be the best player on the floor (yet), but she does have to make an impact.

3. KML has to hit that shot. You know the shot I'm talking about (hint: it wasn't from last night). And so does she. If she's a first-team AA, and I think she deserves to be, the big shots against the best teams have to go in, no matter how tired or hobbled you may be. That was definitely not a shooting night for the ages against Duke, but she hit every big shot she needed to hit. Can she do it with the game on the line? We may have to find out.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I was watching the first half thinking about what you had written in terms of the lack of offensive crispness, especially of late. I counted several fumbled passes and kept groaning.

Geno's tirade and challenges at halftime may have lasting effects. We'll see. Kelly's play may be contagious. If we had that intensity against ND, it would've have been a close game.

I agree with your points. Bria, Breanna, and Kaleena are the big game performers. They need to play at or near their highest levels.

I also look at a little more generally, as Geno sometimes does. We rarely fire on all cylinders, but we need at least 3 players to bring their A games in important games. Who it is can vary. If it's Stef rather than Stewie or Brianna rather than Bria, that could work. When we have 5+ players doing that, we're back to your Wrath of God squad.

 

[Icebear]

Geno's tirade and challenges at halftime may have lasting effects. We'll see. Kelly's play may be contagious. If we had that intensity against ND, it would've have been a close game.

? It was a close game?

 

[MilfordHusky]

? It was a close game?

Missed the negative in the sentence. We would have won by 15-20.

 

[Icebear]

Missed the negative in the sentence. We would have won by 15-20.

Ah, the "would've have" should have been "wouldn't have." Gotcha.

 

[RadyLady]

"Was the second half last night a turning point for UConn?"

in a word: yes

I believe that it is

 

[UConnCat]

At the end of Geno's post-game press conference he talks about what's been missing so far this season and his frustration at not being able to put his finger on it. I think we've all seen it; this team just hasn't looked right despite winning games by big margins. Some of it is Bria (Geno conceded last night that physically she's not getting up and down the court as fast as she did last year), but the execution is just not consistently there. Let's hope they found it in the 2nd half last night and can hang on to it. A healthy and aggressive Bria and an aggressive Stewart will certainly help.

Geno certainly liked the fact that UConn put Duke on the ropes last night and then finished them off.

 

[EricLA]

Liked Mil's "Wrath of god squad" comment. Agree with Alex. Turning point? too soon to tell. We have no read that Geno challenged the team at halftime and probably also had different words and challenges for different players. We probably won't know for sure over the next few weeks as we play Cinci, Nova, SJU, Marquette, Depaul, and Providence before tussling with Rutgers followed by Baylor.

I don't expect much of a challenge from ANY of those teams, if we have indeed "turned the corner" on the season. Even tho Nova is currently 2nd in the BE and undefeated, they've yet to face UCONN, ND or L'ville. They did whallop Depaul so Nova is the game I'm most looking forward to in our stretch of the next 6 games. RU will be interesting for all kinds of reasons - mainly because they generally improve a lot towards the end of the year, but at 1-3 in the BE with a lost to SJU by 4, I'll be curious to see if they can beat 'nova. I think 'Nova might be the 4th best team in the conference at this point behind ND, UCONN and L'ville (maybe 5th behind Syracuse).

This will be a great stretch to tweak things for the starters, and really give the bench a chance to shine a lot. Would love to see what Kiah and Morgan can do with long stretches on the court. We've already seen the impact Banks, Jefferson and Stewart can have. I hope Geno plays Morgan and Kiah more with the starters than just putting them on the court with Bree, Moriah and Brianna.

 

[pap49cba]

That might have been the most animated Geno's been in a long time. Seemed like he never sat down the entire second half.

 

[msf22b]

There was something of a "typical" UConn "beautiful basketball" execution in moments of the Syracuse game that had given me a reason for optimism in the Duke game and even though it took until the second half to develop, a tirade by Geno and Kelly sacrificing body and soul, it showed up again if part time.
Questions that must be asked, post game are:
-Are the Dukees really as bad as they showed in running their offense and general fitness? Even when our offense struggled in the first half, theirs was essentially being shut down.
-Erik's query in another thread, requesting clarity in the use of the under-classmen.
-Another research area is: when the offense is clicking, who is making it go? a little bit like a tennis rally, constructing the point to get an advantage. In the Syracuse game, Steff certainly played a major role, not here methinks. I don't have access to a tape of this game but I'll check out the "Cuse game again. And its not necessarily the person who gets the assist, it could be the pass before.

 

[trisailin]

I think we all have access to replay of the game (don't think any cable providers have it blacked out??)
Anyway

www.watchespn.com
click REPLAY tab (approx middle of the page)
scroll down to find NCAAW... past NCAAM to 1/21 Duke/UCONN
click and watch away

 

[meyers7]

I
I also look at a little more generally, as Geno sometimes does. We rarely fire on all cylinders, but we need at least 3 players to bring their A games in important games. Who it is can vary. If it's Stef rather than Stewie or Brianna rather than Bria, that could work. When we have 5+ players doing that, we're back to your Wrath of God squad.

IMO we have 5 players that any night can be "the man", Dolson, Hartley, KML, Stewart and in an all around way Faris (like last night). (Banks I think can also get "hot" and put up some points, but not really be "the man"). If we have 3 of these 5 "on" we can beat almost anyone. If we could get all 5 "on" at once, yea that would be devastating. (as you said, Wrath of God stuff)

 

[ed4ourgirls]

After the ND game I didn't know whether UConn just wasn't playing up to their
potential or whether it just wasn't in them to compete at the highest level.

I think we had our answer last night.

We will have to wait until the Baylor and ND game(s) to know whether a corner
has truly been turned and our kids can consistently bring it in a big game.

I personally don't subscribe to the "Duke is a fraud" school of thinking. They have
a lot of talent on that team, and I think they will dominate the ACC, and further,
I think they will be our principal competition for a national championship next
year. (Yes, I know ND and Stanford will be solid again, and UNC is maybe a year
or two away)

 

[Jonathan Husky]

Liked Mil's "Wrath of god squad" comment. Agree with Alex. Turning point? too soon to tell. We have no read that Geno challenged the team at halftime and probably also had different words and challenges for different players. We probably won't know for sure over the next few weeks as we play Cinci, Nova, SJU, Marquette, Depaul, and Providence before tussling with Rutgers followed by Baylor.

I don't expect much of a challenge from ANY of those teams, if we have indeed "turned the corner" on the season. Even tho Nova is currently 2nd in the BE and undefeated, they've yet to face UCONN, ND or L'ville. They did whallop Depaul so Nova is the game I'm most looking forward to in our stretch of the next 6 games. RU will be interesting for all kinds of reasons - mainly because they generally improve a lot towards the end of the year, but at 1-3 in the BE with a lost to SJU by 4, I'll be curious to see if they can beat 'nova. I think 'Nova might be the 4th best team in the conference at this point behind ND, UCONN and L'ville (maybe 5th behind Syracuse).

This will be a great stretch to tweak things for the starters, and really give the bench a chance to shine a lot. Would love to see what Kiah and Morgan can do with long stretches on the court. We've already seen the impact Banks, Jefferson and Stewart can have. I hope Geno plays Morgan and Kiah more with the starters than just putting them on the court with Bree, Moriah and Brianna.

Didn't you pick Duke to win ????

 

[EricLA]

Didn't you pick Duke to win ????

I sure did. The first half was exactly what i expected - and i thought it would continue in the 2nd half. Very glad i was wrong!!!

 

[magical2]

It's interesting how seasons ebb and flow. Had one thing of many possible gone differently against ND, UConn is #1 and the notion that the team needed a "turning point" would seem a bit silly. The fact of the matter, however, is that UConn needed to lose that game to have any chance of becoming a championship team. Notwithstanding the early season loss, Baylor is still Baylor. UConn wasn't beating Baylor playing like it did against Maryland or Penn State...or probably even Stanford, for that matter (a win that, though still impressive, seemed a bit like fool's gold after Stanford's loss to Cal). Sometimes losses, even ones that could have been avoided, are necessary to get things going in the right direction.

But for 20 minutes, that didn't seem to be the case. Duke was hanging around, but it was clear that it wasn't because Duke was executing better than they had against UConn in previous years. UConn just wasn't playing the way it has against Duke recently. Maybe the loss to ND wasn't a just a bump in the road. Maybe this was what UConn was going to be this season- a top 5 team, likely to make the F4 given the favorable location of the regional, but not a legitimate threat to win it all.

And then the second half happened.

Now, part of me says Duke was clearly a pretender in the first half, too, so one shouldn't read too much into the second half. However, UConn absolutely dominated Duke on both ends of the floor. They won the second half by 28 points, and it wasn't that close. Even if Duke isn't substantially better than, say, Penn State (and they may not be), that was still a huge step in the right direction.

If you want to view the second half as a turning point, you've got to believe that Kelly is capable of delivering that caliber of a performance whenever it's needed. Is she? I don't know. I've seen vestiges of that urgency before (see the end of the national semis last year), but can she do it consistently when it's needed? We're going to find out on February 18.

Three other things that will need to happen for UConn to be firmly in contention to win a national championship:

1. Bria needs to get healthy and play like Bria again. Last night was a gutty performance, but the young lady who can absolutely take over any game hasn't shown up yet this year. This team needs that kid.

2. Breanna needs to play like she did in the second half last night on a more consistent basis. She is simply too talented not be impactful. She was last night. She doesn't have to be the best player on the floor (yet), but she does have to make an impact.

3. KML has to hit that shot. You know the shot I'm talking about (hint: it wasn't from last night). And so does she. If she's a first-team AA, and I think she deserves to be, the big shots against the best teams have to go in, no matter how tired or hobbled you may be. That was definitely not a shooting night for the ages against Duke, but she hit every big shot she needed to hit. Can she do it with the game on the line? We may have to find out.

I was watching the first half thinking about what you had written in terms of the lack of offensive crispness, especially of late. I counted several fumbled passes and kept groaning.

Geno's tirade and challenges at halftime may have lasting effects. We'll see. Kelly's play may be contagious. If we had that intensity against ND, it would've have been a close game.

I agree with your points. Bria, Breanna, and Kaleena are the big game performers. They need to play at or near their highest levels.

I also look at a little more generally, as Geno sometimes does. We rarely fire on all cylinders, but we need at least 3 players to bring their A games in important games. Who it is can vary. If it's Stef rather than Stewie or Brianna rather than Bria, that could work. When we have 5+ players doing that, we're back to your Wrath of God squad.

I think we did turn a corner EXCELLENT POSTS
MON NIGHT We got an incredible performance from KELLY,KML was great,STEWIE was excellent in the 2nd half,BRIA HAD 9assts, CD was glue to the team play What we saw in the 2nd half was what we knew had to happen STEF did a great job yes she did GENO went with the top 6 until the last couple of mins
and they all responded That is not criticizing the young ones BB PLAYED WELL,MO DID ALSO,KIAH looked really good... GENO WAS smart not putting her in
during the garbage time
The top six will be the core of how far we go this year The others will contribute as needed I hope
IRA

 

[HGN]

I don't think it was a turning point at all.........It was just a good second half. Until we become more consistent with our effort is when we can call it a turning point.
Lets see how we perform over the next 3-4 games then make a judgement call on whether we can look back on the Duke game as the turning point in the season.

We need consistent effort from all the players , in the first and second half , and good health. Until we get that we cannot call it a turning point.