We learned alot

[Tonyc]

First congrats to Arizona. They played suffocating defense. Regarding the refs perhaps next season we have 3 in the NCAA tournament. To many missed and bad calls that may have cost teams games. As for UConn. Arizona exposed us. We learned what we have to work on. Fans talking about missed layups. Yeah we missed alot. Fans talking about practicing layups. At this point to miss an occasional layup is one thing to consistently miss them is a problem. We lost the game because of missed layups. As suffocating as AZ's defense was the missed layups caused us to loose the game. I believe the game plan was to get the ball down low and we kept missing. Its hard for me to watch players from close in maybe 6 ft not hit the rim on a shot that close. My reasoning is we are moving to fast and out of control. Perhaps we were afraid of getting fouled which wouldve been better then missing a laup. Drive, expect to be fouled and finish strong.

I remember Meadowlark Lemon from the Harlem Globetrotters giving a click at the park when I was a kid and he said you learn the game 3 ft from the basket because your best shot is from 3 ft and you have to learn not to miss those. We have a talented team that was very young. We got further then many expected. We were developed and over all reached peaks many thought we wouldnt. It was a great year and we will only get better over the next few years. We overcame our lack of experience and showed guts determination and confidence. Last nite Az's defense had something to do with our confidence and the missed layups didnt help. When you have a team that keeps the score in the 60's you have to maintain patience and poise. As I said yesterday in a thread...Proceed with Caution. Our ball handlers were double and triple teamed especially down low. There were not outlet passes as we were forced to pick up our dribble and look for help. Still in the end we missed something like 15+ layups. Thats where you put the blame. There are alot of "IF's" in the threads today and I can only say when your in a situation like UConn was in last nite you need to fix it on the run or you end up like we did and loose. There is no excuse for missing that many layups.

We had a terrific season. We have a terrific team. We have two great classes coming in in the next two seasons. This game is over and we need to look forward and not keep looking in the rear view mirror.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

First congrats to Arizona. They played suffocating defense. Regarding the refs perhaps next season we have 3 in the NCAA tournament. To many missed and bad calls that may have cost teams games. As for UConn. Arizona exposed us. We learned what we have to work on. Fans talking about missed layups. Yeah we missed alot. Fans talking about practicing layups. At this point to miss an occasional layup is one thing to consistently miss them is a problem. We lost the game because of missed layups. As suffocating as AZ's defense was the missed layups caused us to loose the game. I believe the game plan was to get the ball down low and we kept missing. Its hard for me to watch players from close in maybe 6 ft not hit the rim on a shot that close. My reasoning is we are moving to fast and out of control. Perhaps we were afraid of getting fouled which wouldve been better then missing a laup. Drive, expect to be fouled and finish strong.

I remember Meadowlark Lemon from the Harlem Globetrotters giving a click at the park when I was a kid and he said you learn the game 3 ft from the basket because your best shot is from 3 ft and you have to learn not to miss those. We have a talented team that was very young. We got further then many expected. We were developed and over all reached peaks many thought we wouldnt. It was a great year and we will only get better over the next few years. We overcame our lack of experience and showed guts determination and confidence. Last nite Az's defense had something to do with our confidence and the missed layups didnt help. When you have a team that keeps the score in the 60's you have to maintain patience and poise. As I said yesterday in a thread...Proceed with Caution. Our ball handlers were double and triple teamed especially down low. There were not outlet passes as we were forced to pick up our dribble and look for help. Still in the end we missed something like 15+ layups. Thats where you put the blame. There are alot of "IF's" in the threads today and I can only say when your in a situation like UConn was in last nite you need to fix it on the run or you end up like we did and loose. There is no excuse for missing that many layups.

We had a terrific season. We have a terrific team. We have two great classes coming in in the next two seasons. This game is over and we need to look forward and not keep looking in the rear view mirror.

Nailed it. Good job.

 

[Conndog]

Hope UConn gets in future a super quick point guard that can get inside paint to facilitate offense. Mississippi State, Arizona, Norte Dame had such players, and good as we were & are, couldn’t stop them & we lost in final four. We’ve got shooters and forwards and hopefully centers, but I’d love a guard like Arizona’s who opens everything up and is legitimate scoring treat too.

 

[bluedevil]

Can we hire a layup coach?

 

[Vowelguy]

First congrats to Arizona. They played suffocating defense. Regarding the refs perhaps next season we have 3 in the NCAA tournament.

For someone who supposedly is an optimist, why is every loss always the refs fault?
We were outplayed. Plain and simple. Refs had nothing to do with it.

 

[phil sampieri]

Nailed it. Good job.

Yes they played tight on the ball but if our bigs made their Layups we win
by 10 sorry but Ono just couldn’t throw it in the ocean

 

[bluedevil]

Yes they played tight on the ball but if our bigs made their Layups we win
by 10 sorry but Ono just couldn’t throw it in the ocean

Wash,rinse,and repeat.

 

[sno-cat]

Geno often complained that the team was too immature to listen to him. They wanted to play the game “their way”. Do we think they really learned anything last night? I sincerely hope so. Time will tell.

 

[SLY63]

One of the observations over the last few seasons is we are predominantly a finesse team without ultra-athletic guard. No team has every thing, but these gaps have hurt us over the past few years. Outside of AE we haven't had a physical presence inside since Dolson/Tuck, and we haven't had an athletic guard since Jefferson/Nurse. I am looking forward to AE filling one of those gaps.

 

[Florida Fan]

What I learned last night, was that Arizona's all-everything, 2nd-team All American, takes well over 100 practice shots, every day. And, as Geno said sarcastically not too long ago, "We can't shoot!" We had wide open shots, from, the foul line in, and woulda-coulda-shoulda made half of them, but more often looked for Paige to bail us out. Maybe Iverson didn't need the practice, but when we have a down-low size advantage, and it's crowded at the rim, we need to step out and make the 10-15 footer. And when we are all alone at the foul line----blah, blah blah. But it was an exciting, surprising, joyous year, well exceeding expectations. Thanks to the team and coaches.

 

[oldhusky]

For someone who supposedly is an optimist, why is every loss always the refs fault?
We were outplayed. Plain and simple. Refs had nothing to do with it.

If you play well enough the refs can't change the outcome, so blaming an outcome on the ref is usually inappropriate. In most games when a key call looks like it influenced the outcome late, there were some earlier calls that might have gone the other way.

Regardless I think it is a shame that there appeared to be many bad calls late in big games. The quality and perhaps quantity of referees in late stages of the tournament obviously needs some serious review. In fact this tournament was pretty much a disaster for the NCAA on the women's side in many ways.

It started with the extremely unequal treatment with the gym and food issues. Then the embarrassing omission of Arizona from the video promoting the final four. The questionable calls, and it looks like they could lose in the Supreme Court regarding player's rights to earn money and their amateur status. In the last few years their decisions on waivers for transfers seem to frequently lack any consistent standards or logic.

If this was a private corporation, heads would have rolled a long time ago, but instead they will probably continue without consequences about as efficiently as your local DMV!

 

[msf22b]

As others have said...On paper we had an overwhelming inside advantage.

But our inability to finish near the rim, allowed Arizona to focus even more or our perimeter players; committing less resources near the hoop as little or no scoring was occurring against them there.

Mildly reminiscent of (was it 2008) when Geno proclaimed to the world (and to Tina) that the team didn't have a center

 

[hoopsfan22]

So I guess we;'e not gonna win 200 games in a row or whatever ridiculous predictions are made about this team?

 

[veryolddog]

We may not win 200 games in a row, but the women will win alot of games more than most. Geno always wants the team to approach every game as it was the last game in the world and play it with intensity. This young crew may have thought that this game was going to be a walk in the park and were over confident. This was proved wrong. The potential is certainly there for this team to mature on and off the court, to become the National Champion. But they are going to have to evolve their mentality and take everygame seriously as the Coach expects.

How many remember the bench of Stewart and Tuck against a less than good team because they were, in Geno's opinion, they were loafing on the court. These ladies read the newspapers, watched too much TV and took the win for granted believing all of the hype and BS. That is not what the coach wants. Maybe they will learn from this and perform up to their potential without having the media infect their brains.

 

[tentoes4rings]

I watched the Stanford USC game and was blown away by the length, shooting ability and overall talent of those two teams. As someone who admittedly has watched only a few of the UConn women’s games, I wondered if UConn could beat either of those teams. Paige to me looked like a freshman who badly needs to add strength. Physically and mentally she didn’t look ready for that stage last night. Ive never seen so much talent and shooting ability in the women’s game before. Parity between 5-10 top teams looks like it’s here to stay in the women’s game.

 

[connboy77]

I know we are not allowed to question Geno's coaching, but if he asked me which he wouldn't I would tell him to start using the bench. UCONN has Mir and a 6'5 freshman siting on the bench that are more then capable of playing quality minutes. There is no need in most games of playing someone 35-40 minutes. Give them a rest for a few minutes.

 

[jonson]

Although most UCONN fans will likely bristle at this, I believe that UCONN's conference affiliations since the demise of the old Big East have not done the team any favors. To be clear, I don't think it's an issue in the years in which UCONN is a juggernaut that is head and shoulders above everyone else (e.g. with Stewart et al.), but when the team is only marginally better than everyone else or just one among a group of possible contenders (the past 4 years), playing one easy game after another in conference really hurts when you come up against a team like Arizona in the tournament. Geno obviously does everything possible to counteract the lack of competition in conference by scheduling as many difficult out-of-conference games as possible, but, in my view, that's still not the same as dealing week after week with the physical and mental challenges of playing a home and home schedule against, say, Stanford, UCLA, Arizona, Oregon, and Oregon State, with some lesser (or not so lesser) obstacles thrown in. Scouting is much better in conference play; coaches learn/steal from one another; weaknesses are more easily exposed and exploited--with all of this forcing each team continually to make adjustments (if it can) if it wishes to remain successful. That's one reason, I believe, why the Pac 12 has typically punched above its weight in recent NCAA Tournaments. Maybe no great teams until last year's Oregon bunch, but a lot of very good ones with very good coaches and a variety of playing styles that provide a lot of help, I believe, come tournament time..

 

[GMP 65]

Yes they played tight on the ball but if our bigs made their Layups we win
by 10 sorry but Ono just couldn’t throw it in the ocean

He shots were not even close. At times she missed the rim completely.

 

[Monte]

Although most UCONN fans will likely bristle at this, I believe that UCONN's conference affiliations since the demise of the old Big East have not done the team any favors. To be clear, I don't think it's an issue in the years in which UCONN is a juggernaut that is head and shoulders above everyone else (e.g. with Stewart et al.), but when the team is only marginally better than everyone else or just one among a group of possible contenders (the past 4 years), playing one easy game after another in conference really hurts when you come up against a team like Arizona in the tournament. Geno obviously does everything possible to counteract the lack of competition in conference by scheduling as many difficult out-of-conference games as possible, but, in my view, that's still not the same as dealing week after week with the physical and mental challenges of playing a home and home schedule against, say, Stanford, UCLA, Arizona, Oregon, and Oregon State, with some lesser (or not so lesser) obstacles thrown in. Scouting is much better in conference play; coaches learn/steal from one another; weaknesses are more easily exposed and exploited--with all of this forcing each team continually to make adjustments (if it can) if it wishes to remain successful. That's one reason, I believe, why the Pac 12 has typically punched above its weight in recent NCAA Tournaments. Maybe no great teams until last year's Oregon bunch, but a lot of very good ones with very good coaches and a variety of playing styles that provide a lot of help, I believe, come tournament time..

I have thought that same thing all year. UCONN is in one of the weakest leagues in the country. They played one "good' team all year, SC.
Arkansas, the team who beat them, lost in the 1st Round of the Tourney.

 

[Gurleyman]

I watched the Stanford USC game and was blown away by the length, shooting ability and overall talent of those two teams. As someone who admittedly has watched only a few of the UConn women’s games, I wondered if UConn could beat either of those teams. Paige to me looked like a freshman who badly needs to add strength. Physically and mentally she didn’t look ready for that stage last night. Ive never seen so much talent and shooting ability in the women’s game before. Parity between 5-10 top teams looks like it’s here to stay in the women’s game.

UConn did beat South Carolina, so you don’t have to wonder there.

Paige had 31 in that one and 28 on a big stage the other night against the defending national champs. She does need to add strength, get a little tougher, and add a little more to her bag of tricks. But I feel like she’s responded to tough challenges enough that there isn’t a flaw in her mental makeup.

 

[PacoSwede]

Can we hire a layup coach?

no, i think particular players would benefit a lot more from a psychiatrist ... to deal with a case of the yips or whatever. they already know how to make layups; that's not the problem.

 

[HuskyNan]

I know we are not allowed to question Geno's coaching, but if he asked me which he wouldn't I would tell him to start using the bench. UCONN has Mir and a 6'5 freshman siting on the bench that are more then capable of playing quality minutes. There is no need in most games of playing someone 35-40 minutes. Give them a rest for a few minutes.

Huh?