We need more players to shoot the ball

[Tonyc]

It is evident that Azzi and Caroline are not yet back to what they were. Lingering injuries are the reason. We need scorers. I understand some players are focused on D and thus it showed yesterday almost not scoring which allowed defenses to focus on Paige and Aaliyah and being physical with them really puts a hinder on their performance. When Q came in and took some shots things opened up a bit because they needed to guard her. We need players to step up and score. Q is not afraid to shoot. We need more players to shoot the dam ball. At least be a threat which will force defenses to come out and guard them. How bout dribble drive or pull up jumpers. That will take alot of the pressure off Paige and Aaliyah. Yesterday in a game that was slowed down game it was almost like everybody was looking and waiting for Paige and Aaliyah. A change in attitude should be when you get the ball find a way to get a shot off like you did in high school. In hs you were depended on to score that attitude needs to happen now at UConn. Our youngsters need to take charge much like Q is doing. Force defenses to focus on them. With Azzi and Caroline on the floor defenses need to guard them. We have a tuff schedule coming up and I believe our defense will keep us in the game however we need scoring to come from more players...a more balanced scoring attack. UCLA Kansas and Texas are coming up. I liked what I saw from KK ICE Q and Shade. We need more of that. Nikas pull up jumper from the line was encouraging and we need her to do that more instead of passing to someone else.

We are waiting for our injured to come back. We have continued to wait up to this point. Now we need players to step up and Make It Happen. We cant depend on 2 players to do all the scoring. We will surprise alot of teams when everybody else starts shooting the ball which will force them to guard us more closely.

I like our 3 guard offense with Nika Paige and KK. Nika and KK need to pull up and get open and take shots. The 3 guard offense should cut down on turnovers. Shade and Q need to keep shooting the ball when they touch it. Hey early season I thought that with a healthy Azzi and Caroline we could go undefeated. Theyre not completely healthy yet. So we need players to step up and shoot the ball and everything else should take care of itself.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Hey Tony you know something about Azzi that I don't? Maybe I missed it, but I thought her current injury was undiagnosed.

 

[Nolefan]

I personally do not like the 3 guard look .. Nika looks out of sorts when KK is on point and the offense is stagnant with Nika just standing around the 3 point areas .. AE has hands of bricks at times and has no interest in playing defense at times .. CD really doesn’t drive to the paint much anymore probably nervous about getting whacked in the head ..AG had no interest in shooting yesterday .. Our second chance shots was like zero yesterday against a slow team it was disappointing.. If Minnesota shot better UConn takes another loss .. Paige I’m not worried about still needs to get her legs under her only had a short rest .. Azzi coming back will help the offense but will it help our defense ? I really love the freshman and what they bring and hope they get more time as the season goes on .. This is a good team but not elite at this point …

 

[ConnMotors]

Yesterday’s game was all about missed shots. Nothing was dropping. Aubrey was a no show. Didn’t seem like herself. Caroline was out of sync. Nika knocked down her shots. Yeah!!!! I really want to see Ice bang bodies in the post. Yes slip out a take those jumpers afterwards. KK needs to drive and shoot continuously. Q-Ash both played well. My granddaughters were over and they loved Q’s buns.

 

[JellyBean]

I agree and disagree. I agree that we need more players to shoot the ball. That takes a lot of pressure off Paige and Aaliyah when we have shooters out there. Where I disagree with you at is, who and how. Who is pretty simple. You want the players taking shots that they do in practice, mid-range or from deep and any of the players can shoot the ball. The problem is how. You watched the game yesterday; I will use Caroline for an example. First quarter, one touch in 4 minutes of play. She was open but nobody passed the ball her way. Second quarter, pretty much the same. Pretty the whole game was like that. Whoever is driving either decides to shoot or passes the ball to another teammate. A lot depends on who has the ball at the time and if they want to pass the rock or shoot.

 

[Bone Dog]

… CD really doesn’t drive to the paint much anymore probably nervous about getting whacked in the head ..AG had no interest in shooting yesterday .. Our second chance shots was like zero yesterday against a slow team it was disappointing.. If Minnesota shot better UConn takes another loss . ..

There was a reason Minnesota shot so poorly. It wasn’t by accident.

I’m not sure why Aubrey was absent on the offense, maybe the zone clogged up the middle too much.

Minnesota’s bigs are not speedy but they are strong. This means a zone type defense is all they can really manage. Amaya and Mara are very quick, so they can run a box and one or a triangle and two, but with slow bigs planted in the lane, it’s a lot harder for Aubrey and Aaliyah to operate on there.

If we had hit more 3s they’d have been forced to come out of the lane on defense and Aaliyah and Aubrey would have been unleashed. And overall, I’d say our perimeter shooting game has not lived up to expectations, yet, and this has allowed teams to pack the paint against Aaliyah. This will not be the case for the whole season.

Also, on Aaliyah’s rebounding and defense, I notice that Geno often has her running high hedges against opposing guards at the top of the arc. This is a daring defensive tactic and seems to have paid off in raising everyone’s energy level on defense. Aaliyah is quick enough to do it well, but it cuts into her rebounding numbers. Paige has taken up the slack in this area. And if we play Ice next to Aaliyah this will be an important benefit.

 

[Scooter]

I agree with this post. Well into the second quarter, I looked and Muhl, Griffin and Ducharme had taken zero shots! The offense was basically two players. That’s why I was glad the freshmen came into the game since they aren’t afraid to shoot. The situation improved in the second half especially with Muhl. I also agree that Muhl seems a bit lost on offense when she is not running the show. Need to get that sorted out.

 

[uconnever]

Totally agree, we need Ice and Azzi starting. When healthy. Paige, Azzi, Aubrey, Ice, Aaliyah. Mix and match from there. Nika deserves to start but not at the expense of offensive flow and to me when it’s her and Paige the flow isn’t that great. I do think as time goes on they can figure it out but I would not have those two start. Also I noticed that in the huddle it’s always Nika talking and Paige looks as if she wants to lead the huddle also but holds back. Not in a bad way but she has something to say but Nika is always talking. I want Paige leading our huddles, nothing against Nika, I would go to battle with her any day, but I want Paige leading this team this year now that she is healthy. Also Paige needs the ball in her hands as the dominant point. Just my opinion. Now things can work out with the both of them out there. I’m just not feeling it. With my starting five, we have everyone that is going to try and score and not be scared and our defensive stopper in Aubrey.

 

[Martin]

I don’t believe CD not driving/cutting to the basket is due to her being afraid of getting hit in the head. If that was the case I don’t think Geno would play her.

Her teammates do ignore her a lot. She used to play well with Edwards, getting the ball to Edwards and cutting to the basket.

With Geno playing everyone I don’t know what her roll is. She is starting to remind me of Makarut. She should have left Uconn and basketball last year to rest her brain and body. She doesn’t look like someone who basketball is important to. And she is my favorite player. Perhaps an unpopular opinion.

Ask yourself CD are you someplace where a coaching staff wants you or are you someplace a coaching staff needs you?

You are way better than this.

 

[Conndog]

I think UConn needs to make better effort on rebounding too. Having too many players stationed out by 3 point line means fewer players are going to get rebounds. Minnesota was well coached and skilled in boxing out, but UConn made it easy for them too by not crashing inside more. What will happen when SCarolina is the opponent? You know they will be attacking basket with multiple players. It would be good for UConn to tweak offensive schemes a bit (in my opinion) to help make this happen more.

 

[Blond D.]

Nika had 11 points....one less than Paige. She also could have had about 10 assists if SOME of the players would make their bunny shots and layups. Nika was playing fantastic defense.

 

[AmeriConn]

I thought Geno first put Q in with 1 minute left in the 3rd period. Am I wrong? If so, what took so long to put her in the game.

 

[my2cents]

You can't have two starters not contributing in the half court offense. Lots of turnovers trying to get the ball to AE.
In the first half , not sure if we got any offensive rebounds.

 

[veryolddog]

I agree with those that we need more baskets to be made, more foul shots made, more layups and more 3 pointers. Every year hopes and dreams are well defined from new players and old players that may have regained their health from injuries received from the prior season and poof: nothing happens. Same old, same old. Less than a stellar performance and a team that does not play like a team. The only redeeming thing that I see is that we have a group of 5 new players that have proven that they can play and contribute unlike previous years. I am not going to be around much longer and I was hoping to see something grea; something dominating like the Breanna Stewart years. Not going to happen. This is not a dominating team. This is a team that is on par with every other top 25 team and on any given day can either win or lose against their opponents. That's the way I see it.

 

[Waquoit]

There was a reason Minnesota shot so poorly. It wasn’t by accident.

Yeah, it's no accident that they are lousy shooters.

 

[Tonyc]

Alot of good points. I thought we would have 5 players who could give us double digits scoring. Now we dont. That needs to change without changing the Defense which has been great. So everybody not named Paige or Aaliyah needs to score or their playtime should be cut. Coming up over the weekend more scorers with our defense should lead to big wins.

 

[Pharos]

I think UConn needs to make better effort on rebounding too. Having too many players stationed out by 3 point line means fewer players are going to get rebounds. Minnesota was well coached and skilled in boxing out, but UConn made it easy for them too by not crashing inside more. What will happen when SCarolina is the opponent? You know they will be attacking basket with multiple players. It would be good for UConn to tweak offensive schemes a bit (in my opinion) to help make this happen more.

Quadence wants the rebound... fun to watch that...

 

[freshler40]

Totally agree, we need Ice and Azzi starting. When healthy. Paige, Azzi, Aubrey, Ice, Aaliyah. Mix and match from there. Nika deserves to start but not at the expense of offensive flow and to me when it’s her and Paige the flow isn’t that great. I do think as time goes on they can figure it out but I would not have those two start. Also I noticed that in the huddle it’s always Nika talking and Paige looks as if she wants to lead the huddle also but holds back. Not in a bad way but she has something to say but Nika is always talking. I want Paige leading our huddles, nothing against Nika, I would go to battle with her any day, but I want Paige leading this team this year now that she is healthy. Also Paige needs the ball in her hands as the dominant point. Just my opinion. Now things can work out with the both of them out there. I’m just not feeling it. With my starting five, we have everyone that is going to try and score and not be scared and our defensive stopper in Aubrey.

Your suggestion may help the stalled offence. Worth a try when Azzi get back. We do need better offensive rebounding. It was totally missing in the first half and hurt. I also don't know why we didn't press full court. We have the quickness and deep bench to do more of that. The 3rd quarter showed what our speed can do with Paige throwing touchdown passes.
Edwards needs to not fall down so much. She should focus on better first quarter play, by making shots instead of hunting fouls. She is our prime rebounder without Ice on the court. Thus, having her high post double team is counterproductive if another rebounder is not on the court.

 

[BBallF]

It matters who shoots it. It has to be Paige more than anyone. She needs at least 20 shots against UCLA and we can't just send the ball into Aaliyah as a fail safe resort. She forces and turns it over too often in my book. That's why Azzi is so critical. We probably need 25 points from Paige and 15-20 from AE against the Bruins with our current defense as well. You have two forwards right now who start, CD and Griffs who won't shoot, in Aubrey's case, and can't get open to shoot and is tentative in CD's case. I feel bad for both of them but they have to realize that the team is depending on them. It can only go so far without them. You can count on Nika now for 8-10 points a game and points from the bench but it just isn't enough. Everyone, especially Paige, has to take immediate ownership of this team.

 

[HopJim]

Would fine tune some of these comments to say it matters who shoots and where they shoot from. With few exceptions, every in-season game Huskies have lost the past few years have seen them throw up and miss many 3's from far outside. Offense tends to stagnate and they stop driving and getting the high probability midrange shots. Huskies are a good 3 point shooting team, but there are times every team gets cold from the outside. Not sure if UConn has a "Plan 5" offense this early in the year to go to if primary offense fails.

 

[jdote33]

I don’t believe CD not driving/cutting to the basket is due to her being afraid of getting hit in the head. If that was the case I don’t think Geno would play her.

Her teammates do ignore her a lot. She used to play well with Edwards, getting the ball to Edwards and cutting to the basket.

With Geno playing everyone I don’t know what her roll is. She is starting to remind me of Makarut. She should have left Uconn and basketball last year to rest her brain and body. She doesn’t look like someone who basketball is important to. And she is my favorite player. Perhaps an unpopular opinion.

Ask yourself CD are you someplace where a coaching staff wants you or are you someplace a coaching staff needs you?

You are way better than this.

This is a great point. Previously she played with a lot of great passing bigs - ONO and Dorka. They hit her all the time cutting to the basket. Additionally she was a primary option a lot of times, even last year at times it seems plays were run specifically to get her shots. Now, I think most things are run for Paige and AE which makes sense. I just don't see her having a lot of opportunities. She's not the 1 on 1 iso type, tho I think she is ok in the post. I'd love to see her catch it at the elbow, and play pick and role with AE, having the option to dump off or drive right to the basket.

 

[omshanti]

There weren’t many three pointers attempted and only a few made. There were too many layups missed and too many turnovers. The starting line up seems to be quite limited without Azzi. Caroline has been a non factor for three games now. That hurts the flow of the offense from the get go. I understand Geno will continue to start her yet it is detrimental, especially with UCLA coming up and moving forward. until Ayanna is back the team is small. knocking some threes will open it up for Aubrey to do her work. Just wish she would let them fly. She’s capable of hitting the mid range or 3’s.

It’s still so early in the season to be overly concerned. The big concern is Azzi’s knee.

it’s so easy to sit and critique a team, coach or players from the seat at the game or on the couch. The team really is doing the best that they can. Go get ‘‘em Huskies. It’s a blessing to be able to witness them and get frustrated, excited, cheer, get disappointed and celebrate the championships.

 

[Cuango]

I don’t believe CD not driving/cutting to the basket is due to her being afraid of getting hit in the head. If that was the case I don’t think Geno would play her.

Her teammates do ignore her a lot. She used to play well with Edwards, getting the ball to Edwards and cutting to the basket.

With Geno playing everyone I don’t know what her roll is. She is starting to remind me of Makarut. She should have left Uconn and basketball last year to rest her brain and body. She doesn’t look like someone who basketball is important to. And she is my favorite player. Perhaps an unpopular opinion.

Ask yourself CD are you someplace where a coaching staff wants you or are you someplace a coaching staff needs you?

You are way better than this.

I don’t think there’s any question she’s afraid of getting hit again! Who could blame her? I can’t even begin to imagine what she’s gone through. I don’t know what the answer is for her. It really breaks my heart as she is one of my favorites also. I give all due respect to both her for trying to get through this and to Geno for sticking with her as she goes through what must be an absolute nightmare! I just pray that she can eventually put it behind her and whether as a basketball player or not, have a happy, healthy life!

 

[AmeriConn]

I don't think we're changing starters soon enough when they're committing turnovers, not making plays and not hitting shots. That's a sure way to get in a really big hole against good teams.

 

[dtbtbtb]

Q does not have an issue shooting. The problem is that sometimes she just shoots too fast, instead off letting the play develop.
And i don't like those hedges by AE...it creates a hole where a faster team could burn UConn time and time again. When AE does that, UConn tries to close that hole till AE is back in position but it's a small player who needs to defend the post of the other team.