Well not much more we can say

[HuskieDawg]

Years of great basketball and championship bears no resemblance to the performance of this team last night. What is being said here on the BY has no significance to the players. What does have significance to the players is what their coach is saying.

“I don’t think it’s gonna get fixed. I really don’t,” he said. “I’ve been doing this a long, long time. Coaches are supposed to be optimistic. I’m too old to be an optimist. I’m a realist. I truly believe what I see. I don’t try to make up what I’m seeing and pretend it’s something else. I know what I see.
Geno.

Thank you for your post.

 

[Charliebball]

Hello everyone, I was finally able to see the game (thanks MJL243) and although a little conditioned by negative opinions on the forum I said to myself "look and then have yours". For me the first 3 Qs they found a kind of adaptation and more or less we were in line with what we would have expected without Paige, then in the 4Q as soon as they accelerated the real problems came up - many players out, organizational panic direction, shot not received, sensational mistakes under the basket ....
We are already in bad shape if we also add some
our hands ..., I also saw good things:

- Caroline fought a lot on both sides of the field...
good things, others less but you can see that the stuff is there and her shot will consolidate
- Amari beautiful debut in a very difficult game
she also said "if you need me I'm here"
- ONO, Evina, ok but we are waiting for something else

I've also seen bad good things:
CW, Dorka, little ?? the 3-point shot where it ended
AE, I like her a lot but to finish at 0 with all those mistakes under the basket ... something happens with her ?? .
Without Paige we also have to count 5 or 6 points less per player he did .

anyway if as someone said :
"if you don't die, see you again" I hope they all come back with Ucla and show up.
I'm confident ... GO Uconn
sorry if i was too obvious

now if they could only end the game after three quarters UConn would be undefeated.........

 

[jfan]

This situation feels eerily similar to the situation at Notre Dame that caused Muffet McGraw to retire. If you remember, ND went from Nationsl Champion to a mediocre team in one year. Muffet decided she was too old for that crap, and decided to retire. Will Geno do the same? He doesn't seem to be having any fun. He certainly is not used to losing. It doesn't look like he will catch Tara any time soon.

Stay tuned, only time will tell.

I thought of McGraw last night like you did. Injuries occurred that season for her, too and the rest of team couldn't step up. So Muffet retired. It's great when you win but the game weighs on you when you consistently lose and you are not used to that.

 

[savoy33]

Yes last night was awful. At times like this I like to remind myself that Tennessee won the '97 NC with a record of 29-10 (including 4 conference losses). If they could get it together then, I have no doubt the Huskies can do so now.

 

[uconnfan68]

With all due respect to the "people shouldn't be so negative" folks, I was at the game and you really had to see this in person to believe it.
First off, give GT some credit, they are a big, talented and well coached team. When Geno tried some defenses, Neil countered with offenses that worked.
Second, other posters are right about AE. She is playing way too fast, getting far ahead of herself and trying to do everything. The same might be said for Evina to a lesser extent.
Third. UConn ran no plays. None. There were some pretty drives, particularly by Williams, but none of the great plays we know they are coached to run.
Fourth, I keep trying to see what Nika would have added to this mix. Defense, yes, and urgency. She would have helped. But she would not have made hhe difference.
Other thoughts: DeBerry wss in for a little while and was fun to watch. I wonder why we did not see more of her, especially when no one else was delivering much of anything. Mir made a brief appearance and showed nothing.
This team really is capable of collapsing in the fourth quarter. I mean a full-on, "I got nuthin" collapse. I've not seen anything like it before in a UConn team. Apropos of that, I sure don't want to see them spend the last three minutes of the game deliberately fouling in hopes of catching up. Why? Because against a bad foul-shooting team, with UConn's best players on the floor, they scored something like four points in three minutes. Think it was bad to watch on TV? Try it in person.
To sum up, I thought that when Paige went down, we'd see a team of strong players who would suck it up, rely on the plays they had been taught and their own talents, and play well. Now, I'm not so sure. Now I wonder if the team has mostly players whose weaknesses are masked by Paige's ncredible skills. I sure hope that's not true.

Geno’s offense isn’t set plays. It’s always been a read-react offense. It requires the correct read to make the correct reaction. They practice enough so it looks like plays, but it’s just a thinking game. He has some rules, like if you start cutting, don’t stop… which was broken a few times last night, resulting in passes to no one. Those are things that frustrate him.

 

[Ron and Vida]

I got all worked up over the bad loss so I’ve read all the comments

In previous posts what is striking is that dispersed in all the gnashing of the teeth and crying in the wilderness are the comments of the moderator keeping the train from going off the tracks
So in the spirit of the posts quoting Animal House and Monty Python and the Holy Grail I’d like to chill and give credit to the graphite rods aka graphite moderators who have prevented this conversation from going nuclear ☢️

 

[Carnac]

With all due respect to the "people shouldn't be so negative" folks, I was at the game and you really had to see this in person to believe it.
First off, give GT some credit, they are a big, talented and well coached team. When Geno tried some defenses, Neil countered with offenses that worked.
Second, other posters are right about AE. She is playing way too fast, getting far ahead of herself and trying to do everything. The same might be said for Evina to a lesser extent.
Third. UConn ran no plays. None. There were some pretty drives, particularly by Williams, but none of the great plays we know they are coached to run.
Fourth, I keep trying to see what Nika would have added to this mix. Defense, yes, and urgency. She would have helped. But she would not have made hhe difference.
Other thoughts: DeBerry wss in for a little while and was fun to watch. I wonder why we did not see more of her, especially when no one else was delivering much of anything. Mir made a brief appearance and showed nothing.
This team really is capable of collapsing in the fourth quarter. I mean a full-on, "I got nuthin" collapse. I've not seen anything like it before in a UConn team. Apropos of that, I sure don't want to see them spend the last three minutes of the game deliberately fouling in hopes of catching up. Why? Because against a bad foul-shooting team, with UConn's best players on the floor, they scored something like four points in three minutes. Think it was bad to watch on TV? Try it in person.
To sum up, I thought that when Paige went down, we'd see a team of strong players who would suck it up, rely on the plays they had been taught and their own talents, and play well. Now, I'm not so sure. Now I wonder if the team has mostly players whose weaknesses are masked by Paige's ncredible skills. I sure hope that's not true.

Good post TC. I always like to get a words eye view from someone who was there. Thanks.

 

[baggerbob]

Some were wondering why I posted No Comment. Well read the threads. There is no explanation for what happened last nite. It happened and whether we're in a funk or something else we will have to play and practice through it. What happened last nite can be fixed. I have to agree it was tuff to watch. Remember after Paige got hurt and Geno was asked why he left her in the game and his answer was we dont look good when Paige isnt in there. Well she wasnt in the game last nite. Pretty smart coach to be able to know that and last nites debacle was everything everybody posted and then some.

Yeah we looked like we could loose the next 25 games or until everybody gets healthy. The thing thats got all of us wondering and looking for an explanation is how did this happen. Were looking for an answer and there is none. Well alot may have to do with confidence. Alot may have to do with what Geno said, they just dont listen at practice. Alot of was covered up with Paige on the floor.

There are no answers imo for what happened last nite. There is no explanation. We need to accept it and move on. It happened and we will have to keep playin until we get out of this funk we're in. Nobody is playing well and nobody is to blame. The worse thing you can do is continue to think about it which will only reinforce the negative thoughts in your head and you will spiral down even deeper. We have to hang in there until we get back on track.

First off we need to get back to working on the fundamentals. We cant worry about loosing or the negative things that have been going on on the court. we have to focus on working hard on the fundamentals and executing them and that will get our confidence back. Remember the ole saying Practice til you cant get it wrong.

Last night's game is a teaching moment for Geno. He can have the team watch the film, and point out all the bad passes, shots, bad position on defense, bad rebounding position.
Then when they go to practice the players will listen, and do the drills the way he wants.
His statement the offense isn't good when Paige isn't in the game is pointed to the other 4 starters, they need to get better.