What just happened? BY seems shellshocked.

[Tonyc]

Why is everybody shocked? At Baylor we didnt go to the line til the end of the game, at ND the calls werent called and here at Lville the fouls were one sided again. Not bad for a team that dosnt foul. UConn is going to need to keep their poise and be patient and really slow things down when things like this happen and maintain control and then what needs to happen is one of our bigs needs to foul and opponet and knock her on her butt hard and send a message. Fear and intimidation works wonders. I dont like it one bit but if theyre not calling it then we need to learn to play that way

 

[RadyLady]

A win is a win at this point but a certain times during the second half, the game didn't resemble a basketball game. It looked like more of a boxing match. The refereeing was definitely terrible and they were the ones who allowed the play to get the way it did. They were lucky no one got seriously hurt.
Give credit to the Huskies though for stepping and battling it out.



From http://soxanddawgs.com/huskies/articles/uconn-huskies-louisville-cardinals-2-7-12-recap.html in Nan's Uconn in the news list. Says it all I think.

 

[vtcwbuff]

Weird. Jeff Walz was once a rising star. What happened?

Jeff Walz is still a rising star. His teams have been hampered by injury. I think his "hack a husky" game plan was the only way he felt he could compete.

 

[pap49cba]

I think his "hack a husky" game plan was the only way he felt he could compete.

That doesn't make it right. Uconn in the past has suffered numerous season ending injuries to key players but Geno & CD didn't respond by turning the team into a bunch of hackers, pushers and holders. A coach can control the way his team plays. I lost a lot of respect for Walz last night.

 

[HGN]

Just wait - you'll see it again on Saturday when the Huskies play Georgetown.

Not even close, HuskyNan.......U. of Louisville are amateurs at physical play ( mugging ) compared to Georgetown. Hopefully the ref's will have the guts to make the obvious calls. Most times ( such as in the most recent ND game ) the ref's would swallow their whistle at obvious fouls committed by ND , Diggins in particular. As long as the fouls are called on both ends of the court , UConn should prevail.

 

[attaboy]

For Louisville, it seemed to be a good strategy. Uconn players, by now, should know what is coming now in certain games. This is especially true when the game is that chippy in the first half and the home team has more fouls. Honestly, both teams could have been playing with the second five if they called it remotely close in the first half. As a player, you have to be ready for a second half that is probably not going your way after the way the first half went. Halftime is a game changer for referees. You talk a little small talk and then assess the first half. In that conversation, it was most likely agreed to tighten things up a little. Been there and done that, usually, that is a bad omen for the visitors. I hate the old double foul call but as an official, I would have made good use of this call last night. A couple of double fouls, a warning to the involved players(if you want to play knock it off), and a warning to the coaches, could have solved the issue. Unfortunately, doesn't make for good TV, and the stripes thought what they left out there did. Where is Sylvia Hatchell when you need her? Personally, I would have like to see the lane cleared, drive to the rim and kick to the place of where the double or triple team was coming from(short corner or strong side elbow). Oh well, in this case a W is a W. Next up on the gridiron -- Georgetown.

 

[Joe6cats]

One way to look at this and the BU/ ND games, is that the referees are doing their bit for parity: it is open season for uncalled fouls on those dang Huskies.

 

[Timeout]

Why is everybody shocked? At Baylor we didnt go to the line til the end of the game, at ND the calls werent called and here at Lville the fouls were one sided again. Not bad for a team that dosnt foul. UConn is going to need to keep their poise and be patient and really slow things down when things like this happen and maintain control and then what needs to happen is one of our bigs needs to foul and opponet and knock her on her butt hard and send a message. Fear and intimidation works wonders. I dont like it one bit but if theyre not calling it then we need to learn to play that way

Would have been nice to send nurse Buck out there to apply some good medicine - lol.

 

[HuskyNan]

For some reason Dolson doesn't like elbows poking her nose. She treated Vails' arm the way I treat a turkey leg when I'm carving on Thanksgiving.

It was a hand...looked like an elbow during the game. Or maybe that was a different play.

 

[UcMiami]

I think refs do have a hard time judging how to call game like this - I think they screwed it up last night, but i isn't easy as you do not want to completely stop the flow by calling every touch. I think the best refs start the game calling it close and send the message that th physical stuff is not acceptable, and the players have to adjust quickly or sit with 3 fouls. Once they establish that, they can somewhat relax the standards.
Last night I thought they started inconsistently calling some touch fouls and letting a lot of hacking go. And then they got worse! I don't blame LV for going with the flow if it isn't being called.
I also think some teams do put added pressure on bad officiating - basically challenging the officials to foul the whole team out. But again, I think good officials can change that tactic very early in games by calling the right fouls.

 

[UcMiami]

Would have been nice to send nurse Buck out there to apply some good medicine - lol.

I did wonder about that possibility. There would have been a few bodies on the ground if he had.

 

[HuskyNan]

I did wonder about that possibility. There would have been a few bodies on the ground if he had.

When have you ever seen Heather show that kind of aggressiveness? And the Huskies needed scoring last night, not defense.

 

[schmendrick]

Man, I'm glad I wasn't able to watch this. I think our TV screen was too. I wonder, though, if this will not turn out to be the best preparation--and inspiration--for Georgetown and ND.

Also, for those who did have the pleasure, are the "brutal" (to quote Icebear) non-calls attributable to the sheer incompetence or the refs? Were they overwhelmed by the crowd?

Yum Center? Blech.

 

[Timeout]

When have you ever seen Heather show that kind of aggressiveness? And the Huskies needed scoring last night, not defense.

Not intentionally. In the Rutgers game, a Rutger player got a 'good' unintentional whack from Buck when both players went for the ball. We often see Heather cover some ground to get to a rebound. She's not afraid and we were out rebounded last night.

 

[Icebear]

Man, I'm glad I wasn't able to watch this. I think our TV screen was too. I wonder, though, if this will not turn out to be the best preparation--and inspiration--for Georgetown and ND.

Also, for those who did have the pleasure, are the "brutal" (to quote Icebear) non-calls attributable to the sheer incompetence or the refs? Were they overwhelmed by the crowd?

Yum Center? Blech.

The cause is very hard to guess since we cannot see inside their minds. However, I would go with the officials being overwhelmed and incompetent. Dee Kantgetitright has done several bad games this year.

 

[pap49cba]

The depressing thing is that Dee Kantner obviously is considered one of the best given all of the 'big' games she works.

 

[speedoo]

The depressing thing is that Dee Kantner obviously is considered one of the best given all of the 'big' games she works.

Very depressing. Worst thing about her is that she is so inconsistent, some games she calls way too many fouls, others like last night, she allows the game to bet out of hand. Seriously, how much worse was Sally Bell?. At least with Bell, you knew she was going to call too many fouls,so you kinda knew what to expect.

 

[johnnyc]

I was only able to catch the 1st half and it was getting pretty rough. Looks like they picked it up a notch in the 2nd. I guess somewhere between what happened last night and Sylvia Hatchell's comments is good basketball.

 

[HuskyNan]

Very depressing. Worst thing about her is that she is so inconsistent, some games she calls way too many fouls, others like last night, she allows the game to bet out of hand. Seriously, how much worse was Sally Bell?. At least with Bell, you knew she was going to call too many fouls,so you kinda knew what to expect.

I dunno, speedoo. I was rewatching the 2004 UConn-Tenn game in Knoxville which was officiated by Sally Bell. Geno & Pat Summitt, plus an assortment of Husky and Lady Vol players, were stomping their feet in exasperation so much so that Ann Meyers, one of the announcers, warned that there were going to be a lot of T's if people didn't watch their tempers. Meyers and Sean McDonough spent most of the game trying to find new euphemisms for "really bad officiating", at one point laughing out loud when an LV player dribbled the ball off her foot and Maria Conlon was called for a foul.

 

[Bestiarius]

The depressing thing is that Dee Kantner obviously is considered one of the best given all of the 'big' games she works.

My rating of her would be a Dee minus.

 

[JS]

My rating of her would be a Dee minus.

So you're a Dee-tractor?

 

[speedoo]

I dunno, speedoo. I was rewatching the 2004 UConn-Tenn game in Knoxville which was officiated by Sally Bell. Geno & Pat Summitt, plus an assortment of Husky and Lady Vol players, were stomping their feet in exasperation so much so that Ann Meyers, one of the announcers, warned that there were going to be a lot of T's in the game if people didn't watch their tempers. Meyers and Sean McDonough spent most of the game trying to find new euphemisms for "really bad officiating", at one point laughing out loud when an LV player dribbled the ball off her foot and Maria Conlon was called for a foul.

No question, Bell was the worst high profile ref in recent memory. Just the quantity of terrible calls she made in any game was stupifying, and the fact that she was used in so many big games for so many years was inexplicable. And I'm not saying Kantner is as bad, just suggesting that she is approaching a similar situation in that she appears to be very much over rated by the powers that be who assign the refs. I'd much rather see Dennis DeMayo, for example reffing a big game. I think Dennis is one of, if not the best, around.... very consistent, lets them play but quickly gets a game under control when necessary. With Dennis in Dee's place last night, we would have actually had a basketball game instead of a mess.

 

[Replicant]

UConn is going to need to keep their poise and be patient and really slow things down when things like this happen and maintain control and then what needs to happen is one of our bigs needs to foul and opponet and knock her on her butt hard and send a message. Fear and intimidation works wonders. I dont like it one bit but if theyre not calling it then we need to learn to play that way

Our only "big" that delivered said message last night was Kelly delivering a gorgeous shoulder check for her 4th foul. If the refs won't enforce the rules, you have no choice as a player but to take matters into your own hands to protect yourself and your teammates. It was probably advisable for Geno to have taken a "T" and get the refs attention when we were still up by approx. 17 midway into the 2nd half. Our girls are tough, but we don't have any true enforcer types. I could easily visualize LV players sprawled on the deck if they'd tried that crap against Tamika, Swin, Asjha, Tina, Shea, Dee, Morgan, et al...

 

[speedoo]

Our only "big" that delivered said message last night was Kelly delivering a gorgeous shoulder check for her 4th foul. If the refs won't enforce the rules, you have no choice as a player but to take matters into your own hands to protect yourself and your teammates. It was probably advisable for Geno to have taken a "T" and get the refs attention when we were still up by approx. 17 midway into the 2nd half. Our girls are tough, but we don't have any true enforcer types. I could easily visualize LV players on the deck if they'd tried that crap against Tamika, Swin or Asjha, Shea, Dee, Morgan, et al...

As has been suggested by one or more here, Geno as Olympic coach needs to be mindful that he is not just the UConn coach these days, he is always representing USA basketball whenever he is in the public eye. And he has made it very clear that his role as Olympic coach is by far more important than anything else in his professional life. So he has probably decided that any kind of behavior on his part, no matter how well warranted, that might result in a technical foul, is just not acceptable.

 

[pap49cba]

I don't care if he is the Olympic coach in my view Geno's first responsibility is to protect his players and if that means taking a T so be it. No one is going to argue with it if it is apparent someone could be seriously injured. Almost everyone commenting or tweeting during the game (Bob Joyce, Rich Elliot, Rebecca, Debi A., etc.) said the game was way too physical to the point of being out of control.