What Last Season taught us

[Bone Dog]

ONO grew to become quite an accomplished passer during her time at UConn, actually leading the team in assists last season..........I have yet to see the equivalent passing skills from Juhasz but I hope she improves in that area too........

I was merely reporting their assist totals from last season. Dorka’s numbers are comparable, though a little lower. She’s in the same ballpark as Liv. That says to me that she already has roughly equivalent passing skills. Of course, I hope she improves this season.

 

[Charliebball]

I was merely reporting their assist totals from last season. Dorka’s numbers are comparable, though a little lower. She’s in the same ballpark as Liv. That says to me that she already has roughly equivalent passing skills. Of course, I hope she improves this season.

From what I have observed the two aren't even close but nothing would make me happier than if she surpasses ONO in that category.....

 

[Cuango]

There have been so many of these posts, and I get the fascination with these questions. But some of the answers are painfully, tediously obvious -- we were not playing at full strength. No Dorka (therefore overly foul conscious on the frontline), Azzi and Caroline not at 100%, and two tons of pressure on Evina and Christyn. Finally, wobbly Paige was not able to carry the team any further on her shoulders.

I'm not making excuses, and I could wish the seniors had been in a position to contribute more, but they weren't This is old news, and largely irrelevant to the upcoming season. The seniors are gone, the front line has lots of depth now, the back court is deep, and most important of all, Azzi and Caroline look to be at 100%. We lost Paige for another season, which is cataclysmic. But I think our sophomores are in a much better position to carry the load she carried than they were last season.

If your point in this post is that Geno and CD screwed up -- your final remarks suggest this -- I think you are very much mistaken. They took a weakened, inexperienced squad to the NC -- that was the most awesome coaching job I can remember. I will remember this season as the one where everyone overachieved. They ran out of gas in the NC, but that doesn't trouble me, even if I find it painful to watch replays of that game.

Don’t forget Liv was injured too (groin)!

 

[Cuango]

If we are to take the question, "What last season taught us?" seriously, then we must contemplate the truth. WFFL stated it clearly, we got out physicaled, out played, out hustled with SC both games. Our comments shouldn't be any different for the women's game than for the men's game. We should call a spade, a spade. Is it fair and enough to say, "oh we were not up to full strength, or so and so was not up to 100%, they were only freshman"?
I agree that criticism of last years NC game will not help us this year, but why not dissect the game and identify the problems? Wouldn't we do that if it were mens Kansas, N. Carolina or Duke?

This whole argument is self-evidently silly. Do you actually believe that if two boxers were signed to fight and one suffered a broken hand climbing into the ring, it would not be reported on and used as a major explanation for the predictable result of that fight?
I haven’t seen anyone say that SC was not the favorite or that UConn would have won! However, it is incontrovertible that the team they played in the title game was a mere shell of their healthy self! To deny that is to deny reality! Recognizing the truth is not, and will never be, making excuses. Nor is it some sort of tortured belittling of SC. They won, they likely would have won anyway, but they certainly can’t say they beat a healthy UConn!

 

[Inthepaint]

SC was better than us last November, and they were better than us last April.
I don’t enjoy saying it any more than we like hearing it. I still can’t watch the NC game.
Hopefully, as they say, we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes.
We have 30+ games coming up.
One, perhaps two against SC.
Our goal is to win ALL of them, one game at a time.
No Paige?
Too bad for us, we’ll just have to make do with the talent we can put on the court.
We know what each of our returning players DID last season, but we can only guess and theorize as to what they and the new Huskies will be able to accomplish.
The major factor that hovered over Storrs last season were the freaky injuries and illnesses.Not an alibi or an excuse, just a sad fact.
After that debacle at Georgia Tech, I wonder if any of us thought UCONN would end up in a NC game? How about after Oregon?
Geno and his gang figured out a way.
Admittedly, a lot of it was ugly,but some guts and effort shone through.
By next spring we will know what was learned ( besides staying healthy) and what steps will be taken to make the traditional “Husky Run”.
Let the games begin!!

 

[WFFL]

Whatever. Telling a fact of what the IU coach said and Stanford coach said - odd you call it "name dropping" yet I call it a fact that they said. I have no problem "name dropping" a fact from a qualified source. IMO you are being way too disingenuous lumping the UCONN injuries with every other team. Players being unable to play their normal minutes they would without a doubt play in a title game is a lot different than how you characterize the injuries as “dinged up.” And the speaking of being outhustled; amazing how much it would appear that Boston would “outhustle” Evina Westbrook while Evina was forced to guard her. Do we question Evina’s “hustle” for not being able to keep Boston off the boards and stopping her in the low post etc? Or for example question that we have to double team more with Evina vs Boston thus leaving a player more open (for a wide open jumper or ORebound), and for longer stretches of the game?

There are “degrees of injuries/being dinged up.” Not all are the same.

Anyway --I’m done.

Why not use our own coaches words instead ? That would carry more weight around here . When it comes to being outhustled , why pivot the narrative to individual matchups rather than the entire teams as a whole head to head ? Using individual matchups is a blindsider and should not be considered when the entire team got outplayed overall resulting in a loss. The Boston vs Westbrook matchup did not lose the game for us . Rebounds which stems from what ? "Hustle" we got destroyed .

 

[WFFL]

This whole argument is self-evidently silly. Do you actually believe that if two boxers were signed to fight and one suffered a broken hand climbing into the ring, it would not be reported on and used as a major explanation for the predictable result of that fight?
I haven’t seen anyone say that SC was not the favorite or that UConn would have won! However, it is incontrovertible that the team they played in the title game was a mere shell of their healthy self! To deny that is to deny reality! Recognizing the truth is not, and will never be, making excuses. Nor is it some sort of tortured belittling of SC. They won, they likely would have won anyway, but they certainly can’t say they beat a healthy UConn!

If a boxer broke his hand he should not be fighting that's the point of that disclaimer being used not being valid. If so it could be spun a certain way that would not look good for the program so using the injury limited minutes thing should be done away with . If a player plays they must be healthy enough if they are not healthy why are they playing ? If we truly believe injuries were the only reason we did not walk away with the championship then we are in for a long season . Id rather focus on what each player needs to do and improve. Not trying to be harsh , but its the only way they will get better . They need to be better in order to beat south carolina. Playing the same way we did last year will end in the same results . Sick , Injured = Don't play in my mind sorry .

 

[hoophuskee]

Why not use our own coaches words instead ? That would carry more weight around here . When it comes to being outhustled , why pivot the narrative to individual matchups rather than the entire teams as a whole head to head ? Using individual matchups is a blindsider and should not be considered when the entire team got outplayed overall resulting in a loss.

I said I was done. Other posters seem to get very frustrated with the many back and forths (and this past week or so I had one which quite a few were frustrated. It was fun for me but not the other non-replying posters it seems.) - if you want start a thread specifically on this then I'll be happy to reply, or PM me. You have last word on this thread with me.

But posters don't want to see a lot of back-and-forth; and it appears you and I will.

I understand you were just replying to me and that is fine. Okay for you to have last word.

 

[oldude]

Why not use our own coaches words instead ? That would carry more weight around here . When it comes to being outhustled , why pivot the narrative to individual matchups rather than the entire teams as a whole head to head ? Using individual matchups is a blindsider and should not be considered when the entire team got outplayed overall resulting in a loss. The Boston vs Westbrook matchup did not lose the game for us . Rebounds which stems from what ? "Hustle" we got destroyed .

SC was a better team, to be sure. But really? Ignoring the fact that Dorka & Aubrey were out, Liv & Evina were injured and limited in what they could do and Azzi was sick and ineffective is akin to completely ignoring reality. While a healthy UConn team would still be an underdog, I have no doubt the game would have been considerably closer, and if it came down to making a play or two at the end, I’d put my money on Paige and the Huskies to find a way.

 

[Alydar]

All teams have weaknesses. It so happens SC can cover their weakness (outside shooting) with their strength(offensive rebounding). This version of SC is a bad matchup for UConn. UConn is a solid rebounding team, but SC is elite. UConn also will struggle against SC because they lack shot creators who can beat SC off the dribble and create their own shot in a half court set. Last season UConn had Paige who was that and then some. Due to her heroics her freshmen year and last season's matchup being cancelled, UConn would be on a 5-game losing streak to this version of SC. If UConn wants to hoist number 12, they will need someone who matches up better with SC to knock them off. I think after this season UConn will be the favorite once again with a healthy Paige and some shot creators in your upcoming classes.

I still remember beating SCar for several years despite the Gamecocks having a stronger front line and outrebounding UConn. In most of those games UConn would have a couple of 12-2 runs and the game was over. In the 2022 final SCar had their run in the 1st period and then they played even the rest of the way.
I'm looking forward to next season's game(s).

 

[WFFL]

I said I was done. Other posters seem to get very frustrated with the many back and forths (and this past week or so I had one which quite a few were frustrated. It was fun for me but not the other non-replying posters it seems.) - if you want start a thread specifically on this then I'll be happy to reply, or PM me. You have last word on this thread with me.

But posters don't want to see a lot of back-and-forth; and it appears you and I will.

I understand you were just replying to me and that is fine. Okay for you to have last word.

No i apologize that was not the intent i just want to focus on players and which parts of their game that needs drastic improvements . Injuries are apart of the game i just dont it being used when it comes to reasons regarding a W/L.