What's your biggest concern with this team?

[dogpause]

Mine is that our bigs too frequently play small. Offensively, they tend to want to camp out on the perimeter too much. Their interior defense also seems more like what was played in the 80's -- arms up, stationary, try to avoid fouls, rather than allowing some space and timing blocked shots, or taking an occasional charge when opposing bigs, or smaller players like Morrow, use a battering ram move. Blocking out also appears to lacking, or worse.

 

[Littlemin]

Morrow, for all she has been criticized here, did what the refs allowed her to do, that’s what good, smart players do. She was very well coached because in getting position, she primarily used her lower body to push, not her arms or shoulders. The swinging of her arms, as has been talked about, I did not notice, that certainly doesn’t mean I am saying it didn’t happen.
As for the Uconn bigs, they are not physical players, they are what they are. Edwards would seem to be capable but for whatever reasons, she obviously has taken a pretty big step backward this year.
Auriemna has them play where they play and for the great game Morrow had, I believe Uconn had more points in the paint than DePaul; they just were scored in different ways, by having open lanes to drive and from pushing the ball.
Uconn, IMO, commits too many ”silly” fouls; both of Muhl’s early in the game were unnecessary and right out in the open where the refs could see them and IMO, took away a large degree of her aggressiveness. Auriemma obviously wants her on the floor, regardless of the opinions of many on this board.
Dorka and Ducharme each had fouls where they had played the DePaul player into tough shots but swatted down to try and block the shot, again, those plays are clearly visible. One of my great pet peeves in the way basketball has evolved is the idea that blocked shots and steals are the goal in playing defense. IMO, they are more often than not “fool’s gold”; the goal should be to make your opponent uncomfortable, make them take intelligently contested shots out of their natural rhythm.
As for the team, I think they can compete for the NC as constituted; obviously more so if Bueckers comes back. They are not going to change style of play or have one of their players morph into something they are not. Stay the course, improve within the system individually and as a team, and throw the balls up and play.

 

[Stymie]

Mine is that our bigs too frequently play small. Offensively, they tend to want to camp out on the perimeter too much. Their interior defense also seems more like what was played in the 80's -- arms up, stationary, try to avoid fouls, rather than allowing some space and timing blocked shots, or taking an occasional charge when opposing bigs, or smaller players like Morrow, use a battering ram move. Blocking out also appears to lacking, or worse.

I agree. I don’t understand why our bigs are stationed so far away from the basket where there height pays the largest dividend.
But I’ll defer to Coach.
On a similar note—-
If I’m Aaliyah Edwards (and I’m not), I have a very brief, direct conversation with Coach regarding the rematch with Depaul on 2/11.
I hang a picture of Aneesa Morrow in my locker, in my dorm, in my car.
I tell Coach that I want to him to give me a shot at her-pair me up- I’ll show you I can walk the walk.
I very much look forward to that game.
We know how Depaul is gonna play it.
UCONN has the size and the athleticism to shut Morrow down.
I want to see if UCONN has the heart.

 

[Ozimoto]

Mine is a lack of consistency. Hopefully they clean that up in the second half of the season.

 

[JellyBean]

Mine is a lack of consistency. Hopefully they clean that up in the second half of the season.

Same here. That is my biggest concern, that lack of consistency.

 

[HuskyNan]

Injuries

 

[BobbyJ]

I agree. I don’t understand why our bigs are stationed so far away from the basket where there height pays the largest dividend.
But I’ll defer to Coach.
On a similar note—-
If I’m Aaliyah Edwards (and I’m not), I have a very brief, direct conversation with Coach regarding the rematch with Depaul on 2/11.
I hang a picture of Aneesa Morrow in my locker, in my dorm, in my car.
I tell Coach that I want to him to give me a shot at her-pair me up- I’ll show you I can walk the walk.
I very much look forward to that game.
We know how Depaul is gonna play it.
UCONN has the size and the athleticism to shut Morrow down.
I want to see if UCONN has the heart.

Edwards has very little understanding of post defense. She'd foul out in less than a quarter.

 

[eebmg]

Turnovers. Passing into the Post and finding Caroline on time. Aaliyah looking lost. I do think these issues would disappear when Paige is back.

 

[Nolefan]

With the injuries and Covid issues hard to judge this team there hasn’t been any continuity.. of this team is healthy and Paige comes back this season this team will make a deep run in the tournament

 

[Tonyc]

With so many different lineups over the past few months its hard to gain consistency continuity confidence and poise. Now that Azzi and Christyn are back we can once again learn to play together as a team. This is a different UConn team with Azzi back as well as having Caroline and Dorka up to speed. As a team we will now begin to learn to play together again and how many time with the different lineups have we had to do that.

What I would like to see is improvement and more playtime for Amari and Paith as these next few games should allow that. We will need Amari and Paith later in the season and we need them to be ready. More passing and less turnovers. I would also like to see our bigs go to the basket a little more stronger. Lastly I would like to hear some good news on when Paige will be back and Im hoping shes back for the Tenn game.

 

[oldude]

My biggest concern is TIME. It all comes down to getting everyone back healthy and working together with sufficient time to make a legitimate run in the Big Dance.

If Paige doesn’t go down, along with other injuries and pandemic related illnesses, there is no doubt in my mind that this would be a 1-loss UConn team, ranked 2nd in the nation, well on their way to a #1 seed in the Bridgeport region.

The good news is that all the adversity has allowed Caroline, Dorka, Liv, Nika, Christyn and now Azzi to step up in Paige’s absence. Hopefully Geno can get Evina & Aaliyah back to form. With a healthy Paige and a few weeks to kick the rust off, UConn is still a FF team imo.

 

[eebmg]

My biggest concern is TIME. It all comes down to getting everyone back healthy and working together with sufficient time to make a legitimate run in the Big Dance.

If Paige doesn’t go down, along with other injuries and pandemic related illnesses, there is no doubt in my mind that this would be a 1-loss UConn team, ranked 2nd in the nation, well on their way to a #1 seed in the Bridgeport region.

The good news is that all the adversity has allowed Caroline, Dorka, Liv, Nika, Christyn and now Azzi to step up in Paige’s absence. Hopefully Geno can get Evina & Aaliyah back to form. With a healthy Paige and a few weeks to kick the rust off, UConn is still a FF team imo.

Paige will have the same rust as Azzi had at Depaul. Once she is physically right, I give it 3 minutes.

 

[huskeynut]

We will not really know what this team can do until everyone is healthy and back. There has to be a question of what Paige will be able to do after her return. Will her minutes be limited? How rusty is her shooting going to be?

Posters mentioning consistency. With two players returning to the line up at DePaul, everything changed. Chemistry is off. You have changed the mix. And it will change again when Paige returns. The starting 5 has to be consistent. I'm not going to get into that debate. That's Geno's job. A substitute rotation has to be consistent. Players need to know their role and then they work to prepare for that role. This applies to the starters and the subs. This is the nature of team sports.

I am not worried about Liv or Dorka. They play well as our "twin towers." Neither is a low post banger. People need to understand that. Both can shoot from 15' and out. Both are good passers. Liv is a very good passer. Check the stats. Both are mobile. Their hitting shots from the foul line out opens up the lane for back door cuts. More opportunities for Christyn, Caroline, Nika, E and eventually Paige. Go back and look at tape of games when we had Stewie and Stef in the front court. The offense was run in front of the foul line. This allowed plenty of room for back door cuts and drives to the basket. It also keeps teams from clogging the lane.

Bottom line, we have the players to win. Do we have enough time to put it together? Part of the answer will be when Paige returns and what her physical condition is.

 

[Conndog]

Lacking a bully down low. Hope with Ice this changes, but I haven't seen enough of her videos to know if she is this kind of player. Liv can mix it up a little but for being 6'5, she is nothing like Boston or Morrow down low (really, who else in country is anyway?). Dorka is like Liv but she seems okay with banging down low, would love for her to continue to develop her footwork.

Related to lacking physical down low presence, our bigs who do get open aren't rewarded with good entry pass, at least not yet. It's hard to get open and maintain that position, your chance to get the ball goes away quickly.

Hope Aaliyah can gain back some form. A couple of posters have mentioned in some of the threads some good points. If she can have a good heart-to-heart talk with coaching about what she needs to do, which may be happening for all we know. Maybe the key thing is simplifying the game for her, make sure she knows what specific role she should play, and above all, keep her down low and not up high, and don't have a line-up where she is the only big. Positioned at the high post negates any of her skills, and it just isn't fair to ask her to be something she is not.

 

[Conndog]

Another thought on Liv. I would love to see her get the ball and automatically turn to basket and shoot. At times, it seems to me that she is too deliberate with trying to back her person down or use footwork to pivot and get closer to basket, this gives defense time to double-team her. She is 6'5 and can turn into basket quickly and just shoot. If she is near enough to the basket, her defender is probably inside the restricted circle where any contact should be an automatic foul and not offensive foul. When she gets the ball low with a good entry pass, have Dorka/Aaliyah and Caroline head to basket for possible rebound if shot misses or pass from Liv if she is double-teamed. This can be designed play especially if other team's center is starting to get into foul trouble.

 

[oldhusky]

For me one thing stands out. The complete allmost universal under-performance of returning players vs. last year. We entered this season returning everyone except for Anna, and if anything upgraded her with Dorka, a player who was far better at Ohio State. It was completely logical to expect some improvement from many of those returning players, particularly this year's sophomores. Perhaps even more than the usual improvement because of familiarity with their teammates and relatively little turnover.

But instead, after 6 games (before the major injuries) only Paige was better than last year based on PER stats. Christyn, Evina, Liv and Nika were substantially worse, and Aaliyah and Dorka were not even in the same ballpark of their prior year numbers. Since then Liv has brought her numbers to roughly last year's level, Nika has approached her's, Christyn and more so Evina are still very disappointing, and Dorka while showing some signs is still way under, and I don't think if Aaliyah played like Boston the rest of the season, if her numbers for efficiency would match last year.

Clearly Paige makes everyone else better, and after the injuries that is probably a big factor, but that doesn't explain any of the poor performance by just about every returning player before her injury. Even adjusting for injuries many have disappointed compared to a logical expectation of at least matching last year. Many of these Big East games will be hoping some players can regain their form, get their mojo back, or regain their confidence. It is not just as simple as getting healthy again. Having said that, getting "shooters" back in Azzi and Paige to go with Caroline will help solve some of our woes.

 

[Rb335]

1. Outside shooting has been abysmal, which has contributed to defenses clogging the lane and disrupting our bigs. Thankfully we just added a sharpshooter to the lineup, with another waiting in the wings. And Nika seems to have found her shot a bit. Should be cleared up by end of season.
2. Turnovers- we struggled with it even before Paige, but turnover numbers are always higher at the beginning of the season. We were lucky to beat DePaul after giving up 12 more fga mainly as a result of 20 TOs. Hopeful that will clean itself by putting the ball in the hands of Paige vs Evina.
3. The regression of Edwards. Enough said. Nobody can bring to our team what she can, and we’re much better when we have a solid post rotation of 3. This is a head scratcher to me.
4. Injuries/luck. We haven’t had the same team on the floor for more than a handful of games, so we’ll be behind the 8 ball with building team chemistry. But the silver lining is getting players experience and finding a gem in a player stuck on the bench to start the season.
5. FT shooting. Abysmal as well. Something that can really cost you close games. But hopefully when healthy, having good FT shooters in Azzi, CD, and Paige will clear that up.

Lots to be disappointed about, lots to be excited about. It’s been fun to see this team fight adversity, and I hope at the end of it all, we get to see them put it all together.

 

[ucbart]

If all the things go right and we get Paige back and blah blah blah, the one thing that concerns me the most is the FT shooting of Christyn, ONO, and Dorka. They seem to be the players that get to the FT line the most and frankly, they're not good FT shooters. Those players cost us points when they get to the line.

 

[sun]

Most of the players are not seasoned and each appears to be prone to making rookie types of mistakes in many different facets of the game.
Paige can solve some of the problems but she can't be expected to reteach the fundamentals to her teammates.
The better players end up trying to make up for the mistakes/weaknesses of their teammates.
I guess that every team does that anyways, but the less mistakes/poor decisions made, the better it is for the team.

 

[Bigboote]

Mine is a lack of consistency. Hopefully they clean that up in the second half of the season.

I agree, but I'll be a little more specific and a little more vague at the same time.

I worry about the offense. Inconsistency, turnovers, inability to to get the ball into the post, all of which have been mentioned, are all interrelated, and there's not a single cause. If there is a single cause, it's movement on offense. I've noticed at least two or three turnovers every game that appear to be due to the intended recipient not being where the passer expects her to be. I dunno whose fault it generally is, but it arises from the two players not being on the same page. The same with post entry passes. The guard doesn't see the post in time; the angle isn't right; the post flubs it. It seems to me that much of that is just that the two players aren't in sync. But beyond that, the ball gets stuck. I don't remember a season when UConn had so many shot-clock violations, and even a few five-second calls. A player doesn't get stuck 20 feet from the basket if her teammates are moving properly.

 

[ME Husky Fan]

Follow your shot, box out no matter how far out your ‘man’ is from the basket, come to the pass not allow the ball to come to you, fake a pass once in awhile, bounce passes where arms can’t get to

 

[Stymie]

Two concerns/points.
Sure, Paige makes everyone better, but making YOURSELF a better player would have a multiplier affect.
Concern- UCONN used to be like Piranhas after the ball-
Loose ball—ours.
Rebound—ours.
Lotta players still like that, But roster top to bottom not. Lot of waiting for the ball to come to me-same with cross court passing in the back/mid court-getting picked off and partial reason for high turnover numbers.
Also, I’m not understanding the difficulty of inbounding the ball. Is this a result of not making the correct cuts, not reading the defense properly, coaching? Or is the competition just so much better?

 

[LwrcasefaN]

My biggest concern is TIME. It all comes down to getting everyone back healthy and working together with sufficient time to make a legitimate run in the Big Dance.

If Paige doesn’t go down, along with other injuries and pandemic related illnesses, there is no doubt in my mind that this would be a 1-loss UConn team, ranked 2nd in the nation, well on their way to a #1 seed in the Bridgeport region.

The good news is that all the adversity has allowed Caroline, Dorka, Liv, Nika, Christyn and now Azzi to step up in Paige’s absence. Hopefully Geno can get Evina & Aaliyah back to form. With a healthy Paige and a few weeks to kick the rust off, UConn is still a FF team imo.

THIS. Yes.

 

[oldude]

For me one thing stands out. The complete allmost universal under-performance of returning players vs. last year. We entered this season returning everyone except for Anna, and if anything upgraded her with Dorka, a player who was far better at Ohio State. It was completely logical to expect some improvement from many of those returning players, particularly this year's sophomores. Perhaps even more than the usual improvement because of familiarity with their teammates and relatively little turnover.

But instead, after 6 games (before the major injuries) only Paige was better than last year based on PER stats. Christyn, Evina, Liv and Nika were substantially worse, and Aaliyah and Dorka were not even in the same ballpark of their prior year numbers. Since then Liv has brought her numbers to roughly last year's level, Nika has approached her's, Christyn and more so Evina are still very disappointing, and Dorka while showing some signs is still way under, and I don't think if Aaliyah played like Boston the rest of the season, if her numbers for efficiency would match last year.

Clearly Paige makes everyone else better, and after the injuries that is probably a big factor, but that doesn't explain any of the poor performance by just about every returning player before her injury. Even adjusting for injuries many have disappointed compared to a logical expectation of at least matching last year. Many of these Big East games will be hoping some players can regain their form, get their mojo back, or regain their confidence. It is not just as simple as getting healthy again. Having said that, getting "shooters" back in Azzi and Paige to go with Caroline will help solve some of our woes.

It’s tricky stuff to compare year over year numbers. I would start with the fact that UConn as a team is scoring 10 ppg less this season, so individual scoring averages are likely to be down, particularly if you consider that Caroline, a player who was in HS last year, is UConn’s leading scorer.

As for individual numbers you really have to be more precise in evaluating year over year. Liv is a case in point. Her ppg numbers are down. But in just about every other statistical category Liv’s stats are up substantially this season: shooting percentage, FT percentage, rebounds pg, assists pg, A/TO ratio, blocks & steals. With the exception of the DePaul game vs Morrow, Liv has generally avoided foul trouble and, as a result, is averaging 3 more mpg.

Liv has been the rock for this team. I would also strongly suggest that UConn is getting exactly what the team needs, and Geno expects from Christyn, Dorka & Nika. After that, yes Evina & Aaliyah have been somewhat disappointing this season. I still believe there’s time for both to step up and finish the season strong.

My last point, which I and many others have made. Paige makes everyone around her better. You just can’t remove the NPOY from your lineup and expect everyone else to perform at the same level.

 

[Waquoit]

I think the overall D isn't a strength.