Where do we go from here?

[ThisJustIn]

Just consider what the kids learned playing 5... posting up, boxing out.... And Banks got a TON of minutes. Looking towards next year, when the incoming frosh will be (quoting the Geno on the Show) bouncing the ball of heads, this will help!

BUT I agree.... We're DOOOOMED!

 

[tomcat]

And by the time you finished typing they were up by 40. Maybe you should have waited.

Not the point, even a little. While it is easy to make your observation, the point is not that they eventually killed a young, mediocre team by 40. The point might be that it took them 25 minutes to even look like they were going to pull away from that team. The point might be that over an extended period of time they played non-team basketball. The point might also be that UConn has not looked itself for enough games that the worriers among us -- myself for sure, -- wonder if what we saw tonight is the new normal -- a team that takes a long time to get into the flow of the game.

I mention this because it's all too easy to dismiss this as another 40-point pasting of an opponent, and move on from there. But I think a lot about momentum and trends. A couple are troubling me: First, UConn seems to now run mostly two kinds of plays: 1). work it around, fail to get it inside, and find a reasonably open player for a three. When it works, a la the second half, all is wonderful. When it does not, a la the first half (UConn was what? 3 for 15 or something?), UConn looks ordinary; and 2). get the ball to a slasher -- Tiff, Brianna, Bria, and sometimes Caroline and Kelly. What we see a lot less of are the plays that IMHO have really made UConn basketball special over the years -- the extra pass, the ball handler looking hard for the open player, and that player making the right play. Slashing and popping the open three are what good but ordinary teams do.

Second, all of this is happening at exactly the wrong time. If it all happened at the beginning of the season, or the beginning of the BE season, that might be one thing. But IMHO, team play has regressed during the season, not only in terms of players having prolonged slumps, but in the problems getting the ball in to the center, and Dolson's continued funk. My worry is that all this gets carried into the ND game, and as much as these kids want to do really well, the weapons in their arsenal may be a bit disorganized or weak for them to do what they need to against a veteran team. I really hope that Geno's coaching, the will of the team and the home court advantage win out, and send UConn on a streak in the BE tournament and beyond. But momentum and trends tell me that the opposite could happen.

 

[msf22b]

You know Justin, I don't remember. But usually, I am loath to predict much until I've seen couple of games. But I'll look.

 

[Harry Mangurian]

failed to detect the potential usefulness of Buck and Johnson,

??????????????????????????? He HAS detected their potential usefulness !!

 

[UConnCat]

Not the point, even a little. While it is easy to make your observation, the point is not that they eventually killed a young, mediocre team by 40. The point might be that it took them 25 minutes to even look like they were going to pull away from that team. The point might be that over an extended period of time they played non-team basketball. The point might also be that UConn has not looked itself for enough games that the worriers among us -- myself for sure, -- wonder if what we saw tonight is the new normal -- a team that takes a long time to get into the flow of the game.

I mention this because it's all too easy to dismiss this as another 40-point pasting of an opponent, and move on from there. But I think a lot about momentum and trends. A couple are troubling me: First, UConn seems to now run mostly two kinds of plays: 1). work it around, fail to get it inside, and find a reasonably open player for a three. When it works, a la the second half, all is wonderful. When it does not, a la the first half (UConn was what? 3 for 15 or something?), UConn looks ordinary; and 2). get the ball to a slasher -- Tiff, Brianna, Bria, and sometimes Caroline and Kelly. What we see a lot less of are the plays that IMHO have really made UConn basketball special over the years -- the extra pass, the ball handler looking hard for the open player, and that player making the right play. Slashing and popping the open three are what good but ordinary teams do.

Just an FYI, the team won by 40 points, shot 49% on FGs (39% on 3s) and assisted on 23 of its 27 baskets. Oh, and the team committed a total of 9 turnovers and held Marquette to 21% shooting. This prompted Geno to say: "We played really well today. We shot the ball pretty well in stretches. We didn't turn the ball over," Auriemma said.

I'm not suggesting that the state of the post play is not concerning heading in to the post-season, but your observation that UConn played "non-team basketball" or looked "ordinary" in a 40-point win playing with all guards shows little respect for the effort and intensity put forth by Tiff, KML, Kelly and the others who played most of the game.

 

[doggydaddy]

Not the point, even a little. While it is easy to make your observation,

It's easy to make my observation? I don't know about that. I thought hard and hard on that thought!

the point is not that they eventually killed a young, mediocre team by 40. The point might be that it took them 25 minutes to even look like they were going to pull away from that team.

The point is not that they won by 40. It's how long it took to LOOK like they were going to pull away. Ok....... Really???? They were never threatened. Not even a little. So working without a post took a few minutes to get going....but wow...did it get going. That isn't good enough?

The point might be that over an extended period of time they played non-team basketball.

"extended period of time they played non-team basketball". How does a team that had 23 assists on 27 baskets not play team basketball for an exteneded time?

The point might also be that UConn has not looked itself for enough games that the worriers among us -- myself for sure, -- wonder if what we saw tonight is the new normal -- a team that takes a long time to get into the flow of the game.

Does the fact that ND has looked exactly the same over the same time frame mean anything? The worriers ignore how the other team is doing.

I mention this because it's all too easy to dismiss this as another 40-point pasting of an opponent, and move on from there. But I think a lot about momentum and trends.

KML was shooting poorly and I believe you called that a trend.

A couple are troubling me: First, UConn seems to now run mostly two kinds of plays: 1). work it around, fail to get it inside, and find a reasonably open player for a three. When it works, a la the second half, all is wonderful. When it does not, a la the first half (UConn was what? 3 for 15 or something?), UConn looks ordinary; and 2). get the ball to a slasher -- Tiff, Brianna, Bria, and sometimes Caroline and Kelly. What we see a lot less of are the plays that IMHO have really made UConn basketball special over the years -- the extra pass, the ball handler looking hard for the open player, and that player making the right play. Slashing and popping the open three are what good but ordinary teams do.

I couldn't disagree more. This is a terrific passing team minus their struggles with post passing.
They are far from ordinary.

Second, all of this is happening at exactly the wrong time. If it all happened at the beginning of the season, or the beginning of the BE season, that might be one thing. But IMHO, team play has regressed during the season, not only in terms of players having prolonged slumps, but in the problems getting the ball in to the center, and Dolson's continued funk. My worry is that all this gets carried into the ND game, and as much as these kids want to do really well, the weapons in their arsenal may be a bit disorganized or weak for them to do what they need to against a veteran team. I really hope that Geno's coaching, the will of the team and the home court advantage win out, and send UConn on a streak in the BE tournament and beyond. But momentum and trends tell me that the opposite could happen.

Momentum trends....bah...not buying it.

Momentum can turn on a dime.

 

[msf22b]

Momentum can turn on a dime. Doggy Daddy

True: Its what's making handicapping Monday so difficult; like the issues in Tennessee on a much smaller scale.

 

[doggydaddy]

Momentum can turn on a dime. Doggy Daddy

True: Its what's making handicapping Monday so difficult; like the issues in Tennessee on a much smaller scale.

Boy, I'd love to hear the logic behind that one.

 

[alexrgct]

I'm not sure why anyone is worried about this season. This isn't a culmination of a four/five year process (like Notre Dame) or put or shut up time for a potentially legendary player (a la Baylor and to a lesser extent Stanford). This is a UConn team that is losing one player out of 11 next season and is bringing in what projects to be an epic recruiting class. This is probably the worst UConn team since 2006-07 and will probably be the worst UConn team until 2015-16 at bare minimum. And despite all of that, a trip to the Final Four, though not a given, is certainly a reasonable goal.

What exactly is anyone "worried" about? That what is likely to be the worst UConn team over at minimum a nine-year run is not the favorite to win a national championship? Seriously? If you fall into the category of "worrier", I sincerely hope that UConn WBB is the only sports team you follow. I'd hate to see you following, say, an NFL team, where even the best teams lose with some frequency and win ugly all the time.

 

[doggydaddy]

We need more of this.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I'm not sure why anyone is worried about this season. This isn't a culmination of a four/five year process (like Notre Dame) or put or shut up time for a potentially legendary player (a la Baylor and to a lesser extent Stanford). This is a UConn team that is losing one player out of 11 next season and is bringing in what projects to be an epic recruiting class. This is probably the worst UConn team since 2006-07 and will probably be the worst UConn team until 2015-16 at bare minimum. And despite all of that, a trip to the Final Four, though not a given, is certainly a reasonable goal.

What exactly is anyone "worried" about? That what is likely to be the worst UConn team over at minimum a nine-year run is not the favorite to win a national championship? Seriously? If you fall into the category of "worrier", I sincerely hope that UConn WBB is the only sports team you follow. I'd hate to see you following, say, an NFL team, where even the best teams lose with some frequency and win ugly all the time.

We have a real, though outside chance to win it all this year. We have not won the championship on about 5 occasions when we had the best team. It would be very sweet to win this year, after coming up a little short last year, and leading up to what should be a multiyear powerhouse team, even by UConn standards. If they are awarding a trophy this year, let's sneak in--or barge in-- and grab it.

 

[alexrgct]

We have a real, though outside chance to win it all this year. We have not won the championship on about 5 occasions when we had the best team. It would be very sweet to win this year, after coming up a little short last year, and leading up to what should be a multiyear powerhouse team, even by UConn standards. If they are awarding a trophy this year, let's sneak in--or barge in-- and grab it.

Oh, I certainly wouldn't complain, and it would be a less improbable run than some (A&M's last year, Baylor's in 2005, Tennessee's in 1997, or UNC's in 1994, for instance). But I'm definitely not going to worry if it doesn't happen. A trip to Denver would make me ecstatic. A national championship would leave me euphoric. An upset in Kingston would be disappointing, but the future would still be exceptionally bright.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

I would call myself a bit of a worrier, but based on some of the posts
in this thread I'm nowhere in the running for the Chicken Little award
this year.

I said at the beginning of the season that if this team could win the BE
and get to the final four they would have done all that anyone could
reasonably expect of them and perhaps more. I still think so.

By the way - Brianna Banks line for today - eight points, two boards,
two blocks, two steals, four assists and no turnovers. Not a bad day
at the office.

 

[Icebear]

I'm interested to know, msf,what your preseason expectations were of this group and why....

It would seem they must be of the unreason able and completely skewed expectations that Geno frequently mentions.

 

[DaddyChoc]

they are worried the *********** fans would be laughing at them... they cant take what they dish out!

 

[grizz36]

We need more of this.

Polaroid of Doggydaddy as a young man. "What, us doomed?"

 

[BRS24]

Problem is that with a double header there has to be a late game.

True, but Baylor/TT is the early game, and then our east coast game is the late one. Not sure that makes sense.

 

[pap49cba]

True, but Baylor/TT is the early game, and then our east coast game is the late one. Not sure that makes sense.

Geno said he "understands it" but isn't happy about it.