Why this season was different …

[BRS24]

… and why the end result makes sense. Well, to me, anyway, after reflecting on the games, and other threads on the BY.

UConn’s program is built on sustained consistency. The framework of how to do things is built into the coaches’ DNA, and is handed down from one class to another. This has always been a significant part of its success. I would bet that the coaching staff has weekly/monthly benchmarks that they strive to meet. From last April through the NCAA tournament, nothing was as per the usual. Normal became whatever they could or needed to do at that point in time.

1. Covid - This one event completely turned every systematic event upside down, and in 2020’s case, canceled a lot. Enough said.
2. Late start - The team did not gather until later July, which is approx 1+ month later than prior years.
3. Mini bubbles - Players were grouped into small “bubbles” and were only allowed to work out within that group. No team-wide conditioning sessions.
4. Pauses - Two covid pauses ended any sort of continuity the team had built up until those points in time.
5. Schedule speedbumps - Cancelled pre-season games vs Quinnipiac & Maine/Miss St. The Jimmy V Classic vs Louisville canceled, which would have been a very early test for this young team and may have given coaches some teaching points. Similarly, Baylor in early January may have provided a wealth of film study, and perhaps an impact on the Arkansas result. We’ll never know.
6. Coaches - between Geno's diagnosis/quarantine, and Shea's departure from the bubble, no way to estimate the impact of what normally happens during the tourney.
7. The new tournament format - the tourney bubble was not unexpected, somewhat typical of what teams were already doing, however might have been hard for coaches to prepare as they would do during the tourney in prior years.
8. Experience - It’s a young team, and it showed in the last few games.

For all the opinions on who should start next season, etc, etc, I am reminded of a discussion I once had with a parent regarding playing time in a travel soccer game. She insisted her daughter deserved more, and possibly should start, so I asked the daughter if she had done everything she could at practice, and she admitted she did not. I then turned to the mom and explained that playing time in a game was directly related to how players perform in practice, and as she didn’t watch practice, asked that she trust me and the assistant (my hub). Not sure it could happen now, but our goal was to give every player at least 1/2 a game PT, and the rest dependent on opponent, game situations, etc. My way of saying that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we will never know.

 

[JellyBean]

Well said and done, coach! Excellent way to handle that parent situation. I have done that myself a few times, especially this season.

 

[LoboDays]

It might be helpful to merge all the creative reasons “why we lost”. Into one thread. It’s very impressive and I applaud the amazing creativity. Maybe we could start a poll on who had the most creative reason. My favorite so far is the “Circadian Rhythm”. That’s the one where the team was forced to stay up past their bedtime. I’m not very impressed with this one.

After All the excuses are finally submitted and someone does start a poll about why we lost, all I ask is that one of the options say:

We were outplayed and outcoached.

 

[DocStressor]

Another thing to consider is that Covid essentially deprived these kids of their freshman year of college. As a former prof, I remember how much maturity most students gained during their first year in college. A lot of this was the result of the total college experience from interacting with their professors and other students. By the end of their first year, most freshmen begin seeing themselves as adults. With online classes and bubbles, these kids have not experienced going to college. And this might be a factor in any immaturity the team may have shown. They still have only a high school perspective of life.

 

[BRS24]

It might be helpful to merge all the creative reasons “why we lost”. Into one thread. It’s very impressive and I applaud the amazing creativity. Maybe we could start a poll on who had the most creative reason. My favorite so far is the “Circadian Rhythm”. That’s the one where the team was forced to stay up past their bedtime. I’m not very impressed with this one.

After All the excuses are finally submitted and someone does start a poll about why we lost, all I ask is that one of the options say:

We were outplayed and outcoached.

Per the thread title, my post was my macro view of the season. I was not opining on why we lost to Arizona.

 

[eebmg]

Thread title has a nice Passover Flavor.

 

[MooseJaw]

Another thing to consider is that Covid essentially deprived these kids of their freshman year of college. As a former prof, I remember how much maturity most students gained during their first year in college. A lot of this was the result of the total college experience from interacting with their professors and other students. By the end of their first year, most freshmen begin seeing themselves as adults. With online classes and bubbles, these kids have not experienced going to college. And this might be a factor in any immaturity the team may have shown. They still have only a high school perspective of life.

Not my take on this. You have kids 18-19 who have been away from home for at least 8 months at this point in time, still on campus. Young ladies who in some respects have matured at an accelerated pace, facing life and death decisions. Decisions until now not encountered in our lifetime. These teens forced to live in bubbles becoming more self reliant. Yes they have missed the regular college social scene and in person course work. Compared to other first years students these young women have matured in many ways far faster than other first year student over the past year. Same as the past, no. But stunted maturity, I don't think so.

 

[UcMiami]

Like the OP, but I also agree with LoboDays with another added item: on the day, better players.

Single elimination tournaments are to some degree a crap shoot. The NCAA tournament in general requires a team to play their A game 4 games in a row and in at least one of those games to play their A+ game. People will say S16 should be 'easy', but I doubt MD feels that way - they ran into a team playing their A+ game and they brought their B game and it wasn't enough. And I think Uconn would say Iowa wasn't 'easy' either, and Baylor went to OT.

A veteran team generally has enough experience to 'find' their A game even if they start slow or face adversity, but not always. A young team has a much harder time.

And luck always plays a role in a single elimination tournament - the teams you face and the teams you don't face, the teams that seem to put it all together at the right moment, and the teams that don't rise to the moment. AZ was a perfect storm for this young team. Louisville was the perfect storm for Baylor in 2013 and greased the way for Stewart to fulfill her destiny.

In 2013, no one really expected Uconn to win the title - Baylor was going for back to back titles with the same team that had just gone 40-0 and Uconn couldn't even beat ND in three tries. Baylor was (like Uconn has been) a prohibitive favorite.

In 2021, we all hoped we were good enough for an NC, and we grasped onto all the sites that gave Uconn a better chance than anyone else - but people screamed that we got the toughest bracket, because Baylor. And looked in awe at MD, and worried about Stanford and SC who we barely beat on our home court. And then we lose, maybe because we took AZ for granted and were looking forward at Stanford, maybe because Baylor took too much out of us, maybe because .... they played their A game and we didn't. And maybe because NCSt and TA&M let us down because surely we would have beaten either of them.

 

[Centerstream]

… and why the end result makes sense. Well, to me, anyway, after reflecting on the games, and other threads on the BY.

UConn’s program is built on sustained consistency. The framework of how to do things is built into the coaches’ DNA, and is handed down from one class to another. This has always been a significant part of its success. I would bet that the coaching staff has weekly/monthly benchmarks that they strive to meet. From last April through the NCAA tournament, nothing was as per the usual. Normal became whatever they could or needed to do at that point in time.

1. Covid - This one event completely turned every systematic event upside down, and in 2020’s case, canceled a lot. Enough said.
2. Late start - The team did not gather until later July, which is approx 1+ month later than prior years.
3. Mini bubbles - Players were grouped into small “bubbles” and were only allowed to work out within that group. No team-wide conditioning sessions.
4. Pauses - Two covid pauses ended any sort of continuity the team had built up until those points in time.
5. Schedule speedbumps - Cancelled pre-season games vs Quinnipiac & Maine/Miss St. The Jimmy V Classic vs Louisville canceled, which would have been a very early test for this young team and may have given coaches some teaching points. Similarly, Baylor in early January may have provided a wealth of film study, and perhaps an impact on the Arkansas result. We’ll never know.
6. Coaches - between Geno's diagnosis/quarantine, and Shea's departure from the bubble, no way to estimate the impact of what normally happens during the tourney.
7. The new tournament format - the tourney bubble was not unexpected, somewhat typical of what teams were already doing, however might have been hard for coaches to prepare as they would do during the tourney in prior years.
8. Experience - It’s a young team, and it showed in the last few games.

For all the opinions on who should start next season, etc, etc, I am reminded of a discussion I once had with a parent regarding playing time in a travel soccer game. She insisted her daughter deserved more, and possibly should start, so I asked the daughter if she had done everything she could at practice, and she admitted she did not. I then turned to the mom and explained that playing time in a game was directly related to how players perform in practice, and as she didn’t watch practice, asked that she trust me and the assistant (my hub). Not sure it could happen now, but our goal was to give every player at least 1/2 a game PT, and the rest dependent on opponent, game situations, etc. My way of saying that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we will never know.

If we played Baylor or Louisville, odds were that Geno would not have scheduled Arkansas?

 

[hoopsfan22]

If we played Baylor or Louisville, odds were that Geno would not have scheduled Arkansas?

Given that Arkansas was not on the schedule, probably Geno wouldn't have gone out of his way if we didn't have so many other games canceled. We lost a lot of games not only from our own Covid pause, but then because of other teams having to pause. I'm still shocked we played as many games as we did this year.

 

[Urshurak]

Just saying COVID would have pretty much covered it.

 

[Longtime fan]

… and why the end result makes sense. Well, to me, anyway, after reflecting on the games, and other threads on the BY.

UConn’s program is built on sustained consistency. The framework of how to do things is built into the coaches’ DNA, and is handed down from one class to another. This has always been a significant part of its success. I would bet that the coaching staff has weekly/monthly benchmarks that they strive to meet. From last April through the NCAA tournament, nothing was as per the usual. Normal became whatever they could or needed to do at that point in time.

1. Covid - This one event completely turned every systematic event upside down, and in 2020’s case, canceled a lot. Enough said.
2. Late start - The team did not gather until later July, which is approx 1+ month later than prior years.
3. Mini bubbles - Players were grouped into small “bubbles” and were only allowed to work out within that group. No team-wide conditioning sessions.
4. Pauses - Two covid pauses ended any sort of continuity the team had built up until those points in time.
5. Schedule speedbumps - Cancelled pre-season games vs Quinnipiac & Maine/Miss St. The Jimmy V Classic vs Louisville canceled, which would have been a very early test for this young team and may have given coaches some teaching points. Similarly, Baylor in early January may have provided a wealth of film study, and perhaps an impact on the Arkansas result. We’ll never know.
6. Coaches - between Geno's diagnosis/quarantine, and Shea's departure from the bubble, no way to estimate the impact of what normally happens during the tourney.
7. The new tournament format - the tourney bubble was not unexpected, somewhat typical of what teams were already doing, however might have been hard for coaches to prepare as they would do during the tourney in prior years.
8. Experience - It’s a young team, and it showed in the last few games.

For all the opinions on who should start next season, etc, etc, I am reminded of a discussion I once had with a parent regarding playing time in a travel soccer game. She insisted her daughter deserved more, and possibly should start, so I asked the daughter if she had done everything she could at practice, and she admitted she did not. I then turned to the mom and explained that playing time in a game was directly related to how players perform in practice, and as she didn’t watch practice, asked that she trust me and the assistant (my hub). Not sure it could happen now, but our goal was to give every player at least 1/2 a game PT, and the rest dependent on opponent, game situations, etc. My way of saying that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we will never know.

All true, but every team endured the same, if not more. (E.G. See Stanford and their "forced" travel schedule). UCONN made the final four and, to me, that exceeded my expectations. Now, the unraveling, and rebuilding begin. We have already had to say farewell to Anna, and more may follow. We then will welcome four freshmen ( including a second welcome to Saylor ). Evina is coming back so we'll have three seniors. But nothing is assured. Every team in the nation is improving, or attempting to improve ( not sure that applies to the Big East ). It is not like the old days when we just had the best players, by far, and that was all that mattered. We have some super players now, and will be added more young ones. Can that be blended into a champion? We won't know until The Dance begins. Beating DePaul by 40 will be indicative of nothing. As we learned, many teams have one ( or more ) super players and great supporting casts....and great coaching....it's like starting over.

 

[Stymie]

It might be helpful to merge all the creative reasons “why we lost”. Into one thread. It’s very impressive and I applaud the amazing creativity. Maybe we could start a poll on who had the most creative reason. My favorite so far is the “Circadian Rhythm”. That’s the one where the team was forced to stay up past their bedtime. I’m not very impressed with this one.

After All the excuses are finally submitted and someone does start a poll about why we lost, all I ask is that one of the options say:

We were outplayed and outcoached.

We’re the Huskies out coached or unable to perform the necessary tasks?
We know what they had to do ( inside,close) and they failed to execute.
Hard to miss all those layups and charity stripe points and equate it to being out coached.
Sub par performance and lost by 10.
In it until last 2-3 minutes.
Coach put a young team in a position to win; they just came up a bit short.
No crime —HUGE learning experience.
As always-JMHO