Xavier Postgame Thread

[oldude]

Some Thoughts on the Xavier game:

• Through the years UConn’s Senior Day honored many of the most talented and beloved players in the history of the game. Dorka & Lou are most assuredly talented and beloved. But unlike almost every other Senior Day, today UConn honored two players who learned their basketball in Europe, earned undergraduate degrees at tOSU & Fairfield respectively and aren’t even seniors.
• We all shudder to think what this season might have been without the incredible contributions of our two grad students. Tonight, with Dorka on the bench in a boot and Lou starting out slowly, even the BE’s winless, last place team provided the Huskies with an unexpected challenge.
• Nika didn’t waste any time breaking Sue Bird’s UConn single season assist record by dropping 6 dimes in the 1st qtr alone. 236 assists and counting is an absolutely amazing accomplishment.
• It might not have seemed like a whole lot, but I mostly liked the PT the Huskies are getting from Ayanna & Ines. With the conference tournament and the Big Dance just around the corner, every single quality minute the Huskies can get from the bench is HUGE!!!
• Aaliyah didn't have one of her better all-around games, but she is a warrior on the court who contributed blocks, steals, rebounds and big baskets whenever they were needed tonight.
• Unfortunately for the Huskies, THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING. Aubrey jams her wrist but plays on. Aaliyah has two hard falls including a hard shot to her knee and comes out of the game for a time. Finally, Lou takes one too many cheap shots and decides she’s had just about enough, before being restrained by her teammates while earning her first T of the season.
• The win over Xavier extends UConn’s streak of outright regular season conference titles to 10 in a row. While all UConn fans know the ultimate goal every season, we should never miss an opportunity to take time to acknowledge and appreciate the many remarkable achievements earned along the way. Congratulations to Geno, his staff and the TEAM!!!
• UConn now has 4 days to rest up and then, hopefully, 3 games in 3 days on the way to a 10th straight conference tournament championship. Over the past 9 seasons the conference tournament has been more of a coronation than a competition for UConn. Not so this year. The Huskies are going to have to dig down deep to earn the conference tournament championship this year. GO HUSKIES!!!

 

[victor64]

Xavier ruined the goal of lots of minutes for the bench by playing hard.

I know Lou knows this, but teams are going to continue to beat her up especially now that they know that it may impact her emotionally.

Bringing Prenger in to start the fourth with four fouls and having her guard Edwards on the post was not Coach Moore’s best move of the year.

I don’t have the stats to back it up but the Huskies seemingly do not shoot well in the second game of their weekly league games. I hope it is a trend that doesn’t continue this weekend.

This is a fatigued team both physically and mentally but they won their tenth straight outright league title. Impressive.

 

[EricLA]

Just can't sugar coat it. This game was like watching paint dry. Against a team that is 0-20 in the Big East with 7 total wins on the season, we played them basically even for 30 minutes. Aside from Nika's 6 assists in the first 10 minutes, and a few nice plays by Aubrey and Aaliyah (offset by 6 turnovers), this was not a good game.

Congrats to Nika - she's a treasure and she broke Sue's assist record. Amazing.

But the hits keep coming. Never seen Lou so fired up. Congrats on the Big East regular season title, but we are playing such an ugly brand of basketball at this time. Not sure how much rest would be needed to get back to some semblance of UCONN basketball, but there may not be enough days off for that.

Shout out to the seniors leaving us - Dorka and Lou. Both have been incredible this season.

 

[HuskyNan]

Post-season, baybeee, we’re in survive and advance mode. No style points awarded on tournament play, so just get the win!

Congrats to the team!

 

[Kaizen]

AE has 19 pts, 8 rebs but 6 TOs.
Nika breaks the new single season assists (Bird's 231) record tonight.

The junior surpassed Sue Bird’s mark of 231 assists in the first quarter of Monday’s game. (Nika Mühl breaks UConn’s single-season assist record vs. Xavier)

 

[my2cents]

Congrats on the regular season title.
That one hurt the eyes.
Hope Dorka will be ok.
Our bench looks totally lost out there.

 

[socal613ws]

the tape of the last 3 minutes for defense needs to be shown to Geno to the players and to honestly tell them they were even showing effort. Wide open drive layups over and over.

 

[huskeynut]

It's a win. 21st Big East regular season title.

Nika sets the single season assist record passing Sue Bird.

Onto the tourney.

 

[jcoton56]

We keep losing focus. We’re still tough though. Congrats!

 

[and one]

Geno says: We gotta regroup. Right he is.

 

[maple]

Wrapping up the regular season with another 25 games won, winning the BE regular season conference title, going into the BE tourney with a #1 seed ... it hasn't been easy and it certainly hasn't been pretty but facts are facts. And considering all the adversity we have faced this season, I can't be completely unhappy with things (especially when there are many others who would kill to have as a "bad" of a season as us).

Right now I am pulling for them to win the BE tourney. From there on out ... let's just play the games and let the chips fall as they may. All you can do is control how you play and that's all that matters. Let's reset and make it happen!! Time to lock it down!!

AE and CD played terrific. AG had some good moments, Lou and Nika played tough. There were many mistakes but I'll leave that for others to talk about for now. Ines got some valuable minutes and looked good. Hope that continues. Unfortunately Amari just proved why she can't yet be counted on in games. Dorka being out tonight was sorely missed. It's easy to forget how important she is until she's not out there.

 

[hard2please]

for the assist record, nika needs her own snika

 

[Happydad745]

2 points from the Bench; 17 turnovers; we beat Xavier, a team we should beat on our worst day, easily. Congrats to Nika for getting the season assist record, she deserves it. Thank you to Lou and Dorka for being important parts of our team. I don't have a lot to say that is positive about this game, maybe I expected more. On to the Big East Tournament. 40 percent from the field/29 percent from 3 pt. land. Lots of ups and downs.

 

[SARG 2011]

So happy for this team. Limited practice time clearly impacting the product on the floor. Welcome the rest and then 3 games in 3 days, just win baby win

 

[Boreifs]

Azzi warmed up with the team for the second game in a row. Earlier this season, she warmed up for two and played in the third. Let’s hope that scenario is repeated.

 

[pghhuskydoc]

With all this team has been through this year, all the injuries, all the adversity, they still were able to hang together and bring home the Big East regular season championship.
My hat is off to them. Way to go, Huskies!

 

[Centerstream]

I'm all in favor of using our bench to rest our starters but pleeeeeeeaaaaaasssssseeeee contribute to the scoring column. Amari, please shoot 2 or 3 footers, not 3 pointers, Inês take your time and take the shot, Ayanna, same thing as Amari. We need every available player this postseason.

 

[Husky fanatic]

Not much gas left in the tank. Each game is an adventure. How do you miss wide open players?

 

[SLY63]

I want to be positive and believe we can get our mojo back, but today was really disappointing and I really don't see how we can turn it around in less than a week to win 3 games in 3 days against Marquette/St. Johns (Sun) and 'Nova (Mon). At this point we might limp into the NCAA losing the BET and as a 3 seed with a tough road to another Final Four.

Today, we were outplayed and outscored by Xavier (0-20) outside of Q2. And had 17 TOs vs Xavier !!!! We were a 36.5 point favorite and won by 9.

 

[Rb335]

1. Great to see them win the big east regular season outright. The league is projected to have 5 teams make the tournament, so that’s a great accomplishment.
2. Great to see Caroline Ducharme get some rhythm in the first and third quarters. A glimpse of her potential, and a player who will be vital this postseason. You can see the conditioning isn’t there, but she’s playing with a ton of effort.
3. Congrats to Nika on the assist record. Great accomplishment, and a testament to her teammates abilities to score the ball.
4. Not the prettiest game. With blood in the water, teams are giving us their best shot. Still crazy to comprehend how much closer this game was than a month ago. Dorka being out was definitely a factor. Xavier also never gave up. Good showing by them.
5. Rest up this week. The big east tournament is going to be an absolute grind. Oddly enough, I don’t think we’re the favorites. Will be fun to watch.

Bring on the madness of March!

 

[UConnCat]

Ugliest game of the season by far. Just some inexplicable things done on the court, missing point-blank layups, head-scratching passes, defensive breakdown after defensive breakdown. Xavier is all kinds of awful and UConn matched them tonight.

Bench was as bad as it's been all season and showed why they aren't reliable even against teams as awful as Xavier.

I say this while fully appreciating what this team has been through and accomplished. Despite all that, something is not right with this team. There isn't enough time before the BET for Geno to go back to training camp as he said post-game. Something like that may need to happen between the BET and NCAAT after a few days of rest.

I was thinking this is the first season in a long time when I don't feel confident penciling UConn in for the BET championship game. I'm now worried about Saturday's game.

 

[maple]

I want to be positive and believe we can get our mojo back, but today was really disappointing and I really don't see how we can turn it around in less than a week to win 3 games in 3 days against Marquette/St. Johns (Sun) and 'Nova (Mon). At this point we might limp into the NCAA losing the BET and as a 3 seed with a tough road to another Final Four.

Today, we were outplayed and outscored by Xavier (0-20) outside of Q2. And had 17 TOs vs Xavier !!!!

It's not a foregone conclusion we'll be playing Nova on Monday, first of all ...

 

[hoopsdiva]

Dorka being out tonight was sorely missed. It's easy to forget how important she is until she's not out there.

I was thinking the same thing. I hope she can make it back for the BE tournament.

 

[Tonyc]

Congrats on an accomplishment preseason with all the injuries some never could see. Now we need to go back to basic fundamentals. and get organized. We were their early in the season. This is fixable IMO. It takes hard work and getting back to basics. Im confident Geno will get us back on track. Remember nothing is bad as is looks. I thought we started off moving the ball well with Caroline starting. We looked like UConn. Then foul trouble and subs coming in we lost it.

 

[maple]

I was thinking the same thing. I hope she can make it back for the BE tournament.

Me too. It was a good idea to sit her for tonight's game, IMO. Let her rest and heal and come back in a week.