Xavier Postgame Thread

[oldude]

As with all UConn kids, I noticed the Allie immediately looked for her defensive assignment as soon as she saw the shot was going in. No celebrations until a stoppage of play. So nice to see. After this performance I suspect she will see a more attention and closeouts to prevent another rain of threes. She has shown that she can get a defender on her hip and drive to the basket. Now we may get to see what she offers in the mid range game if her drives are cut off by help defense.

As I was reading your post I could not help but think that any team that is forced to put that much of its defensive focus on Allie, including help-side defense is going to open up opportunities for Azzi, Ash, Sarah, Blanca, etc. When defending UConn, a team truly has to pick their poison.

 

[Blakeon18]

Ball handling against LadyVol pressure will be important...KK/K9/Azzie will do most of it...with Sarah
a big help...Ash as well. I hope Geno gives Allie some early PT...both as a reward for her game against
Xavier and to see how she performs against a talented team. I don't see her ball handling a lot...Just constantly move...and shoot or pass when it comes to her.

Note: LadyVol was leading the SEC...undefeated in conference...till last night. Lost by
double digits to unranked Miss. St....on LadyVol's home court. Now have 4 losses.
Tall/athletic/24/7 full court press...erratic offense....still dangerous but they don't seem as good as
normal LadyVol teams.

 

[Bone Dog]

Tall/athletic/24/7 full court press.

This describes UConn better than it does Tennessee. And Geno does it without ‘hockey line substitutions.’

Pressing teams don’t often respond well to being pressed, and Louisville showed this when they pressed Tennessee. We have too many excellent ball handlers to be bothered much by anyone’s press.

And speaking of ball handlers and passers, some of ours are so good opposing guards give up once they get the ball. Sarah’s like this. It’s too dangerous to challenge her because she’ll pick a press apart with passes. Surprisingly, Ash is another. Once either of them gets the ball anywhere near midcourt, the defense backs off. They have to try with KK because she always has the ball. If they don’t at least try to trap her there’s no point pressing at all.

 

[Ron and Vida]

Kelly Feris has come to mind a lot lately...

Ashlynn in particular reminds me of Ferris
Never a dull moment when she was on the floor!

 

[sun]

I can't help but to think that Shade's extra defensive effort in this game was prompted in part by Blanca's absence.
Shade seemed to be even more fiesty than usual.
She knew before the game that she would need to step it up to help try to compensate for both Serah & Blanca being out.
No one else on the team could have done that any better,

 

[HuskyNan]

Ashlynn in particular reminds me of Ferris
Never a dull moment when she was on the floor!

Geno should be scouring Indiana for more recruits!