Yes I'm dredging it up --Miss St

[JordyG]

Just looked at the stats on the UConn WBB site and found a few things interesting--
1. Miss St took 21 shots more than Uconn
2. Miss St two shooter Vivian and ittty Bitty shot about 33 percent--less from 3
3. Collier and Gabby equaled McCowan and one other in rebounding--
4. Miss St had 4 rebounding --Uconn 2
5. Miss St 37 tot Rebound --Uconn 31

Butler got not one rebound, nada. scored nada, zero
Danger rebounded --2

My conclusions after the game were wrong---Gabby and Collier strapped with fouls--equal or exceeded their counter parts on Ms St.
I ask you experts---how did Ms State get 21 more shots than Uconn by only having 6 more Rebound and 4 more steals??
One more thing Miss State ran 5 players in and out--Uconn stayed with 5 and Danger--Butler??
It is obvious to me from the stats that Gabby and Collier did everything humanly possible--
Any comments???

Yeah. After careful analysis and of course re-watching the game I say UConn got whupped fair and square by the better team on that night. Would have liked to play them in a best of 3 though. Of course if UConn had a better foul shooting night it would have been over after 4 quarters.

 

[nyfanofwbb]

I felt they didn't press enough when Vivians brought the ball up. She was given too much time to get ball up over half court. They should have pressed them right from the beginning. I think Miss St was given the opportunity to run the show and we of course we didn't stop them. That's it for me, time to move forward.

 

[tomcat]

This sounds right to me, or else they were just really flat for some inexplicable reason. The missed bunnies didn't just happen in OT. Missed layups were a feature of the UConn repertoire that evening. Natalie was not the problem. She was not going to match up all, that well in this game, IMHO, and her success would always depend on how she matched up with the other team. The fact that they had to look to her for anything other than fresh legs was the problem. And as someone else said, Shaefer ran players in and out so they always were fresh.

 

[bizarro aj]

You can look at the stats all you want but in the end it was geno that should've made sure the players knew how to handle the end of the game. There was no reason that chong should've tried to drive and shoot the ball with too much time on the clock with the game tied. KLS has to have the ball in her hands at the end of the game.

 

[CocoHusky]

You can look at the stats all you want but in the end it was geno that should've made sure the players knew how to handle the end of the game. There was no reason that chong should've tried to drive and shoot the ball with too much time on the clock with the game tied. KLS has to have the ball in her hands at the end of the game.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Yeah. After careful analysis and of course re-watching the game I say UConn got whupped fair and square by the better team on that night. Would have liked to play them in a best of 3 though. Of course if UConn had a better foul shooting night it would have been over after 4 quarters.

I doubt I inferred or implied --no argument--that Uconn got Whooped --but the final was what it was and it was square and fair--no collusion or underhanded occurred.
It was definitely the winning team That night--Better?? Schaefer had a great game plan and well executed by enthusiastic kids.

 

[BroadwayVa]

View attachment 23659

My impression of many things in that game were ==just wrong. I thought KLS didn't score--she shot 5 of 10, 3 of 6 from the three
had 5 rebounds--she didn't hide. My wish is that she would have loaded up on all those stats.
I won't accept Chong was wrong--there are arguments for every thing that could have been done--

 

[ricky]

For Collier it was obviously mental. And I agree that it was shocking: she was the calmest, steadiest player all year, including in the biggest games. But in the Final Four she wilted, plain and simple.

I expect to see her -- and the rest of the team -- come back p*ssed off in October and ready to erase the stench of that game.

Collier was spent with very little help.

 

[Aluminny69]

I doubt I inferred or implied --no argument--that Uconn got Whooped --but the final was what it was and it was square and fair--no collusion or underhanded occurred.

Are you implying the Russians were involved? Of course, UConn did have a Russian connection - Svet.

 

[Golden Husky]

At one level (the level of arithmetic), the loss has a really simple explanation: 67 shots vs. 46. While there were several reasons for this, the biggest was in offensive rebounds: 14 for the maroon team vs. 6 for the blue ones. That contrast is even more stark when you look at it from the point of view of missed shots recovered: Miss State missed 42 shots and got back 14 (33% of misses recovered), whereas UConn missed 26 shots and got back only 6 (23% recovery). If the two teams had taken a roughly equal number of shots, UConn would have won by 10-15 points.

In view of some of the comments here, it needs to be emphasized that the problem was not in shooting accuracy (at least regarding field goals as opposed to free throws): UConn shot 43% and Mississippi State shot 37%. UConn shot nearly 50% (7 for 15) from 3-point range, whereas Miss State was 6 for 22. Despite the mediocre free throw shooting, UConn scored 7 more points at the line than Miss state did.

The problem, quite simply, is that UConn did not get enough shots, and Miss State got too many. And the main reason for that was that UConn could not clear its defensive boards. In my opinion, that boils down quite simply to a size disadvantage.

In most games, UConn could overcome a size disadvantage with clever offense and defensive breakdowns by the opponents, but Vic Schaefer did not allow those methods to be used. With both teams playing effective defense and both teams unimpressive on offense, the inability to end Miss State's offensive possessions after 1 or even 2 shots was the difference maker.

All this is true. What's also true is that Secretariat lost to a horse named Onion, Muhammad Ali was beaten by Leon Spinks and the Texas Western won a national championship over Kentucky. Sometimes fate conspires with effort and good fortune and the better horse/athlete/team doesn't win. Losing hurts but it can provide an appreciation of just how difficult winning is and be the motivation for a renewed commitment to excellence. I'm confident that will be the case this season.

 

[huskeynut]

We lost, plain and simple. On that night Mississippi State was the better team. I don't need stats to tell me why we lost. We brought our B game at best and State brought their A+ game.

The most important factor is how the team felt and what they intend to do about it. I think we all know that this year's team will be on a mission. And that fact does not bode well for our opponents.

 

[Shorty Dee]

I said I was UConn deprived, well I actually sat down and watched the Mississippi State game. I will continue to say when the game went into overtime, Mississippi State panic and Vic Schaefer called more than one time out. Gabby was already on fire, but in overtime she became a beast. Saniya can hold her head up, because as a guard, she did what she was suppose to do....the red sea had parted, so she took it and the player for Mississippi State slid over....it should have been called a blocking foul...point blank. I stand by my statement.....Mississippi State didn't beat UConn.

 

[BroadwayVa]

You can look at the stats all you want but in the end it was geno that should've made sure the players knew how to handle the end of the game. There was no reason that chong should've tried to drive and shoot the ball with too much time on the clock with the game tied. KLS has to have the ball in her hands at the end of the game.

I don't often drink from Geno trough, nor do I think him a basketball god--he is after all HUMAN.
Allow me to present a view different a bit from yours:
1. Geno's bench was non-existent--you could argue it should have been cultivated early
2 Geno had no one, of any talent, to sub for Collier or Gabby
3.As much as I consider Danger "my girl"--her experience in Div 1 was minimal and she was no defender.
4. Gabby and Kia were/are Uconn's defensive threats--to put them often to keep Ms st beyond half court would require too much expended energy from tired players.
5. If you argued KLS should have shot more all game long--I agree.
6. Geno prepared this team for everything he ran into these past 3 years--and no team did what Ms St did to him--Schaefers had no respect for Uconn's abilities--he feared none--and knew the depth of this team would one day kill them--it finally did.
;Chong's actions were not predictable--and Geno couldn't react fast enough--it was not done by design.

 

[hoophuskee]

Sometimes you lose a game once every three or 4 years or so. Every once in while a team will be bad matchup too. And usually the other team has scholarship players too and the coach is actually a well paid - deservedly paid as a good coach. Geno did not invent in the game. Sometimes you go against a pg that you can't speed up the tempo, and you get wiped out inside to start the game that sets the tempo, and the other team which has scholarship athletes has qualified strengths also. In this case they were extremely athletic.

We lost. It happens every so often. Give Miss State their due.