UConn

[redsteve]

Watched the last 1/3 of the K State - UConn game today. UConn won by about 17 or so.

 

K State played a zone defense ....pretty well... for all of the game I saw, and made UConn shoot 3s...which UConn did and well enough. UConn made baskets on fast breaks, etc, and took advantage of K State when they could. UConn = Very deep squad as usual.  But this isn't the UConn of last year...just not as dominate, but very good for sure.  Katie Lou Samuelson is the big star now and she can do it all, especially for a sophomore. Very mobile and smart. 

They play a sort of a motion offense from what I saw, and ran people cutting through the zone, and hit open people inside when they could.

 

K State did relatively well, is a decent team.... played pretty intense and hard. Will win some games this year..have some new blood. The elder Page girl played, and the younger Page... Lani.. played very late in the game...and made her first basket of the year... the announcer said, so she must not be playing much.

 

From what I saw, we probably would have a problem with either team. We just aren't ready yet. (Not intended to be negative).... but maybe we can take away a positive learning experience from them, when our girls meet UConn.

Edited December 12, 2016 by redsteve

[basketball]

19 hours ago, redsteve said:

Watched the last 1/3 of the K State - UConn game today. UConn won but about 17 or so.

 

K State played a zone defense ....pretty well... for all of the game I saw, and made UConn shoot 3s...which UConn did and well enough. UConn made baskets on fast breaks, etc, and took advantage of K State when they could. UConn = Very deep squad as usual.  But this isn't the UConn of last year...just not as dominate, but very good for sure.  Katie Lou Samuelson is the big star now and she can do it all, especially for a sophomore. Very mobile and smart. 

They play a sort of a motion offense from what I saw, and ran people cutting through the zone, and hit open people inside when they could.

 

K State did relatively well, is a decent team.... played pretty intense and hard. Will win some games this year..have some new blood. The elder Page girl played, and the younger Page... Lani.. played very late in the game...and made her first basket of the year... the announcer said, so she must not be playing much.

 

From what I saw, we probably would have a problem with either team. We just aren't ready yet. (Not intended to be negative).... but maybe we can take away a positive learning experience from them, when our girls meet UConn.

 

Thanks for the info...  only part I'd disagree with is UCONN is deep.  Yesterday against K STATE they only suited up 9 girls and only played 6 until the last 2 minutes of the game when it had been decided.  But I'm guessing the 3 that came in late would probably start on most teams.  As usual they are a big, athletic and fundamentally sound team.  Samuelson is really really good.      

[KarlHessEatMy....]

I have grown up watching men and womens UConn basketball. I put every one of their games and times and tv station into my phone calendar every year for the last 12 years. I honestly thought by this time they would have a couple losses already. They are a beatable team this year as I think about any top 10 team could win it this year. Its been fun watching them scrap their way to wins. I sure wish we didn't play them on a Wednesday night at 8 and live 2 hours away!!!

[Fastbreaker]

I am as big a WBB fan as anyone but this will be ugly.  Our young team will be scared to death of the name. And since Gino does not usually call off the dogs, I'm predicting at score of 72-22  with five minutes to go.  Now go prove me wrong Huskers.

[colhusker]

Unfortunately, they may not be as good this year, which I think would be good for Women's basketball (another topic for another day) but then again, we are a shell of the team we were last year.

[huskerchode]

Amazing what a difference a year makes.  Just for the heck of it - assume none of what went down in the spring had happened.  Yori is still here, Romeo likely is still here, we keep Cayton and Doyle, plus we have Nicea, Hannah, and Grace.  That is one kick ass team with what we return, at least top 20 team if not top 15 or even top 10 by year's end.  So much talent and experience.  Guess we wouldn't have RCJ, though.

[caveman]

On 12/13/2016 at 5:35 PM, huskerchode said:

Amazing what a difference a year makes.  Just for the heck of it - assume none of what went down in the spring had happened.  Yori is still here, Romeo likely is still here, we keep Cayton and Doyle, plus we have Nicea, Hannah, and Grace.  That is one kick ass team with what we return, at least top 20 team if not top 15 or even top 10 by year's end.  So much talent and experience.  Guess we wouldn't have RCJ, though.

Interesting take.  We had Nat last year with Theriot which is about at least as good as Nat and Doyle.  Cayton would serve as first off the bench in that case.  Since we were one and in the WNIT first round I think top 20 is by far overly optimistic.  With Burns on the bench our post defense is severly lacking so that's a wash copared to last year.  Though we would be markedly better I see an NIT at best.  Let's also not forget the obvious team chemistry issue which quite frankly did predate Connie's departure and based on body language I am seeing it is persisting today.  Q:  how much distrust did the investigation cause and when will the women really start trusting and playing hard for each other?

[huskerchode]

Had Theriot stayed healthy, we would have had a better record.  I should clarify that the above team "on paper" could be a top 20 team.  Assuming the chemistry was fine (which it obviously wasn't and still isn't), I think having Romeo as  threat at the arc, Doyle as a more than capable point guard, Nicea and Cayton (and Maddie) with their ability to shoot outside and drive the lane, would take the pressure off Shepard and Havers and open them up even more.  One of those "who do you guard" teams where everyone is capable of scoring in several ways. Cinco would be able to have some good minutes as well as our other freshman.   But, we may have also had a lot of "stress reactions" and boots and people sitting on the bench while we all wondered why they didn't get more minutes.

[redsteve]

Sure it's fun and interesting to speculate where we could have been beyond just last year, but you can go back even farther.

 

What about Page sisters, and others those that left too..Chandler Smith, etc etc? If all had stayed, we certainly be a much different ..and much better team. And add in all of the above questions that show where we changed. How about Shinny and her outstanding recruiting.

 

Being the Grinch of opinions today.....But....all the wondering and wishing in the world won't change where we are now.  As said we not only just need Rachel back......we desperately need Rachel back.

 

And if we don't recruit more real rebounding/scoring bigs, we'll have trouble from now on. The B!G (and beyond) requires it.

 

And I will continue to beat the drum....we need to be a defensive force. (we aren't now).  Connie liked it and so do I.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2016 by redsteve