NC State Post Game Thread

[ctfjr]

Nika’s great at defending a ball handler but she’s been a foul prone disaster at the perimeter. Also, if there were a rebound and UConn got the ball, Geno wanted his best free throw shooters out there. Nika is 25% for the season in FT.

So she is about average for the team

Seriously it shouldn't be a surprise that their foul shooting sucked last night. It's sucked all season.

 

[jaydee602]

The funniest thing happened today.
I attend 6:30 AM Mass in Scottsdale. This morning, I sleepwalked through the service, still emotionally exhausted from the game. While walking to my car after Mass, I was surrounded by several (male & female) parishioners who noticed my Huskies bumper sticker. They deluged me with questions about the team & agreed that it was one of the greatest games they had witnessed.
This game & our team has had a positive impact nationwide in spreading the appeal of Women’s basketball.

 

[JordyG]

lol@ ESPN broadcasting McNutt and Fargas cheering like teen girls at an Elvis concert. Who do you think they were cheering for? They weren't overjoyed with ESPN showing them on repeat. lmao

I now I've said this any number of times now, but Fargas picked UConn to beat both Indiana and NC State. McNutt picked UConn to lose both games. She also seems to be hedging toward a pick of UConn over Stanford.

 

[warbler1055]

I am sure McNutt did not forget the Georgetown UConn games she starred against UConn.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

I now I've said this any number of times now, but Fargas picked UConn to beat both Indiana and NC State. McNutt picked UConn to lose both games. She also seems to be hedging toward a pick of UConn over Stanford.

Yes...she did, but her celebration expressed where her heart lay.

 

[JordyG]

Yes...she did, but her celebration expressed where her heart lay.

We don't know exactly what she was reacting to, nor do we know how many times she displayed such reactions. A ten second clip is hardly definitive.

 

[Geew1992]

Why do ya'll care who picked who?? I don't understand the obsession.

 

[Ozimoto]

To go along with the above post about the nation wide appeal of that game and the Huskies, I get a text from my daughter last night (she works on a cardiac monitoring floor at a community hospital outside of Charlottesville, Virginia) and she says one of her patients is watching the game and tells her that Geno Auriemma is a friend. She didn't say how the game was affecting the heart monitor...

 

[Atleast5char]

I was lucky to sit near Megan. She was vocal and cheering on the Huskies the entire game. I loved her energy and how much she tried to get everyone around her into the game.
Made me think of some of the negative comments I have read about her on here over the years. I'm a big fan of her and appreciate her even more now.

Do you know who she was hugging a couple of times in the row behind her during the game? My video quality wasn't great and I couldn't tell if it was a former UConn player. It may have been a man but if so also could have still been a former player.

 

[MSGRET]

Friday's schedule in Minneapolis:
7 p.m. ET on ESPN: South Carolina vs. Louisville
9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN: Stanford vs. UConn
Gonna be a late night!

That's why I love living in the West, last game starts at 6:30 and will be over before 9:00 pm PT, unless there's overtime.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Post game scrum presser. Generally alot better than the regular Network presser. Some really good stuff with the mandatory "Don't get me started on Paige" near the end

There is this gem buried in the middle of Geno's chat. It has to do with Paige lighting up her afterburner and it being geno it is ambiguous as to whether Paige said it or Geno is interpreting something from her. I believe he is referring to coming out for the first OT. They are saying Dorka's injury is just one more thing and Paige says "one more thing and I'm going to do what I do." I chose to believe she said it, making an unbelievable game a legendary game.

It starts at the 5 minute mark.

 

[jaydee602]

That's why I love living in the West, last game starts at 6:30 and will be over before 9:00 pm PT, unless there's overtime.

Me too! Arizona is 3 hours before EST.

 

[my2cents]

Well, to be fair, there were 9,825 screaming UCONN fans in the arena and 'bout 175 NC State fans...I was there and counted them.

So the "unfairness" is that UCONN fans show up and NC state fans didn't? Why not have a rule that each team has the same amount of fans attend a game, to make it fair.

 

[ballerfan]

While Paige's clutch shooting was one of the great performances I have seen in any game, championship or in season, not sure why Azzi isn't getting more love on the Boneyard. Prior to Paige taking over, Fudd was also unstoppable for several critical periods. Kept UConn in the game so Paige could be Paige in the Overtime.

Hey HopJim. I’ve read all the comments in this thread, as you probably have, too, and I’ve seen lots of love for Azzi. Azzi, Paige, and Christyn were the stars of the show. One of Azzi’s best moments was at the end of the game when she scrambled to get the inbound pass and then managed to throw the ball through a defender to E, setting up E’s pass to CW for the final basket. Azzi is just a freshman but played fearlessly.

It’s hard not to focus on what Paige did. She’s still not 100%, and earlier in the game she made mistakes that pre-injury Paige would never do. But when the team needed her the most, she willed herself into the old Paige, dominating like no one else can do. It was exhilarating.

But you know what? Paige and Azzi are best friends, and I bet they are celebrating together and really don’t care who’s getting more attention and credit. As Paige once said about their friendship, it’s « ride or die » — willing to do anything for each other, even in the most dangerous situations.

 

[BrysonDeMan]

Do you know who she was hugging a couple of times in the row behind her during the game? My video quality wasn't great and I couldn't tell if it was a former UConn player. It may have been a man but if so also could have still been a former player.

was that Shea Ralph supporting Paige's mom in the last minutes?

 

[PacoSwede]

a lot to digest, first I hope Dorka has a successful surgery that was tough to watch, was happy she cameback to enjoy the moment at the end.

I don't understand why Muhl was used so little, she came in in the 1st half and a 9-0 run was sparked, she came in again in the 4th and another spark run happened. I would much rather have her play than Westbrook who can't buy a wide open 3 in the ocean right now.

I also don't get up 3 why coaches never tell their players to foul, that 5 min of 2nd OT was totally unnecessary and might have cause and effect in the game vs a Stanford team who will have one extra day of rest and Uconn one day less of rest and 10 extra minutes of basketball.

The ft's I have no idea what you can say anymore, 1-10 at a point that is going to be costly I feel down vs a more talented team.

Either way this is one of the greatest games I've seen in any sport.

me too.

it's so obvious that this is her de factor effect. how could anyone not see it? so, geno must be seeing something else. again, i'd like to know what it is. he's giving up a lot.

BTW, i'm not suggesting she's a superior talent (vs. azzi, paige, christyn, et. al) but she only was on the floor like 6 min out of 50, and those who were on the floor didn't light things up all the time. ... when she did play, as jchusky notes, the team thrived.

 

[DefenseBB]

So the "unfairness" is that UCONN fans show up and NC state fans didn't? Why not have a rule that each team has the same amount of fans attend a game, to make it fair.

Huh? I guess you don't really understand how the regionals work. The NCAA gives a small allotment to each school and the NCAA sells the remaining tickets. As this regional was in Bridgeport, these tickets sold sooner and more of than any other region as most expected UConn to be assigned to Bridgeport when the ticket went on Sale in November.

Last week, upon ND, NC ST, UConn and Indiana making it to Bridgeport, the schools were allocated their allotment which went to families, season tickets holders and boosters. That is not a large allotment.

Bridgeport sold out solely because UConn was there. Just like it sold in Albany and yes, the narrative was also how close Albany was to Storrs. If the game were in Springfield, Boston or Providence, absolutely the same narrative would have occurred.

UConn is a brand that has earned it's following and is helping WCBB grow. The NCAAT Committee sort of lucked out that UConn was the #6 seed overall and could be logically put into Bridgeport and keep the ticket sales up.

And to be clear, the reasons these venues bid on hosting the tournament is because they want UConn assigned to them and ensure a sell out. If UConn wasn't good, do you really think Albany or Bridgeport would have bid on the Tournament?

 

[DefenseBB]

I now I've said this any number of times now, but Fargas picked UConn to beat both Indiana and NC State. McNutt picked UConn to lose both games. She also seems to be hedging toward a pick of UConn over Stanford.

NOOOOOO! We can't have her ruin the Karma! Come on Monica, keep shorting your Big East brethren, we will respect you more if you don't support us....

 

[JordyG]

NOOOOOO! We can't have her ruin the Karma! Come on Monica, keep shorting your Big East brethren, we will respect you more if you don't support us....

My mistake. My blurb was poorly written. It's Fargas that is hedging toward UConn over Stanford, not McNutt. Not ever.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

I went with a Kentucky Mule. It was pretty good

How many went through a "Lloyd Bridges" progression last night?

 

[eebmg]

My mistake. My blurb was poorly written. It's Fargas that is hedging toward UConn over Stanford, not McNutt. Not ever.

I think McNutt was part of the FS1 coverage of the SC game last year when Paige went nuts. I remember saying she was not convinced Paige is that good until she saw her in person. Guess she needs more reminding.


Probably does not help that she is part of the Knicks MSG coverage so she has no clue what good looking basketball looks like

 

[Beemer]

How many went through a "Lloyd Bridges" progression last night?

Raises both hands

 

[jazz]

Incredible game!!

PB is (almost) back and she took over late. I say almost because she still threw the ball away a couple of times and she had only one assist. The old PB would have had less and more, respectively. But it was all we needed – she was awesome and I have no doubt, Stanford is worried about her. I think she scored about half her points in the OT periods. She scored 8 straight at one point.

CW is a straight-up bully – she even bullies the bigger kids on her way to the hoop. Her aggression is unbelievable – she forces the ref to call the foul. Most of the time, playing the wing, she is giving up some height on the defensive side, but she knows she has the quickness to go by and even challenge the bigger kids on the offensive side. She was great and added 5 rebounds. If she could hit those 3s a bit more regularly (2-8 and roughly 20% in the tournament), she would be unstoppable.

is starting to warm up and the game is slowing down big time for her, right before our eyes. She seems so patient now, working her way through screens for the three or the midrange. She played great as well and added 5 rebounds. By the way, and CW played close to 100 minutes without a single TO! Think about that for a minute…..

Ono wasn’t great as I had hoped and predicted, but she was good enough and played tough. She has got to hit the FTs! The same with AE – not great but tough and a workman-like effort. Both of these players seem to be peaking at the right time and played well against a big, tough team. They got 16 points and 13 rebounds between and only 4 TOs in roughly 80 minutes. AE helped save our season with the 2 clutch FTs and the put back ORB in the 2 OT. I do worry about foul trouble on both of them, especially with Dorka out.

EW has been solid; hasn’t really shown out yet, needs to hit the open three. Gave us some solid minutes. Dorka was getting her swerve on until she got injured. Can Dorka play defense, set picks and get ReBs against Stanford, maybe even flip in a layup. She broke her left wrist….

NM played 8 minutes and directly gave us or contributed to giving us 5 extra possessions when she was in the game. She had a steal, forced turnover, ORB for two and 2 contested/hustle plays that disrupted NC State and we ended up getting the possession. She found CW after the steal for an easy two and committed exactly zero fouls! When she was in the game we went from 2 up to 9 up and kept that at 7 points even after Dorka went out.

Second half, NM comes in and we go from 4 down to 1 down. So, in her 8 minutes, we outscore NC State by 8 points. Similar to her contribution against Indiana. She saves possessions and gives us additional possessions. If we shoot it at roughly 50%, 5 additional possessions equate to 5-6 additional points, no matter who is shooting it. She is a real sparkplug off the bench.

By the way, she came in at the end of regulation for LIV…hmm thought somebody said she would never play at the of the game… Not sure why GA didn’t do the same thing at the end of the first OT. State needed a three so Liv wasn’t needed on Defense and NM could have fouled instead of us giving up the three….

There is something about CD that GA doesn’t quite trust. If she wants to stay in the game, she has to hit her first shot and her open 3s. Nothing against EW, but I’d like to give a few more of her minutes to CD.

A few little things almost cost us big time – how do you have a shot clock violation coming out of a TO, give up a three when you could have fouled, miss roughly 8 of your first 10 or so FTs, foul the three-point shooter at 28 secs in OT??

I love this team but we will have to keep peaking and play even better to beat Stanford. Their length could cause PB more problems….well, maybe, but she still goes for 30!

 

[jazz]

Nika’s great at defending a ball handler but she’s been a foul prone disaster at the perimeter. Also, if there were a rebound and UConn got the ball, Geno wanted his best free throw shooters out there. Nika is 25% for the season in FT.

NM subbed in for Liv at the end of regulation....She didnt have any fouls this game and is not a disaster at all. She fouls a bit more but her disaster days are long gone. Anybody that plays defense like she does is apt to get roughly a foul more called on them per 40 minutes. 3.5 fouls over a 40 minute game is not a disaster.

She does foul at times when you wish she wouldn't, but that is not nearly as often as it used to be.

 

[jazz]

GA's new hair stylist.