Ooops - too late. Your overly-confident Baylor vs. UCONN comments have been forwarded to Shea Ralph. Oh yeah - and they have been slightly embellished and attributed to various Baylor players. Hope you don't mind...
I watched a lot of it and they were impressive. Seton hall is a much better team than the team we used to play in the Big E and Duquesne played a smart and good game against them. They shot 48.6% and 42.9 from three and made 20-23 foul shots. They had 14 O-board and out rebounded them by 6. And they scored 97 points in their first ever NCAA game. That is all impressive when facing a decent team in a strange environment with the pressure of win or go home. They start three seniors so have experienced leadership, and they had 19 assists on 34 baskets so they share the ball and run good offense. They also had 10 steals. The one red flag in that game was 15 TOs but they only gave up 14 points on turnovers.
You should see the ones I make up and attribute to you.
Perhaps the real blueprint game for Duquesne with regard to a fast-pace approach is the DePaul game. Bruno employed alternating 5-player teams to keep the pace at high gear. Even Auriemma was quoted as saying to his coaches during the first half, "I just turned around and said, `This is crazy -- this is complete insanity. I can't live like this. We can't play like this." He got the team settled down at halftime and they stopped trying to outrun the Blue Demons and play their offense in the 2nd half. An entertaining game that the Huskies prevailed in by 16 pts. But DePaul did manage to score within range of UConn every quarter and avoid the usual blow-out quarter that ends games early.
Unfortunately for Duquesne they aren't DePaul nor do they pass the ball as well as DePaul does. Nor is the Duquesne coach Doug Bruno. I don't think they can go 5 for 5 substitutions like DePaul. I actually don't think anyone in the country can substitute like DePaul. The Dukes were only up 6 points with 5 minutes to play in the 3rd before they went on a run. They also actually didn't look comfortable breaking Seton Halls press. I did think they did well in the half court though. I'm not sure they would want to use a scout video from December either since UConn's defense has improved quite a bit since then. For as much as I heard the Duquesne coach talk about what they are going to do on offense I didn't hear much about what they will do defensively, that should be their main concern since they gave up 76 points to Seton Hall who averages 73 points a game. I would be way more worried about that than anything else since it is unlikely you are just going to outscore UConn.
Correct me if I am wrong but weren't they ranked @ one point this year? Or was that GW? I feel like one team or a couple of teams in the A-10 were ranked for a week maybe two?
Good point. I just wanted to address the common mantra that "you can't simulate UCONN's defense or pressure", etc. I think you CAN but only if the other team works out with some male practice players. A group of college guys, who played hoops in high school, but who weren't quite good enough for a D1 scholly, would beat UCONN almost every time they played. I would think any school could put together a group of male practice players, who in general, are faster and stronger, than their female counterparts.
Yep. On Jan 12th Duquesne was ranked 25th, ironically tied with DePaul.
Interesting... so how'd we end up with the only 9 seed that was ranked at any point this year in our bracket? Oh well I hope it's a good game with us winning by at least 30 of course.
They don't 'need' it, but anyone who's ever been in a locker room, understands that an opponent's remarks always have a habit of making thier way into the discussion.
I am sure the ASU coach is asking how they ended up with the only 7 seed that was ranked #4 at some point during the year!!!!
That along with repeatedly asking herself why she did even attempt a zone for even a 4 minute stretch. I would love for them to replay that game and her decide to play zone and see what happens. Since it's not my birthday I don't expect any random wishes to come true but I would certainly pay to see it happen.I am sure the ASU coach is asking how they ended up with the only 7 seed that was ranked #4 at some point during the year!!!!
Well - we also ended up with a 10 seed Missouri that made it at least up to #20. St John's got an 8 seed and was ranked during the season and of course Northwestern made it as high as #12 before not even making the field so being ranked at some point during the year is not a really good indicator of quality!
My point is, some teams might need that extra motivation. Not this one. I'd hate to be an opponent facing this UConn team if they were somehow more motivated than they are to begin with.
UConn is like one armed waiters: They can take it, but they don't dish it out.
Oxymoron?
