UConn-Texas Game Thread

[HopJim]

No wonder she missed those foul shots, her eye looks swollen shut.

Tired legs as well? Anyone watching game understands how hard KLS ran, particularly on offense. She was open most times cutting through the lane and getting hammered (but rarely a pass). Good rebounding, defense, and passing as well.

 

[Farney]

I’ll never understand why these teams, like Texas, don’t play with this kind of heart and fight every single game. They lost to TCU last week. Absolutely no way that happens if they play with this fight.

To me that’s a big reason why UConn has been so good for so long. UConn plays up for every game. Many of these top teams only do so against UConn.

 

[HopJim]

Stevens with 16 points and some of our most critical buckets deserves to be in that category as well.

Very disappointing game for Collier, who's developing a discouraging habit of shrinking in the biggest spots.

Not sure I fully agree. When Texas was coming back at end of game, Collier made two critical shots. Not great game for her and lesser game for Gabby.

 

[DefenseBB]

not just her face....her entire body....she may want to consider a career in professional wrestling when her basketball playing days are over

Isn’t the way the teams are playing her one in the same-she’s playing basketball AND having a wrestling career with all the falls and hits she’s taking. I remember Geno commenting about Stewie getting crushed by teams and am sort of surprised he hasn’t made similar comments about KLS.

 

[HopJim]

I think Z’s problems on both offense and defense stem from the same issue:

She gets pushed around a lot. Or she lets it happen, however you want to put it.

The more she is able to establish a strong base, the better she will rebound, the better spots she will catch the ball in, and the more shots she will block. Not saying she’s bad in these areas but she’s not fully taking advantage of her size until she gets a consistently stronger base, IMO.

Dual edged sword. She got pushed around tonight since she (kindly) was outweighed by 30+ pounds. She scored since she was fast on her feet and quicker than anyone who guarded her.

 

[Patty Bailey]

Lou's reputation as a "tuff cookie" was sealed back in that game where during the course of play she took a pit stop along the sidelines to puke and continued playing.

 

[DefenseBB]

When I hear alot of criticism against our women on the floor playing hard, I always remember this:
View attachment 27792

That was awesome and apropos! Good job CMC, good job!

 

[HopJim]

Azura has alot of work to do. I didn't like all the drives from the top of the key to the basket, She basically got the one pass and drove to the basket, that's not Uconn bb. We have no continuity on offense because when Azura enters the game our offense becomes different. Your changing peoples roles and against a better team we will difficulties.

?? No one other than KLS and Crystal was playing UConn basketball. Glad we had Z to make these moves. Doubt we win without it.

 

[HopJim]

I was surprised to see how good White was. Tough kid.

If White can get anywhere near game shape by year end, watch out!

 

[HopJim]

Gee I thought that was Lou.

Lou doesn't need to take her time.

 

[donalddoowop]

McCarty is a player. Earning a ton of respect tonight.

If she had played like that against Tennessee, Texas would have won that game.

 

[ASweet3781]

I'm referring to the players UConn utilizes against top competition and late in the NCAA tourney. One year it was just Stewart, Jefferson, Dolson, Hartley, KML, and Stokes. Another it was mostly Stewart, Tuck, Jefferson, Nurse, and KML. It's happened before.

I think you're missing a player or 2 there. Even so, those combos you just listed have multiple players with 1. Height 2. Length/bulk . 3. Penetration 4. Shot blockers/rebounders. All things our current 6 lack.

 

[iri10]

?? No one other than KLS and Crystal was playing UConn basketball. Glad we had Z to make these moves. Doubt we win without it.

Agreed. When UConn's more structured and elegant passing game isn't working well for some reason, it's nice to have players who can score in iso. During the unpleasant Skylar-ND years, one of the differences between UConn and ND is that ND did have players who could more easily play that way. And it mattered, because both teams' defenses were familiar enough with each other to make the opposing team's offense look really ugly.

 

[Crossover]

Tired legs as well? Anyone watching game understands how hard KLS ran, particularly on offense. She was open most times cutting through the lane and getting hammered (but rarely a pass). Good rebounding, defense, and passing as well.

"Rarely a pass" because the spacing/angles weren't conducive.

 

[DefenseBB]

Right now I'd say this team is maybe the 9th or 10th best team he's ever had. Definitely not better than any of the big three teams, not better than any of the Bird-DT era teams, and a couple of the Maya-TC teams were better.

“Well let me tell about how when I was doing...” You need to go back and look at the records, the games, the scores and the rankings of the opponents some of those teams played. Add in the fact that the women are significantly better athletes, in better shape and getting better coaching now. I have taken a look and I think it was noted this team will have played more ranked and highly ranked team than any other.

 

[CMC'72]

This could have saved the game for UConn.

Yes, it's too bad we lost, agreed.

 

[Txhoopsalot]

Hi from a Longhorn fan in Austin. To answer an earlier question earlier in the thread, "YES, I think this game was great for women's basketball." I think it was a good game for UConn. The Huskies will be more prepared if they face Texas again this year. The game was great, I hope, for the Texas program. It was so much fun to watch such a competitive game in such a great atmosphere. I cannot remember seeing Texas pull out all the stops more than for this game. We had a short ceremony to thank the couple who just made a $20 million pledge to help fund a center focused on brain and behavioral health. (I love that the money is being given by fans of the women's basketball program.) We had orange and white balloons dropping from the ceiling. We saw a birthday cake given to the long-time women's athletics director. We had an excellent singer for the national anthem. All this in addition to special Martin Luther King Day acknowledgements, which would have happened regardless of who Texas was playing. Hey, they even opened the beer concession (usually not open for women's games)! Of course, it would have been more fun for the Texas team and fans if the Longhorns had won. But, I hope the team's competitive play was enough to make some people who do not normally attend the games want to come back.

 

[Orangutan]

They missed at the end of the 1sr..

KLS hit at 3 with one second left.

 

[hoophuskee]

You want to play with no bench your going to burn these girls out.

There will be plenty of crappy conference opponents to accomplish this but yet it's Mid January and Geno officially trusts know player outside our six starters.

No you won't burn the player's out because most of the rest of season your playing against the AAC.

I'm not sure what your 2nd sentence means vs the 1st sentence in which you said the players will get burned out. You recognize UCONN will playing a lot of crappy opponents over the next 1.5 months so I don't know why you feel the team will get burned out. If you don't feel the team will get burned out than why mention it? If they are playing crappy opponents, how can they get burned out?

 

[Orangutan]

Respectfully I think that is confirmation bias on your part. The stereotypical UConn moment for years now has been Geno calling a time out just before halftime, drawing up a play, and seeing everything go terribly wrong.

Then again, he didn't call a time out this time. Maybe that's the secret to final play success.

Admittedly, I only watch the biggest UConn games each year. But they did it consistently in the Notre Dame game and then they scored with 1 second left in the 1st tonight and with 2 seconds left in the 2nd.

 

[DefenseBB]

KLS hit at 3 with one second left.

View attachment 27799

They did miss at the end of the 3rd to appease you my friend...

 

[JustinesGuy]

No you won't burn the player's out because most of the rest of season your playing against the AAC.

I'm not sure what your 2nd sentence means vs the 1st sentence in which you said the players will get burned out. You recognize UCONN will playing a lot of crappy opponents over the next 1.5 months so I don't know why you feel the team will get burned out. If you don't feel the team will get burned out than why mention it? If they are playing crappy opponents, how can they get burned out?

I meant IF they continue to play with 6 they are in trouble.

Then I said they have lots of crappy opponents coming up to get this bench situation straight.

Thanks for the good back and forth!

 

[nwhoopfan]

Not gonna attempt to read nearly 30 pages of game thread. I recorded the game and started about an hour late. I think I caught up w/ real time literally as the game was ending.

Entertaining game. Texas outplayed UConn for a significant portion of the game, but those big runs by the Huskies to close the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarters kept erasing whatever lead Texas had managed to build. Texas couldn't buy a 3 pointer after the 1st quarter, but kept hitting the offensive glass. White and McCarty impressed me. I thought UConn was gonna run away w/ the game in the 4th quarter, but it didn't happen. I'd say Texas has been underachieving quite a bit this year, if this is how they are capable of playing.

 

[hoophuskee]

On the games that I've watched this year, which has been quite a few. IMO Miss St has been the most consistent team and quite possibly might be the best team. Don't know how team plays against Teaira McCowan, Miss St 6'7" post player who's shooting almost 70% from the field. She's why I think Miss St might be the best team in the country. Miss St hasn't played the schedule that UConn has, but by Tournament time going through the SEC will be a benefit.

However, I'm sure this team wants to get at Miss St again and I expect they'll play better then they did in last years tournament.

Does she have a legit post game? Does she dribble the ball much? I don't know. Last year from what I saw was a super athlete that seems to score off of offensive rebounds or passes in the paint when she's open/or too tall vs very small teams.

I'm still not so sure she can shoot beyond 6 feet but maybe she can. And she is shooting 65% from the floor but so far this year has a total of 8 whopping assists. Be interested what she does against Tenn.

 

[UConnCat]

I think you're missing a player or 2 there. Even so, those combos you just listed have multiple players with 1. Height 2. Length/bulk . 3. Penetration 4. Shot blockers/rebounders. All things our current 6 lack.

That's right. UConn had post combinations (Dolson/Stewart/Tuck/Stokes) that controlled the paint and the boards. This team is small up front and is going to struggle in half-court games against big and physical front lines. They have to find ways to hide or minimize that weakness but it's going to be there.

Interestingly, Natalie Butler played 26 minutes in last year's game against Texas and her physical presence in the lane played a big role in that win. She set some wicked screens, grabbed some key offensive rebounds, blocked a couple of shots and overall settled things down in the paint. There was none of that tonight though Collier and Gabby were a little better on the boards in the 2nd half.