UConn-Villanova postgame

[my2cents]

Congratulations on the Big East regular season championship, the basketball on top of the trophy still looks like it's made of styrofoam.

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[DEFCONN1]

I loved it when KK went into the stands and celebrated with the UConn faithful. Good stuff !

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Something has got to be done about the refs. This garbage doesn’t happen in men’s game so why do the women have to put up with it? Geno should call them out in the press conference. Like Jeff did (Louisville.). Take the fine. Refs need to be shamed for this one. Horrendous.

Not a great game. Defense was great. Offense was not good (except PB.). They must have left 25 points on the table. Easy. They had to have missed 20 point blank shots right under basket. Just weird.

AE and PB cannot be 90% of the scoring or this team won’t get far in the tournament. More points needs to come from somewhere or baseball season starting early. At this point, it is what it is.

On to Providence.

Anyone know the gist of the two minute animated conversation between Denise Dillon and Geno at the handshake? Any lip readers watching?

 

[freshler40]

Our great defense was the story with many steals. Unfortunately, we did not score off of most of them or pulled up to allow the defense to get set. Our inside shooting was suspect in recent game with the exception of Edwards who was also off for much of the evening. Paige is masterful with her inside moves and playing off of the solid picks of Edwards. Playing forward seems to fit her well.

Hard to see us moving ahead against the better teams with the weak finishes this team is plagued by.
Our three guards produced very few points tonight. Many of their shots are short. Are they tired?
That needs to change soon. We are playing down to the competition rather than to our potential. We need more depth in our scoring to be successful against the top 10 teams.

Some of these games are hard to watch with so many off the ball fouls being called. Your left wondering what happened?

 

[Centerstream]

I think all the freshmen have hit a bit of a wall. Hopefully, they'll climb over it in time for the Big Dance.

Could be. But what I don't understand about Ashlynn is when the 3s aren't dropping, why she doesn't get in a position to take a mid range shot? And without having to dribble into the middle of the lane. Our freshmen often times don't do that very well.

 

[boontonbomber]

Paige had 4 fouls early in the 3rd. 3 of them were legit calls. One was absurd. And a bad traveling call against Paige in the 2nd, but that was made up for by an equally bogus traveling call against Villanova in the next moment.

She's lucky she didn't get T'd up, twice. She mouthed off at Olsen, after Olsen got called for a foul.And she got in Dalce's face, after the Dalce-Edwards encounter. The cool,calm Paige has really become much more demonstrative. I prefer the cool, calm Paige.

 

[Fore!]

Congratulations on the Big East regular season championship, the basketball on top of the trophy still looks like it's made of styrofoam.

That trophy is embarrassingly ugly.

 

[boontonbomber]

Could be. But what I don't understand about Ashlynn is when the 3s aren't dropping, why she doesn't get in a position to take a mid range shot? And without having to dribble into the middle of the lane. Our freshmen often times don't do that very well.

They are freshmen.

 

[Geew1992]

Could be. But what I don't understand about Ashlynn is when the 3s aren't dropping, why she doesn't get in a position to take a mid range shot? And without having to dribble into the middle of the lane. Our freshmen often times don't do that very well.

I sat here saying the same thing

 

[boontonbomber]

A couple thoughts on tonight’s game:

• First off, credit to Denise Dillon for putting together a solid game plan and to Nova for playing really hard.
• It’s a good thing UConn continues to play strong defense, because the team has hit a bit of a tough patch offensively. The execution is a bit ragged, and the Huskies have missed a bunch of open shots and layups.
• Paige has picked up the scoring load, frequently by taking the ball at the top of the key or on the wing and driving into the lane to either score, get to the foul line or both. I would rather see more balanced scoring in the flow of the offense, but if Paige has to score 31 for UConn to win, so be it.
• Yes, the 4th foul on Paige for boxing out was absolute BS, and the 3rd wasn’t a whole lot better. With both Paige & Nika together on the bench, UConn is just not the same team.
• It was a long night for the leading scorer in the Big East. Lucy Olsen was 0-7 in the first half and 2/16 for the game. Credit to Nika, Paige, KK and the rest of the Huskies for getting in her grill all game.
• Pretty uneven game until the last 5 to 6 minutes, when the Huskies really hit the accelerator at both ends of the court.
• I’ll take an ugly win every day of the week.
• Congratulations to UConn for their 30th conference title. I hope to be around for the next 30.

As usual,good points all,OD. Re the foul on Paige,though, I thought the whistle was after the box-out . Looked like Paige reached around and hooked Olsen's arm. Of course, my eyes are almost 82 years old.

 

[hookshot]

Haven’t seen the game. Need to have more than Paige and Edward’s in double figures. What’s going on with shade?

She did hit a couple of shots at critical junctures

 

[RoadMaster]

Swipe..

 

[huskeynut]

This was an ugly rock fight. Typical of a UConn/ Nova game.

Paige shoots 11 - 15 for 31 points. That's pretty damn good.

Aaliyah continues to battle and gets another double/ double.

Freshmen look like they might have hit the wall. They will be fine.

Fourth quarter 20 - 9 score buried Nova.

DEFENSE - DEFENSE. Made Nova's life difficult, especially Olsen who shot 2 - 12. Big KUDOS to Nika and KK for their lock down defense on her.

Nika with 6 assists bringing her career total to 625.

A terrible officiated game. I'll leave it at that.

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[RoadMaster]

 

[ThisJustIn]

CD post game w/Bob Joyce & Debbie:

Defense: Great, awesome, really good

Couple of times lost our momentum – not smart play

Credited Olson's skill - takes a TON of shots, but also leading assist. Defense took away their leading scorers.

Stuggles on offensive end. Quick shots, missed layups (AE). Then ran our stuff made our pullups.

AE – got players into foul triouble. Best way to neutralize players.

What improved offensively? Change sides of floor, make’em defend us. Taking quich shots, they didn’t have to guard us.

11/14 at halftime… 3.0. One a 2.9. 3.0 + impressive. Reflects student success porgam.

Wait until 7pm on a Saturday at Providence. Not fun. Have to wait for the men’s game. Sold out

Regular season big east title: Tought ‘cause have to do it over a long time. Style of play in league – not easy. Says a lot about the kind of playrs we get, willing to play w/bullseye on back. You can get hot in the Conf Champ but to play a full conference schedule is hard.

Re Nika: Charley house? Elbow? Knee? She said it was an elbow, but I’m guessing she instigated it.

 

[BBallF]

KK Arnold has 7 pts, 6 rebs, 3 asts and 4 stls.
She will be really good next year.

It's all about the judgment for her when she is out in third gear in transition. She has to know when to go, when to pull up, when to pull it out and when not to force a pass. It will come but it is not there yet.

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[BBallF]

To be fair, there were some awful calls on Villanova, too. I thought the sheer number of whistles created a choppy, disjointed, and ugly game.

The problem is that if you are calling Paige's box out on Lucy Olsen a foul, to be consistent you almost have to call all physical contact a foul and if you do that, both entire teams foul out.

 

[fomalhaut]

Was Villanova this physical back in Harry Perretta's day?

 

[jeff30189]

She's lucky she didn't get T'd up, twice. She mouthed off at Olsen, after Olsen got called for a foul.And she got in Dalce's face, after the Dalce-Edwards encounter.

Did you catch Nika turning on Dulce after the Edwards shove, screaming what was probably a string Croatian expletives? That's not a young lady I'd want pissed off at me.

 

[Centerstream]

When Nova cut the lead to back to 9 in the 4th quarter, and Geno took his 2nd timeout, I was going bonkers thinking "why didn't he save that TO in case we need them in the last couple minutes of the game?" Silly, silly me.

 

[Bone Dog]

I’ve watched the replay of Nika’s injury several times now. It was a hip check from Olsen that caused the hurt. It didn’t look like a foul. Just bad luck. Also, it looked like Nika jumped into the lane quickly and then was afraid to put her right foot down. May have been trying to avoid stepping on someone’s foot and turning her ankle. So she was a little off balance when she got hit, which probably made it hurt more.

 

[hoophuskee]

1--- Refs were awful the 3 qtrs I saw. How that play on the sideline wasn’t called a foul with Edwards and their big kid was pretty mind-boggling. Why did the Nova center even bother with screening Aaliyah from the ball? Why not just put her in a bear bug then throw her to the ground?

2-- I missed the 3rd qtr will go back and see but the 1st half frustrated Paige wasn't shooting more. In the 4th qtr Nova had no hope to stop her just like the 1st half. . Paige just has to shoot. Win or lose- just shoot.

3-- KK and Ashlynn have had wall crash into them which is expected for freshmen.

4-- Aliyah hit a wall tonight . Not a crushing one-- but she missed point blank shots- imo because she was spent.

5-- Q is so much fun to watch. If you call her a microwave - yet even the microwave is like an icebox compared to her game the moment she steps on the floor. Come hell or high water that player is gonna fire up that shot . . .- and the next . . . and the next and she probably still may feel she isn't getting enough touches. -- j/k.

6--- IMO Ice didn’t play because this was a God-Awful matchup vs Nova. Though maybe she should have gotten 5 or so competitive minutes. But Ice is not quick - so having her defend this type of team with all the movement - Geno may have thought she would have struggled.