Good video analysis of the team, nothing people here don't already know
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CL82
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"Game planning" isn't necessarily some sort of "secret play" rather it is matching up so that you utilize your strengths and exploit your opponents weaknesses, while hiding your own. Geno is exceptional at forcing opposing teams out of what they want to do while figuring out ways to allow us to do the things we want to do not withstanding the opposing teams defense. He may well be one of the best ever at this.
You are absolutely correct that Geno has been terrific at showing other coaches how he runs a practice and I truly believe that it has advanced the women's college basketball game. Other coaches have been very vocal about how much it helped them. But none of that has anything to do with the chess match that two coaches do when doing their "game planning" for a game.
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I agree with you completely. This is what I meant by “the scout.” Some analysts talk about him in similar terms to the way Bill Belichek was always described as “taking away the opposing team’s best weapon.”
I think Geno does focus on this, in effect making opposing coaches win with their second or third best weapon.
The thing is, as good as Geno may be at game planning in this sense, it doesn’t really distinguish him from his peers. They all do this, or at least try to. Whatever game planning he comes up with depends entirely on his players being able to, or in my idiom having the will to put it into effect.
Consider the ND game from last season. The scout on Hidalgo was to make her go to her left. Kaitlyn KK and Ash did exactly this and held her to 4 points on 2 for 6 shooting. That was masterful game planning. Unfortunately, they didn’t close out on her at the perimeter quickly enough, went under screens and missed a couple switches and Hannah hit 6 of 11 three point attempts. I think she finished with 29 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists. In effect, she torched the master plan with a double double.
Of course, lots of mitigating circumstances might be cited — it was early in the season, Azzi was out, we shot abysmally from 3, Jana got 4 fouls in 15 minutes, Liatu King got an easy whistle on over-the-back fouls, etc. Whatever the case may be, a game plan went awry because the players weren’t able to implement it. By the end of the season, game plans didn’t go awry anymore.
CL82
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Agreed to disagree. He may be the best ever at this.
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I think you misread my remark. I didn't say he wasn't the best ever at this. I merely said that doing game-planning doesn't distinguish him from his peers. They all do it, some better, some worse. Geno may well be the best of them at it. In context, the suggestion I responded to was that his virtue is game planning, not teaching self-discipline, i.e. fostering the will to win. My point is that what he teaches is more important than what he plans, and the ND game is one way to see it. If you disagree with me, it ought to be about this, not something I didn't actually say.
CL82
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Of course, every coach does pretty game planning. Heck that happens all the way down to the rec level.
Geno happens to be exceptionally good at it, which definitionally does distinguish him from his peers.
Agree to agree?
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I never watch these videos generated by self-selected wise men and women who claim to know something we don't. Believe it or not, many of these prognosticators cannot even pronounce the names of some Huskies. Makes me angry, so I've sworn off these things.
After three decades of watching UConn women play, I've learned that we only get to know what the coaches and staff want us to know. Player interviews are usually just cliches strung together.
Suggestion: watch the actual games and lose the chatter. Except for Lobo, I mute the game commentators (even the "great" Holly R.).
I DO learn a lot from my fellow posters, however. I depend on you guys. You keep me current.
Ok so let me join this conversation. First of all, that relatively monotonous offense which starts with a handoff and then the pass to the high post has many options, over 25. Secondly, all coaches prepare or they will be doing something else very quickly.
Third, the genius of Geno is the way he creates during the season and then unleashes a new, improved team. Last year we lost to ND, USC, and Tennessee and yet won the NC in runaway fashion. How? It wasn't just the players I assure you. He was crafting the ultimate weapon, small ball, and it was just indomitable. Every game was a building block and he knew where he was going to go. Maybe not right away, but eventually. He will take what he has, and in many years it was a lot less than he expected due to injuries, and still get to the FF through the season long molding and then the February Metamorphosis.
The Fourth point has been overlooked. He is a smart, peerless, in game coach, sensing shifts in the movement of the game. He used his weapons deliberately and precisely. He would press, run, slow it down, take advantage of a mismatch, or run a set play (the elevator screen ring a bell?) when exactly needed. That is what separates him in my view. He and his staff are so in tune with the game itself and had so many weapons at their disposal last year to use that it became a thing of beauty and one of the best college teams ever.
Forget about last year for a moment and look forward to this year. Talk about weapons? Combinations? Mismatches? Presses? Small ball? It's all there. We should track a new one of these each time it happens. When you see a mismatch like Kitts trying to guard KK last year in the NC game and our girl blowing right by her twice in row, think to yourself- How did this play get set up? How did it happen?. It wasn't by chance I assure you.
Agree. In one of the supposed "expert" analyses the "expert" pronounced Morgan's last name as chili (as the food) . And we are supposed to rely on this analysis??? I've read another analysis where they entirely forgot about Caroline./
cabbie191
Jonathan Husky on a date with Holi
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Agreed.
But what’s worse IMO is when a clergyman who’s officiating a funeral doesn’t take the time to learn how to properly pronounce the deceased’s name. Happened at my mom’s funeral.
Time to check airports…
That's just very upsetting, unacceptable and intolerable. My condolences for your loss also.
RockyMTblue2
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12 National Championships. That suggests to me that Geno is the man; how he does it I don't know, which suits me just fine.
cabbie191
Jonathan Husky on a date with Holi
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Thanks BBall.
Mom died a long time ago but the topic still comes up now and then 35 years later so you know it was something that really didn't sit well with us.
On the other hand, my wife is a retired minister and she made it a point to learn how to properly pronounce the names of both people and places. Her last full time call was at a rural church outside of Ann Arbor MI and gracious, name pronunciation did not follow the rules of standard English as we were taught them! 😗
Is that a question or a statement? If she is still there, I hope she is not having any visa problems.