Seton Hall Postgame Thread

[cbraarj]

Is it time for Geno to pull the plug on Williams? The team almost always plays better when she is not on the court.

Absolutely Jordy! She travels 2-5 times a game and watching her shoot is hard to watch. Her layups even miss hitting the iron. She looks like a Jr. High player shooting the ball. She is aiming the ball and not following through with her release. I like her a lot but she is hurting this team.

 

[cbraarj]

CW is a winner and she'll be back. Be nice if they would play to her strength. She seems to get stuck in this pick offense that doesn't have any rythm. Liv, AE and AG lack of shooting clogs her pathways to the basket. Look forward to Geno helping her get her groove back.

They can't play those 3 at the same time.

 

[Dokey]

Absolutely Jordy! She travels 2-5 times a game and watching her shoot is hard to watch. Her layups even miss hitting the iron. She looks like a Jr. High player shooting the ball. She is aiming the ball and not following through with her release. I like her a lot but she is hurting this team.

AG does a bit of traveling as well so it isn’t just CW. But with AG you get 10 good things and 10 bad things (Geno’s eval) but with CW you mainly get cold or hot.

 

[cbraarj]

You’re right. She has an odd release that no one has noticed and helped her correct. Instead of pressuring the ball a little with her fingers and spinning/rotating the seams vertically with her two middle ones, she sort of balances the ball on her palm and lets it rotate sideways off her two outside fingers and it comes out almost like a knuckleball with no rotation. Not much chance for consistency.

She looks like she is aiming the ball with a lousy follow through. She doesn't square up either.

 

[Geesworld]

What exactly do you have in mind when you say the team should play to her strength. What are we talking about here? She afriggin JR in this offense.

By no means am I excusing CW play. Yes she is a junior, But let's keep somethings in mind.

Geno has said players were struggling with the offense way back when CW was a freshman with KLS, NaPheesa Collier and Crystal Dangerfield. I think we would agree Pheesa was a much better mid to low post player than what we currently have and she took a lot of attention from oppositions post players. KLS helped spread the floor with her deadly shooting and she often took two players with her. Crystal Dangerfield much better at running offense and Dribble penetration than anybody we currently have. CW strengths on that team was slasher and getting to the basket. The lanes weren't clogged for her to accomplish that. .

Currently CW strengths are limited due to horrible team movement, lack of shooters and clogged lanes. Every since we went away from a post heavy offense which we did a lot early part of this season, CW has looked lost. ONO and AE picks mean nothing because soon as she comes off the pick the Bigs are right there waiting for her and CW strength isn't the mid range pull up. She is more of a rhythm scorer. The offense has shifted to Paige which is openly campaigned by the head honcho in charge. Not a problem with that because the (Hometown) talent has earned that. I just would like to see that change to some degree, because I feel like our early season team success has taken a hit. Also find a lineup and rotation and let the girls mold into their roles with in those rotations.

Tonight's game was not good, but I am confident CW will rebound and find her stride.

 

[cferraro04]

Here were the main points of my game analysis...let's see how I did...

1. Lauren Park Lane will not go off for 29 points...comes back to earth with 15 points
Park-Lane was held to 5 points - half right..she didn't score 29 points but, our great defense held her to only 5 points...boy it feels great to be half wrong on this one.

2. Andra Espinoza-Hunter will score between 16 and 28 points
Oops! I was off by one point...Again kudos to our defense holding Andra below her average to only 15 points.

3. UConn's defense will give Seton Hall more problems in this second match-up
Got this one right...even with the addition of Espinoza-Hunter our stellar defense held them to only 49 points, 16 points less than their first outing.

4. UConn will want to send a message to Espinoza-Hunter.
Message sent! Message received!

5. Paige's consecutive 30 point games will come to a close in this one...she will look to get others involved.
Unfortunately, I was right on this one but 23 ain't bad!!!

6. Aubrey Griffin will have a good game
6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block...I'll take it!!!

7. Bounce back games for Christyn Williams and Evina Westbrook
Again I was half right...good bounce back game for Evina; Christyn not so much...ugggh!

8. Seton Hall 79.2 points per game / opponents - 66.5 points per game
Seton Hall under performed...thanks to UConn's defense; UConn over-performed by Seton Hall's stats...probably due to fatigue and emotional let-down from the South Carolina game.

9. UConn 85.5 points per game / opponents - 54.7 points per game
UConn under-performed probably due to fatigue and emotional let-down from So. Carolina game; And, our stellar defense over-performed even with Espinoza-Hunter in the line-up.

10. Seton Hall 37.2 Rebounds per game / opponents - 37 Rebounds per game
Seton Hall under-performed 5 rebounds below their average (credit UConn hitting the boards)...and UConn over-performed 12 rebounds over what Seton Hall's opponents usually average...Olivia had a huge size advantage and she had mad help from Evina (8); Aubrey (7); Aaliyah (7).

11. UConn 41 Rebounds per game / opponents - 31.6 Rebounds per game
UConn over performed by 8 Rebounds because of great size advantage with Olivia, Aaliyah, Evina and Aubrey; Seton Hall with 32 rebounds was pretty close to what UConn's opponents usually get.

12. Seton Hall 8.8 three pointers per game / UConn 7.5 three pointers per game
Seton Hall only under-performed by 1 3 pointer; UConn, on the other hand did not connect well from three...Bueckers got 3 and Muhl got 1...we will need to start hitting 3s at a better clip as we get closer to March.

13. Seton Hall 10.3 steals per game / 23.6 points off turnovers
Seton Hall underperformed with only 4 steals...since UConn turned the ball over 18 times...then most of UConn's turnovers were unforced errors probably due to the emotional let-down from the So. Carolina game. Points off turnover was way down only 7...kudos to UConn's defense...again...it is pretty obvious that UConn's strength in this game was on the defensive end.

14. UConn 9.8 steals per game / 24.1 points off turnovers
UConn over-performed with 11 steals...they had 25 points off of turnovers...which was pretty much right at their average. They also had 16 assists on 31 field goals...

 

[hoophuskee]

By no means am I excusing CW play. Yes she is a junior, But let's keep somethings in mind.

Geno has said players were struggling with the offense way back when CW was a freshman with KLS, NaPheesa Collier and Crystal Dangerfield. I think we would agree Pheesa was a much better mid to low post player than what we currently have and she took a lot of attention from oppositions post players. KLS helped spread the floor with her deadly shooting and she often took two players with her. Crystal Dangerfield much better at running offense and Dribble penetration than anybody we currently have. CW strengths on that team was slasher and getting to the basket. The lanes weren't clogged for her to accomplish that. .

Currently CW strengths are limited due to horrible team movement, lack of shooters and clogged lanes. Every since we went away from a post heavy offense which we did a lot early part of this season, CW has looked lost. ONO and AE picks mean nothing because soon as she comes off the pick the Bigs are right there waiting for her and CW strength isn't the mid range pull up. She is more of a rhythm scorer. The offense has shifted to Paige which is openly campaigned by the head honcho in charge. Not a problem with that because the (Hometown) talent has earned that. I just would like to see that change to some degree, because I feel like our early season team success has taken a hit. Also find a lineup and rotation and let the girls mold into their roles with in those rotations.

Tonight's game was not good, but I am confident CW will rebound and find her stride.

I don't agree with this. She's just struggling. She is open - she is just missing. Did Collier, KLS, and Danger help her with her ft shooting too? SHh is shooting .605 from the FT line. She has been a 74% ft shooter her last two years.

There is no deepening factor other than possibly injury besides just missing imo. Her ft shooting cannot be blamed on anything but herself. No need though for any of us to be mad about it. - Which you aren't nor am I.

However, instead of looking at deep meanings - we've seen this happen to Bria Hartley. It happens. Whether hurt or in a funk or both - this happens. It's not the team's style / shifting to Paige - not having the same teammates which are the issues. The ft shooting proves that.

Anyhow, the game before she sat out from injury- she scored 29. Paige wasn't affecting her there. And since she came back she played 3 games in 5 days. Maybe on Friday vs a bad team she'll get some layups and hopefully build from there.

 

[Jingo]

2nd half maybe B+ or so, 1st half, D+. Seton Hall was ready and showed they deserve to be in the NCAA. AEH has been a great addition for them, and it seems she's matured a lot so good for her. Was the team tired? Letdown? They certainly played much better in the 2nd half and wore SHU down.

Paige - missed some shots in the 1st half and some sloppy turnovers, but another stellar scoring night for NPOY.

Evina - she just does so much. 12 points on 50% shooting, 1 block, 3 steals, 7 assists, 8 boards. The 3-ball abandoned her tonight but she scored other ways and did a lot more than score.

Props to Olivia - a really solid night for her. She had like 5 boards in just a few minutes in Q4 - but 15/13 is a really good night for her.

Nika seemed a bit off, but no one is more intense than her. She will be fine.

Both LIya and Aubrey were stellar. Aubrey is the energizer bunny for the team.

Christyn, I got nothing to say except 2 thumbs down.

Overall, win and move on. 21 point win over a pesky SHU team. Rooting for them to make the big dance big time. They are the only team besides DePaul with a louder coach than Geno LOL!!!

All the coaches mentioned are Italian and are probly good singers in the shower! haha

 

[Jingo]

I actually thought all of Christyn's shot attempts were good ones. That's what makes it so frustating. She's getting good looks and she's throwing up airballs and laying bricks.

Time to audition Saylor for her [quick] 3-point shooting and rebounding. Mebbe she's a quick study like Nika, eh?

 

[MD#12Fan]

I don't agree with this. She's just struggling. She is open - she is just missing. Did Collier, KLS, and Danger help her with her ft shooting too? SHh is shooting .605 from the FT line. She has been a 74% ft shooter her last two years.

There is no deepening factor other than possibly injury besides just missing imo. Her ft shooting cannot be blamed on anything but herself. No need though for any of us to be mad about it. - Which you aren't nor am I.

However, instead of looking at deep meanings - we've seen this happen to Bria Hartley. It happens. Whether hurt or in a funk or both - this happens. It's not the team's style / shifting to Paige - not having the same teammates which are the issues. The ft shooting proves that.

Anyhow, the game before she sat out from injury- she scored 29. Paige wasn't affecting her there. And since she came back she played 3 games in 5 days. Maybe on Friday vs a bad team she'll get some layups and hopefully build from there.

I think a bunch of the problem is the offense. We’re winning because the team as a whole is tough and gritty, more than recent teams post-Stevie. We’ve got Paige. And there are not a ton of great shooters in WCBB. I think Geno is aware that the offense is suspect but he’s preoccupied with his best player. What he does to take advantage of Paige’s talents does not always make it easy on everyone else but it has instant payoff on the scoreboard. Do you see her assists dropping. Right now he’s got Liv on top which flat out kills us (sorry Jingo) and she’s so tentative shooting from there and he’s got CW on the wing 25 feet from the hoop which also kills us and it’s hurting her game big time.
I know it’s too simple, but consider a 1-2-2 set, point, 2 wings and 2 low posts. We all know it. Posts can come out and back screen (CW cutting off it) and they can flash high post and they can come out and screen on the ball for pick and rolls.

 

[eebmg]

Some Pressers

Evina I thought the answer to the Question was interesting

"As a leader, what do you tell Christyn when she is struggling

To paraphrase, "In the huddle, I tell her, get out of it, we need you"


Clearly, there is only so much empathy teammates can give during g

 

[MD#12Fan]

Some Pressers

Evina I thought the answer to the Question was interesting

"As a leader, what do you tell Christyn when she is struggling

To paraphrase, "In the huddle, I tell her, get out of it, we need you"


Clearly, there is only so much empathy teammates can give during g

You’re right, her comments were revealing. This isn’t preseason practice. Stuff is moving fast right now. March to March. CW-decide what you’re gunna do, cause we’ll leave without ya if we have to.

 

[eebmg]

Geno Presser

Most interesting comments

1) Asked to compare Paige to the other greats in Storrs., he said it was difficult since all the other iconic freshman had great help. The closest comparison to be made is Diana in her Junior Year.

Translation for me. If Paige as a Freshman can take this ragtag group and win the NC., She just went to the head of the line.

2) Geno got his vaccine. He quipped. I went because I wanted to see some one make a shot. other than Paige.

 

[eebmg]

Short Aaliyah Presser

 

[eebmg]

Liv Presser

 

[jazz]

My two cents worth on SH and some references to SC:

1. PB is our only dominate player and to hope or say otherwise is just not accurate in the least bit. Fortunately, she is better than any Freshman or Soph-SR for that matter that I’ve seen so that gives us a chance in any game.
2. NM is pretty good. He defense was solid/good (not great and probably never will be, but good/solid nonetheless). I was very impressed with her against SC and she was decent against SH. She is not yet a consistent scorer and may never be, but her handle, passing, defense (yes her defense!) and her ability to make PB even better makes our team a lot better. She was out of control once and another time you can debate that she was as well. But yet so was PB and so was EW on occasion.
3. Good game by EW but why couldn’t she do more against SC? Is she not going to be able to play big against top 5 teams? She has a few ‘what the heck’ moments every game it seems. I’m a little (not a lot) concerned. Good game against SH.
4. Liv – nice passing game against SC but yet nobody was guarding her and most players can make good passes against air. In saying that, she still made the plays and that is great. I am very concerned that she seemed scared of Boston on the offensive end. By my count, she missed 7 out of 9 jumpers (shouldn’t count one as she was trying to beat the shot clock) against SC. She hit about half of them against SH. What concerns me is when she doesn’t take the shot at the foul line and sometimes even closer, when nobody is guarding her. I think she just needs to stop thinking, and if nobody is guarding her from the FT line, then take the darn shot….every time. Maybe she makes them, maybe she doesn’t, maybe we win, maybe we don’t, but we can’t expect to win too many games playing 4 on 5 on offense as far as shooters are concerned. I don’t think it will work in the long run if she can’t make the defense pay for not guarding her. I’d make her stay after practice and take a 100 shots with simulated game conditions (come out for the pass, turn and shoot). I’m convinced she can make the shot at a high percentage..50%
5. CW – well it is the same thing I’ve been saying all year. If she can’t drive to the basket, and it is tougher to do so when Liv’s man is hanging out in the lane, then she is not helping us much. To be fair, SH was the second game in a row where her defense was pretty good. She needs to get her eyes checked. I’m convinced that there is something wrong with her vision.
6. AE – coming along very well. I’d like her to hit some FT line jumpers as well. I think she may play huge for us after she gets another 10 games under her belt. Also she is very good on the offensive boards - she naturally takes up space and gobbles up rebounds.
7. AG – continues to make an impact in so many ways. She did have 2-3 TOs in quick succession. What a luxury it is to have a player the size of AG checking guards and disrupting passing lanes. She is a bit of a cheese piece really. She affects the game in a lot of ways.
8. The last two games, our offense has been stuck in a rut. Without PB, we would be downright awful. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that we can’t shoot and teams are backing off of us. We have a shooting guard that can’t shoot, we have a point (NM) who may be able to shoot, but at this point, she doesn’t scare many. EW is pretty good but our bigs (Liv, AE and AG) are not shooting with conviction. Even Liv refuses to shoot more often than not. Teams see this and back off. It is hard to run an offense when Liv’s or AE’s man is camped in the middle of the lane. To be fair though, Liv can make some nice picks for PB and there is no defensive help, so PB has the open shot after the pick. We made SC pay for this time and time again.
9. Too many turnovers. It would not surprise me if we are averaging close to 20 TOs a game during these 2 games.
10. I still think things will come together over the next month or so. I’m really encouraged by our defense lately. Not perfect but a lot better than it was in the first 10 games of the year!

 

[Bald Husky]

Is it time for Geno to pull the plug on Williams? The team almost always plays better when she is not on the court.

Listen, we can all agree that something is wrong with CW. She was the #1 recruit when she came out, a great freshmen year, a player I thought was going to be a first team AA as a sophomore. What happened, we don't know. Now, I think she is sinking fast, and I am really concerned about her, not as a player but as a person. Just by looking at her you can tell that her head is not in the right place. I'm not a doctor, but her whole demeaner seems off, and I am a little concerned.

 

[Littlemin]

It Is extremely difficult, actually damn impossible, to say what is wrong when a player goes through what Williams is apparently going through. Obviously Auriemma and the staff feel that playing through it is the best approach. I would trust they are doing exactly what they feel is right for her as a player and a person, as well as the team. I strongly agree with JordyG’s suggestion that nothing but positive vibes from fans are in order.

 

[daggittydog]

I agree with Mrs Topogio - PB. CW maybe thought at the beginning of the year the spotlight would be on her, then this PB became even better than expected.

 

[GRIFFBIFF20]

Here were the main points of my game analysis...let's see how I did...

1. Lauren Park Lane will not go off for 29 points...comes back to earth with 15 points
Park-Lane was held to 5 points - half right..she didn't score 29 points but, our great defense held her to only 5 points...boy it feels great to be half wrong on this one.

2. Andra Espinoza-Hunter will score between 16 and 28 points
Oops! I was off by one point...Again kudos to our defense holding Andra below her average to only 15 points.

3. UConn's defense will give Seton Hall more problems in this second match-up
Got this one right...even with the addition of Espinoza-Hunter our stellar defense held them to only 49 points, 16 points less than their first outing.

4. UConn will want to send a message to Espinoza-Hunter.
Message sent! Message received!

5. Paige's consecutive 30 point games will come to a close in this one...she will look to get others involved.
Unfortunately, I was right on this one but 23 ain't bad!!!

6. Aubrey Griffin will have a good game
6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block...I'll take it!!!

7. Bounce back games for Christyn Williams and Evina Westbrook
Again I was half right...good bounce back game for Evina; Christyn not so much...ugggh!

8. Seton Hall 79.2 points per game / opponents - 66.5 points per game
Seton Hall under performed...thanks to UConn's defense; UConn over-performed by Seton Hall's stats...probably due to fatigue and emotional let-down from the South Carolina game.

9. UConn 85.5 points per game / opponents - 54.7 points per game
UConn under-performed probably due to fatigue and emotional let-down from So. Carolina game; And, our stellar defense over-performed even with Espinoza-Hunter in the line-up.

10. Seton Hall 37.2 Rebounds per game / opponents - 37 Rebounds per game
Seton Hall under-performed 5 rebounds below their average (credit UConn hitting the boards)...and UConn over-performed 12 rebounds over what Seton Hall's opponents usually average...Olivia had a huge size advantage and she had mad help from Evina (8); Aubrey (7); Aaliyah (7).

11. UConn 41 Rebounds per game / opponents - 31.6 Rebounds per game
UConn over performed by 8 Rebounds because of great size advantage with Olivia, Aaliyah, Evina and Aubrey; Seton Hall with 32 rebounds was pretty close to what UConn's opponents usually get.

12. Seton Hall 8.8 three pointers per game / UConn 7.5 three pointers per game
Seton Hall only under-performed by 1 3 pointer; UConn, on the other hand did not connect well from three...Bueckers got 3 and Muhl got 1...we will need to start hitting 3s at a better clip as we get closer to March.

13. Seton Hall 10.3 steals per game / 23.6 points off turnovers
Seton Hall underperformed with only 4 steals...since UConn turned the ball over 18 times...then most of UConn's turnovers were unforced errors probably due to the emotional let-down from the So. Carolina game. Points off turnover was way down only 7...kudos to UConn's defense...again...it is pretty obvious that UConn's strength in this game was on the defensive end.

14. UConn 9.8 steals per game / 24.1 points off turnovers
UConn over-performed with 11 steals...they had 25 points off of turnovers...which was pretty much right at their average. They also had 16 assists on 31 field goals...

#4) AEH sends a message to GENO - Message Sent and Received [AEH scored 15, played OUTSTANDING defense on CW, and while SHU lost, she proved that she isn't the un-coachable player he said she was]

 

[npignatjr]

2 things
6th game in 14 days
CW has played worse since Coach Lister left, started her backwards slide then

 

[BBallF]

Here we go with another matter of fact statement. It's a myth that she will snap out of it. Yes, and it was a myth that Nika would not help the team.

I never said Nika wasn't going to help this team. I touted her going back to the summer and still have been. I don't know who said that but these are two completely different things. I was talking about CW's shot as not being fixed by simply having a different mindset or by shooting her way out of it. We have been down this road several times before with her. It's the shot itself that needs fixing. That has nothing to do with her drives, floor game or other parts of her game. The same issues with her shot make her free throws unreliable as well. There is a very good analysis of the mechanics of her shot in a prior post above. When she can drive and take layups or she gets out in transition she is very effective but she is an inaccurate 3 point shooter this year at 27% and Liv is at 23% so no I don't think either one of them should be shooting very many of them at all. Geno in his presser last night talked about Liv shooting from the outside but he was talking about her shooting from foul line range. CW is even having a hard time now with her pull up J which is also due to mechanics but now there is a confidence issue as well that is permeating her game. I am sure they are addressing it but I don't think it is a quick fix.

 

[JBK]

Just a couple thoughts on CW.

1) She played hard defense tonight, and has been lately.

2) She’s clearly in some kind of offensive funk. I’m thinking maybe she expected herself to take more of the leadership role that was hyped (and self-hyped) for the juniors all preseason. And now that Paige, who basically plays her same position, has asserted herself more, and clearly understands the offense better and is basically directing the team... Christyn doesn’t seem suited for the leadership role - maybe she feels like she has failed somehow.

Or maybe she’s just been hurt and we don’t know it. Maybe she just needs a break to get her head together. Maybe Geno should invent a hurt toe and give her the next game off to sulk, and then it’s put up or sit.

Do you think all the praise and accolades given to Paige can have an impact on Christyn’s mind. The style of play of late has not been pressing and running which plays to her advantage as well. Also the offensive with Liv hanging wide open at the foul line makes it impossible for players to drive when the defense is packed in.
You may want to count how many drive to the basket hoops did UCONN get in the 1st quarter. My hopes in the next few games is that Mir plays more and they play uptempo and CW will get back in the flow.

 

[npignatjr]

AE’s chances of playing that many minutes only happens if she can stay out of foul trouble. She is being brought along at the right pace. Her future is bright.

Until AE becomes a threat to hit a jumper that won’t happen, especially given AG is useless five feet or more from basket.

AG last 2 games 4-13 from mostly those 5 feet, lots of energy though.

 

[freshler40]

I said it in the game thread. I'm done criticizing CW. It's gotten to the really sad point where her confidence is, well, shot. Every time she goes up I cringe. It's painful to watch and must be much more painful to experience. From now on she'll get nothing but encouragement from me.

Geno will set driving plays up for CW. She is deceptive being a lefty if she drives from the right side of the hoop. The rest of her game will fall into place. Not too worried about her outside shooting as the entire team is in a slump, 1 for 9 at one point in the first half. The coaches need to go over the shoot mechanics of certain players. That is like going for a annual physical. Basic stuff!. We played very sloppy at too fast a pace in this game. SH played us well in the first half and ran right at us! The team is worn out from the tough games against ranked teams and insane travel/testing requirements.

We still have some good pick and rolls that work! This is the only women's team that seems to run plays and not defer to one player though Beckers does need to take over when others don't seem to want to shoot or play. It is strange watching them start a play, they aren't fluid yet but will be. This is a very young team with a lot of up-side.

Liv need to watch the ball more and where it is on the court. All these players need to regularly cast their eyes on where the ball is at all times. This really hurt us with the half court heave in the SC game. We stopped playing when SC had 3+ seconds on the clock. Always pay attention to the ball!!!!