Tennessee Postgame Thread

[donalddoowop]

Without reading every post, although I have read about the first 90%, watching the replay last night caused me some concern observing Caroline. First, she was still using ear plugs, making me believe she is still having trouble with noise. I'm bummed because it looks like her recovery is still some time in the far future, and not in the near future. Second, her ear plugs were ORANGE. Not to be a stickler, but not the best look in a place where orange is king, just not in our kingdom. She should have known better. LOL. I still love her, and hope I am wrong, and her recovery is going well, whether it is long term or short term. Go Huskies

Seems as if you are searching for something to complain about when you complain about the color of her earplugs.

 

[CL82]

I tried to write this last night...

I feel bad for the Tennessee kids, program, and coaches
They produced a mighty fine effort
Never gave up.
Took their lumps with the uneven officiating as well as did we...
Ran into a UConn team on an especially motivated, hot-shooting
well-coached evening.

And what do they get for it?
Quite profound derision from their fanbase, message boards and press.
They deserve better.

The Tennessee fan base is what it is. They knew that coming in. The inability to able to defeat a severely depleted and irrationally hated Connecticut squad was always going to draw their ire.

But, yeah, the kids deserve better.

 

[VA Huskie]

13,804

Also, Dorka did not play at Maryland.

I don’t think Nika played at Maryland either. If I recall Ines was the PG.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Back in the day, TN had quite a few 'strange occurrences' at home games that gave them an edge ... shot clocks and game clocks that mysteriously stopped for a few seconds when they needed it on offense and a lot of home cooking from refs. There was one season where two games in about a week had serious controversy. I don't actually remember any serious issues with Uconn games, but other SEC teams I think had big beefs.

The fact that it went from 1 foul each in Q1 to 12 fouls in Q2 with 8 of them on Uconn had a little to with his comments.

And not just for UConn. All of the SEC, Texas, Baylor etc etc got the treatment in that building.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Maybe we should play Middle Tennessee and pad our SOS. They're actually ranked in the Coach's AP poll. I don't think this series is going anywhere as long as people have strong feelings, for or against it continuing. What other WCBB rivalry comes close?

 

[VA Huskie]

Giving up 23 offensive boards is just way too much. Definitely no need to blame the refs on this.

Tennessee did miss 40 shots and we only missed 27, so they did have more opportunities. % wise they did a better job though.

 

[VA Huskie]

I wish to take issue with few posters that elevated Horston’s performance to the point where it sounded like she was the best player in the game, which was clearly not nearly the case. I agree with the comment that she is “a real athlete with some nice skills”. But I think saying her game tonight was “terrific” or “a most perfect game” is way over the (Rocky) top! Yes she scored 27 points which was one more than Lou. But it took her 22 shots from the floor (45% FG avg) complemented with 5 free throws (based IMHO on some questionable foul calls) to get there. Lou got all of her points on just 16 floor shots (69%!) with no trips to the line (even though, IMHO she was pushed around all night). Horston had 6 turnovers (count ‘em - six!) and a +/- number of -9 (that’s right - minus nine!). The way I see it, we’re talking Hailey Van Lith on steroids here!

Lou Lopez-Senechal was, by far the MOP of that game followed by AE and the other starters for UConn(look at all of the +/- numbers for every player in the game). To put someone with a 24% lower FG average, six turnovers and a +/- number of -9 on a similar level with credits like “terrific’ and “most perfect game“ is IMHO questionable at best and downright Husky blasphemy at best!

I agree that Lou had the better game. But if I’m a WNBA team I pick Jordon over Lou. Bigger and more athletic will play better in the W.

 

[VA Huskie]

I just watched a replay of the game. Did you notice how animated the UCONN coaches were?
Morgan & Jamelle never come of the bench and usually try to keep Geno calm & composed. But they were on the court screaming at the refs throughout the game.
I realize that it is an intense rivalry, but UCONN has played so many of these games without assistant coaches vehemently protesting calls. It was probably a testimony to how inconsistent & lopsided the game was being called.

And how much the hate the Vols!

 

[Bald Husky]

Seems as if you are searching for something to complain about when you complain about the color of her earplugs.

Come on, I wasn't really complaining, because I thought it was funny based on where they were playing. Lighten up it was suppose to be funny

 

[faithfulfan]

Yea...we're owed that "transfer portal" trophy!

The defence on her was fouling every time down the court, amazing effort by her to score like she did!

 

[faithfulfan]

Those who watched and sweated through this game know that it was tight and tense for most of the game. But those who look only at the final score will see a 17-point blowout. I wonder if this score will influence next week's rankings, much as the downward influence we got from beating Georgetown by "only" 15 points a couple of weeks ago, after leading that game by a much greater margin until garbage time in the 4th quarter..

The box score was most revealing. Only 2 UConn players went to the foul line the entire game -- our two bigs. And Aaliyah and Dorka came through big-time at the line. Aaliyah's foul shooting this year has been a big part of her transition from last year.

We really got wiped out on the offensive boards, and barely held our own on the D-boards. We often got our hands on a lot of rebounds, but couldn't hold on. IMO, there were two reasons for this.

-- First, we often didn't box out the shooter, and were out-hustled to the rebound. That's usually a sign of fatigue, a direct result of our short roster. Probably more energy is expended in boxing out and fighting for rebounding position than any other aspect of the game.

-- Second, there's been some criticism of Dorka for failing to hold onto rebounds. I think we ought to give some credit for this to Tennessee's scouting. They were obviously aware that Dorka has been somewhat handicapped from her broken wrist and thumb, and they took advantage of that knowledge by aggressively contesting every rebound she grabbed.

Finally, I think coaching -- often considered one of those "intangibles" in the pre-game prognostication -- played a big role in the outcome of this game. Geno, with his 5 studs, out-coached Kellie, with her full bench. He had 4 of his starters in foul trouble, but none fouled out. Had any one of them fouled out, it could have turned the game.

Actually Lou should have gone to the foul line every time UCONN was on offence cause Tenn defence was to foul her, Tenn fans would say physical, but when the player guarding you is knocking over the pick player to stay with you, your fouling!

 

[mudblood]

I don’t think Nika played at Maryland either. If I recall Ines was the PG.

Nika was out with concussion suffered the prior game (Providence), Azzi was out with hyperextended knee suffered two games before (ND) and Dorka was not yet back from the broken thumb injury. We can all just ignore that loss.

 

[HopJim]

I too agree 100% with what Coach Geno said to Ms. Rowe, But I did not like how he spoke to her and that he didn't apologize to her later on TV. Maybe he did say something to her off the camera but I do believe he owes her a good one on one interview.

Go Huskies!!

Are you kidding me? Holly got national publicity on all the channels after Geno's outburst. She should be so lucky to have similar interviews in the future.

 

[HopJim]

Have you ever had a broken bone? It takes time for it to heal properly and any jolt or hit causes pain. She has had a broken wrist and thumb in less than a year and most likely the jarring of either is still bothering her. Those people that wear Orange were hacking away at both last light when they were fighting for rebounds. I'm proud of what she is doing because most likely she is doing it while suffering the pain.

Watched the game again and surprisingly, Dorka didn't play as poorly as originally thought. Several times in critical situations, she made a clutch basket or got a steal. Didn't hold onto the ball as well as past few games on rebounds, but overall did well in a very physical, toughly contested game.

 

[faithfulfan]

The Tennessee fan base is what it is. They knew that coming in. The inability to able to defeat a severely depleted and irrationally hated Connecticut squad was always going to draw their ire.

But, yeah, the kids deserve better.

The Tenn fan base are a bunch of spoiled, well you know!
As far as the players deserving better, maybe from their fans, some of them do,
Horston is a true gifted player, but others like the player who transferred in from Miss St, should have been tossed outta the game for grabbing Edwards ankle while she was on the floor.

 

[faithfulfan]

Horston may well be a first round WNBA pick, who had about four inches on Nika--no shame in giving up buckets to her....

Nika is gifted, but Horston is one of the best Seniors this year, too bad she didn't chose UCONN 4 years ago

 

[HopJim]

Without reading every post, although I have read about the first 90%, watching the replay last night caused me some concern observing Caroline. First, she was still using ear plugs, making me believe she is still having trouble with noise. I'm bummed because it looks like her recovery is still some time in the far future, and not in the near future. Second, her ear plugs were ORANGE. Not to be a stickler, but not the best look in a place where orange is king, just not in our kingdom. She should have known better. LOL. I still love her, and hope I am wrong, and her recovery is going well, whether it is long term or short term. Go Huskies

 

[HopJim]

Agree that getting Caroline back is critical particularly against the top teams. Right now, Patterson, our main sub for both the wing and bigs, is playing inconsistently. Her fouls per minutes played must be one of the highest in the country.

 

[HuskyNan]

Watched the game again and surprisingly, Dorka didn't play as poorly as originally thought. Several times in critical situations, she made a clutch basket or got a steal. Didn't hold onto the ball as well as past few games on rebounds, but overall did well in a very physical, toughly contested game.

Yeah, I never got the criticism. She was especially strong in the 4th quarter

 

[Mdoggie]

That is the crazy part about this season. Heck really any season. Tennessee has the pieces to pull off the win.

No they don’t.

 

[faithfulfan]

It’s not just this game but Lou gets hacked, held, and bumped constantly and can’t buy a foul call. She got whacked in the face last night inadvertently with no call (it was the steal at midcourt). I’m surprised Geno hasn’t lost his mind about it

Totally agree, Lou was fouled every single time UCONN was on offence!
Amazing she didn't get hurt!

 

[faithfulfan]

Yes, Horston picked the wrong school. IMO. I wonder what sold her?

All Geno has said it was down to the end and she chose Tenn!

 

[Geew1992]

Exactly! It also accounts for the stats for offensive boards. Not too many O boards available when you're shooting 69%.

The O boards are more along the line of how much UConn gave up. Not how many they had. And…. This isn’t towards you, but I’m seeing refs blamed for a lot of the O boards. Plz stop the madness

 

[Florida Fan]

That's a tall order. UConn would have to win 3 games like this one tonight with the same intensity and physicality against a top 5 team..................and probably lousy refereeing. Those last 3 games are brutal, and really separate the men from the boys.

And WOMEN FROM THE GIRLS.

 

[Geew1992]

I don’t think Nika played at Maryland either. If I recall Ines was the PG.

Correct. She was in concussion protocol