The lies of USA WBB...

[warbler1055]

Enjoy,

The lies of USA women's hoops, best team in the world

 

[JSB60]

Truth!

 

[UcMiami]

Nice - and what this gets to is the uniqueness of Geno's coaching style at Uconn and with the national team. Because he gets his players and his teams to focus on themselves and on a concept of a perfect basketball game, they never settle for being good enough to score more points than their opponent. They recognize the missed passes, the defensive lapses, the lost opportunities, the defensive rebounds they didn't get as blemishes on that perfection. They take joy in the overall performances, but recognize the distance between those performances and what might have been even better. In an tournament environment once you get to the knock out phase, it only takes one lapse in concentration to change inevitability, to disappointment. One Stanford in the fall of 2014 to blow up perfection. In a college season or a group phase of a tournament you can still recover, but a conference tournament, NCAA run, or knock-out phase, nothing is guaranteed.

That is the true magic of USA basketball and Uconn - and it results in a 49 game winning streak, or a 90 game winning streak or a 75 game winning streak, or 6 undefeated seasons, when equally talented dominant teams fall short. Griner with her one NC or Australia missing the medal rounds are the silent reminders that drive Geno, and that he uses to drive his teams. Sue, Diana, and Tamika can never forget a 2006 Bronze, DT (and Maria) remembered one bad half of basketball their freshman year and it drove them to three NCs.

 

[warbler1055]

Wow!!! UcMiami, great post!!!

 

[HardHatGuy#2]

Nicely written. A good spin on the team.

It is amazing how much of a UConn feel this team had. I haven't seen that with other coaches, or with the Men's side; they always just seemed to be another team. This team played like they all graduated from UConn.

It will be interesting to see what comes next.

 

[warbler1055]

Watching closely the body language of the players and Geno over the last two and a half weeks. It seemed to my untrained eyes that each and every player seemed to be happy, enjoying themselves and ready to play their best. Geno usually get on his knees in the middle of the huddle and every one seemed to pay rapt attention, no roll eyes or unhappy faces. Dee more than once, made way for Geno to the huddle. No question that all players looked up to Dee. To get 12 super stars to be content with their roles and minutes is a great coaching job!!!

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Nicely written. A good spin on the team.

It is amazing how much of a UConn feel this team had. I haven't seen that with other coaches, or with the Men's side; they always just seemed to be another team. This team played like they all graduated from UConn.

It will be interesting to see what comes next.

Next? I wouldn't be surprised if Brittney, when not in Europe, will be hanging out at the Werth Center!

 

[UcMiami]

Just another thought - I think people miss the point when they say USA B team could win gold, or that you could trade out half of the roster and still dominate - The difference between a 20 point win and a overtime game is 5 points per quarter - and five points is one missed shot and two extra fouls, or a foul on a three point shot and one live ball turnover. Or two offensive rebounds given up and a frustration technical.

USA shot 57% from the field on 562 shots. Change that percentage to 50% (still phenomenal) and they make 43 fewer shots and score about 100 fewer points (20 plus percent of their shots were 3s.) They might still have won all their games but a few would have been much tighter.

USA had a 1.8 assist/TO ratio - and seven of their player had better than a 2.0 A/TO - change that A/TO to 1.5 (still great for a team) and you have 25 more turnovers or potentially 50 more points allowed.

USA committed 15 fouls per game, pretty good - add one more foul per quarter because of inexperience in international play, and you are managing your roster more, and giving up another 8 possible points per game.

USA got 42% of the rebounds on their missed shot, and 78% of the rebounds off their opponents missed shots - change that to 35% and 70% and that is 17 fewer offensive rebounds and 26 fewer defensive rebounds - a change of 43 possessions.

All of the above scenarios are pretty minor alterations, and something that is not 'unthinkable' for the USA NT - in 2012 the team shot .484/305 vs. this years .577/.453 for example, a worse scenario than I imagined. These aren't unthinkable numbers and they would have made dominance into something else, maybe still gold, but maybe not. Teams do get steamrolled by a team as talented and playing as well as this USA team did - make it a five point game in the third or fourth quarter and one bad call, one momentary lapse can change momentum and the outcome. Change the numbers as I did, and there would have been a few games that had that kind of potential. Change the make-up of the team and the numbers could change in a heartbeat.

Replace Bird and Taurasi on this team with Sims and Diggins for example - Bird: 7.8 A/TO and .423/.308; Taurasi 1.6 A/TO and .569/.579 vs. current WNBA stats for Sims: A/TO 1.4 and .342/.305; Diggins: 1.4 A/TO and .390/.283. This is a really unfair comparison, who knows how Sims and Diggins would perform in the Olympics on the USA team, but that is part of the problem - they have no track record of 'raising' their game to that kind of level in international competition or any competition. Replace EDD with Nneka and I think you wouldn't really notice the effect, but replace Charles with Nneka and I think you would. Replace Angel with _____, or Seimone with ______, or Whalen with _____ - you are taking a leap into the unknown and asking a proven great team member to step aside to bring in an unknown.

 

[UcMiami]

And less we forget - 2006 - the year USA did not send all of its 'A' team (and a very young team) was a Bronze medal year with shooting percentage of .482/.404, a smaller rebounding edge, 15.5 assist/game vs. this years 28/game, etc. Bird and Catchings were in their 3 NT competition, DT in her second - they went 6-0 in pool play crushing most opponents, won the quarters by 34 and the bronze medal game by 40, but losing to Russia by 7 in the semi-final, after having beaten them by ten in the pool play.

 

[huskyd]

Nice - and what this gets to is the uniqueness of Geno's coaching style at Uconn and with the national team. Because he gets his players and his teams to focus on themselves and on a concept of a perfect basketball game, they never settle for being good enough to score more points than their opponent. They recognize the missed passes, the defensive lapses, the lost opportunities, the defensive rebounds they didn't get as blemishes on that perfection. They take joy in the overall performances, but recognize the distance between those performances and what might have been even better. In an tournament environment once you get to the knock out phase, it only takes one lapse in concentration to change inevitability, to disappointment. One Stanford in the fall of 2014 to blow up perfection. In a college season or a group phase of a tournament you can still recover, but a conference tournament, NCAA run, or knock-out phase, nothing is guaranteed.

That is the true magic of USA basketball and Uconn - and it results in a 49 game winning streak, or a 90 game winning streak or a 75 game winning streak, or 6 undefeated seasons, when equally talented dominant teams fall short. Griner with her one NC or Australia missing the medal rounds are the silent reminders that drive Geno, and that he uses to drive his teams. Sue, Diana, and Tamika can never forget a 2006 Bronze, DT (and Maria) remembered one bad half of basketball their freshman year and it drove them to three NCs.

Super, Uc. The last lines of the piece could have been scripted about the UConn team that won it all last season: "This women’s basketball team is one of our greatest sports treasures. They are unbeatable. They are more than unbeatable, really — they’re not even approachable. And they achieve that near-perfection with immense joy and national pride." Ironic isn't it that both the US WNT and the 2016 Huskies were sometimes referred to as the ruination of the sport? Hey, buddy, they are the sport.

 

[wallman]

Geno is probably the only guy who could tell a player they are bad and then tell the press they are really good and both would believe him and it would be factual as compared to anyone else they would be really really good but he would want to make them even better. He doesn't blow smoke up anyones ... well you know what I mean.