What Scares me as an Armchair Coach...

[SLY63]

are players or teams that can shoot the 3 and have the potential to get sizzling hot. That adds an unpredictability to the game which favors the underdog. This is true for us or any top seed.

I believe we have enough offense to know that we will get 70 points from somewhere. And we have 3+ bigs who each bring something else to the table and I believe can contain (not necessarily stop) anyone. But a Catlin Clark, who can get hot from 40 feet or Dayton who went 13-23 from 3 last night can upset anyone.

Not sure if anyone in our bracket poses that kind of threat.

 

[diggerfoot]

A really good defense should be able to minimize the amount of made threes, if not the percentage.

On the offensive side a truly great team should be able to
prevail even with a shooting slump from outside. The undefeated 2002 team, considered by many to be the best team of all time, with outside shooters like Bird, Taurasi, Conlon and even Jones, went 0 for 9 from beyond the arc in the championship game against Oklahoma, a team which clearly proved itself to be the second best team in the nation that year.

I think our defense is there, not sure if our offense is great enough to prevail despite a shooting slump. We shall see.

 

[HuskyNan]

are players or teams that can shoot the 3 and have the potential to get sizzling hot. That adds an unpredictability to the game which favors the underdog. This is true for us or any top seed.

Oh, I thought this might be an Azzi thread

 

[uconnfan68]

Falling out of the armchair?

 

[boontonbomber]

Dayton did a pretty good job, just by coming out tight on DePaul's guards. Of course, they had the size inside to not let Morrow go crazy. DePaul shoots 35% as a team, were 5 for 20 last night.

 

[veryolddog]

I would like to see this occur in the National Championship game when for 40 minutes, UConn women shoot the lights out against whomever is their opponent.

 

[Bigboote]

A really good defense should be able to minimize the amount of made threes, if not the percentage.

Yeah, Dayton went off on DePaul, whose defense was ranked somewhere in the 300's by Massey last I looked. In the recent past UConn has certainly had some trouble defending the three, but with nine (hopefully) healthy players, they'll play tight defense all the way. With Nika pressuring the ball up the court, teams have five fewer seconds to set up their offense, and with: Paige's anticipation, Christyn's physicality, Caroline's length, and Azzi's basketball IQ, nobody's guards are gonna be free to rain threes on UConn.

 

[Charliebball]

are players or teams that can shoot the 3 and have the potential to get sizzling hot. That adds an unpredictability to the game which favors the underdog. This is true for us or any top seed.

I believe we have enough offense to know that we will get 70 points from somewhere. And we have 3+ bigs who each bring something else to the table and I believe can contain (not necessarily stop) anyone. But a Catlin Clark, who can get hot from 40 feet or Dayton who went 13-23 from 3 last night can upset anyone.

Not sure if anyone in our bracket poses that kind of threat.

well a bunch of teams in the Bridgeport region make threes at a higher percentage than UConn (.341%) including Mercer.......

IUPUI - .367%
Mercer - .366%
NC State - .352%
OKla - .350%
Washington - .350%
Princeton - .349%
Kentucky - .342%
Indiana - .331%
UMASS - .326%
ND - .318%

 

[MD#12Fan]

Come on, are we paying attention. UConn plays in the Big East. The only way these teams can compete is to work for 3's. Any inferior league, such as DIII or a lesser league in DI, by definition has less height and less talent inside. The good bigs get swooped up by power 5 and UConn. Every team in the BE hoists 3's. Geno game plans against teams like Dayton every day. He significantly slowed down the Villanova AA and Clark last year.
He's worried about teams that present unique challenges. I'm more worried about big, physical teams like Arizona was last year.
Arkansas beat UConn last year with "dribble-drive, all the way or pitch". That kills UConn, less so recently. Azzi has improved on-the-ball defense by leaps and bounds.

 

[JellyBean]

are players or teams that can shoot the 3 and have the potential to get sizzling hot. That adds an unpredictability to the game which favors the underdog. This is true for us or any top seed.

I believe we have enough offense to know that we will get 70 points from somewhere. And we have 3+ bigs who each bring something else to the table and I believe can contain (not necessarily stop) anyone. But a Catlin Clark, who can get hot from 40 feet or Dayton who went 13-23 from 3 last night can upset anyone.

Not sure if anyone in our bracket poses that kind of threat.

Yeah Dayton was on fire in that game. I worry about teams that play physical; the bumps, the holds, and they crowd your space. Those are the teams that scare me because if you are use to having space when shooting or moving, that holding and crowding throws off your timing and is physically draining.

 

[DrummerDee]

well a bunch of teams in the Bridgeport region make threes at a higher percentage than UConn (.341%) including Mercer.......

IUPUI - .367%
Mercer - .366%
NC State - .352%
OKla - .350%
Washington - .350%
Princeton - .349%
Kentucky - .342%
Indiana - .331%
UMASS - .326%
ND - .318%

And all of these numbers do NOT reflect the presence of Buckets and often times even more players on the bench injured. Everything is relative.

 

[Charliebball]

And all of these numbers do NOT reflect the presence of Buckets and often times even more players on the bench injured. Everything is relative.

the poster wanted to know if any of the possible opponents were dangerous from three........I wouldn't trade UConn's shooters for any other team in the bracket even if the stats were a bit lower......

 

[Alydar]

Season stats are meaningless when analizing UConn. What matters is right now and UConn has arguably the 2 of the 3 best scoring guards in the country and the third is in the Greenvile region and I only hope UConn faces her in the FF. I keep reading "let's compare posts" or "lets look at season stats". To me this is all whistling through the graveyard. Bueckers and Fudd are the best backcourt in the country and guards win titles. Fudd? Unproven you say? Bueckers? Not 100%?. Bueckers played last season with a bad ankle that needed surgery so she was less than 100% then and still played pretty well. And Williams, Westbrook are playing like rocks, seniors on a mission. Mühl would start most places and Ducharme is far too talented a shooter to worry about her shot.

That's 6 outstanding guards to rotate. All are good to excellent defenders. They are tall and strong. Four of them have played in a FF game. I'm sure that the game to game minutes will vary depending on who is hot but all six are gamers. I still can't wrap my head around Geno playing a 9 player rotation but the energy available goes a long way as teams get deeper in the tourn.

 

[Ozimoto]

What does our good friend from Bigger Carolina say? You can throw the book out at tournament time. Season statistics mean much less in a one and done tournament than if you are looking at a best of three or best of five game series.

 

[MD#12Fan]

well a bunch of teams in the Bridgeport region make threes at a higher percentage than UConn (.341%) including Mercer.......

IUPUI - .367%
Mercer - .366%
NC State - .352%
OKla - .350%
Washington - .350%
Princeton - .349%
Kentucky - .342%
Indiana - .331%
UMASS - .326%
ND - .318%

How about a stat that may actually mean something, like UConn's opponents 3-point shooting percentage against UConn vs their 3-point percentage overall. Especially the last 10 games or so. Any memories of Siegrist throwing up 25 foot air balls. UConn is playing tight on the ball, getting in passing lanes, and closing out on shooters.
This isn't a shooting contest, it's a basketball game.

 

[Charliebball]

All true but there are times when a good three point shooting team simply can't miss despite good defense.......I don't worry about that too much with a team shooting .314% for the season but I do pay attention when a team averages close to .370%.........

 

[FairView]

Stats this, stats that ... on any given day just about any team can get hot and absolutely every team can go cold. And that's before factoring in what good defense and smart game plans can do. I'm confident in UConn's ability to overcome, but that's why we play the games. Looking forward to the next few weeks.

 

[CTBballfan243]

We're doomed I tell ya, doomed.