I think we see more of the off ball stuff for the guards with a good summer of skill development from Tessa and Milaysia. Raven needs to step it up skill-wise too. Dawn is a coach that is slow to trust you, but when she does you will get offense in your direction. You saw a lot more Floppy and Split Action stuff back in 21 & 22 with Destanni and Zia. Dawn really loved those two.
No WBB thread???
- Thread starter 18IsTheMan
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By “culture”, I meant that Dawn is too focused on the culture of her program…the flexing, the fun, the style, the soft skills. Meanwhile, Geno clearly is running a ******* training camp! Dawn is not developing players like Geno. Dawn has been blessed with Wilson, Boston, and Cardoso, to ease the necessity of shooting; but man what a glaring weakness today. Our players disappeared today. Sad.
Somewhat agree, we have some good shooters but to me is was more about UConn’s smothering defense. But, can’t disagree with your point
Agreed. Dawn is "cool". She gets talent because of it. Geno is a phenomenal coach on top of getting the best talent. He made in game adjustments yesterday that proves that he is the GOAT. Thanks to Dawn for making us relevant, but she ain't an "X's" an "O's" coach. we've seen her out coached several times in big games over the years. PB and Azzie are two McDonald all Americans, we have 8 on our roster.
Don’t follow the team really but from what I understand, Dawn did a fantastic job of getting this particular team to the title game.
I follow the team. It is a miracle we made it to the final game. They are a good team with no super stars. We won some very close games to get there.
This team had a great year, ran into a team with several supremely talented players, and a team playing on all cylinders, and it got away and they lost big.
This game was a tall order, I did not want to see this matchup and was hoping the whole tournament somebody would knock off Connecticut, for us LOL
No reason to panic or complain, our young players need to continue to develop, and we need some portal additions and we will get back to the top sooner then later.
This game was a tall order, I did not want to see this matchup and was hoping the whole tournament somebody would knock off Connecticut, for us LOL
No reason to panic or complain, our young players need to continue to develop, and we need some portal additions and we will get back to the top sooner then later.
A dominant big, forwards who are great shooters and ball handlers and good guards that are great ball handlers and long range shooters make coaches better too.
We don't even have a real big. Plus he had three stars. Sometimes star power overcomes the deep bench.
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We did have a good season. But this was a mismatch and we all know it. We were missing a piece this year and Dawn did an excellent job of getting to the championship game. I mean it's hard to complain about being in position to win it all.
Come on Vienna. I usually agree with you, but Sarah Strong was the #1 prospect in the 2024 class, and during this playoff, you sort of witnessed the gap between her Joyce. They are already talking about Strong being one of the best players in Connecticut history now and she has 3 years left. Also, Azzi Fudd was the #1 player in the 2021 class over Sania Feagin, Raven Johnson, and Saniya Rivers. She has just been hurt. As you see in this playoff, she has gotten all the way back physically and she is now a problem. I was more afraid of her than Paige going into this game, because she cooked in Columbia back in February. UConn has always had the players to look us dead in the eye and beat us. They just have been beat up. Personally, I am glad to see them finally put it all together given that we couldn't win it. They had the best 3 players on the court and deep down I knew it. That is why I would put money down against us if placed a bet and didn't have my heart invested in us winning.
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Yes they had a 3-headed monster once Paige got well. After the beatdown here and seeing what they did after that, they were the one team I didn`t want to play. Did you see the UCLA game? 31 point win there over another #1 seed. We were very good this year - they ended up with a better overall team. Nobody can match our depth but Paige, Fudd and Strong were just playing too well. Finishing #2 ain`t a natty but it`s obviously a position a lot of teams would love to be in.
Strong is just amazing…size, ball handling, defense, 3-pt shot. It’s too bad she wanted to go to Connecticut of all places.
I agree they had the best 3 players on the court last night. I don't know their team well so maybe I spoke out of turn. If you watched some of their other games, they didn't play so well. We were the higher ranked team and have more high school all-americans.
Bottom line as i see it. We were out-played and out-coached. Personally, I don't think their talent is 20+ points better than ours.
No…their talent is definitely 20 points better and they have a coach w 12 championships.
I have to disagree with that. We played better for a half. Were down 7 late in the first half and that 3 at the end of the half deflated our girls. Our girls began pressing and totally threw the gameplan out of the window in the second half. Raven going on 1 v 1 isolations? It happens. They wanted it too bad. UConn was the better team this year, but you can't throw out the last three years because they won this year. They lost to us with that same coach in 2022. They got bounced in the Sweet 16 in 2023 and lost to Caitlin in the Final Four last year. They had injuries, but no one feels sorry for you. No one felt sorry for us this year because we had Ashlyn out. This loss is in the record book will count just the same.
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They beat the overall #1 seed, who also beat us this season, by 34 before spanking us.
I agree, they were the better team. We simply didn't give ourselves a shot with our game plan and lack of discipline.
What did you want them to do? You can't start doing something that you haven't done before in the National Championship game especially if you are talking offense. I can see maybe using some full court stuff to take UConn out of their sets, but we have never been a full court pressure team. Tennessee was successful in taking UConn out of their offense with full court pressure, but I knew that was never on the table. You can't just look at UConn's sets and say why don't we do that. Personnel comes into play as well. You run UConn's sets and get beat by 40 instead of 20 because you may not be putting your players in situations where they can be successful.
I'm talking offense. Our game plan appeared to be similar to the first game. Run and gun and take your opponent off the dribble. I would have slowed the ball down and played a methodical offense. Not our style but would have thrown off UCONN.
I agree it's difficult to change who you are. That said, playing the same way that led to an earlier thrashing doesn't make sense.
Defensively, i would have run some match-up zone mixed in with our normal man to man. Man to man clearly wasn't working.
I saw very little in-game adjustments and was baffled by the lack of time-outs when UCONN went on a run. Every time we went on a run, timeout for UCONN. Maybe Dawn didn't want to delay the inevitable.
I don’t get it…but Dawn’s thoughts are…let the team work themselves out of the hole. Keep playing. That has usually worked for her…but I just think when you get 10 points behind and you still have “a chance” to win a game…call time out and talk to the players.
I guess that explains why Sunday was UConn's first championship since 2016. In the same timeframe Carolina has three championships, including five straight Final Four appearances.
College WBB had an off year. UConn had an on year.
From your posts it seems that the margin of the loss bothers you more than the loss itself. I disagree that we should have slowed it down. I think that plays even more into Geno's hands as a tactician. With disciplined squads like UConn you need to speed them up and get them out of their gameplan. I have said it before but I think our team plays too slow for the athleticism and depth that we have. At least incorporate some full court stuff in the even that run up against a team that runs precise, half court sets. Make them be athletes instead of just basketball players. Dawn believes in the professional game and believes in playing solid man-to-man principles at all times. That's just what it is unfortunately. Usually, stubbornness is a trait that comes with great coaches. They have a philosophy and they believe in it. We armchair just have to sit back and live with it when it appears a tweak here or there could help.
12th championship. Overcame several years with his two #1 recruits injured. Training camp mentality. Destroyed the previous national champ…twice.
Why you gotta step off the cliff? I love Dawn! Just think this year was a foot off the gas compared to that douche Geno’s squad. Yeah we won a Buncha games, but most of our players failed to show growth from last year. I’m just bitter ok?
Certain people delivered noticeably less this year than last year. That, the loss of Watkins, and Cardoso's departure, were enough to drop us down more than a notch. The people who dropped off contribution-wise were also deployed strangely by the head coach. Sorry, not sorry.Why you gotta step off the cliff? I love Dawn! Just think this year was a foot off the gas compared to that douche Geno’s squad. Yeah we won a Buncha games, but most of our players failed to show growth from last year. I’m just bitter ok?
I really thought we had a punchers chance with a better strategy. A loss is a loss. UCONN showed both times we played them that they thrived when we played at a fast pace. They actually outplayed us when things got quick. We must have been watching two different games.
We watched the same game. They are just better than us right now. The only benefit to slowing the game down IMO. is to limit the possessions. However, we weren't efficient in the half court as it was. You grind the game down in the half court and our offense gets even worse. As good as our talent pool and depth is, we just need to address getting some more dynamic players. We addressed that at the Guard position with Latson. Maybe we get another big. Couple that with Paige leaving and Azzi having more ball handling responsibilities and you may see more of an even game when you see UConn again.