Re: WBB:in Italy -
mbdude - 09-14-2017
the team they played yesterday was in the finals last year against Jillian's team. they have 6 players 6'2 or taller, including 2 at 6'5 - that may account for some of the shooting problems. Looking at their roster they all appear to be in their mid 20s with lots of experience
Re: WBB:in Italy -
Lorcan - 09-14-2017
It's extremely difficult to judge the strength of UConn's opponents. The Dutch National Team did not play in the most recent Eurobasket Qualifiers (or lost in prequalify--but I can't find info on that). Celije is an interesting team as Oderah Chidom appears on their roster; however, there's not a lot of info to determine who played against the mighty Huskies. Celije was led to the league title in Slovenia a year ago by Shante Evans--a former standout at Hofstra. My gut hunch is that Celije is a rung below the Italian Teams that the Cardinal played. Italy finished 7th at the Eurobasket, while Slovenia finished 14th. Italy's Lucca and Schio are teams that can compete in the Eurocup against Spanish, French, and Russian teams.
So, yes, UConn won three games, but I feel that they had weaker opponents.
Re: WBB:in Italy -
Lorcan - 09-14-2017
Stanford leads Karlie, 29-28 at the half behind Shannon's 9 pts on 4-6 shooting.
Re: WBB:in Italy -
Lorcan - 09-14-2017
Karlie can officially claim she is undefeated against Stanford as Vigarano pulls out the W in overtime.
Re: WBB:in Italy -
Lorcan - 09-14-2017
It looks like McPhee and Smith didn't play judging by the pic. Overtime against a top 8 Italian Team is nothing to sneeze about especially if we were both less than full strength.
Re: WBB:in Italy -
Lorcan - 09-14-2017
Karlie torched us for 16 points on 6-11 shooting combined with 5 steals--great game from her.
No McPhee and Smith for Stanford today. Shannon had a great first half, we managed to sink some threes today--but Tara won't be happy with the putrid 1-6 FT shooting. I can't help but really wondering how Djonai's game has grown--she seems to be willing to shoot but also might be out of control while battling hard for rebounds? It's hard to judge. Alexa had herself a great game, Kaylee and Alyssa gobbled up those rebounds. It's really hard to judge the guard play and the lack of assists.
Re: WBB:in Italy -
BobK - 09-14-2017
http://www.gostanford.com/documents/2017/9/14/Stats_vs_Pallacanestro_Vigarano_9_14_17.pdf
The box
Re: WBB:in Italy -
2006alum - 09-14-2017
Encouraging given that we were lacking what will almost certainly be our two leading scorers. Carrington does seem to be earning a starting spot, although her FG% and turnovers still leave something wanting, but dang she's a good rebounder for not being especially tall. Alexa also had a great game going 3-7 from 3pt and 5 for 10 overall. I don't remember her having that kind of scoring proficiency last year, so hopefully this is a recent development and not a fluke.
The assist situation is definitely a little dire when our leading assist player, Dodson, is much closer to playing the 5 than the 1. Also, 27 turnovers? Yeeeesh. I'm sure Karlie was responsible for many of them, given that she had 5 steals, but still!
Re: WBB:in Italy -
81alum - 09-14-2017
Alexa had not done much on this trip but was a star today--hitting 3/7 treys and leading with 16 points. Kaylee got back to her freshman rebounding form and snagged 11--but had 5 turnovers. DiJonai had a chance to keep her point-leading streak going, but was only 3/10.
So what do these five games tell us, if anything? I get the feeling that Tara was giving each player the opportunity to shine, so perhaps this tells us little about how the team will shake out. The frustrating thing is not knowing anything about their defense--these weird boxscores don't even give us fouls.Â
The biggest question about this team in my mind is at the 1 and 2 positions.Â
Marta does not seem to have changed since last year. She has not scored much or hit treys in her opportunities in Italy. We know what we will get with her and it is not going to change.
Anna Wilson does not seem to be in top form yet. She had moments but over the last few games her shooting percentage and turnover rates left a lot of room for improvement. She may not be all the way back yet.
Mikaela Brewer got lots of opportunities if you believe the starting rosters. Tara wants her to be successful and started her in many games. But over the five games we can't say she shined.
Alexa Romano had a good day today, but not especially over all 5 games.
Kiana Williams looks promising--had a couple of pretty good games.Â
In short, we don't really know much more about who our top guards are yet.
As for the wing/3, both Britt and DiJonai look strong. I bet Tara will figure out how to put them both on the court at the same time. Will Estella play here?Â
Who will be the other BIG to accompany Alanna? Kaylee rebounds but doesn't seem to score any more than she ever has. Nadia does not seem to have changed much over the summer that I can tell from the stat lines. I can't get a read on how Maya and Alyssa are doing. But Shannon seems to have had a break out trip. She looks to be far more offensive minded than Kaylee.
Keep in mind that Tara will not have had a chance to install an offense or a defense with these young players yet--not with so few practices. These would be more like pick-up games, really. The intense practices will begin and on the November 4 exhibition we will see the beginnings of the annual remake of the system.
So....without being in Italy and seeing what happened....this stuff is tantalizing but not all that informative. DiJonai, Shannon, and Kiana are the three players that seem to have come out of Italy with some positive momentum. I'm sad not to see Marta draining a plethora of treys. And I am concerned about Britt and Alanna not playing at the end.
Re: WBB:in Italy -
TheFarm07 - 09-14-2017
With only incomplete box scores to draw upon and no other qualitative information to provide context, these games have left us with more questions than answers.
Hopefully, we can keep in mind that it's only mid-September, so there's almost two months until the first regular season game for us to get healthy (if that was the reason Britt and Alanna didn't play at the end) and for Tara to adjust accordingly either with general schemes or to work on specific issues with individual players.