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WBB: Previewing UConn - 81alum - 12-24-2012

It is only a few days before we play UConn, putting our Maples winning streak on the line.  UConn looks much better this year than last, largely due to the addition of frosh sensation Breanna Stewart.  Here is a brief rundown of the main players.  Those of you who have been following UConn please chime in with thoughts on how we will defend them and how we will attack them.  UConn has two great inside players and a bevy of players who shoot the 3 at a very high percent.  As always, they are a very strong defensive team--perhaps South Carolina-like with their quick and tenacious guards, but with the added bonus of two tall and productive post players, and then with Kaleena as a wing-like sensation all her own.  This will be a tough game for us.

Breanna Stewart 6-4.  Freshman! 
Started 8/10 games, 23 minutes. 
60% fg, mostly but not entirely from 2.  84%  free throws.  Leads the team with 17 ppg and leads the team with 7 rpg.  Also leads the team with 16 blocks.  Somewhat prone to fouls, leading the team with 21.  Stewart was last year’s player of the year in almost all the high school polls and has come into Connecticut with seemingly few transition issues, although the attached article points out a few.  Quite incredible for a freshman to be leading a marquee team in so many categories.
http://www.ctpost.com/uconn/article/UConn-s-Stewart-progressing-nicely-with-a-few-4094755.php

Stefanie Dolson 6-5 center.  Junior
Started 10/10 games, 26 minutes. 
58% fg almost entirely from 2, 68% free throws.  12 ppg, 6 rpg.  Second on the team in assists with 31.  Leads in turnovers with 24.  Dolson has been working on slimming down and it seems to be paying off. 
http://articles.courant.com/2012-11-20/sports/hc-uconn-women-1121-20121120_1_stefanie-dolson-breanna-stewart-moriah-jefferson

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis 6-0 forward.  Sophomore. 
Started 9/9 games for 28 minutes.
54% three point shooter, and she takes around 5 a game–about half of her shots.  88% free throws.  Also 20 steals, second on team.  Last year’s freshman sensation, she was often compared with Maya Moore.  She was out for a game after suffering a concussion, but seems to be back on track.
http://blog.ctnews.com/elliott/2012/12/02/mosqueda-lewis-back-in-the-lineup-after-suffering-concussion/

Kelly Faris 5-11 guard.  Senior
Started 10/10 for 27 minutes.
42 assists to 9 turnovers.  Leads team with 26 steals.  8 ppg.  She doesn’t take a lot of 3 point shots but makes 44% that she does.  The story is that she is a great all-around player and a particularly tenacious defender who is still working on her shot.
http://articles.courant.com/2012-12-04/sports/hc-uconn-women-1205-20121204_1_faris-mike-thibault-connecticut-sun-coach

Caroline Doty 5-10 guard.  Redshirt Senior
Started 8/10 for 16 minutes.
About 4 ppg.  About 40% from three.  Caroline is Uconn’s hard-luck story, overcoming a couple of knee injuries to finally come back as a redshirt senior.  But earlier this month Geno chose to start Faris and Hartley over her.  Geno says that their team has “six starters.”  But the truth seems to be that Doty has not been quite as productive as Faris and Hartley.
http://articles.courant.com/2012-12-03/sports/hc-uconn-women-notebook-1204-20121203_1_geno-auriemma-caroline-doty-kaleena-mosqueda-lewis

Bria Hartley 5-7 5-10 guard.  Junior.
Started 5/8 for 24 minutes.
About 10 ppg, 50% field goals.  30 assists to 10 turnovers.  Hartley had a sprained ankle dating back to last summer.  She seems to have been hampered until December, when she has hit her stride.  Her stats, in other words, are much lower than what she has been doing lately.
http://articles.courant.com/2012-12-20/sports/hc-uconn-women-follow-1221-20121220_1_bria-hartley-kiah-stokes-usa-basketball-s-3x3

Brianna Banks 5-9 guard.  Sophomore.
Started 0/10 for 19 minutes.
About 10 ppg, 59% field goals, 48% from three.  She is the bench player who gets the most minutes–other than the Doty/Hartley switch.  She had a “break out” game a few weeks ago and hit 4/5 three point shots.
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncw/recap?gameId=323330041

Thoughts on defense:  I suspect that we can defend UConn inside reasonably well.  I imagine Chiney will be on Stewart, perhaps Ruef or Tinkle on Dolson.  But I worry a lot about stopping the three point shots.  How will we defend Kaleena?  Toni is our best perimeter defender but she gives away an inch to her.  I have my doubts about Bonnie on her.  Can Taylor or Ruef handle her?  Toni will do fine against whoever she is asked to guard.  Amber on Hartley?

Thoughts on offense:  After South Carolina, this worries me even more than our defense against UConn.  I think they can use Dolson and Stewart to keep Chiney under control which will require Joslyn to have a great offensive game.  We will need one of our three point shooters to get hot since we know absolutely that one of theirs will.  Bonnie probably won't get a lot of time because of the need to have our best defenders in.  Toni and Amber have not shown much in three point shooting this year.  Will Taylor be able to play at a high level on defense and launch a sprinkling of three pointers? 

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - SControl - 12-24-2012

I like the idea of Stewart on Chiney. They don't have anyone to stop her. Dolson is way too slow to guard Chiney and will get in foul trouble leaving only Stewart (who is not a natural post player). I think I read somewhere that Stokes and Tuck are questionable for the game.

If we will see an Orrange/Hartley match up, this will be Amber's time to shine. Bria has not been quite herself since her injury and Amber is a year older, a year smarter, a year of experience from the pressure at the point position. The key will be to make sure Bria does not get into rhythm because she is the one who seems to carry the team against us (along with Farris).

I want to see Reuf on Dolson. Even though Mikayla gives two inches or so, she is a great defender and will stop one of UConn's main offensive threats.

I actually see a matchup between Toni and Kelly. She and Farris are  both fast, smart and clutch players. I think Toni will have her hands full but if we are able to stop all other four starters, this will be another 2010 UConn/Stanford game (and we all know how that ended :o )

That leaves Lewis, Banks, and Doty. I will be interested to see how they show up. They may be the X factors (specifically Banks) to the game but I like our chances playing at home in front of a great Cardinal crowd. Our X factors on the other hand are Taylor, Bonne and possibly Sara. I am crossing my fingers for rain (of three pointers) like we did in the Baylor game. Jos needs to show up offensively. Chiney and Mikayla will do the rebounding so Jos can focus on scoring.

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - Erika - 12-24-2012

Why not try Ruef on Stewart, and let Tinkle handle Dolson?  I'd put Toni on Faris & Amber on Doty/other guard, and see what would happen with the 6'3" Chiney on the 6' Kaleena (tall & quick vs. quick).  It might take Chiney away from the basket, which would leave more of the rebounding load to Mikayla and Joslyn, but it might put a crimp in Kaleena's 3-point shooting.

In scanning the newspapers now & then, it seemed to me that UConn was playing a pretty soft schedule (Oakland????).  But when I looked at who they had played so far, they've actually had more top-25 opponents than Stanford.  Looks like Geno's scheduling philosophy is similar to Tara's, i.e. "to be the best you have to beat the best". Or something like "playing tough teams now will make you better, regardless of the outcome of each individual game".

Should be a good one.  Go Cardinal!

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - M T - 12-25-2012

Sseason stats, year to year, for the two teams.  UConn has a big advantage in 2pt% (with possible correlation to the big advantage in assists) and in steals, with small advantage in OR.
St2012St2013[size=8pt]Ct2012CT2013
Score[size=8pt]76-5576-5276-4788-43
2pt%51%56%54%61%(2pt%, not FG%)
3pt%32%35%34%35%
FT%76%74%76%73%
3PtA/FGA27%24%34%35%
OR%41%41%41%45%
DR%69%70%71%71%
A/gm16.614.618.722.0
A/FG59%49%66%65%
A/TO1.321.201.241.61
TO/gm12.612.215.113.7
Stl/gm6.65.511.312.2
Blk/gm4.85.55.05.7

Returning Player (plus the new starter), Year-to-Year
Min/gFG%3pt%FT%Pts/40mOR/40mDR/40mA/40mA/TOTO/40mStl/40mBlk/40m
Mosqueda-Lewis28.2-27.643.2-58.138.4-54.283.3-87.521.2-23.92.46-3.065.22-4.192.39-4.031.14-1.562.09-2.581.75-3.230.75-0.16
Faris28.9-26.843.8-61.431.5-44.078.8-76.59.33-14.032.66-1.494.59-3.736.02-6.272.12-4.672.84-1.342.92-3.880.77-0.45
Dolson23.9-26.258.6-57.50.0-16.781.0-66.717.5-17.93.56-3.216.47-5.952.90-4.730.73-1.294.00-3.661.41-1.832.51-1.98
Hartley33.2-23.846.5-50.033.2-34.675.6-66.716.9-17.00.73-1.473.97-3.584.44-6.321.43-3.003.11-2.112.22-3.580.1-0.21
Stewart-23.2-59.8-38.5-83.8-29.14-4.48-7.93-1.90-0.73-2.59-2.07-2.76
Banks12.3-19.650.5-58.712.5-48.170.4-70.611.6-16.5m0.51-0.613.05-3.473.26-4.291.03-1.913.16-2.242.54-2.860.31-0.41
Doty20.6-16.335.5-41.033.3-39.373.1-0.09.63-10.551.05-0.743.14-3.443.72-5.151.51-1.312.46-3.932.46-1.230.37-0.25

UConn's closest game was 15 points.  The ranked teams they played are  at Texas A&M (81-50, now 8-4, #24),  (neutral) Purdue (91-57, now 11-1, #11),  Maryland (63-48, now 8-2, #9), Penn State (67-52, now 10-2, #10).  (Stanford played (neutral) Baylor (71-69, now 9-1, #3), So. Carolina (53-49, now 11-1, #19), Tenn (63-50, now 7-3, #13)

Earlier in the season, I watched Stefanie Dolson's play. My opinion is she hasn't improved much (note the stats).  Possibly she's improved in dishing the ball.  I thought her shooting from the free throw line area has improved, but it doesn't show in the stats.  Often she's the last one down the court on either defense or offense.  If it is a quick basket at the other end (whichever end), she's then in position quickly.  (So, beware of quick three point attempts.)  While she seems lazy at getting up and down the court, she plays hard when she's at the right end, but she tends to camp in the lane.  I saw several times she should have been called for 3 (or even 5) seconds in the paint.    On offense, it might be a good strategy to get Chiney & Jos into the lane for rebounding quickly and go for a quick shot (a drive by Toni?) before Dolson has gotten down court.  When Dolson starts hustling down, then don't try it.  The idea is to try to wear Dolson down.

Mosqueda-Lewis, who hurt us so much, has really improved.

UConn seems to have more depth.  This year, 5 players are averaging 23-28 minutes; 4 players 15-20 minutes; 1 player at 12 minutes.  Stanford has 3 players 28-32 minutes; 3 at 18-23 minutes; 3 at 10-14 minutes.

Sagarin predictors (rpiratings.com) indicate a very close game, with Stanford given the edge by 1.6 pts (Rating), after including the home advantage of 3.9 pts.  UConn leads in the Predictor, which is more based on points.  It does seem like UConn is happy to run up the score

But, if you want to feel good, realtimerpi.com (which seems rather crazy in their rankings & predictions), predicts a 24 point win for Stanford, and predicts it is UConn's only loss (beating Baylor 82-54 in CT).  (They predict closer wins across the bay and in Westwood.  They predict two future games for UConn to be 119-54 and 89-6 !).

I'd feel better if we can get really good fan involvement Saturday and try to push that home advantage up a few more points.

My defensive line-up would be 6'3" Chiney on 6'4" Stewart,  5'7" Amber on 5'7" Hartley,  5'11" Toni on 6'0" Mosqueda-Lewis, possibly 6'3" Jos on 5'11" Faris, 6'3" Ruef/Greenfield on 6'5" Dolson.
Alternative:  Chiney on Mosqueda-Lewis, Jos on Stewart, Toni on Faris, Amber on Hartley, Reuf/Greenfield on Dolson.

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - M T - 12-25-2012

Speaking of rain, the prediction is that showers are possible on Saturday.  While we will have had two days of sunshine, I'd hate to park in a mud bowl.  Get to the game early and bring throat lozenges!


Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - SControl - 12-25-2012

Quote:My defensive line-up would be 6'3" Chiney on 6'4" Stewart,  5'7" Amber on 5'7" Hartley,  5'11" Toni on 6'0" Mosqueda-Lewis, possibly 6'3" Jos on 5'11" Faris, 6'3" Ruef/Greenfield on 6'5" Dolson.
Alternative:  Chiney on Mosqueda-Lewis, Jos on Stewart, Toni on Faris, Amber on Hartley, Reuf/Greenfield on Dolson.

I think Hartley is taller than 5'7. Not sure why but some teams lost some of their players shorter than they are. Hartley is definitely taller than O. Sims who is listed as 5'8. She's a good 5'9/5'10.

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - 81alum - 12-25-2012

(12-25-2012, 01:29 PM)SControl link Wrote:
Quote:My defensive line-up would be 6'3" Chiney on 6'4" Stewart,  5'7" Amber on 5'7" Hartley,  5'11" Toni on 6'0" Mosqueda-Lewis, possibly 6'3" Jos on 5'11" Faris, 6'3" Ruef/Greenfield on 6'5" Dolson.
Alternative:  Chiney on Mosqueda-Lewis, Jos on Stewart, Toni on Faris, Amber on Hartley, Reuf/Greenfield on Dolson.

I think Hartley is taller than 5'7. Not sure why but some teams lost some of their players shorter than they are. Hartley is definitely taller than O. Sims who is listed as 5'8. She's a good 5'9/5'10.
UConn lists her as 5'7", but Wiki lists her as 5'10".  A recruiting article lists her as 5'10", so the UConn site must be in error.

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - 81alum - 12-26-2012

I was just reading over last year's thread after the loss:
http://thecardboard.org/board/index.php/topic,4989.msg35921.html#msg35921
Several interesting take aways. 

Chiney was double and triple teamed every time she got the ball, and wound up with 5 turnovers.  I think we can expect that will continue in spades, given that she does not have Nneka to draw defenders away.  She was 3 of 12 for 7 points.  Nneka had 22--that is probably more like what we can hope for from Chiney this year although it will depend on someone else attracting some of the attention the way Chiney did for Nneka.

Nneka only played for 22 minutes because of foul trouble.  She and Chiney each wound up with 4 fouls and this changed the game.  Interestingly, UConn boards are very worried about foul trouble for their bigs, but we should be too.  We cannot afford for Chiney to get Missy type fouls.

They pretty well shut down Toni.  She was 2/10 for 7 points.  I do not remember who they had on her.

Jasmine had a superb game against UConn--probably the best of her career.  She hit 3 out of 4 from three point range and had 3 assists and no turnovers in 21 minutes, 14 points total.  After that game I thought she would become our main point guard.  Jasmine played for 21 minutes and Amber for 6.  It would be great to see Jasmine come back to that level a year later.

UConn had a horrible time shooting 3s which kept us in it, somewhat. 

Sarah Booth had big minutes, Joslyn did not. 

We had 9 more turnovers than UConn did.  Bria Hartley had 3 steals, Mosqueda-Lewis had 2. 

Dolson had 4 blocks.

UConn's top scorer was Mosqueda-Lewis with 25, their second was Bria Hartley with 19. 

Taylor got a lot of time last year and was not very effective.  0 points and 4 rebounds in 32 minutes.

Our team has changed a lot more than their team--even accounting for the addition of Breanna Stewart.  Sarah Booth, Lindy LaRocque, Taylor Greenfield, and Jasmine Camp each got major minutes last year, while Amber Orrange, Joslyn Tinkle and Mikayla Ruef did not.  Only Chiney and Toni are really going to be playing similar roles this year, meaning that UConn will face a whole new team.

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - itsasport - 12-26-2012

I just discovered this site from The Boneyard. As was said, UConn has all the match up advantages.  If they can execute Geno's game plan offensively and defensively, UConn will win.  However, Tara has a way to defeat even the best plans.  The big difference this year is the UConn depth. Geno's offense and defense are very difficult to execute. In previous years, he only had 5 players who could do both. This year he has 9 or 10, and even the 11th player, Buck can contribute defensive minutes.
This has allowed Geno to implement a 40 minute, full court defense.

Offensively and defensively, the player who will surprise you the most is Banks. I think that she is the best guard on the team.  Also, KML has worked hard to improve her overall game. She is not as flashy as was Maya; but, she is just as good.  It isn't as obvious because Kaleena is surrounded by so many other great players.

No single player has to have a great game offensively for UConn to win. In fact, everyone can have a rather average game, with some spurts of productivity, as was illustrated in the UConn scoring statistics.

Concerning Dolson, the work she did over the summer has resulted in an almost miraculous change in her physique and resulting increased stamina. She might not be the first one down the court, but she can play almost double the minutes. And, she is not committing the stupid fouls this year. 

Last year teams could cheat off of Faris to double team in the paint- not this year. Kelly has the best 3 point % on the team. UConn's lack of height has also been addressed this year.

It will be a great game. I was planning to drive down to see it- until I discovered the ticket price. I thought you had a great endowment. There is no need to try to double it with the ticket receipts from one womens' basketball game!



Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - 81alum - 12-27-2012

What Itsasport is probably referring to is this:
http://www.the-boneyard.com/threads/uconn-stanford-analysis.30649/
Just as we don't know the UConn players as well as UConn fans do, they clearly don't know our players as well as we do.  For example, one poster thinks Toni is "not athletic".  Still, it is interesting to see the perspective of UConn fans.  They seem pretty confident--overconfident perhaps.

Two things I agree with

1. Chiney has to stay out of foul trouble, and UConn will do what they can to get her into it.

2. Stanford has to be better at breaking the press.  Hopefully Tara has had us practicing that all week.

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - M T - 12-27-2012

I'm not sure what itsasport meant about the ticket price.  The game's been sold out for a while, so any tickets would be at street price, not list price.

81alum, I thought we've done well at getting past the press, but we haven't been making the other team pay for it.  I'd like to see more burning the opponent while some of the defense is out of position.

I do see that in the two 15-point games, Mosqueda-Lewis fouled out of one, while Faris got all four of her fouls in the second half of the other.  It isn't just Stanford that has to worry about fouls.

Against Penn State, UConn was up 6 points with 10:34 to go.  Then layup+FT, steal/missed layup, steal/layup, steal/layup, missed layup, steal/layup in under 1.5 minutes to jump to a 15 point lead.  (I don't know if that was a press or just bad passes.)  That's what we have to avoid. 

Stanford does have the advantage of knowing they can win in a close game, and knowing they can beat a top-ranked opponent.  4 of the UConn players will have similar experiences, but not from this year.  Maybe in the back of their mind, they're wondering just how we managed to beat Baylor.



Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - itsasport - 12-27-2012

I checked into getting a ticket on the Stanford website about two months ago. The price for an available seat was over $180.00.

I don't know why UConn keeps insisting that Hartley is 5'7." She is at least 5'9'  It's a mystery to Boneyarders.  Perhaps it's an example of Geno's quirky sense of humor. He is a master of the motivational insult (which he reserves for only the best players.) Perhaps it's his not too subtle way of telling her that his wants her to play "bigger."

I think he said that Maya couldn't guard a chair, and of  KLM last year, that she spent the whole year at the 3 point line waiting for someone to pass the ball to her.

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - yvonne - 12-27-2012

Such a classy guy, that Auriemma.

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - CompSci87 - 12-28-2012

(12-27-2012, 11:33 PM)itsasport link Wrote:I checked into getting a ticket on the Stanford website about two months ago. The price for an available seat was over $180.00.

I can't guess where you saw that price. Official single-game prices from Stanford are here: http://www.gostanford.com/tickets/wbb-pg-individual-game.html. The highest price is $48.

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - M T - 12-28-2012

itsasport., I'm not sure where you might drive down from, but StubHub has seats from about $25 (top of the endzone -- I think this is the seller that had 20 seats there on Thursday morning at $31, now down to 16) up to overpriced (at least the $200+ tickets are either sold or cheaper now.).  I see some high midcourt seats for about $40-50 at this time.

If you're going to cheer for UConn, then may I suggest Section 5, so your cheers will be noticed.  If you can get in the double letter rows, then you'll really get noticed.
(Wink, wink, but seriously, visitors usually get tickets in section 9 or 10 behind the visiting team.)

Unfortunately, Stanford doesn't list row numbers, er, letters in any of the seating charts that I've seen.  Double letter rows are closest to the court.  The next section up is rows A to E and is considered "lower" and has chairs.  Above that is the upper section, row F up (varies, up to T (I guess)), which is all plastic benches (no backs).  There are no support posts so no seat has partially blocked vision (except by the goals and maybe a TV camera).


Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - 81alum - 12-28-2012

The media is now flooded with articles about tomorrow's game.  Three interesting story lines emerge from it all

1. The most interesting comments come from Geno about how he plans to guard Chiney.

Quote:"I'm sure Kelly will end up guarding Chiney and I'm sure that will happen frequently," Auriemma said. "But one of the problems is if you put Kelly on her, Stefanie [Dolson] is stuck guarding most of the time on the perimeter. We'll have to be smart about it.  I'm not worried about Kelly defensively. I don't think there's anyone in the country she can't guard. We've just got to be careful what the other matchups are. Helping ourselves in one area can hurt ourselves in another."
http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-women/hc-jacobs-uconn-stanford-column-1228-20121228,0,2705021,full.column

Kelley Faris guarded Chiney and kept her down last year, so apparently she will do it again this year.  Chiney has to win that battle, and she will have a 4 inch height advantage.  But Geno is clearly concerned about how that leaves the rest of his defense.  If Faris is on Chiney then who will Dolson and Stewart defend?  Presumably Tinkle and Ruef.  When Geno talks about Dolson then having to be on the perimeter, is he referring to Tinkle's three point shooting?

2. How physical will the game be, and how will it be called?  Both Geno and Tara profess not to want an excessively physical game, but the the teams that have been most successful in limiting UConn's offense have been very physical as a way of disrupting their offense.  Geno thinks that the game two years ago was so physical that his players "needed helmets."  The UConn fans think Ruef and others will simply try to push UConn around, and they are hoping for tight officiating.  What they are really hoping for is for Chiney to pick up a lot of fouls.

3. Why is this game only on ESPNU?  Two minor bowl games are competing with it--that is why.  Geno said:

Quote:“If there is an NFL game on ESPN at the same time, then I understand,” Auriemma said. “That’s where the NFL lives. But if its just a bowl game between a couple of 6-6 teams, well, I guess the TV people have done their homework and have drawn conclusion that it [the bowl game] will probably be a great game for the fans to watch.  That’s the battle we fight, that women’s sports fight all the time. I don’t know how you win the battle other than by playing some great games that everyone wishes they’d watched. But from the standpoint of coaches and players, we have to be careful about what we say about media coverage. We get bombarded from both sides; some people say we are lucky for getting the coverage we get, others say Stanford-UConn should be on [ESPN] instead of the Packers-Patriots [as an example].  “All we can do is try and put the best product we can on the floor so more people wish they’d seen it. And maybe the next one [gets better exposure]. …”
http://courantblogs.com/uconn-women/geno-on-his-greatest-memory-and-more/



Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - M T - 12-28-2012

(12-26-2012, 10:27 PM)81alum link Wrote:They pretty well shut down Toni.  She was 2/10 for 7 points.  I do not remember who they had on her.
...
UConn had a horrible time shooting 3s which kept us in it, somewhat. 

I don't have time to watch the whole game, but here some match-ups when I sampled last year's game
At the end of the 2nd half,
La Rocque on Mosqueda-Lewis
Kokenis on Hayes
Chiney on Stokes
Boothe on Dolson
Camp on Hartley

Early the 2nd half,
Kokenis on Hartley
La Rocque on Doty
Greenfield on Hayes
Nneka defending in the lane (Dolson)
Chiney on Mosqueda-Lewis

At the other end, at the start of the second half,
Dolson on Nneka
Hartley on La Rocque
Doty on Kokenis
Faris on Chiney
Hayes on Greenfield

As for the 3s, if Stanford had missed a three they made, the two teams would have had nearly identical 3pt%.  Stanford was 4 of 12, UConn was 7 of 31.  What is interesting to me is that UConn shot so many threes.  But this year, forcing them to take threes may not be a winning strategy.

Mosqueda-Lewis got 19pts in the first half but only 6 in the second.  Hartley had 11 in the first half and 8 in the second.  Stanford did lose each half, so cutting their scoring apparently allowed others to score.

It will take a great effort by Stanford to win.  Stanford loses to graduation 30 (of 62) points and 11 (of 45) rebounds by players playing just 32.5% of the total minutes in the game.  UConn loses 9 (of 70) points and 13 (of 46) rebounds by players playing 17.5% of the total minutes in the game.  We have a lot more to make up for those losses.

(I think the issue of Dolson on the perimeter at the defensive end is that she won't be able to rebound and so Stanford may get more 2nd chance points.  Of course it could be Geno just pleading to stay out of the briar patch (ie, hoping Stanford plays the offense from the So. Carolina game with everyone but Chiney on the perimeter).)


Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - itsasport - 12-28-2012

Thank you everyone for the ticket info.



Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - 81alum - 12-29-2012

Here is a great Tara quote about the game.
Quote:"If you take care of the ball, you're halfway home," VanDerveer said. "If you turn it over, you're bleeding in a shark tank."
http://www.mercurynews.com/stanford-cardinal/ci_22274982/no-1-stanford-no-2-uconn-face-off

The ESPNU controversy is pretty sick.  The Number 1 vs. the Number 2 women's teams got beaten out by the UConn men vs the Washington men, neither of which is even ranked. 

Quote:"On ESPN, Stanford-UConn got beat out by the Armed Forces Bowl between unranked Rice [6-6] and Air Force [6-6]. It got beat out by the Pinstripe Bowl between unranked West Virginia [7-5] and Syracuse [7-5]....Over on ESPN2, however, UConn and Stanford got beat out by No. 20 UNLV and unranked North Carolina in basketball, the Fight Hunger Bowl between unranked Navy and Arizona State and — get this — by the UConn men-Washington game at 7:30 p.m. Look, Huskies vs. Huskies is a nice game, but really."
http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-women/hc-jacobs-column-1229-20121228,0,1020919.column

Question:  do the games that get broadcast on ESPNU show up later on the ESPN3 online "replay" feature?  In other words, will those of us at the game who don't get ESPNU at home be able to watch a replay of the game?

Re: WBB: Previewing UConn - M T - 12-29-2012

(12-29-2012, 12:08 AM)81alum link Wrote:Question:  do the games that get broadcast on ESPNU show up later on the ESPN3 online "replay" feature?  In other words, will those of us at the game who don't get ESPNU at home be able to watch a replay of the game?

The FAQ at watchespn indicates
Quote:Will replays still be available on ESPN3?

Yes, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU replays will continue to be made available on ESPN3. Replays will be accessible as early as immediately after the conclusion of the event and no later than 2:30 a.m. ET that evening.
I think by "ESPN3" here, they mean "WatchESPN".

FYI, it does appear that the game is blacked out on ESPN3 except in Hawaii.  I'm not sure how the blackout affects replay availability.