12-28-2012, 02:55 PM
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.
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:
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-wome...ull.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. Thats 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. Thats the battle we fight, that womens sports fight all the time. I dont know how you win the battle other than by playing some great games that everyone wishes theyd 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 theyd seen it. And maybe the next one [gets better exposure]. http://courantblogs.com/uconn-women/geno...-and-more/