01-21-2011, 12:25 AM
The stat of the game? Â UCLA\'s "shooting." Â If you can call it that. Â How about 15-51 from the field for under 30%, 2-9 from 3 pt range against a Cardinal team that packed it into the paint and only 50% from the FT line? Â Yikes. Â One player especially, a tiny 5\'4" guard, was left wide open time and again on the perimeter with Kayla sagging off her into the paint, and didn\'t dare to take a shot.
Speaking of Kayla, she had her strongest game in weeks. Â Not so much the outside shooting, although she did hit her first three in recent memory, 6-9 from the field, 5-6 from the line for 18 pts, 10 rebounds, and her typical hustle plays, although a few too many TOs. Strong game from Chiney with 11 boards as well, although the best of the game was Nneka flying in for one of her offensive board/stickback layup in one motion without coming down in the first half.
More generally, UCLA did disrupt the offense - Stanford only had 11 assists, which is VERY low for them. Â Basically, the Bruins were denying entry passes, which led to a lot of Stanford tossing the ball around the perimeter, and then trying to drive and finish or drive and dish. Â And Jeanette especially did not have a great shooting game, finishing 2-11. Â The Bruins were great at guarding players 6\'1" and shorter; they just have no height.
One caveat: I\'m a bit concerned by that last 8 minutes. Â I think the Cardinal didn\'t do a good job of "stomping on them when they\'re down," and what could\'ve been an utterly demoralizing loss for the Bruins instead turned into a "boy, if we could\'ve only played like we did in the last 8 minutes the whole game" lesson (even though they were playing against the Stanford bench, giving them a little confidence after the whuppin\' they received may be a bad combination).
One other piece of interesting WBB news: Samarie Walker, really the only athletic post player on the UConn roster and the one who had the most success trying to defend Stanford\'s inside game, left the Huskies today. Â Their razor-thin bench just got thinner - I think they\'ll really be playing a 6-player rotation for a lot of the rest of the season.
Now on to Hangin\' with Michael Cooper on Saturday.
VG
Speaking of Kayla, she had her strongest game in weeks. Â Not so much the outside shooting, although she did hit her first three in recent memory, 6-9 from the field, 5-6 from the line for 18 pts, 10 rebounds, and her typical hustle plays, although a few too many TOs. Strong game from Chiney with 11 boards as well, although the best of the game was Nneka flying in for one of her offensive board/stickback layup in one motion without coming down in the first half.
More generally, UCLA did disrupt the offense - Stanford only had 11 assists, which is VERY low for them. Â Basically, the Bruins were denying entry passes, which led to a lot of Stanford tossing the ball around the perimeter, and then trying to drive and finish or drive and dish. Â And Jeanette especially did not have a great shooting game, finishing 2-11. Â The Bruins were great at guarding players 6\'1" and shorter; they just have no height.
One caveat: I\'m a bit concerned by that last 8 minutes. Â I think the Cardinal didn\'t do a good job of "stomping on them when they\'re down," and what could\'ve been an utterly demoralizing loss for the Bruins instead turned into a "boy, if we could\'ve only played like we did in the last 8 minutes the whole game" lesson (even though they were playing against the Stanford bench, giving them a little confidence after the whuppin\' they received may be a bad combination).
One other piece of interesting WBB news: Samarie Walker, really the only athletic post player on the UConn roster and the one who had the most success trying to defend Stanford\'s inside game, left the Huskies today. Â Their razor-thin bench just got thinner - I think they\'ll really be playing a 6-player rotation for a lot of the rest of the season.
Now on to Hangin\' with Michael Cooper on Saturday.
VG