Some random thoughts about the Tenn game

Working on it!!

I don't consider that game a victory. Was the team too tight? The shooting sure seggests that. Got some groing to do if we are to go deep in the tourney.

Well, the scoreboard says it was a victory, so, who am I to argue?

Perspective-check time, I think.

First "big game", very young team, national TV, on the road, only the second game in 12 days... and, sometimes, you just have a stinky shooting night.

Variously attributed, often to Gertrude Stein, "sometimes a rose is just a rose". You don't need to read layers of meaning into it: it is what it is, to use another hackneyed quote.

We forgot, too often, that this is a college basketball team, much less an extraordinarily young one. I worked for many years on college campuses. Got a news flash for ya - 18 to 21 year-olds are very human, inconsistent and variable. Reliability is the exception and the aspiration, not the rule, which is why we treasure it so much.

It's unrealistic to expect that of them. How many professional teams throw up a stinker, now and then? (Answer: all of them). Treading very, very lightly, how many times over our lifetimes have we seen political or business leaders, esteemed public figures, "throw up a stinker"?
  
Too often, we seem to expect a level of perfection and performance out of the UConn Women's basketball team that we wouldn't find almost anywhere else in our lives - much less from folks too young to rent a car, buy a drink or get a loan from a bank.

To me, what really mattered - more than the win, more than the poor shooting - was that they did not fold. Having a really off-night offensively, playing a physically imposing team, big stage, trailing for the first time all season going into the 4th - they did not fold. They gutted out the game, collecting a tough win. That's a good bit of growing up.

 

It was a great game last night.

Tenn showed real improvement, and I'm remembering that we debated Kellie's hiring. At the time some of us thought it would blow up and some of us thought it was a great move. So far, looking like it might have been the right move.

For UConn, it was the first real test...and they passed. Don't think of it as a graded exam. Think of it as pass/fail. 

Interesting discussion here:
www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/30756086/uconn-paige-bueckers-etches-name-uconn-tennessee-lore

Voepel: I think this is a legitimate worry, and not just Auriemma being nitpicky because he wants perfection. He said Monday that he's usually big on aesthetics, that he always wants his teams to look a certain way in regard to style of play and execution. But not this season.

"I'm probably at a point now where I really don't care how we look," he said. "I just want us to play a game and win that game. This idea of 'Yeah, we look like we're a really good team?' Nope."

As Al Davis famously said, "Just win, baby."

I rarely say  this about an ESPN article, but Voepel, Maine and Creme make a lot of valid points. Thanks for sharing, Bulkey!

It amazes me how quickly Paige can be outside and then inside for a rebound in traffic. She had at least a couple of those last night.

I agree. It's interesting to see how often the rebound seems to fall into her hands underneath, and I think it's her great court sense that sends her to the right place at the right time.

Paige often follows her shot and she has good instincts as to where the ball may go when either she or another player misses a shot! Sabrina Ionescu almost always followed her shots and she always rebounded well! Paige is really a complete player and plays good defense already as a young freshman! 

Because; unlike some players, she doesn't just stand there admiring her shot and she follows it! Sabrina Ionescu played the same way, always following her shot and usually getting 6 - 8 rebounds a game! So you expend a little more energy, but you get more boards and contribute more to your team! 

BTW....nothing worse than a player launching 3 point bricks and just watching them ricochet off the rim?