DoggyDaddy's UConn/Kansas State Post Game Report

  Post Game report

What an interesting game. UConn looked their usual fantastic self in the first quarter. Running and gunning, finding the open player, hands in the passing lanes reeking havoc with the opponent. But with the loss of one player in Chong to an already small rotation and another (Collier) with neck spasms, you could see the energy just drain out of them.

Missed layups, slow defense, mental miscues......all the signs of fatigue from a team that has been on the for several days and coming off an emotional and physical win against a tough Notre Dame team. Even the most conditioned team would struggle under these circumstances.

That being said, UConn was always in control of this one. I would prefer to discuss how impressed I was with Coach Mittie and his Kansas State Wildcats. I wrote about that last year in the 40 point blowout in Storrs, and I'm even more sold on this year's version of KSU.

Not to brad (ok, I am) but my analysis of this game was spot on.

"Breanna Lewis, the 6'5" senior center mans the middle of the zone and she can block some shots with her long arms. Not quick, but not that slow either. She is also a handful once she receives the ball in the paint on offense. She can hit the baby hook with either hand and has decent footwork to get off her shot. She loves to work the high/low with the other bigs on the team, Willock, Williams and Page and it can be very effective."

Wow....I'm a genius. I hit this one out of the park. I just hurt myself patting myself on my back!

And I said this about their senior point guard Wesemann.

"Their senior point guard, Kendred Wesemann, is a terrific player. She loves to drive the lane and kick to the other two three-point shooters on the team, Kayla Goth and Kaylee Page. UConn can't afford to play off of them to double the drive or double the big girl Lewis without risking open threes"

More words of wisdom. It's like I talked to Geno before the game. Well, I did call. He never answers.

Finally, my final prediction -

"At first blush you might think that an undefeated Kansas State team might give UConn a decent game. Of course, reality sets in and the difference between UConn and Kansas State is still wide. Connecticut is just in a different world when it comes to talent and as hard as the Wildcats might play, it won't make up for their lack of team speed on the defensive end. I'm sure that Lewis will get a block or two but UConn is just too quick for this team.

The gap is not as wide as last year's 40 point margin. The Wildcats are a better team. UConn is not as good as last year. It could be a competitive game for a while. But UConn will pull away and win by 20+."   

Pretty darn good. Uh.....did I say 20+? I meant 17. Yeah, that's the ticket....17.

Ok, enough of the self-adoration. It's pretty pathetic.

It was a great game in a great atmosphere. I had two co-players of the game in Samuelson and Collier. Well deserved for both, so I couldn't just pick one.

  

Game Highlights

 Game Stats and Box Score

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 Game Quotes From Geno

"I knew Chong was pretty shook up during the game. It didn't really present itself until we got home, so our medical staff felt that it would be best if we left her back and hopefully she'll be OK by the Ohio State game [Dec. 19]."

“We didn’t help off of Wesemann as much. Matter of fact, we didn’t help off of her hardly at all. By limiting how many times she touched it, when she did get it, she wasn’t in a rhythm.”

“We did not defend Breanna Lewis well and there probably is a reason for that. She is not necessarily easy to defend. I think we defended her a lot better last year when we had Breanna Stewart guarding her than we did today. I think she just overpowered us a couple of times in the lane, but that gave us a chance we were willing to take to try to keep some of the other guys in check. I think she has gotten a lot better. She is much better at finishing around the basket. I know she did not make all of them but from last year, when we played them at our place, to this year I think she has improved tremendously. That is at both ends of the floor, I think offensively and defensively.”

“In the 17-0 run, we passed the ball to Lou [Katie Lou Samuelson] a lot, so that always helps when we pass it to her. That happened because we were able to get out in transition and get their defense moving before they had a chance to really settled into a defense. That was the game plan. In that first quarter, we forced some turnovers, we rebounded the ball and ran our transition game and our players are very good at finding Katie Lou and then once Katie Lou starts making some shots, everybody gets comfortable and that is something we have done a number of times this year.”

“The crowd was great. I was saying that I really love this building. It is really neat the way it is set up. It is the perfect basketball venue. I know they used to get a lot of fans here back in the day when Deb Patterson was coaching and I know things change and everything goes through cycles, but I could feel the excitement as we were walking in the building and seeing the line outside as we drove up. It is a great place to play basketball, it really is. I am sure it is a great place to watch a game as well. There were enough moments, I think, where K-State played well enough, so I am sure a bunch of this stuff will be on their highlight film for next year.”

“They do give up a lot of height, both Gabby [Williams] and Napheesa [Collier] and I think they make up for it in other ways. They both feel really comfortable anywhere on the court. They both feel comfortable in the fact that they touch the ball. The thing that we have always tried to get our players to do is to be really good basketball players and Napheesa is becoming a really good basketball player. It is very difficult to defend her even at her size, even if you are three or four inches taller than she is. I do not know if she played great because she got some spasms in her neck in warmups before the game and it was bothering her the whole game. There are two things that are happening on our team. Every time Katie Lou [Samuelson] shoots the ball I think it is going in and every time Napheesa touches the ball I think we are going to score some way. I just do not always know how. That is a pretty comforting feeling to have for our team and it is even more comforting that they are only sophomores."

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Game Quotes from Coach Jeff Mittie

"We won a lot of things before this. Selling this game out nine days in advance, doing those types of thing for our program and women's college basketball, I think that is pretty good."

"Let us give UConn credit. They are where they are at because they step on you right away. They come into this environment. They go on the road a lot each year against quality teams and step on them right away. They are very good."

“With us playing primarily zone, I think the one thing Samuelson’s able to do, certainly out top, is she can shoot over most anybody. Both her and Collier had big nights. If you got too stretched out on Samuelson, Collier was very effective in that mid-range game. Tough to handle.”

"They knew that Wesemann was one of our top scorers, and certainly our top three-point shooter, and they were going to put a lot of emphasis on making sure she didn’t get any clean looks around the arc.”

“The last three quarters, the way we competed, was much, much better. Playing hard is an expectation. You have to execute. You have to make plays. You have to go do those things as well.

Everybody thinks, ‘well, we’ll just go play hard.’ No. No, you have to do the other things, and we did some good things in that area today.”

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Player Evaluations

CO-PLAYER OF THE GAME!

Katie Lou Samuelson

Not much more to say about Katie Lou than what was in her quotes. She was on FIRE from three early on, and even her misses looked good. There was one time that she missed an easy layup and then hit a three a minute later. She came off the court on the next timeout making arm motions about the missed layup....funny.

She did end up with 26 points making 6-13 threes. You can tell she was floating on the perimeter as she only had one rebound.

"They were playing zone and I got a lot of 3s today, so I took them.”

“I definitely took a lot of 3s today. I was pretty confident in my shot even though I missed a lot. I made a lot too. I just felt confident taking that shot and they were giving it to me.”

“It has been a of progress for the team. It feels like it has been three months, but it has only been a month. I think that we have come a long way since starting at Florida State when we were kind of iffy on everyone’s role. But as we have gone on people have stepped up and shown we are all in different roles and we have a lot of versatile people, so I think we have grown a lot. I think we will keep growing because I do not think we have reached our full potential yet.”

Napheesa Collier

CO-PLAYER OF THE GAME!  

Watching the game replay after knowing she had neck spasms makes her production even more impressive. You could see on her first basket that she was moving her head in an attempt to stop the spasms. Several times she was in pain. With the short bench, she toughed out 36 minutes. She had a "Williams" type line with 20 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 blocks and 6 steals. And doing this with neck spasms? One tough cookie.

Kia Nurse

Kia played a tough game and stayed in control when the rest of the team looked out of sorts. She did make 2-4 three pointers and ran the entire game. I'm not sure this young lady CAN be fatigued. She is maybe the best conditioned player on the team. 13 points, 5 assists and only one turnover is always a good game for her.

Gabby Williams

If she had hit a couple more of the open mid-range jumpers, she would have had another double-double. She ended up with  6 points and 10 rebounds along with once again leading the team in assists with 5 although tied with Nurse and Dangerfield in that category. The fatigue got to her some, and led to 4 turnovers. 

I just don't see a fluid motion in her jump shot that would give her the consistency she needs to be a double digit scorer every game. But you can bet she will keep working on it. The ND game showed she will get there. 

“I remember right before the game Lou (Katie Lou Samuelson) was sitting next to me and said ‘Wow, this is cool.’ We could feel the ground shaking. It is always cool that every team and its fans get so excited to play us. I think this is their first sold out game or something. Coach kind of said ‘the circus is in town,’ so it is cool that we get to put on a show for people.”

“It is hard to play teams like K-State because they can come back so quickly by hitting 3s and they did. We had a 20-point lead in the first quarter and second quarter. They can come back so quickly hitting 3s like that.”

Crystal Dangerfield

She started. But don't expect that to last. Geno expect Chong back by the next game against Ohio State. Dangerfield played a very long 37 minutes. And sometimes she looked like a veteran and sometimes she played like the freshman she is. She did hand out 5 assists but added 4 turnovers in as well. She missed all five of her three point shots but did manage 6 points and grabbed 4 long rebounds. She continues to be the player that can improve the most and make this team a lot better.

Natalie Butler

Natalie gave Geno what he needed in this game. Time to rest the other players. But she still has more to give. She only had 2 points and 3 rebounds along with her 2 assists. I'd love to see her more aggressive on offense. She really does have a nice jumper and can finish with either hand. Sometimes she is too quick in kicking the ball out after getting the ball in scoring position. It's not needed, but it would make UConn a better team.  

Tierney Lawlor, Kyla Irwin, Molly Bent, Saniya Chong

  

Three insignificant one minute of play for the end of the bench, and Chong sat with the concussion. There were no pictures of them at the game, but I did find this one from a prior game with all four players. 

 Final Thoughts

The team gets a well deserved week off from basketball games, but with semester finals on tap, it's  not all fun and games. And I get a week off too. Only my dailies and then the Pre Game Report for the Ohio State game.