DoggyDaddy's UConn/Notre Dame Post Game Report

  Post Game report

I won't do a play by play for this one. If you didn't see it, find a game replay online. At least watch the highlights video I posted. 

So, what happened? Why did UConn win this game going away?  

Well, for one thing, I believe the ND weak early schedule did not prepare them sufficiently for the intensity of this match up. UConn had just come off the Texas game. They played in a tough environment against a talented Florida State team. And gained a ton of confidence against a big Baylor team. Notre Dame played Washington. That's it. That game was not easy for ND and either was their other tough game against a game Green Bay team. Neither of these outings or the cupcakes they played in their other games could get them ready for what UConn brought.

It looked to me that they really missed the leadership of the elder Mabrey and the 5th year senior Madison Cable. I'm not sure that Lindsay Allen is a real vocal leader, and Brianna Turner seems to be the quiet type. Without them, I thought Notre Dame looked a little flat in a game where they should have been sky high.

On the other end, UConn seemed ready and no one gets their team in the right frame of mind better than Geno. He convinced them that they could only win by playing harder and tougher than Notre Dame. He probably never mentioned talent. Just hard work. It paid off as UConn just was stronger in this game, both mentally and physically.

Check out Geno's quotes. And the link to the post game video interview. I don't think I've seen Geno this happy. I'll join him!!!

I'll let the individual player write-ups give you the rest of my thoughts.  

Game Highlights

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 Game Stats and Box Score

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 Game Quotes From Geno

No video of Geno's presser 

“I certainly came into the game very curious to see,” Auriemma said. “But I would hope that when you’ve been in the situations we’ve been in and won as many big games as we’ve won and you played in as many of these games as we have, I think there’s a feel of, ‘This is why I came to Connecticut, to make plays in this game.’ ”

“Up to this point, we’ve passed every test,” Auriemma said. “I don’t know if we’ve gotten 100 on every test, for sure. But we’ve passed every test and the tests are going to keep coming. We’re not done yet. If we weren’t undefeated, if we hadn’t won this game, that wouldn’t make me feel any different about our team. But the fact that we are where we are, I’m kind of surprised.”

"It is not easy to defend them, they have a lot of great players, players who are hard to guard,” Auriemma said. “It seems like at every position they have somebody who isn’t easy to defend and we didn’t get a lot of breaks in terms of how much rest we could give our players. Three players played 40 minutes which is something, it was an amazing effort by them.”

''I know this is Dec. 7th and there's a long way to go between now and the end of the season,''

"It's the intangibles and they all came out tonight. They played great. And there were moments when we didn't and Notre Dame outplayed us for those moments. We could have acted like the young team that we are but be came back and we came back stronger. To me winning the game is great but what I saw and how we feel right now means a lot more to us at this stage of the game than anything else"

"This is why we practice the way we do, why we put them through the stuff we put them through. We really gutted it out tonight. They knew they weren't coming out."

"It was remarkable. I just loved everything about tonight."

"It's only December but for a December game, yeah, it was pretty special."    

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Game Quotes from Coach Muffet McGraw

''I was really disappointed in everything, execution, the inability to get the ball to Bri. Completely ineffective offensively,''

"I think there's no pressure on us,"

"I'm surprised, I didn't expect that."

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Player Evaluations

PLAYER OF THE GAME!

Gabby Williams

These pictures say it all. Desire plus talent equals greatness. And I believe she has them both. What a fantastic performance by Gabby. With 19 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks, it was a great game coming off of another great game against Texas. Something has clicked and she is playing at a different level than before. Her assists over the last few games have been point guard like. And coming from a forward, well, it makes UConn a very unique team.

I posted this in my pre-game report - "She just doesn't have a comfortable looking jumper. If that ever comes around, look out! Against Notre Dame last year, she played 16 quiet minutes scoring only 6 points and grabbing 2 rebounds. You won't see a repeat of that performance in this game. Gabby will post up whenever she can and if she can hit the mid range shot, it will be a long night for whoever is guarding her"  
    

I sure got that one right. She hit several jumpers. She also missed some and those were shots that were taken too quickly. But all that means is she can still get better with shot selection.

Right after a Notre Dame time called because she had a nice steal and great outlet pass for a Nurse layup, Geno stopped her on the way to the bench. It was clearly a conversation that made Gabby smile. I'm sure Geno was pumping her up telling her that is the way to greatness. She is one the right path.  

''We knew they were going to hit us hard at times and we just had to hit back harder,''

“What we needed were guys who were going to be physical, guys who were going to work hard and that is going to be our identity. We are going to beat teams by being smarter, being tougher and making those hustle plays.”

Here is the post game interview with Holly Rowe with Gabby and Geno. Check out the hug and the big smile on Gabby's face.

Here is what she said that I really loved. Holly asked her after getting whacked in the throat why she insisted she stay in the game  - "This is why I came to UConn. Why would I want to step off the court in this situation? This is what I came here for".   

Wow. This young lady gets it.

Katie Lou Samuelson

Katie Lou is showing a lot of leadership. It's hard to believe she is only a sophomore. She also played 40 minutes and she looked as fresh in the fourth quarter as she did in the first. Geno gets these kids in shape. Their conditioning is unparalleled and Samuelson is really benefiting from it. Her offense is terrific and the picture I chose for her is the great move past the freshman Jackie Young, who McGraw felt was the only player on the ND roster that had a chance of guarding her. On this important play, she had no chance to guard Lou. Sadly Young twisted her ankle on this play. I'm hoping she is ok.

I was really impressed with Samuelson's defense. She is quick to switch and like Collier and Williams, she can guard the post and guard the perimeter. The fear among the more fragile UConn fans was that her lateral quickness would be an issue. Guess what. Not an issue.  

“There are a lot of great scorers on their teams. We knew individually we had to play well and we had to play good team defense. I think we really stepped up. There were a couple of runs where it didn’t look too great, we responded and played as good as we could.”

“We definitely let it all out. We want to continue to be great and try to get to where we want to be at the end of the year.”

Kia Nurse

She didn't fill the box score or have the best shooting night, but in her 40 minutes Nurse was a great leader on the court. Her in-your-face defense of Marlina Mabrey took that potential threat right out of the game. Mabrey, who killed UConn last year in the first half before Jefferson shut her down, didn't have a chance. Kia held her to 1-8 shooting, 0-4 from three point land and only 2 points. It more than made up for the 8 points and 4 assists that Kia managed. Kia played tough as you can see above. She always brings more than great numbers to the game.   

“I think if anybody told you they didn’t feel nervous, they’d be lying to you. To be in an environment like this, you feed off the energy just as much as the other team does. And I think we did a really good job of that tonight.”

Napheesa Collier  

It was a tough call for player of the game between Gabby and Napheesa. It was clear how important Collier was to this win by what happened when she had to sit with two fouls. Geno made the tactical decision to sit her so she would be available in the second half, when he felt the game would be decided. It was amazing to watch her take a very talented and athletic Brianna Turner to school with her many post moves. She really is close to impossible to guard once she gets the ball in the paint.

But it's not only her offense. She can play defense as a post or jump out on the guards when the switches are called. Her confidence is growing and while she is not on any early award lists, it will be difficult to keep her off as the season progresses.   

Saniya Chong

Saniya played a solid 19 minutes. I loved the play where she drove the lane in an attempt to beat the shot clock. After she missed the contested shot, she worked hard for the rebounds (see above) and passed to Samuelson for her only three point make. She only had 3 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists but if you focused on her while she was on the court she gave Geno exactly what he wanted. She didn't get flustered and did a good job on defense while guarding the Notre Dame guards. Nothing spectacular but she played calmly, just like a senior should in a game as intense as this was.  She took an elbow to the nose from Turner but seem ok.

Crystal Dangerfield

Geno trusted Crystal with 24 minutes. That tells you a lot on where she stands with the coach. She made some really bad freshman mistakes, including one pass where she turned around and threw it directly to the Notre Dame player. But overall, she looks pretty comfortable in a very tough environment. She made 2-4 shots, missing her only three and handed out 2 assists. Those 5 turnovers hurt, but it's all about growing pains. She is the one player that has the most room for improvement.

Natalie Butler

She only played 8 minutes, but they were really productive minutes. She grabbed 4 rebounds and had two assists. She also kept a few possessions alive off the boards, allowing her teammates to snare the rebound. Some games she will play 20+ minutes (Texas) and like this game, only a few. But she is now starting to give Geno what he needs every game. And that makes UConn a much better team.     

Molly Bent, Kyla Irwin and Tierney Lawlor

  

I was pretty sure we wouldn't see them in this game unless it was a blowout. But will see plenty of them in future games.

 Final Thoughts

Of all the UConn/Notre Dame games I've watched, this one ranks up there with one of my favorites. Not because they won. Not because of the closeness of the game. It was how hard this team played. The effort to the point of exhaustion was impressive. This team left it all on the court. Nothing was held back. And if they win it all, it will because of that. Well, that and a lot of talent. But talent not maximized is wasted.  

Next they play undefeated Kansas State in front of another raucous crowd. I'll have more in my Pre Game Report, but let me say that this is not a fluke team. They have size, outside shooting, a solid offensive scheme and they work really hard on the court. I've only seen highlights, so I'm going to try to find a full game to watch to get a better idea of how they play.  

Here are a few pictures I picked out from the various sites.

Ok, which player is 5'11 and which player is 6'3"???

The itzy bitzy spider..........

Now, where did I leave my keys??