Right from the beginning you could see how the Huskies would be playing tight defense against the Owls. The Temple guards had no room to operate as the UConn guards/forwards did a great job with their on the ball defense and their ability to seamlessly switch on screens.
Offensively, they played to their strengths when it was clear that the long range shot was not going down early in the game. UConn missed their first seven three pointers but were 7 of their last 14.
This game was just a pleasure to watch. Everyone's effort was full bore for all the minutes they were in the game. Looking forward to seeing if this carries forward to the Memphis game and then South Florida games that end the regular season.
Game Highlights
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Game Quotes From Geno
"You can't have a really good team without good guards. Our guards right now are a little suspect, given that they don't have a lot of playing experience. Not having Kia out there is really a challenge for them."
"It would be difficult to find anyone who has had a better 27 games than Naphessa Collier. It is amazing, the consistency that that kid plays at. She has a distinct advantage over most the people she plays against. 'The kid never takes a bad shot. She doesn't force shots. She doesn't throw stuff up there with no intention of making it. She doesn't waste opportunities.''
"They don't show a lot of negative or positive emotion. They stay at a certain level and don't deviate much. It was hard to tell after the Tulane game if they were upset or not."
"It's hard to maintain a certain level from Nov. 14 to March 1. It's impossible. There's got to be peaks and valleys, ups and downs. And that's where you go to your bench and you get a lot of [energy] and some of the guys get a chance to get a breather in the game. And we don't have that. So eventually it's going to show. Luckily, it hasn't shown that much this year."
“Even at the end of the season I’ll never be convinced that this is working because I see these guys every day and I just shake my head. Up to this point they have been really good when they needed to be really good, so in that respect it has been a masterpiece. We have created a Rembrandt, what am I saying, that is blasphemy. I see them every day in practice and I just can’t get those words to come out of my mouth. There is so much we have to do to get so much better. Probably because I know that we are close to where nobody can beat us, and we are that close to Saturday, and haven’t felt like that in a couple years so I am always walking around like that.”
Temple Coach Tonya Cardoza
“Tulane did a really good job of taking care of the basketball. I felt like they really competed. When you are playing against UConn you have to just hope that they are missing shots. I felt like they were missing shots, a lot of shots they normally make at Tulane. Tulane played with a lot of confidence and they took care of the ball. Connecticut wasn’t allowed to get back in transition and score transition buckets. We knew if we could take care of the basketball and limit transition baskets and not give up second chance points, then we might stand a chance, but to start the game we were giving them easy transition points.”
“It is something about playing them and you know you can get up in front of them all you want, but when you step on the court and they throw those punches, it is easy as a coach to say let’s go we can get over it. When you are out there I don’t know what they are going through. We have to move on. We have two games that we have to play well in to finish strong.”
“It doesn’t really help to prepare you, honestly. It doesn’t help you. You know they are just so dominant and the thing is every mistake you make they make you pay for it. They took the ball out of Fitzgerald and Butt’s hands. We were not paying attention to that and we were in disarray in the offensive end.”
Player Evaluations
Napheesa Collier
Every game she just shows her full depth of talent. The numbers for this game were staggering. In her 33 minutes (not limited by foul trouble YEAH!!) she scored a career high 31 points on an incredible 13-14 shooting. She hit her only two three-pointers and added 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks. She has become an unstoppable force on offense and a great post defender (at 6'1") on defense. She is now scoring at a 19.8 clip and has a great chance to finish the season over 20 ppg. Amazing!!
“The Tulane game gave us that feeling of a loss without having one. The things we learned from Saturday have helped us coming into this game, knowing teams aren’t going to roll over, we have to play at all times because there are good teams.”
“I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, so I am happy. Part of it is us adjusting to our new roles. Everybody is in a different role than we were last year, so kind of molding ourselves into the players we have become is really helping us right now. This is really exciting for us. Any championship is fun so we are all happy about today.”
Gabby Williams
Based on her comments Gabby was the most upset player on the roster. She took it personally that UConn performed so poorly against Tulane. And in this game, she was just as explosive as ever. She was a victim of two really, really, really (yes three reallys) bad officiating calls at the end of the first quarter limiting her minutes for the game to 26. Geno was really getting on the refs for these two calls. But in her limited minutes, she scored 15 points on 7-7 shooting, had 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Check out the picture at the end of the blog to see her crazy "ups".
"We were embarrassed after the Tulane game. It looked lazy, it looked like we didn't care. That's not what this program is about. In this game our performance was good, it showed that we could bounce back even while missing Kia."
"We were embarrassed after the Tulane game. It looked lazy, it looked like we didn't care. That's not what this program is about. In this game our performance was good, it showed that we could bounce back even while missing Kia."
"It is harder for us to get into a flow on offense without Kia. When she is out there things come a lot easier."
Katie Lou Samuelson
Sanyia Chong
Forty minutes. Whew. She is really coming through big time while Nurse is nursing her injury. Chong scored 11 points but really struggled with her three point shot, going 1-8. She good news with that is that all of the shots were open and available. So, look for her to start making them against Houston. She is too good a shoot not to. She also had 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. She did a much better job keeping the Temple guards in front her on defense than she did in the Tulane game.
Crystal Dangerfield
This was a much better game for Dangerfield. In her 32 minutes she scored 7 points, handed out 5 assists and had 3 steals. All nice stats. But what I liked was her on the ball defense. She really made it difficult for the very talented Temple guards to operate. Really nice job. There is no doubt that when Nurse is back playing, Dangerfield will be a better player than when Kia went out with the injury.
"I thought I did pretty well in the 2nd half. I just wanted to respond from Saturday’s game and work on my defense and make some plays on offense too."
"We’re still working on getting everything running on offense without Kia. Playing without her will help us in the long run because we'll be that much better when she gets back.""We made it a point to know where they are on the court and to not let them get open looks. [Auriemma] challenges us. He wants us to make plays and gets steals or get a tip on a pass. Just be able to shut them down."
Natalie Butler
Sometimes Natalie is Roberto Duran, hands of stone. If she could only hold on to the ball better. She also still brings the ball down on rebounds, allowing it to be stripped. These are things that she can improve on...but it seems not to be happening. She did grab 7 rebounds in her 17 minutes and scored 4 points. But her 4 turnovers were something UConn didn't need to see. The good news is that she is always a presence in the middle. She plays big and put in good minutes when she went in for Williams and played the entire second quarter.
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Kyla Irwin
I loved her quick release after receiving a pass and hitting her only shot of the game, a perfectly done three pointer. It was captured nicely in her picture. If she ever played 25-30 minutes with the regulars I promise you she would get 8-10 points and 5-7 rebounds. In her 8 minutes she scored 3 points and grabbed a rebound.
Only 4 minutes for Tierney. I just love watching her on the sidelines. She is really coaching out there.
Kia Nurse
She does add some class and beauty to the UConn bench when in her civvies. Pretty girl but I like her better when she is playing...lol.
Final Thoughts
Next game is Senior Night at Gample against Memphis. This is the first meeting between these two teams this season.
I have a great picture of Gabby in my write-up about her, but I saw this one and had to share it with you. Her elevation is beyond amazing.
And this one.......the Seniors!!!!!
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