UConn-South Florida Post game report
(pictures from the Hartford Courant, UConnhuskies.com)
After the game, Geno made sure to give props to the USF team saying they are the score is not indicative of how good or bad South Florida is. While you might think he is just blowing smoke up our collective butts, I agree with Geno. As I said in my pre-game report, this is just a bad matchup for South Florida. There are few teams with the inside presence offensively and defensively that UConn has with Stewart, Tuck and Stokes. UConn is just too balanced for most teams to deal with and USF doesn't have the talent to compete with them. But, geeze, every game I watch I ask myself "who does?"
UConn got off to a quick start with a 7-0 run and Jose called a timeout yelled at officials for something. I couldn't quite tell what he was upset with. He kept making this arm motion similar to the traveling signal. But I'm not sure the officials were listening.
The UConn offense looked great from the start. Jefferson's defense kept fueling the offense. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure this team can play any better as they did in the first 8 minutes. I don't think they have taken a bad shot. On consectutive inbound attemps USF had one 5 second violation and one time out. UConn was all over them.
They seemed to be rushing the offense all of a sudden and South Florida took advantage. After Nurse hit a three pointer for a 25-6 lead at the 12:50 mark, Laura Ferreira hit a three herself to start a 7-2 USF run. It was cool to see in succession a made three by the freshman from Portugal for USF follow a three made by the freshman from Canada for UConn. A true international game. UConn missed their next 5 shots until a nice Williams steal and layup.
The lead was cut to 13 with 5 minutes left before UConn went on another run paced by the all-American play by Jefferson. A fastbreak led by Jefferson ended with an amazing return pass to KML for the layup after KML had passed her the ball. As part of this run, Jefferson had a fantastic drive using, as Sue Bird called it, a side step move. And with one minute left in the half Jefferson had a no look pass to the left for a Tuck and one!! It was fantastic play by both players.
In a somewhat lighter moment, Stokes and Williams screwed up defensively on an inbounds allowing Courtney Williams to get open for a 3 as the shot clock went off. The camera caught Dailey wave her hand in disgust saying "Geeze....stupid".......and UConn went in halftime with an 18 point lead.
At the start of the second half, USF cut the halftime lead to 16 and BOOM, a three by Jefferson, a two by Nurse and a three by KML and it was back to 24.
Jefferson is as smart a player as I have seen. She uses ball fakes as well as anyone. Tuck was at the low post. Stewart in the high post. Jefferson faked it to Stewart and when the post defender bit on the fake and moved to double Stewart, Jefferson passed the ball to Tuck in the low post.
At that point, the game was well in hand and the only question was the final margin and would the bench score enough to satisfy the fans who have to find something to complain about.
So, I'll admit it. When Chong took the three pointer, as it was in the air, I said "make it" and gave a fist pump when she made it. Then she took another with confidence and made it. It was great to see.
Williams made sure that the bench at the end didn't hurt the scoring margin with her rebounding and post presence and UConn won 92-50.
Geno was interviewed after the game. He thought the first half they scored a lot and it made the game pace hard for USF to deal with. But they didn't play great defense. He felt defense and rebounding carried the day in the second half.
Bird put Geno on the spot and asked what was his favorite team and after hemming and hawing he said it was 2002. It was clear the only reason he said 2002 was because Bird was there...lol. When asked about Jefferson and said her confidence has helped her defense, her getting to the basket. She is playing to the level of her ability. He said it has been 30 years since they had a point guard that good. Hysterical dig at Bird.
So, that's about it for the game report. Before I get into the player by player assessment I have to say something about Courtney Williams. She is really good. I mean REALLY good. Her jump shot is money and she has great moves to the basket. There is a reason she was on the pre-season AAC first team and will garner some post season accolades as well. Well, on to the UConn players!!!!
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Player of the Game
Moriah Jefferson
Moriah was just spectacular. And in this game she showed her entire package. 15 points, 6-6 from the field, 2-2 on three's, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. But her game is so much more than that. Against USF, she was incredibly disruptive with her on the ball defense and when they tried to play off her to double on other players, she either drove to the hoop, scored or dished an assist or hit a three. There is no PG in the country playing better than her.
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis
She didn't practice. She was really under the weather. So she only leads the team in scoring with 18 points going 7-14 from the field and 4-8 on three's in only 23 minutes. I'm so impressed with her complete game. On UConn's first possession, she drove hard to the basket for a nice floater for two. Sending a message that she is not just a three point shooter.
Breanna Stewart
Stewart was still cold from the outside, but she was terrific in every other phase of the game. Her attitude on defense had a "pissed off" attitude. Maybe the USF quotes did have an impact? Nice double double with 17 points and 10 rebounds to go along with her 5 blocks.
Kia Nurse
It was a tough offensive game for Nurse although she managed 8 points and 3 assists. What I loved is that her intensity, hustle and defense was there the entire game. One particular play she went to the floor for the ball and passed from a prone position to a streaking UConn player. Her freshman wall is very thin.
This wasn't a great game for Stokes, but she did manage another 7 blocks. And every time she hits a jumper, I wonder if she will eventually in her career understand how talented she is. But 2 points on 1-5 shooting is disappointing.
Saniya Chong
A confidence building game for Chong. Hitting 2-3 three pointers is a great start. I thought her defense was pretty good as well. She got plenty of minutes with Nurse's foul problems and Chong took advantage of it. I love the 6 points and 3 rebounds. But I really love the ZERO TO's.
Gabby made a big steal and layup in the first half ending the one and only run that USF had. She just floats in the air like no other player I've seen this year. The closest player with the same physical attributes is Jewel Loyd. Quite the compliment. And as Bird said, when did a guard get such great post moves?? Williams is just beginning to scratch the surface of what she can do. With 9 points, 8 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block in only 20 minutes, there is a lot more to come.
Courtney Ekmark
Open three pointers will fall, open three pointers will fall........
Keep taking them. I did like how hard she plays and how smart she plays. She just needs to hit those open threes. They will fall!!
UConn had one of it's better defensive effort against South Florida.
They held South Florida to 26% from the field and 33% on 3's.
Overall, just a great team effort against a good team in South Florida
Game Quotes
(from Uconnhuskies.com)
Geno on the defense - “We take a lot of pride in what we do defensively. I thought we made them work for the points they got… I thought our defense in the second half was really good, we rebounded the ball a lot better. Sometimes that gets lost in the shuffle, that we’re a pretty good defensive team. What happens when you score points as quickly as we did today is the other team starts to rush because they have to try to get back in the game…I was pretty happy defensively, especially the second half.”
Geno on Jefferson - “There were so many good plays that she made. She just has a really good feel right now for where everything is. She’s not forcing anything, she’s just playing... You can just tell that she was on her game, and she had a tough job defensively, too. But I think everybody played pretty well, too. It was just one of those games where the entire team played well."
Jefferson - I think we have so many goals within a game and when we don’t achieve them it makes a win feel like a loss sometimes. We want to come out and do all the things that are necessary to win. This was a great team win, everyone played well.”
USF head coach Jose Fernandez - "I can tell you something. I didn't think we would come up here and be beat by 42. We've taken worse teams up here and that hasn't happened. We were down by 18 at the half. Turnovers weren't an issue. I thought we did a great job on the glass. They just killed us in transition in the first half. They got great looks in the open floor. Our concern was the glass, transition defense and the turnovers. We did a good job in the first half taking care of the ball. We only had six turnovers and it was 15-9 on the offensive glass in our favor. I think we just gave them too many open looks in transition. We defended from inside to outside, but were in too many gray areas.I think our guys got rattled and there were some things that I wanted us to work on too. At that point the game is out of reach, so you want to see guys sprinting the floor...A team like this, you can't give them extra possessions. Our transition defense was very, very poor."
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UConn's next game is in Orlando Florida against Central Florida. I'll be passing them in the skies as I am flying back to cold Connecticut Wednesday afternoon. It's been a great 17 days here and blogging from the warm weather of sunny Boynton Beach.
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