Doggy's UConn/Wichita State Post Game Report

Game Analysis

Not much to say here, just like the last game, only opposite!! UConn did whatever they wanted to do in this game against Wichita State. Their defense was amazing. The offense was efficient. Geno was able to play everyone and some bench players got some great minutes.

This kind of performance is not the norm, but it shows, when the team is "on", they are so much better than any other team in the country. Here are some stats that I had in my daily blog about the game.

The 70% shooting in both halves was awesome. 

The frontline of Collier, Williams, Samuelson and Stevens was 33-38 from the field and 8-10 on threes. 

When Geno was asked at the half how much Dangerfield had to do with the team's ability to score 67 points he said "everything". That is enough for me. I figure that if Dangerfield played 25 minutes in the previous game, UConn scores maybe 20 more points. She is that important. 

UConn had their second most points scored in a game with 124 and tied most points in a quarter with 41.

UConn had 10 players with double digit minutes.

More in the player analysis. I'd like to thank the photographer for FINALLY taking some good pictures of the bench players for me to use in my blog.

Game Highlights

Game Replay

Commercial Free

Game Stats and Box Score

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Geno Post Game Interview

Game Quotes from Geno

"When you have somebody like Crystal, you can’t underestimate the impact that she has on your team because of what she can do with the ball in her hands. She can go wherever she wants with it and she’s very creative. She’s like a great soccer player that sees things one or two passes ahead, she’s really smart and she can go places that nobody else on our team can. The difference was evident right away. She set the tone, as did that whole group in the first quarter and it just carried over from there."

"I don’t think that it was anything. I don’t know that it came out of the win the other day, maybe it did. Maybe we just needed to recharge our batteries or something but I think the combination of our defense creating a lot of opportunities for us when we didn’t have Crystal the other day we were reluctant to stretch our defense out. We didn’t want to have to do even more with one less body. Today I thought we felt a little bit better extending ourselves a little bit more defensively and it paid off and we made shots. Considering we don’t practice here, we just come shoot around, we shot the ball incredibly well and anytime you make shots like that it makes your offense look good but a lot of it was off our defense."

"On our shooting, There wasn’t really much of a drop off. We started a certain way and we sustained it pretty much the whole game which is not always easy to do when you have a big lead like that but I think once you do get a big lead it affects the other team obviously and I’m sure everybody on the other team is hoping that we start missing and then we just kept making them and kept making them and then players that we were bringing off the bench added a lot so it just kept intensifying."

"A lot of times what happens is when you have a particular ball handler and everyone else has to be a finisher, you’re pretty much going to have to rely on one person creating so you get a turnover and boom, that person creates a lot offense for you but we have a lot of good ball handlers when it comes to that so I mean everything that Crystal did to jump start everything that we were doing. [Junior guard/forward Katie] Lou [Samuelson] had nine assists so the ball today it seemed like no matter who it touched that person did something good with it and our transition game, yeah we spent a lot of time on it in practice and we are pretty organized and we generally don’t take a bad shot in transition so everything looks easy. I mean we’ve got good ball handlers and we’ve got good finishers so today was one of those unique days where everything went right."

here: tp://www.thestate.com/sports/college/university-of-south-carolina/usc-womens-basketball/article197971914.html#storylink=cpy

Game Quotes
Coach Keitha Adams

"Obviously we have a lot of work to do and a long way to go. They're a great program. Phenomenal. They've set the bar really high and we're going to work really hard to get there."

"I think when you get an old fashioned butt kicking it puts a lot of motivation in your gas tank. We need to take what happened to us today and use it as motivation."

"We threw the ball away so much. Our turnovers really, really hurt us. I think the biggest thing was that it's the biggest sized team that we've faced. They're length really effected us. I'm sure as you experience it more you're probably more mentally prepared for it. They've got a great team. He took the press off, he could have left the press on longer and he didn't and I told him that at the end. They are definitely world class, the way they play. We're going to work really hard to get there."

Player Evaluations

Napheesa Collier

Napheesa is looking more and more like last years player. She is hitting a huge percentage of her shots. In this game she played a team leading 28 minutes scoring 26 points on 11-13 shooting. She is closing in on 60% shooting! She added 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. When she is playing like this, UConn goes to another level.   

Kia Nurse

Kia is struggling from three point land recently and that continued in this game. Even though she WAS leading the country in three point shooting, her value to the team is so much more than that. Even if she didn't score a point, her defense is enough to keep her on the court as much as possible. In this game she played only 23 minutes, but scored 14 points and handed out 3 assists with no turnovers. I have a feeling she will get hot from long range very soon.     

Gabby Williams

Gabby filled up the box score.....again. She only played 21 minutes but scored 17 points on 8-9 shooting. She added 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals. From dominating the opening tip to out-jumping taller players for rebounds, her physical presence can truly intimidate her opponent. 

"It wasn't just that Crystal played well, she started a spark and we fed off her energy a lot today."

"We were focused on our energy in general. We wanted our offense to be better and we recently have been getting lazy, like when we let UCF beat us up a lot. We were focused on having control of the game."

Kati Lou Samuelson  

Is Samuelson now leading the country in three point shooting percentage? She moved ahead of Kia, so maybe. You know I'll look into it Monday when the new stats come out. In this game, Katie Lou played 25 minutes scoring 22 points on 7-9 shooting. She was 6-8 on threes! And the maturing Samuelson added NINE assists. Her game is getting more and more complete.   

"We wanted to come into this game after last game and play as hard and as well as we could, I didn't think we would score this much but that first quarter we played really well together."

"Crystal does things that no one else on the team can do. I knew she was going to pass it to me because whenever Crystal is not looking at you she is probably going to pass to you. That was a pretty amazing pass."

Crystal Dangerfield

I couldn't resists a picture of that great behind the back pass. Boy, was that fun to watch. It was great to have her back in the starting lineup, just in time to shake some rust off before the Louisville game. UConn will need her to play extended minutes in this one. In her 19 minutes she had 9 points 4 assists and 3 steals. Certainly not dominating stats. But just her presence made everyone else play better. She would have had a few more assists but the UConn player she passes to was fouled. 

Azura Stevens

Azura had a tough start due to some foul trouble. She needs to play smarter on defense to avoid the kind of fouls she took early on. But when she did play, she was terrific. She only played 14 minutes but she scored 16 points on 7-7 shooting, 1-1 on threes. She really is a great weapon off the bench. I don't know if they give a national 6th player award, but in my mind, she's it.

Kyla Irwin

Kyla did what she always does in her limited minutes. She plays UConn basketball. She seems to be in the right place at the right time. I'd like to see her be more aggressive when she is on the court, but right now, that is not her mindset. In her 15 minutes she scored 2 points and had 3 rebounds two of those were offensive.   

Megan Walker

Statistically it wasn't Walkers best game, but she really played better than the numbers showed. She played 18 minutes and scored 4 points, grabbed a rebound and handed out 2 assists. But she played some nice physical defense and just looked good on the court.

Molly Bent

I said that after the Cincinnati game - "she really needs to contribute more while on the court".

Well, she did that in this game. Geno gave her 14 minutes and she scored 9 points, going 7-8 from the foul like. She was much more aggressive in this outing. She added 3 rebounds and 3 steals. She is not taking minutes away from anyone this season, but it was great to see her improvement in this performance.  

Mikayla Coombs

Mikayla looked GOOD. I was great to see and really showed me something in this game. She was aggressive on offense and defense and looked like she belonged out there. What she didn't do was play scared or tentative. She can really earn some minutes next season. She played 12 minutes and scored 5 points on 2-3 shooting. She added 3 rebounds and 2 steals. 

Batouly Camara

Not a lot of minutes for Camara. She managed 1 rebound in 6 minutes. I don't know. I watch her on the court and I still think she can contribute more.  

  

Lexi Gordon

Still not ready for prime time. She played 5 minutes and missed her only shot.

 Final Thoughts

What a great game leading into the Louisville contest on Monday. That's a game I can't wait to watch. It should be a good one. I'm expecting a sellout crowd to spur the Huskies on to a big win! 

Geno REALLY REALLY REALLY likes Crystal. I think she has a chance to be talked about in the same breath as Jefferson, Bird and Rizzoti.