Doggy's UConn/DePaul Post Game Report

Let me start off by saying I hate road games. I have a selfish reason. There are no post game interviews for me to post, not as many quotes from Geno, the opposing coach and the players, and mostly there are not as many pictures of the players in action. Ok..rant over. 

What a strange game. As I said yesterday, it really was a tale of two halves. UConn pretty much played a perfect first half in running out to a 26 point lead. DePaul was not given totally open threes and when they did get them they were rushed. UConn, on the other hand, took shots in the flow of the offense and hit a ton of open threes. The Huskies dominated the boards as well. 

Through the first 20 minutes, UConn outshot DePaul 61.1% to 34.3% and out-rebounded the Blue Demons 29-9. 

It could have been even worse for the Blue Demons if UConn wasn't so sloppy with the ball, and vision of what was to come in the second half. 

DePaul is one hell of a team and you couldn't expect them to roll over in the second half. They hit a quick three pointer to start the third quarter and they were off to the races. By the end of the quarter they had cut that 26 points halftime lead right in half. I'm thinking at this point that UConn will right the ship and play a much better fourth quarter, but it only got worse. DePaul kept on hitting the three pointers, getting to every loose ball, rebounding better and defending UConn better. I noticed that for much of the second have DePauls tallest player, Stonewell, was defending UConn's smallest player, Dangerfield. And it was very effective.      

What I did like about this game, besides the dominating first half, was how UConn finally got it together, slapped some good defense on the Blue Demons and imposed their will the last few minutes to win the game 84-74. 

UConn did better against DePaul in almost every category I had in my pregame report.

PPG                             90.4 - 74

Defensive PPG          74.9 - 84

Field Goal %              44.7 - 38.7

Defensive FG%          48.4 - 54.7   

Three Point %            34.8 - 34.4

Defensive 3PT%        34,6 - 40.0

Free Throw %             75.2 - 71.4

Rebounds/game        38.9 - 28

Rebounding Margin      .8 - -22

Assists per game        23.1 - 18

Turnover per game     15.4 - 6

Assists/TO ratio            1.5 - 3

Steals per game         13.2 - 11

Blocks per game           2.6 - 1 

A few stats stick out to me. 

- The rebounding margin is huge in UConn's favor. A minus 22 for DePaul. 

- Every shooting percentage was down for DePaul. 

- DePaul only had 6 turnovers. UConn has to do a better job of forcing them, but give credit to DePaul. 

I usually don't like to complain about the refs, especially in games that UConn wins, but this one just really annoyed me.

I took this video from the game. What a horrible call and in such an important part of the game. Pathetic job by that official. 

This happened with 5 minutes left in the game. UConn was leading 78-69. Walker kicked it out to Dangerfield for a wide open three that she hit. It could easily have been a 12 point lead. Watch the player start to fall down way before Walker makes any contact. I can't believe the ref didn't see that. 

Here is the full game replay

Game Highlights

Game Stats and Box Score

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Game Quotes from Geno

“We knew coming out in the second half that it was impossible to re-create that first half. That wasn’t going to happen. When you have such a good shooting team like they do, you’re not going to have a game when they don’t make any.”

“The DePaul kids, they’re not going to roll over and go, ‘OK, why don’t we just lose by 50? So they started beating us to loose balls, they start getting a couple of things (shots) we didn’t let them have in the first, got a little momentum, made a couple of tough 3s.”

“I was just disappointed in what we did on the offensive end more so than anything in the second half. I thought we lost a lot of our rhythm, a lot of our movement. We didn’t attack as much. And we got a little bit complacent.”

“I think putting together two great halves on a consistent basis is going to be a luxury this year. We used to take that for granted, but it’s getting harder and harder to really bear down and keep grinding it out, keep grinding it out, keep grinding it out. I think we get a little complacent. We get up, we get a big lead and it’s like, ‘yeah okay, we’ve done our job.’”

Game Quotes from

DePaul Coach Doug Bruno 

“Why were we down 26? If you shoot quickly and don’t make shots, and you also don’t defend and you don’t rebound, that’s a recipe for disaster. That recipe for disaster hit us right between the eyes in the first half.”

“I just believe in preparing our players by playing the best. They’re the best program in the history of intercollegiate basketball men or women. They’ve set the bar."

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UConn Player Evaluations

Megan Walker

Walker was terrific again in this game. She played the entire game, never looked tired and came within 3 assists of a triple double. She had 22 points, 13 rebounds a 7 assists. And in a sloppy UConn game she had only 2 turnovers. 

First Team AA. I'm going to keep posting that until it happens.   

“That’s good for us to do that, withstand DePaul’s furious comeback. We had no choice at that point, but we don’t want to be put in that situation. They got a lot of open threes. We’ve got to do a better job in the third quarter.”

Crystal Dangerfield

Dangerfield got off to a fast start on three pointers, setting the tone for the Huskies. She also played the entire 40 minutes, and scored also scored 22 points, her season high. She added 4 assists and had only 2 turnovers. She had 3 steals but her hustle doesn't show up on the box score as she was all over the court diving for balls and sacrificing her body. Don't get hurt Crystal!!!!

“We knew what we were doing to be successful. I don’t think we were expecting them to come out and hit their shots early. They hit a couple of big shots and that got them going.”

Christyn Williams

We got two things in this game. We got the rebounding Christyn and the turnover Christyn. I like the first and not the latter. She missed a ton of shots but still managed to score 13 points and grab 11 rebounds in her 38 minutes. She was 4 turnovers away from a triple double.

Olivia Nelson-Ododa

If only the guards could get her the ball a little more. But DePaul did a great job fronting her and then doubling and even tripling her when she did get the ball. In spite of all that attention, she had a perfect shooting game. In her 30 minutes, she was 9-9 from the field, 1-1 on free throws. She scored 19 points and had 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks. She is turning into a complete player.  

Kyla Irwin

A pretty meh game for Kyla. They got her an open corner three to start the game, just like the last game but this time she missed it and then didn't take another shot. She still played 20 minutes and although scoreless, she grabbed 5 rebounds. Geno had her in the game late when UConn wanted to run out the clock. He trusts her.  

Anna Makurat   

Anna had a decent game. In her 22 minutes she scored 8 points, hitting 2 of 3 three pointers and grabbed 7 rebounds. Her 4 turnovers tarnish the game for her but she is now 9 for her last 21 on threes. She is figuring it out.

Aubrey Griffin

Griffin only played 10 minutes in this game. I think her struggles understanding where she needs to be on defense prevented Geno from trusting her enough to not give up open looks in a game like this against a team like DePaul.  

Molly Bent

30 seconds for Molly at the end of the first half. And she made a defensive mistake giving up a three pointer at the buzzer. She didn't see another minute.

 Final Thoughts

Well, I'm sure Geno was happy to get this game over with. DePaul is just a weird match up. Up next for the Huskies is Oklahoma on Sunday. Under Sherri Coale, the Sooners are 6-4 but are playing an entertaining game, scoring a lot and hitting a lot of threes with a smaller lineup. Sound familiar? Yes, they are what I call "DePaul Lite". Not as good and one player is the main three point shooter as opposed to speading it around, but still, a similar team. UConn got good preparation in this game.

9-0, No. 2 in the country, and still not playing as good as they can. The team has a ways to go, but based on what I have seen from all the other teams, UConn really can win it all this season.