UCONN vs Arizona
Day: Friday
Date: April 2nd, 2021
Time: 9:30 PM ET
Location: San Antonio, TX
TV: ESPN
1 Seed UConn 28-1 3 Seed Arizona 20-5
Head to Head games
ARIZONA | UCONN LEADS 1-0
H: 0-0 | A: 0-0 | N: 1-0
03/21/98 #4 UConn 74, #9 Arizona 57 Dayton, Ohio
From DraftKings
No. 3 Arizona
First Round: Defeated No. 14 Stony Brook 79-44
Second Round: Defeated No. 11 BYU 52-46
Third Round: Defeated No. 2 Texas A&M 74-59
Elite Eight: Defeated No. 4 Indiana 66-53
Leading scorer: Aari McDonald (20.3 ppg)
The focus in this tournament has been on other great players such as the one you’ll read about below, Caitlin Clark of Iowa, Ashley Owusu of Maryland and more. But the star of the event might be McDonald, who has been an absolute beast so far. She had 33 points on 12-20 from the field Monday night, including 5-6 from three-point range. For a player that’s shooting just 29.6% from deep this season, that’s stepping up when needed.
The Wildcats have held opponents to just 30.6% from downtown all year, and force 17.9 turnovers per game. They’ll have their toughest test defensively on Friday night however, with what might be the best team remaining in the country able to score from all five positions.
The only team that’s close on talent in terms of what U of A has seen is currently No. 2-ranked Stanford, who beat them 62-48 in Palo Alto on February 22nd.
Comparative Team Statistics
Leader In Bold
UConn Arizona
83.1 PPG 66.8
51.5 Defensive PPG 55.2
31.6 Scoring Margin 11.6
51.9 Field Goal % 41.4
33.3 Defensive FG% 36.8
35.1 Three Point % 33.8
27.0 Defensive 3PT 30.6
72.0 Free Throw % 68.8
41.9 Rebounds/game 36.8
12.2 Rebounding Margin -0.2
21.2 Assists per game 11.8
14.2 Turnover per game 12.4
1.5 Assists/TO ratio 1.0
9.9 Steals per game 10.6
5.7 Blocks per game 4.6
UCONN
The player and coaches names for both teams
are clickable to see their Bios
UConn Starters
*******************************************************************
ARIZONA
"We’re playing good basketball. We’re playing for each other, enjoying the ride. We’re going to put it all on the line. We play hard. We’re not soft. We don’t take plays off. We play with our hearts. It may not be pretty, and that’s OK. We’re going to give 100%. Whatever happens at the end of that, whether we win or lose, that’s what’s meant to be.”
Arizona Starters
Game Analysis
The last time these two teams was the only time they met and that was 23 years ago. So it's irrelevant. But interesting.
This game will come down to pace of play. UConn will have to find a way to slow down Arizona's star player Aari McDonald and if they do, UConn will win easily. It's tough for me to write a complete analysis when I haven't seen much of the opponent. That is certainly the case here. In fact, the Arizona/Indiana game was the first Arizona game I've seen in it's entirety. But I will do my best.
Senior Aari McDonald is just a great player. But as good as she is, she has been even better in the tournament. She is 39-71 (54.9%) from the field so far and 13-28 (46.2%) on threes. Even better if you look at just the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games. She is averaging 25.2 PPG in the tournament. Ok...enough about her stats. She is just something else to see play. A lefty and only 5'6", she can get to the rim against anyone. Her speed with the basketball is just off the charts. You know she is going left, but there is nothing you can do about it. During the season she led the team in scoring at 20.3 PPG and is the focal point of the team both offensively and defensively. She has had 12 steals in the tournament but that doesn't tell the story of her impact on defense. She is just a disrupt-or. McDonald is known as a volume shooter. And she only shot 41.4% from the field and 33.4% on threes during the season. The best compliment I can give her is that she reminds me of one of my favorite players of all time, Nate "Tiny" Archibald.
Caitlin Reese, a 6'2" junior forward, is the only other double digit scorer on the team. And in the tournament she is averaging 10.1 points and 6.3 rebounds. She is a solid defender and a good spot up three point shooter, going 5-8 in the tournament. She shot 44.8% on threes for the season.
The other three starters, Baptiste, Thomas and Yearney are similar players. All around 6' tall and strong on defense. Thomas is the second best three point shooter on the team and has the best assists/turnover ratio. Baptiste is the strongest of the three and will give a hard time on defense to whoever she guards. Yearney will see the least amount of minuts of the three.
Arizona's bench will help sub for everyone but McDonald, Reese and Baptiste, who will play close to 40 minutes in this game. The only height on the team is 6'5" freshman Lauren Ware, but I don't expect to see her more than 10-15 minutes if that.
Arizona is a really good defensive team, only giving up around 55 PPG. They do this by mixing up their defense, going from man to man to a match up zone similar to UConn. But they will probably play more zone in this game as the individual matchups heavily favor the Huskies. They love to swarm on the ball handler and UConn will have to make some quick passes to avoid those possible turnovers.
Offensively, it will be all about McDonald. She will take whoever is guarding her off the dribble and take several step back three pointers after getting her defender back on their heels. Their other offense will be when they drive and kick the ball out for an open three pointer. They have hit a high percentage in this tournament. It killed Indiana.
UConn is going to try to control the pace. Defensively they will attempt to force McDonald to her right and try to get the ball out of her hands. Not sure they will be able to to that. That being said, they need to shut down the rest of the team. That is something this defense will be able to do.
Offensively, UConn has a decided size advantage and they will certainly look to use that to score on the inside. To me that means a big game for Edwards. They have no one to guard her. And we saw what happened against Iowa. In fact, with Arizona relying so much on one player similarly to Iowa, I look for UConn to play them close to the same way. The Huskies should dominate the boards and that means they will run as much as possible.
Game Prediction
You'd think this would be an easy one. UConn is clearly the superior team. But it's the semi-final, and that has been a bugaboo. Three straight seasons of losing that game. But Arizona is not Notre Dame. They are not even Mississippi State, who beat UConn as well in that game.
Still unknown is if Nika Muhl will be available for this game. I hope so for her sake. She deserves to be part of this on the court.
The Huskies will impose their will on Arizona, and get the pacing they want. That will be enough to win going away.
UConn by 15+.
Hope you're right. McDonald will be a challenge.
ReplyDelete