are clickable to see their Bios
This is certainly a familiar foe for the Huskies. Both were members of the Big East for many year and played each other 20 times. Louisville won the first game between these two teams in 1993 and didn't play again until 2006. Louisville won that first game and UConn then won the next 16 times they played. One was for the National Championship in 2013 where the Huskies embarrassed Louisville 74-48. It was the first of Breanna Stewart and UConn's four straight championships. The Cardinals have won the last two of three times the teams have met including two seasons ago, 3 games after losing Bueckers and a game that Muhl was out as well. Ducharme was outstanding in that game with 26 points.
Ok, enough about the past. There are only a few players that have played against each other. One for Louisville in Olivia Cochran and three for UConn in Edwards, Ducharme and DeBerry. And only one will see minutes in this game.
Some teams say that they have a deep bench and in reality they only play 7 in cometative games. Not Louisville. They have 9 player that have double digit minutes and all have played in every game. They have another double digit minute player that has only missed one game. And they have another player that has played in every game with 8 MPG. That is truely playing everyone. Against Alabama, their only loss, they played 9 players double digit minutes. And in their closest win against Ole Miss they played 9 players double digit minutes and one played 8 minutes. I would imagine they play 9 or 10 against UConn.
The Cards also share the scoring load. There are 8 players between 12.1 PPG and 6 PPG. That can be good and bad. Sometimes you need that superstar to make the difference.
Louisville has been consistent with their starters. They have started four players in every game and two players have split evenly that last starting spot.
Leading scorer is 6'1" graduate student guard Kiki Jefferson, who averages 12.1 PPG. Before transferring to Louisville in Aprile 2023, Kiki had a great career at James Madison. She is the most efficient player shooting 51% from the field and 34% on threes. And one of the only players with a positive assist/turnover ratio with 20/12.
Right behind Jefferson is 6'3" senior Olivia Cochran. Cochran is on all the watch lists for the center position. She is the only player that played in the game the last time these two teams met. She is solid post and it will be a great battle between her and Edwards all game long. She averages 11.6 PPG and leads the team in rebounds at 6.2 RPG. On a team that doesn't block shots she leads with only 5 on the season.
5'9" grad student guard Sydney Taylor is the only other double digit scorer at 10.5 PPG. Taylor is another transfer student. She came from the University of Massachusetts where she was First Team All-Conference in her Junior and Senior years. Taylor is 2.9 RPG and 1.7 APG. She takes the most three point shots on the team averaging 6 taken per game. However she only shoots them at 29.2%.
The last player that has started every game is Nyla Harris, a 6'2" sophomore forward. A solid rebounder at 5.5 RPG, second on the team, she is averaging 9.7 PPG as well. The stat that stands out to me is her 4 assists and 19 turnovers on the season.
Louisville has started Nina Rickards, a 5'9" grad student who is one more transfer in the starting lineup, this time from Florida. She leads the team in assists with 3 APG and an asssits/turnover ratio of 34/22. She is averaging 7.5 PPG and 4.5 RPG. Her rebounding numbers from a 5'9" guard is remarkable. A former Christ the King HS player. UConn fans are very familiar with that school.
As I mentions earlier, the strength of this team is it's depth and they will play 4-5 players off the bench in this game. They have every game so far this season.
First off the bench is Jayda Curry, a 5'6" junior guard. She has started 5 games this season. Not a great shooter she is only averaging 7.9 PPG. But she is a solid ball handler with a positive assist to turnover ratio of 24/17. Oh yeah, she is another transfer, this time from California.
Eylia Love, is a 6'1" junior guard. Say it with me, another transfer, this time from Georgia Tech. She is averagin 19.5 MPG, 6.5 PPG and 3.5 RPG. A great free throw shooter, she does get to the line going 22-26 on the season.
Merissah Russell, a 6' senior from Canada is NOT a transfer. She is playing 18 MPG and averaging 6 PPG and 2.5 RPG. She is third in three pointers taken but is only 7-27 (25.9%).
Finally, the only size off the bench, 6'3" freshman forward, Elif Istanbulluoglu, I hope this is the last time I have to type her name. She only gets 15.2 MPG. I don't see her getting that much in this one. She will spell Cochran for a few but that is about it. She is averaging 3.1 PPG and 2.9 RPG. Her most amazing stat is how poorly she shoots for a tall girl. She is 0-10 from three. But she is also only 11-28 for 39% from the field.
Louisville runs a basic defense. Switching man to man. However, they are not particularly quick to the ball on the switch, UConn will look to take advantage with that. Their guards are good sized and that is an advantage against most teams. Not UConn.
The most important matchup migut just be the "centers". Both are 6'3" and Cochran is a little bigger and stronger in the paint. But Edwards has the advantage in quickness. In their 11 games, Cochran has fouled out of two, two games with 4 fouls and averages three and a half fouls per game. Look for this to be an issue against a player with great post moves and quickness like Edwards.
I'm doing to also focus on a really good game for Griffin. She has been really inconsistent this season and as you will see, she has a real advantage in quickness.
UConn's advantage is their quickness and some size advantages on the perimeter. While Louisville does have some big guards they also have small guards that see minutes. When Taylor, Curry and Rickards are in, look for Paige to post up if they are guarding her.
Louisville is a poor shooting team. Of course that doesn't mean they will struggle in this game but the odds are that they will. They only shoot 45% from the field and 30.1% on threes. And they have simmilar rebounding stats as the Huskies so I don't see an advantage on the boards for either team. Whoever wins that could have a big advantage.
Final Prediction
No comments:
Post a Comment