Uconn is at it again

[LasVegasBill23]

Pat and Geno both stick out as stalwarts of the game.... of course

 

[UCMiami]

Because those teams will be better or because UConn will drop down a few pegs? While there will be more competitive games next year, the level of play will be worse, not better. WCBB would benefit if there were ten teams who played like UConn does this year. First time viewers are not going to get hooked on WCBB if the play is slow, no one can shoot, and no one hits lay-ups. (I would also add Texas and Maryland to your list.)

I agree that 'dominance' is going to be an old story in two days, and Uconn will come back into the pack - but not because they will not be playing really good basketball, but because they will for the first time in 3+ years not be fielding a team with 3 college first team all americans. Uconn is really well coached and plays really well, but you cannot dominate the way they have without great talent. Stewart and Jefferson are likely the best two players in the country this year, and Tuck is probably in the next three, certainly in the next seven. That talent turns tight games into blow outs.

There really is a lot of good coaching and a lot of talent spread around the country at this point. Next year should be really exciting, and if TN can bottle the little run they went on at the end of the year and build on it next year, you should be in that mix. Can Holly pull that off, and will the players follow - who knows.

 

[Volfan2012]

9 of 17 from the three and 56 percent from the field. UConn has the shooters Geno goes out and finds the players that can shoot the basketball and if they can't he makes them great shooters by development. That is the major difference and a big one between Tennessee and UConn our players do not development and most are bad shooters when they get here.

 

[illinoisvolfan1]

if you squint just right you can pretend that syracuse is
tn.

I tried. Didn't work.

 

[PineyBluff Vol]

Or, another way would be that we beat them in November.

See Sly, that is the problem with your thinking, in November, it didn't matter as much as it did in March!

 

[BowlBrother85]

Geno is the all-time greatest women's basketball coach....I love Pat don't get me wrong but Geno is just on a whole nother level.....Pat is an all time great coach too she changed the game of women's basketball and put it on a national stage but to me Geno is the best of all time

PS:: Pat never beat Geno when they went head to head in the title game

Yeah but that merits more description. Tennessee did beat UConn in the NCAA tournament in both '96 and '97 and narrowly missed playing them in the championship game in other years when Tennessee would likely have won such as '91 (when UConn lost in the final four to Virginia), '98 (when Tennessee was just much better) as well as '07 and '08 (when UConn lost in the final four to Stanford).

 

[Hoya Saxa]

I thought one of the most interesting things that occurred last night was the post-game press conference by the Oregon State coach. It was a refreshing difference from what we've seen by other coaches this year. His team got blown out on national television, yet everything he said about his players was positive and complimentary. He didn't throw his players under the bus like the Duke coach does after every loss. And he didn't spend half an hour picking cooties out of his hair and repeatedly saying he had no explanation for the loss and couldn't understand what just happened. (Of course the fact that he is going bald may have been a factor with the cooties.) He clearly has the love, respect, and devotion of his players. They have 100% bought into his philosophy. If, going forward, he can recruit as well as he can coach, he is going to do big things in WBCC.

 

[LadyVol1908]

Yeah but that merits more description. Tennessee did beat UConn in the NCAA tournament in both '96 and '97 and narrowly missed playing them in the championship game in other years when Tennessee would likely have won such as '91 (when UConn lost in the final four to Virginia), '98 (when Tennessee was just much better) as well as '07 and '08 (when UConn lost in the final four to Stanford).

I was thinking the same thing! They had the better team in those championship games. When we had the upper hand, they didn't make it far enough for Pat to win some of those h2h championship games.

 

[BowlBrother85]

I was thinking the same thing! They had the better team in those championship games. When we had the upper hand, they didn't make it far enough for Pat to win some of those h2h championship games.

... and if you want to go back to 1989 (one of Pat Summitt's best teams). Tennessee was a #1 seed and had a 1st round bye while awaiting the winner of #8 seed UConn and #9 seed LaSalle. That would have been the first meeting between the schools except that LaSalle beat UConn 72-63. Fwiw, Tennessee beat LaSalle 91-61 and didn't have a close game on the way to the championship that year.

 

[armchair]

We lost title games to UConn that we should have won; let's not pretend otherwise. When Kara Lawson was a senior, we had a talented and experienced team. UConn had Taurasi, who I think was a senior, and a bunch of young players. They won--and I knew then that Geno was going to blow past us. If Summitt had demonstrably better talent, UT won. If the talent was roughly equal, they would win, which is telling. Geno can coach toughness and defense like PS could--and he's always been a much better offensive coach, and that is where he left us in the dust, offensive efficiency, scoring.

 

[jonson]

Given all the talk about attitude and body language in several threads these past months, I thought some of you might find this quote from yesterday's post-game press conference interesting:

“Me, we, my coaching staff, we put a huge premium on body language,” Auriemma said. “And if your body language is bad, you will never get in the game. Ever. I don't care how good you are. If somebody says, well, you just benched (Breanna Stewart) for 35 minutes in the Memphis game a couple of years ago. Yeah, I did. That was to motivate her for the South Carolina game the following Monday? No, it wasn't. Stewy was acting like a 12-year-old. So I put her on the bench and said sit there.”

Indianapolis Star

 

[teacherdean]

I do not care how great Genno is, and right now he is the best, however, it was Pat who put the women's game on the map. If it were not for her, where exactly would Genno and women's basketball be? It is not uncommon for records to be broken, for that is good for the sport, but greatness is not always measured on wins and championships alone. Pat's impact upon women's basketball can never be trivialized. Genno has had a great impact on women's basketball, however, lets measure Pat's impact upon the game as a whole. She is the one who bought the game to the forefront so there would be a UCONN. There will never be another Pat Summitt in women's basketball.:clapping:

 

[orangeluvr]

9 of 17 from the three and 56 percent from the field. UConn has the shooters Geno goes out and finds the players that can shoot the basketball and if they can't he makes them great shooters by development. That is the major difference and a big one between Tennessee and UConn our players do not development and most are bad shooters when they get here.

Geno recruits great offensive players and develops them to be great defensive players. uconn has five gunners on the floor at all times, which makes them difficult to defend. Predicting the 'Cuse goes down by at least 20. :shakehead:

 

[orangeluvr]

I do not care how great Genno is, and right now he is the best, however, it was Pat who put the women's game on the map. If it were not for her, where exactly would Genno and women's basketball be? It is not uncommon for records to be broken, for that is good for the sport, but greatness is not always measured on wins and championships alone. Pat's impact upon women's basketball can never be trivialized. Genno has had a great impact on women's basketball, however, lets measure Pat's impact upon the game as a whole. She is the one who bought the game to the forefront so there would be a UCONN. There will never be another Pat Summitt in women's basketball.:clapping:

Bravo ! A pioneer of the game deserves all the respect and should never minimized.

 

[SGMVols]

Or, another way would be that we beat them in November.

This is not football...nobody remembers what you did in November.

 

[Velo Vol]

I see they're ~23-point favorite in the championship game.

Crazy.

 

[BowlBrother85]

We lost title games to UConn that we should have won; let's not pretend otherwise. When Kara Lawson was a senior, we had a talented and experienced team. UConn had Taurasi, who I think was a senior, and a bunch of young players. They won--and I knew then that Geno was going to blow past us. If Summitt had demonstrably better talent, UT won. If the talent was roughly equal, they would win, which is telling. Geno can coach toughness and defense like PS could--and he's always been a much better offensive coach, and that is where he left us in the dust, offensive efficiency, scoring.

That definitely wasn't always true. UConn went into the 1997 NCAA tournament undefeated while Tennessee had 10 losses but Tennessee soundly beat them in the elite 8. Tennessee also beat UConn in the regular season in 2000 (on the road) and 2001 (at home and without Catchings). If there were two seasons that UConn beat Tennessee in the championship game when they had equal talent, that would probably be 1995 (though Tennessee had lost Tiffany Woosley) and 2003...but as I pointed out in another thread there were years when Tennessee would have likely beaten UConn (1989, 1991, 1998, 2007 and 2008) had they not bowed out early.

 

[Hoya Saxa]

Given all the talk about attitude and body language in several threads these past months, I thought some of you might find this quote from yesterday's post-game press conference interesting:

“Me, we, my coaching staff, we put a huge premium on body language,” Auriemma said. “And if your body language is bad, you will never get in the game. Ever. I don't care how good you are. If somebody says, well, you just benched (Breanna Stewart) for 35 minutes in the Memphis game a couple of years ago. Yeah, I did. That was to motivate her for the South Carolina game the following Monday? No, it wasn't. Stewy was acting like a 12-year-old. So I put her on the bench and said sit there.”

Indianapolis Star

Angel M. would have spent a lot of time on the bench.

 

[teacherdean]

Well in the end it is the same old story different chapter. Again, Genno and the UCONN Huskies are two cuts above everyone else. The issue is simple, if not difficult to do, can anyone out coach and/or out play Genno and the Huskies? Apparently not in the women's game. The big question is, is anyone interested in beating the best? Look at the state of women's basketball. Right now we might as well engrave UCONN's name on the trophy or rename the tournament, "The UCONN Invitational". Maybe we need to rename the NC trophy, "The Genno".

We have a lot of pretenders and teams with great recruiting classes. In fact if you take Duke, based upon its roster, they should be equal to the test. In fact, Duke should be able to give UCONN more than it can handle. On paper, Duke, Tennessee, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Baylor, Maryland, Louisville, etc., their talent is just as good as UCONN's.

Let's get back to Duke, would not one think that with all the talent Coach McCallie has had, and failed, that she would be on a super hot seat? Hot seat, HELL, she should be already fired. The problem with the women's game is not the committment of university and college administrators, because, if not for Title 9, many could give a rat's butt about women's sports, it is the individual coaches. Are they committed to being the best or do they feel comfortable making a very good salary and staying out of the way of administration? Look around the country and count all the men basketball and football coaching jobs that are on the hot seat every year, however, that is rarely the case in women's basketball. Good programs and good coaches are never comfortable with just having a winning record, they want more.

 

[armchair]

Here's the thing: Geno has excellent talent--AND he's the best coach in the game, has been for many years. There are some good coaches in women's basketball, but only maybe a three programs that, in terms of both talent and coaching, are even three-quarters competitive with him. Those would be, to me, Notre Dame, for sure, Baylor and Maryland. M.McGraw's ND team beat UConn two or three times two or three years ago, didn't they? But but when they met in the national title game UConn won comfortably, as I recall. Was that two years ago? I certainly don't think McGraw as ever had more talent than UConn, nobody does, but in terms of coaching and talent, she's somewhat close. Baylor, the same. Mulkey gets a lot of southwest/texas talent--but I wouldn't put her on a par with Geno as a coach. And I'd say that Maryland has been somewhat close--but even somewhat close would still mean a double digit loss to the huskies. VanDerVeer, at Stanford, is one of my coaching favorites. She can coach with Geno when she has the talent--but they've been up and down in recent years, and it almost seems like VanDerVeer's best years are behind her. She's been at Stanford a LONG time and the law of diminishing returns might be kicking in with her. Also, I've never thought that she cares about winning titles quite as much as Geno, who has always had a chip on his shoulder. Whatever that chip is, modest ethnic background, no real sports tradition of any kind at UConn until he and Calhoun took over the basketball programs, it drives him. Geno has always been a driven guy--you can see it. In most ways, UConn does not compare to Stanford. Geno is a guy who needs to win; I've never gotten that impression with VanDerVeer.

In B. Stewart, Geno has had the best player in the game for the last four years--she is an outstanding player who can do it all--has size, can run, rebound, and a great scorer. Who comes close? And, of course, they've got three or more other excellent players. UConn plays excellent defense AND shoots extremely well, shoots the three well. They do everything well--every year.

UT and South Carolina? Both teams had quite a bit of talent this year. I would have liked to have seen what a top-notch coach could have done with those teams. Staley and Warlick are not top-notch coaches--not even close. If Geno is a 10, I'd rate HW as a 5 and Staley as maybe a 5/6. Staley has been coaching a long time and won nothing. I don't think the Duke coach would rate much higher. Duke, UT, SC--all three underachieved. I haven't really analyzed UConn's talent, but it seems safe to assume they had more talent than we did. It's hard to compare because the coaching gap is quite significant. If you gave this year's Vols team to Geno and gave UConn to HW, how would a game between the two turn out?

There are surely a number of outstanding coaches in women's basketball--but most of them are not well known because they are coaching at either smaller programs or programs that simply don't get enough talent consistently to be a regular contender. With Stewart gone, things might get a little more interesting, but I still wouldn't bet against geno.

 

[TNnative]

Well in the end it is the same old story different chapter. Again, Genno and the UCONN Huskies are two cuts above everyone else. The issue is simple, if not difficult to do, can anyone out coach and/or out play Genno and the Huskies? Apparently not in the women's game. The big question is, is anyone interested in beating the best? Look at the state of women's basketball. Right now we might as well engrave UCONN's name on the trophy or rename the tournament, "The UCONN Invitational". Maybe we need to rename the NC trophy, "The Genno".

We have a lot of pretenders and teams with great recruiting classes. In fact if you take Duke, based upon its roster, they should be equal to the test. In fact, Duke should be able to give UCONN more than it can handle. On paper, Duke, Tennessee, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Baylor, Maryland, Louisville, etc., their talent is just as good as UCONN's.

Let's get back to Duke, would not one think that with all the talent Coach McCallie has had, and failed, that she would be on a super hot seat? Hot seat, HELL, she should be already fired. The problem with the women's game is not the committment of university and college administrators, because, if not for Title 9, many could give a rat's butt about women's sports, it is the individual coaches. Are they committed to being the best or do they feel comfortable making a very good salary and staying out of the way of administration? Look around the country and count all the men basketball and football coaching jobs that are on the hot seat every year, however, that is rarely the case in women's basketball. Good programs and good coaches are never comfortable with just having a winning record, they want more.

:snoring:

 

[MDVolFan14]

UConn just does everything better than anybody else. They do it at a level that is above everybody else. Sure Geno has the best player in WCBB maybe ever but she didn't start out that way. She struggled in the first part of her Freshman year but she got coached and she took upon herself to work harder. Combine her own work ethic with great coaching, it's no wonder she is great. DD and several over her teammates could be that way too if they had the right coach/coaches...... '

It's amazing that no one is copying what they do in Storrs. It's success.

 

[CockyGuy]

Here's the thing: Geno has excellent talent--AND he's the best coach in the game, has been for many years. There are some good coaches in women's basketball, but only maybe a three programs that, in terms of both talent and coaching, are even three-quarters competitive with him. Those would be, to me, Notre Dame, for sure, Baylor and Maryland. M.McGraw's ND team beat UConn two or three times two or three years ago, didn't they? But but when they met in the national title game UConn won comfortably, as I recall. Was that two years ago? I certainly don't think McGraw as ever had more talent than UConn, nobody does, but in terms of coaching and talent, she's somewhat close. Baylor, the same. Mulkey gets a lot of southwest/texas talent--but I wouldn't put her on a par with Geno as a coach. And I'd say that Maryland has been somewhat close--but even somewhat close would still mean a double digit loss to the huskies. VanDerVeer, at Stanford, is one of my coaching favorites. She can coach with Geno when she has the talent--but they've been up and down in recent years, and it almost seems like VanDerVeer's best years are behind her. She's been at Stanford a LONG time and the law of diminishing returns might be kicking in with her. Also, I've never thought that she cares about winning titles quite as much as Geno, who has always had a chip on his shoulder. Whatever that chip is, modest ethnic background, no real sports tradition of any kind at UConn until he and Calhoun took over the basketball programs, it drives him. Geno has always been a driven guy--you can see it. In most ways, UConn does not compare to Stanford. Geno is a guy who needs to win; I've never gotten that impression with VanDerVeer.

In B. Stewart, Geno has had the best player in the game for the last four years--she is an outstanding player who can do it all--has size, can run, rebound, and a great scorer. Who comes close? And, of course, they've got three or more other excellent players. UConn plays excellent defense AND shoots extremely well, shoots the three well. They do everything well--every year.

UT and South Carolina? Both teams had quite a bit of talent this year. I would have liked to have seen what a top-notch coach could have done with those teams. Staley and Warlick are not top-notch coaches--not even close. If Geno is a 10, I'd rate HW as a 5 and Staley as maybe a 5/6. Staley has been coaching a long time and won nothing. I don't think the Duke coach would rate much higher. Duke, UT, SC--all three underachieved. I haven't really analyzed UConn's talent, but it seems safe to assume they had more talent than we did. It's hard to compare because the coaching gap is quite significant. If you gave this year's Vols team to Geno and gave UConn to HW, how would a game between the two turn out?

There are surely a number of outstanding coaches in women's basketball--but most of them are not well known because they are coaching at either smaller programs or programs that simply don't get enough talent consistently to be a regular contender. With Stewart gone, things might get a little more interesting, but I still wouldn't bet against geno.

Your analysis is garbage really. And it amounts to nothing but potshots at other teams. Geno can coach, but you and most UConn fans love to diminish the fact that UConn's success is at least part Geno/part talent level. Let's see how great Geno's coaching is when Saniya Chong(or a true freshman) is your starting PG. Or when Natalie Butler has to be your low post threat instead of Morgan Tuck. On one hand, you say Tennessee and South Carolina underachieved yet you seem to give ND and Baylor passes. ND went out in the Sweet 16 (just like SC) which should have been a bigger upset seeing as how they are right up there with UConn in terms of the coaching/talent combo. At least in your BS analysis. Stanford dropped 90, and Turner looked like a fish out of water until the 4th quarter. Baylor??? With all of the Elite bigs on that team, Hamblin looked like Shaq. The same Hamblin who looked stuck in mud against EVERYBODY else. UConn is a great team, their coaching staff is great. I have much respect for BOTH. Contrary, to popular belief their fans aren't prognosticators, nor are they talent evaluators. They're just fans of a highly successful team. Sityo@$$down somewhere.

 

[P.O.T.S. VOL]

Well in the end it is the same old story different chapter. Again, Genno and the UCONN Huskies are two cuts above everyone else. The issue is simple, if not difficult to do, can anyone out coach and/or out play Genno and the Huskies? Apparently not in the women's game. The big question is, is anyone interested in beating the best? Look at the state of women's basketball. Right now we might as well engrave UCONN's name on the trophy or rename the tournament, "The UCONN Invitational". Maybe we need to rename the NC trophy, "The Genno".

We have a lot of pretenders and teams with great recruiting classes. In fact if you take Duke, based upon its roster, they should be equal to the test. In fact, Duke should be able to give UCONN more than it can handle. On paper, Duke, Tennessee, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Baylor, Maryland, Louisville, etc., their talent is just as good as UCONN's.

Let's get back to Duke, would not one think that with all the talent Coach McCallie has had, and failed, that she would be on a super hot seat? Hot seat, HELL, she should be already fired. The problem with the women's game is not the committment of university and college administrators, because, if not for Title 9, many could give a rat's butt about women's sports, it is the individual coaches. Are they committed to being the best or do they feel comfortable making a very good salary and staying out of the way of administration? Look around the country and count all the men basketball and football coaching jobs that are on the hot seat every year, however, that is rarely the case in women's basketball. Good programs and good coaches are never comfortable with just having a winning record, they want more.

The season may be over but your drivel will never end!

 

[cwbytruckers]

Didn't they say during the game last night that in the off season the players trained with the navy or army or something?