The UConn women made quick work of Rutgers on Sunday afternoon at Mohegan Sun. The Huskies just dominated the game. They clearly came to play.
C. Vivian Stringer described UConn as a prize fighter who throws a knockout punch early in the game and they shadow box throughout the rest of the half. Then after halftime, they throw that next punch and usually the opponent can't withstand it. If you can't survive either punches, it is a TKO.
USF came so close to an upset bid - but lost the game in the final seconds. The Schimmel sisters played a key role in the Cardinals win - Shoni with the go ahead bucket and Jude with the steal and two free throws with 3.3 seconds left.
Jeff Walz and Jose Fernandez are the most animated coaches I have seen on a sideline in a long time.
USF has some ugly uniforms. What are the people at Under Armor thinking?
$43.30 for a ticket to Monday's championship game is well worth it. This will be Part Three between No. 1 UConn and No. 3 Louisville. If the Cards win, UL is the No. 1 seed in the Louisville Region and UConn will be the No. 1 seed in Lincoln. If the Huskies win, there is a 51% chance UConn is the top seed in Louisville region and Louisville is the two seed. Still, how is Louisville not a one seed - two losses to UConn and one loss to SEC runner-up Kentucky? The NCAA should forget about their regional rules and do the right thing and place these two teams away from each other.
Best line of the day - Geno was asked if he thought it was odd that Rutgers did not attempt a three during the game. His answer - why shoot threes if you are going to miss. Stringer agreed.
Of note, 2014-15 season - UConn and Rutgers may meet in either Madison Square Garden or the Barclays Center. This all depends if Stringer wants to play a neutral site game. Also, UConn will visit Notre Dame. UConn an Louisville will continue to play their series in the 2015-16 season.
Showing posts with label Louisville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Louisville. Show all posts
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
What a mess in Louisville!
The UConn men were destroyed in Louisville on Saturday afternoon. I am very happy I did not get the opportunity to watch it.
The defending national champions made some noise, playing at a higher level and hope to get back to the Final Four next month.
Kevin Ollie took full responsibility for the way his team played. It was honestly embarrassing. I am not sure if the loss against Houston was worst. The Huskies were outplayed and outcoached. I really hope the Huskies learn to play against zone and some pressure defense and learn some patience on offense or it will be a quick end to March.
Ollie was asked if he saw this coming and he said no. As of fan, I saw it happening. Last Wednesday, they struggled to beat Rutgers. There were many times this season where they were lucky to win games. Still it would be great if there was another consistent option or two besides Shabazz Napier. And post play, including rebounding, is key.
UConn will play Memphis on Thursday night in Memphis in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference. UConn will be the home team by seed, but Memphis will be playing on their home court. The winner will most likely take on Cincinnati in the semifinals.
Finally, anyone else notice the happy music ESPN has during the 30 for 30 commercial on the Big East? It is like they are happy they destroyed the Big East. However, I did notice on the new Big East website, they control all the records and the AAC (which is technically the Big East before it was renamed the American) has nothing. Sad to see the likes of Ray Allen, Emeka Okafor, 6 OTs and UConn's 2011 run controlled by a bunch of Catholic schools who purchased it. So is the Big East dead or just dead to ESPN? Still want to know what UConn does with the Big East banners in Gampel Pavilion?
The defending national champions made some noise, playing at a higher level and hope to get back to the Final Four next month.
Kevin Ollie took full responsibility for the way his team played. It was honestly embarrassing. I am not sure if the loss against Houston was worst. The Huskies were outplayed and outcoached. I really hope the Huskies learn to play against zone and some pressure defense and learn some patience on offense or it will be a quick end to March.
Ollie was asked if he saw this coming and he said no. As of fan, I saw it happening. Last Wednesday, they struggled to beat Rutgers. There were many times this season where they were lucky to win games. Still it would be great if there was another consistent option or two besides Shabazz Napier. And post play, including rebounding, is key.
UConn will play Memphis on Thursday night in Memphis in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference. UConn will be the home team by seed, but Memphis will be playing on their home court. The winner will most likely take on Cincinnati in the semifinals.
Finally, anyone else notice the happy music ESPN has during the 30 for 30 commercial on the Big East? It is like they are happy they destroyed the Big East. However, I did notice on the new Big East website, they control all the records and the AAC (which is technically the Big East before it was renamed the American) has nothing. Sad to see the likes of Ray Allen, Emeka Okafor, 6 OTs and UConn's 2011 run controlled by a bunch of Catholic schools who purchased it. So is the Big East dead or just dead to ESPN? Still want to know what UConn does with the Big East banners in Gampel Pavilion?
Friday, March 7, 2014
The American Women’s Tournament Preview
On Friday afternoon, the
American Athletic Conference announced the conference’s major award winners –
Coach, Player, Rookie and Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Just like on Thursday,
the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team took home some more
hardware.
Sophomore Breanna Stewart
was honored as the Player of the Year and head coach Geno Auriemma was named
the Coach of the Year. Rutgers’ Tyler Scaife was earned the Rookie of the
Year honors, while Antonita Slaughter from Louisville was the Scholar-Athlete
of the Year.
Stewart was a dominating force during the regular season. She averaged
19.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game. This should be the first of
many awards that Stewart will earn this postseason. She is a finalist for most
National Player of the Year awards and should be named a First Team All-American.
Auriemma has led the Huskies to another undefeated regular season.
Dating back to last season’s NCAA Tournament, No. 1 UConn has won 37 straight
games and will be the favorite to win the AAC postseason tournament and the
program’s ninth national title.
UConn will begin American
Tournament play on Saturday in the second quarterfinal game at 2:00pm on ESPN3.
The top-seeded Huskies will face No. 8 seed Cincinnati at Mohegan Sun Arena in
Uncasville, Conn.
The Bearcats hung on for a
54-52 win over No. 9 seed Central Florida in the opening round on Friday night
and will play UConn for the third time this season. In the second game of the
opening round, No. 10 seed Houston upset No. 7 seed Memphis and will play No. 2
seed Louisville on Saturday evening.
AAC Preview
Dark Horse-
South Florida is fighting
for its NCAA Tournament lives. They
earned the No. 3 seed with a win at Rutgers this past Monday. Two more wins
would get them to 20 for the season and the championship game which should guarantee
them an NCAA bid.
Game to Watch-
Rutgers vs. SMU – Rutgers
has been ranked during the regular season and should make the field of 64. However, they have lost their past two games
(at UConn and vs. USF). Have they done
enough to get into the NCAA Tournament?
A Final Goodbye-
UConn can possible play
Rutgers and Louisville for the final time in a conference postseason
tournament. Next season Rutgers is off to the Big Ten while Louisville is
heading to the ACC.
Just like the Old Big East-
UConn should win their
first American Athletic Conference Tournament Championship on Monday night.
They have been the best team all season and have the best player and coach in
the conference – if not the country. If the Huskies win, it will be their 38th
conference championship.
American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball
Tournament Schedule
Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Conn.
Quarterfinals –
Saturday, March 8, 2014
12pm – No. 4 Rutgers
(21-8, 12-6) vs. No. 5 SMU (17-12, 8-10)
2pm – No. 1 Connecticut
(31-0, 18-0) vs. No. 8 Cincinnati (13-17, 5-13)
6pm – No. 2 Louisville
(28-3, 16-2) vs. No. 10 Houston (6-24, 1-17)
8pm – No. 3 South Florida
(18-11, 13-5) vs. No. 6 Temple (14-15, 8-10)
Semifinals – Sunday,
March 9, 2014
1pm – Semifinal No. 1
(ESPNU)
3pm – Semifinal No. 2
(ESPNU)
Championship – Monday,
March 10, 2014
7pm – Winner of the Semifinal Games (ESPN)
Monday, March 3, 2014
UConn women look to clinch top seed in AAC Tournament
Eleven months ago in New Orleans, the upstart Louisville Cardinals met the Connecticut Huskies for the NCAA National Championship. Although it was a rout for the UConn women, Louisville displayed in that game that they were no Cinderella.
Tonight, they meet again for another championship at the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, Ky. (7pm ESPN2). This time it is for the inaugural American Athletic Conference regular season title. If UConn wins, they will win the outright conference championship and will be the top seed in this weekend’s American tournament at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. If Louisville wins, both teams will share the regular season title and a coin flip will determine the top seed in the tournament.
The No. 1 Huskies defeated No. 25 Rutgers, 72-35, to earn a share of the American Athletic Conference regular season championship last Saturday. In a game where they never trailed, top-ranked and unbeaten UConn (30-0 overall, 17-0 AAC) used a stifling defense to keep the Scarlet Knights at bay. Rutgers was held to a season-low 35 points scored. They played without their leading scorer Kahleah Cooper who missed most of the game Breanna Stewart and Bria Hartley led the Huskies in scoring. They both scored 20 points each. Stewart and Stefanie Dolson (six points) had 10 rebounds apiece. Kia Stokes pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds off the bench.
Last month, UConn defeated the No. 3 Cardinals 81-64 and ended a 16 game winning streak in front of soldout crowd at Gampel Pavilion. Since then, the Cards (28-2, 16-1) have won five in a row, most recently a 75-51 victory against Cincinnati.
Louisville coach Jeff Walz is known for his aggressive game plans. In the last meeting, his team was physical and they opted to leave Moriah Jefferson open. However, offensively they struggled against the UConn defense and Stewart just took over. Stewart had 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Jefferson scored a career-high 18 points. The Huskies forced 14 turnovers and held the Cardinals to 36% shooting.
Expect Walz and his team to learn from the previous meeting and come with another game plan to contain Stewart and Hartley. It is without question that Walz will use some type of full-court pressure defense to tire out the Huskies who only have eight scholarship players. They will also use a combination of a two-three or three-two zone. Expect Stewart to be double or triple teamed in the post.
The Cardinals are led by a pair of All-American candidates in guard Shoni Schimmel (17.2 point per game) and forward Sara Hammond (11.2 points, 6.6 rebounds). In the last meeting, the UConn defense was able to contain and limit both players on offense. Forward Asia Taylor (12.2 points) had 18 points in the last meeting and guard Antonia Slaughter is a three-point threat.
Both teams are pretty much at full strength. UConn saw the return of Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis on Saturday afternoon. Although she scored only seven points, she did play 27 minutes. Geno Auriemma expects Lewis to have a better shooting performance than she did last Saturday. Lewis sat out the past two weeks with mononucleosis. Louisville will have guard Bria Smith, who missed the last meeting with the Huskies due to a knee injury.
The Cardinals are undefeated at home this season (17-0) and this is their senior night.
Tonight, they meet again for another championship at the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, Ky. (7pm ESPN2). This time it is for the inaugural American Athletic Conference regular season title. If UConn wins, they will win the outright conference championship and will be the top seed in this weekend’s American tournament at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. If Louisville wins, both teams will share the regular season title and a coin flip will determine the top seed in the tournament.
The No. 1 Huskies defeated No. 25 Rutgers, 72-35, to earn a share of the American Athletic Conference regular season championship last Saturday. In a game where they never trailed, top-ranked and unbeaten UConn (30-0 overall, 17-0 AAC) used a stifling defense to keep the Scarlet Knights at bay. Rutgers was held to a season-low 35 points scored. They played without their leading scorer Kahleah Cooper who missed most of the game Breanna Stewart and Bria Hartley led the Huskies in scoring. They both scored 20 points each. Stewart and Stefanie Dolson (six points) had 10 rebounds apiece. Kia Stokes pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds off the bench.
Last month, UConn defeated the No. 3 Cardinals 81-64 and ended a 16 game winning streak in front of soldout crowd at Gampel Pavilion. Since then, the Cards (28-2, 16-1) have won five in a row, most recently a 75-51 victory against Cincinnati.
Louisville coach Jeff Walz is known for his aggressive game plans. In the last meeting, his team was physical and they opted to leave Moriah Jefferson open. However, offensively they struggled against the UConn defense and Stewart just took over. Stewart had 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Jefferson scored a career-high 18 points. The Huskies forced 14 turnovers and held the Cardinals to 36% shooting.
Expect Walz and his team to learn from the previous meeting and come with another game plan to contain Stewart and Hartley. It is without question that Walz will use some type of full-court pressure defense to tire out the Huskies who only have eight scholarship players. They will also use a combination of a two-three or three-two zone. Expect Stewart to be double or triple teamed in the post.
The Cardinals are led by a pair of All-American candidates in guard Shoni Schimmel (17.2 point per game) and forward Sara Hammond (11.2 points, 6.6 rebounds). In the last meeting, the UConn defense was able to contain and limit both players on offense. Forward Asia Taylor (12.2 points) had 18 points in the last meeting and guard Antonia Slaughter is a three-point threat.
Both teams are pretty much at full strength. UConn saw the return of Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis on Saturday afternoon. Although she scored only seven points, she did play 27 minutes. Geno Auriemma expects Lewis to have a better shooting performance than she did last Saturday. Lewis sat out the past two weeks with mononucleosis. Louisville will have guard Bria Smith, who missed the last meeting with the Huskies due to a knee injury.
The Cardinals are undefeated at home this season (17-0) and this is their senior night.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
UConn women win on Senior Day, 72-35
March got off to a great start for the Connecticut women’s
basketball team. The Huskies defeated No. 25 Rutgers, 72-35, to earn a share of
the American Athletic Conference regular season championship.
In a game where they never trailed, top-ranked and
unbeaten UConn (30-0 overall, 17-0 AAC) used a stifling defense to keep the
Scarlet Knights (21-7, 12-5) at bay.
Rutgers was held to a season-low 35 points scored. They played without
their leading scorer Kahleah Cooper who missed most of the game with turf toe.
Breanna Stewart and Bria Hartley led the Huskies in
scoring. They both scored 20 points each. Stewart and Stefanie Dolson (six points)
had 10 rebounds apiece. Kia Stokes pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds off the
bench.
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis returned to the court after
missing four games with a bout of mononucleosis and played 27 minutes and
scored seven points. She was a bit rusty making only one three pointers in
seven attempts but had three assists.
Prior to the game, Hartley and Dolson were honored in the
senior day festivities. Both All-Americans were also inducted into the Huskies
of Honor at Gampel Pavilion.
The Huskies, which have won 36 straight, have started the
season 30-0 for the seventh time in program history. They went on to win the national title five
times and went undefeated four times. This is also the ninth straight time
UConn has won 30 games in a season and the 18th time in the last 20
seasons.
During the game, Dolson pulled down her 1,000 career
rebound. She became the fifth UConn player to score 1,000 points and grab 1,000
rebounds.
No. 1 UConn will visit No. 3 Louisville on Monday night
in the final regular season conference game of the season. If the Huskies win,
they will capture their first outright American championship and the top seed
in next weekend’s conference tournament. If they lose, both teams will be
declared co-champions and a coin flip will determine the top seed in the
tournament.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Would Of, Could Of, Should Of
It has been a pretty big week for the University of Connecticut.
Kevin Ollie's crew needs to refocus. They need to get DeAndre Daniels healthy. Daniels was out of Thursday's game with back spasms. They have games at Central Florida on Sunday night and a home game with South Florida. They need to win those game as well as rematches with Temple and Rutgers and try to defend their own home court in games with Memphis, SMU and Cincinnati later in the season. They have nine games left and need to start making up ground in order to avoid the 4/5 AAC Tournament quarterfinal game.
 |
| Connecticut forward Niels Giffey, left, comes down with a rebound against Cincinnati guard JaQuon Parker, right, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, March 2, 2013, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/David Kohl) |
The week started with the men's basketball team ranked in the Top 25 for the first time since late December.
The men's basketball team had a huge opportunity on Thursday night at AAC leader Cincinnati. They had a 10 point lead late in the first half, but saw it evaporate late in the second half. The Bearcats out willed and out toughed UConn late in the game. The Huskies made plenty of poor decisions and it cost them the game.
Kevin Ollie's crew needs to refocus. They need to get DeAndre Daniels healthy. Daniels was out of Thursday's game with back spasms. They have games at Central Florida on Sunday night and a home game with South Florida. They need to win those game as well as rematches with Temple and Rutgers and try to defend their own home court in games with Memphis, SMU and Cincinnati later in the season. They have nine games left and need to start making up ground in order to avoid the 4/5 AAC Tournament quarterfinal game.
 |
| Bob Diaco, former Notre Dame defensive coordinator, speaks as Connecticut's new head football coach during an introductory news conference on campus in Storrs, Conn., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) |
The football team got 14 new players committed to playing for UConn this coming year. However, the national ranking services gave Bob Diaco a pretty poor grade. These rankings are dumb and flawed. They rank young kids until their senior year of high school. I do not believe that they take team fit into consideration. I wonder what their rankings are on these athletes while in college and in the NFL?
On Thursday, the University of Tennessee suspended the upcoming football series with UConn. Tennessee is opting to play two neutral site games in Tennessee in 2015 and 2016. The two universities agreed to find a new date by 2015.
 |
| Connecticut's Bria Hartley (14) drives past SMU's Gabrielle Wilkins (3) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Storrs, Conn., Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014. Hartley scored a game-high 21 points in her team's 102-41 victory. (AP Photo/ Fred Beckham) |
The top-ranked UConn women had their largest conference win this year defeating SMU by 61 points. Five UConn players scored in double figures. On Sunday, they will take on No. 4 Louisville for first place in the American Athletic Conference. The game preview will be posted on The UConn Blog sometime on Saturday.
Go Huskies!
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