Great to see an intense defense from everyone. Great effort from the bigs, great effort from the guards as well. Imagine one day, Paige, Azzi, and Caroline, all 3 are very good shooters ? Caroline please be patient and go back to the games that you played calmly, when you had to step up, you were awesome. Also imagine Christyn, Evina, and Nika as well, awesome, UConn has 6 tremendous guards. Plenty of playing time to go around. Amari, Piath, be patient, and slow down, you will be fine. Lets go and have fun. UConn fan since 1990. Lets go HUSKIES !
The team is a new team now compaired before Paige injury because of the dedication and continues challenge by the coaches. There is more flow and rythm in their deffense and offense now and continues to grow and develop more as they play more games especially with top rank teams. This will make them more nasty.
No one in the country has anyone to add like Paige unless maybe Caitlin Clark was hurt. Genos the goat for these reasons this interview shows his candidness witty honest winning state of mind. How is ncaa gonna rank them, they gotta be a 3/5 w. Out Paige with Paige a 1/3 seed...Caroline’s play reminds me of old school Larry bird. Geno was on point when Paige got hurt he didn’t like the team w. Out her which I agree now it’s a whole not her animal. I do wish they got to play a top ten w. Paige b4 ncaas
I think Aliyah got burnt out with playing without a break over the summer. Also the emotional strain of playing against professional level players on the Canadian team.
I have to agree and not to mention the pressure of coming back from such an amazing and strong freshman season that she had…she’s getting back into her flow and starting to look like Aliyah from last year!
I don't really agree that Paige is coming back to a better team. Yes they had a better game this game which could have been, and probably is a symptom of Paige's return but this team has dropped 2/3 ranked matchups and 2 non-ranked (one in conference) games and if youve watched the games, struggled with turnovers, fouls and scoring against good defenses. Yes their depth is more visible but the issues that were issues back in December are still there. Imagine if Paige wasn't coming back we'd all be saying this team is worse than the 2019-2020 team... Christyn, Caroline and Azzi have shown they can score but cannot win games vs good defenses. Not trying to dump on this team but just not sure this team is that much better than the team Paige left it as in December which was a year before a final four team but without Paige really isn't... BUT with Paige I do think theyre capable of winning a championship but only with her
I'd agree if you meant there's still room to grow. But I think they are definitely a better team compared to the one that beat ND. And I certainly can't agree about the ability Christyn, Caroline and Azzi have to win vs good defenses. I think the games against Marquette, Creighton, DePaul, and especially Tennessee shows that they are exactly able to do just this.Those teams play tough defense, and UConn powered past them with offense and defense, and it didn't matter whether outside shots were falling or not. In particular, consider that UConn beat Tennessee last year on Paige's last minute heroics, but they beat them handily this year and they were both down a vital player. They lost to SC in December because they ran out of gas in the 4th quarter, and Caroline and Azzi weren't really ready to contribute at that level. Now teams that play them tough in the first half or three quarters are running out of gas against them. Also worth remembering is what Evina has been doing all this time. She's been tough and consistent when everyone around her was struggling. Think of the UCLA game if you want a reminder. She is now where she was when they beat Iowa and Baylor last year. Are they better than last year's team? There's still some room to grow, and last year they peaked in the Elite Eight. But when Arizona focused on Paige, the rest of the team didn't take up the challenge. I suspect this team can grow past where that team was for a few reasons. Dorka means foul trouble in the post is no longer a threat to them. There is no fall off when they cycle three players through that position, and they lacked that last year. They've lost Aubrey, which is significant, but Nika is healthy and even stronger on defense than last year, and she's been able to hit threes over the past several games. I wonder if last year's team with this Nika would have lost to Arizona last year. And Caroline and Azzi just bring so much offensive potential. Six guards with that much firepower means teams can't just play deny defense against Paige and hope Evina and Christyn can't step up. Caroline and Azzi can step up right next to Evina and Christyn. The loss to Villanova was surprising in a way, but it really showed how important Olivia is to this team. I thought last year they could go as far as Olivia could carry them. Paige was the spark for the team, but Olivia was the strength and resolve that was going to get them through. This is still true this year -- there's more sparks now, but it's still Olivia's team to win with, and now she's got Dorka and a stronger Aaliyah share the load. So, yes, they're a stronger team than before the injuries. Now let's just see how much further this can carry them.
Amen to your comment about Liv. Her importance to this team was highlighted against Marquette. With her in the lineup tit was a blowout. Without her it was touch and go until a fourth quarter, when Marquette ran out of gas.
@@politeia1999 A lot to respond to lol. I don't really disagree with anything you said and its all fair and I think we're both in agreement that now that Paige is back now with players who can make some shots down the stretch instead of just her their ceiling is winning the national championship hopefully. There certainly is room to grow for this team and every player and they definitely are going to have to keep growing if they want to win it all. BUT the games against Marquette, Creighton, and DePaul were slugfests and all them were nearly neck and neck into the 4th/OT, uconn didn't power through them they only really won those games because they have more talent on the floor than the other teams (which you can say the same for the providence game too tbh). If they were playing in a good conference, vs tournament teams or ranked teams that won't go cold most of the 4th they would have lost those games. having to get lucky vs random mid tier big east teams is not a good thing even though they did pull out with a slim wins (to give props where props are due however im glad they did find a way to win those game because that will help them in march a tremendous amount). The Tennessee win was a great win and I don't want to take that away from them but Tennessee had just lost their 2nd best player to injury a few games before and they were already on a 2 game skid. They were not the Tennessee they had been all year and still aren't. You have to acknowledge uconn also got them at their most vulnerable time. I say christyn, azzi, and caroline cant win games because they can't, even though they all have grown and played very well recently. They all played in losses where even when they scored 20+ the team still lost. They can score but lack the ability make the team as a whole better and win games which I think we all know is Paige's best quality and why I said they are only a final four team with her. Your statement about how theyre better than last years team is absolutely right NOW that they have Paige. When Paige was playing they really only needed one more player to step up, shiii even you acknowledged, last year in the final four if a single other person had stepped up they could have won but no one did. Caroline, Azzi, and Dorka have shown that they can contribute but that's natural progression through a season. But if Paige wasn't coming back they would not be a deep contender for March considering their play without her this year. I guess in that way they've gotten better they have more players who they know can shoot at at least 35% 3pt and 40% FG. I would love to say theyre better but they haven't been tested vs real teams to see if their better(and lost to all the ones they needed to beat earlier in the season) and they've struggled vs mid tier teams so that isn't a good sign for that. I do like your point with ONO; other than Paige she absolutely is the most important player. Her two worst games last year were Uconn's two losses vs Arkansas and Arizona which isn't a fluke. She has grown so much in her four years and is so important to this team and hopefully she can continue her dominance and play like she did vs SC earlier in the year against them in again in the F4. Overall though I stand by my statement that Paige is returning to the same team she left; the turnovers are BAD, the fouls are bad, and they still struggle to score sometimes. None of this really matters though lol with a glue like Paige they will be better and will be completely whole. She's the perfect bandaid for all their worse flaws.
@@lexsea In the last win against Xavier UCONN looked horrible in the 1st qtr. Xavier had just lost it's two best players so basically UCONN was up against nobody. Xavier is presently ranked 241.
@@lexsea I agree about the turnovers, there's too many and its not a great sign. But I wonder if you've read the tough games against Marquette, Creighton, and DePaul correctly. One thing Evina mentioned in an interview after the first Marquette game was that she saw they were gassed a few minutes into the 4th quarter. The was her cue to turn the defense up a notch, and they got a couple steals and runouts and the horserace was on, and Marquette had no answers. You might ask why Marquette was able to play them so tough until then, and I could respond that Olivia and Caroline were not available. But that's not the key point. The fact is those are three tough teams, and would be contenders in the ACC or the SEC -- I'm disappointed they won't all make it into the tournament. But they just didn't have the physical conditioning of UConn, not to mention the talent. What I'm trying to get at is that lots of the tough gritty teams around the country could play UConn tough through three quarters right now. They'd just crank up their defensive energy to 11 and see how long they could keep it up. But I doubt any of them could sustain it into the fourth quarter. It reminds me of the great years of the Patriots dynasty (may they return soon!) -- in so many of their games Brady was brilliant of course, but lots of teams could play them tough, or at least remain in striking distance, for three quarters. But come the fourth quarter, they'd run out of gas and the Pats' O-Line would just pummel them. The fact is, in addition to Brady-Gronk-Edelman, they just had a better conditioning program than most of their opponents. We already know how UConn would do against SC. The rematch would be a hard fought game, and either one could win it. But conditioning would be key for both sides. Now, how do we think they'd do against the next tier of teams, like Iowa State or Indiana or Michigan, or even NC State? Of this batch, I suspect the teams with a great point guard would pose the main problem. That means Indiana or NC State could give them a good run. The Oregon game is telling in this regard. They have been a slow-footed team since Ionescu left. But UConn got them when PaoPao had just returned to the lineup, and they were without Christyn or Azzi. Suddenly Oregon was faster and UConn only had three guards, and Nika was still going gingerly on one foot. I wonder how that game would go now -- actually I suspect UConn would crush them now. Similarly, the first Depaul game was quite a test. The Blue Demons were tough through all four quarters and it took some last minute heroics from Caroline to win it. But I have two reasons for thinking this game was an outlier. First, Olivia and Dorka played Morrow poorly, going for blocks too often and letting her get to the free throw line too often, which is where she gets half her points. In the second game, they corrected this strategy and made her a non-factor. Second, the refereeing in Chicago was uneven, and Morrow got away with too many fouls. I was not alone in thinking the UConn Bigs were getting tagged with touch fouls while Morrow was allowed to slug it out in the paint on defense. I don't care which way the refs go -- calling the touch fouls or letting them slug it out -- but they need to be consistent on each side. If Morrow had been whistled for the sort of fouls that cost Olivia, Dorka and Caroline 13 fouls, she would have been gone by halftime. A sign that I'm right about this (besides Meg Culmo's agreeing with me on it) is that in the second game, she got whistled a lot more and had to play a more subdued defensive game and they were crushed. Now I think Morrow is an awesome offensive talent. But she's mainly gotten a pass on her defensive fouls in their home games this year and this may be doing them a disservice. My worry is that if DePaul makes it into the tournament, she won't get the benefit of "Chicago" refereeing, will foul out early, and they'll get eliminated too soon. I'd like to see them get a chance to make a run in the tournament, since they're an impressive team in lots of ways. But they'll need Morrow on the court to do it. Better refereeing might have induced her to develop better defensive skills.
Great game team hyped...London watching....welcome back lady P!
Great to see an intense defense from everyone. Great effort from the bigs, great effort from the guards as well. Imagine one day, Paige, Azzi, and Caroline, all 3 are very good shooters ? Caroline please be patient and go back to the games that you played calmly, when you had to step up, you were awesome. Also imagine Christyn, Evina, and Nika as well, awesome, UConn has 6 tremendous guards. Plenty of playing time to go around. Amari, Piath, be patient, and slow down, you will be fine. Lets go and have fun. UConn fan since 1990. Lets go HUSKIES !
Love this comment
Paige is one special player - her energy is contagious - Geno seems to get a kick out of Paige's wit and humor - this is fun too watch
The team is a new team now compaired before Paige injury because of the dedication and continues challenge by the coaches. There is more flow and rythm in their deffense and offense now and continues to grow and develop more as they play more games especially with top rank teams. This will make them more nasty.
last night was so much fun just like the old days when you only had to watch until halftime because you knew it was over by halftime
No one in the country has anyone to add like Paige unless maybe Caitlin Clark was hurt. Genos the goat for these reasons this interview shows his candidness witty honest winning state of mind. How is ncaa gonna rank them, they gotta be a 3/5 w. Out Paige with Paige a 1/3 seed...Caroline’s play reminds me of old school Larry bird. Geno was on point when Paige got hurt he didn’t like the team w. Out her which I agree now it’s a whole not her animal. I do wish they got to play a top ten w. Paige b4 ncaas
Good defense created offense, low turnovers , low fouls.🏀🏀🏀
I did like how the refs called the game - let them play both sides evenly.
"That's just what happens." Yep.
What are you Frank Sinatra, leave if you don't like the crowd and have another Jack Daniels! He cracks me up! What a great coach!
Geno has them playing ... Get ready South Carolina
I think Aliyah got burnt out with playing without a break over the summer. Also the emotional strain of playing against professional level players on the Canadian team.
I didnt think about that, makes sense if u put it that way.
Psychologically we get into a rut of expectations and then when the opposition changes and you're still in the rut, it's bad. Human nature.
I have to agree and not to mention the pressure of coming back from such an amazing and strong freshman season that she had…she’s getting back into her flow and starting to look like Aliyah from last year!
I don't really agree that Paige is coming back to a better team. Yes they had a better game this game which could have been, and probably is a symptom of Paige's return but this team has dropped 2/3 ranked matchups and 2 non-ranked (one in conference) games and if youve watched the games, struggled with turnovers, fouls and scoring against good defenses. Yes their depth is more visible but the issues that were issues back in December are still there. Imagine if Paige wasn't coming back we'd all be saying this team is worse than the 2019-2020 team... Christyn, Caroline and Azzi have shown they can score but cannot win games vs good defenses. Not trying to dump on this team but just not sure this team is that much better than the team Paige left it as in December which was a year before a final four team but without Paige really isn't... BUT with Paige I do think theyre capable of winning a championship but only with her
I'd agree if you meant there's still room to grow. But I think they are definitely a better team compared to the one that beat ND. And I certainly can't agree about the ability Christyn, Caroline and Azzi have to win vs good defenses. I think the games against Marquette, Creighton, DePaul, and especially Tennessee shows that they are exactly able to do just this.Those teams play tough defense, and UConn powered past them with offense and defense, and it didn't matter whether outside shots were falling or not. In particular, consider that UConn beat Tennessee last year on Paige's last minute heroics, but they beat them handily this year and they were both down a vital player.
They lost to SC in December because they ran out of gas in the 4th quarter, and Caroline and Azzi weren't really ready to contribute at that level. Now teams that play them tough in the first half or three quarters are running out of gas against them. Also worth remembering is what Evina has been doing all this time. She's been tough and consistent when everyone around her was struggling. Think of the UCLA game if you want a reminder. She is now where she was when they beat Iowa and Baylor last year.
Are they better than last year's team? There's still some room to grow, and last year they peaked in the Elite Eight. But when Arizona focused on Paige, the rest of the team didn't take up the challenge. I suspect this team can grow past where that team was for a few reasons. Dorka means foul trouble in the post is no longer a threat to them. There is no fall off when they cycle three players through that position, and they lacked that last year. They've lost Aubrey, which is significant, but Nika is healthy and even stronger on defense than last year, and she's been able to hit threes over the past several games. I wonder if last year's team with this Nika would have lost to Arizona last year. And Caroline and Azzi just bring so much offensive potential. Six guards with that much firepower means teams can't just play deny defense against Paige and hope Evina and Christyn can't step up. Caroline and Azzi can step up right next to Evina and Christyn.
The loss to Villanova was surprising in a way, but it really showed how important Olivia is to this team. I thought last year they could go as far as Olivia could carry them. Paige was the spark for the team, but Olivia was the strength and resolve that was going to get them through. This is still true this year -- there's more sparks now, but it's still Olivia's team to win with, and now she's got Dorka and a stronger Aaliyah share the load.
So, yes, they're a stronger team than before the injuries. Now let's just see how much further this can carry them.
Amen to your comment about Liv. Her importance to this team was highlighted against Marquette. With her in the lineup tit was a blowout. Without her it was touch and go until a fourth quarter, when Marquette ran out of gas.
@@politeia1999 A lot to respond to lol. I don't really disagree with anything you said and its all fair and I think we're both in agreement that now that Paige is back now with players who can make some shots down the stretch instead of just her their ceiling is winning the national championship hopefully. There certainly is room to grow for this team and every player and they definitely are going to have to keep growing if they want to win it all. BUT the games against Marquette, Creighton, and DePaul were slugfests and all them were nearly neck and neck into the 4th/OT, uconn didn't power through them they only really won those games because they have more talent on the floor than the other teams (which you can say the same for the providence game too tbh). If they were playing in a good conference, vs tournament teams or ranked teams that won't go cold most of the 4th they would have lost those games. having to get lucky vs random mid tier big east teams is not a good thing even though they did pull out with a slim wins (to give props where props are due however im glad they did find a way to win those game because that will help them in march a tremendous amount). The Tennessee win was a great win and I don't want to take that away from them but Tennessee had just lost their 2nd best player to injury a few games before and they were already on a 2 game skid. They were not the Tennessee they had been all year and still aren't. You have to acknowledge uconn also got them at their most vulnerable time. I say christyn, azzi, and caroline cant win games because they can't, even though they all have grown and played very well recently. They all played in losses where even when they scored 20+ the team still lost. They can score but lack the ability make the team as a whole better and win games which I think we all know is Paige's best quality and why I said they are only a final four team with her. Your statement about how theyre better than last years team is absolutely right NOW that they have Paige. When Paige was playing they really only needed one more player to step up, shiii even you acknowledged, last year in the final four if a single other person had stepped up they could have won but no one did. Caroline, Azzi, and Dorka have shown that they can contribute but that's natural progression through a season. But if Paige wasn't coming back they would not be a deep contender for March considering their play without her this year. I guess in that way they've gotten better they have more players who they know can shoot at at least 35% 3pt and 40% FG. I would love to say theyre better but they haven't been tested vs real teams to see if their better(and lost to all the ones they needed to beat earlier in the season) and they've struggled vs mid tier teams so that isn't a good sign for that. I do like your point with ONO; other than Paige she absolutely is the most important player. Her two worst games last year were Uconn's two losses vs Arkansas and Arizona which isn't a fluke. She has grown so much in her four years and is so important to this team and hopefully she can continue her dominance and play like she did vs SC earlier in the year against them in again in the F4. Overall though I stand by my statement that Paige is returning to the same team she left; the turnovers are BAD, the fouls are bad, and they still struggle to score sometimes. None of this really matters though lol with a glue like Paige they will be better and will be completely whole. She's the perfect bandaid for all their worse flaws.
@@lexsea In the last win against Xavier UCONN looked horrible in the 1st qtr. Xavier had just lost it's two best players so basically UCONN was up against nobody. Xavier is presently ranked 241.
@@lexsea I agree about the turnovers, there's too many and its not a great sign. But I wonder if you've read the tough games against Marquette, Creighton, and DePaul correctly. One thing Evina mentioned in an interview after the first Marquette game was that she saw they were gassed a few minutes into the 4th quarter. The was her cue to turn the defense up a notch, and they got a couple steals and runouts and the horserace was on, and Marquette had no answers. You might ask why Marquette was able to play them so tough until then, and I could respond that Olivia and Caroline were not available. But that's not the key point. The fact is those are three tough teams, and would be contenders in the ACC or the SEC -- I'm disappointed they won't all make it into the tournament. But they just didn't have the physical conditioning of UConn, not to mention the talent.
What I'm trying to get at is that lots of the tough gritty teams around the country could play UConn tough through three quarters right now. They'd just crank up their defensive energy to 11 and see how long they could keep it up. But I doubt any of them could sustain it into the fourth quarter. It reminds me of the great years of the Patriots dynasty (may they return soon!) -- in so many of their games Brady was brilliant of course, but lots of teams could play them tough, or at least remain in striking distance, for three quarters. But come the fourth quarter, they'd run out of gas and the Pats' O-Line would just pummel them. The fact is, in addition to Brady-Gronk-Edelman, they just had a better conditioning program than most of their opponents.
We already know how UConn would do against SC. The rematch would be a hard fought game, and either one could win it. But conditioning would be key for both sides. Now, how do we think they'd do against the next tier of teams, like Iowa State or Indiana or Michigan, or even NC State? Of this batch, I suspect the teams with a great point guard would pose the main problem. That means Indiana or NC State could give them a good run. The Oregon game is telling in this regard. They have been a slow-footed team since Ionescu left. But UConn got them when PaoPao had just returned to the lineup, and they were without Christyn or Azzi. Suddenly Oregon was faster and UConn only had three guards, and Nika was still going gingerly on one foot. I wonder how that game would go now -- actually I suspect UConn would crush them now.
Similarly, the first Depaul game was quite a test. The Blue Demons were tough through all four quarters and it took some last minute heroics from Caroline to win it. But I have two reasons for thinking this game was an outlier. First, Olivia and Dorka played Morrow poorly, going for blocks too often and letting her get to the free throw line too often, which is where she gets half her points. In the second game, they corrected this strategy and made her a non-factor. Second, the refereeing in Chicago was uneven, and Morrow got away with too many fouls. I was not alone in thinking the UConn Bigs were getting tagged with touch fouls while Morrow was allowed to slug it out in the paint on defense. I don't care which way the refs go -- calling the touch fouls or letting them slug it out -- but they need to be consistent on each side. If Morrow had been whistled for the sort of fouls that cost Olivia, Dorka and Caroline 13 fouls, she would have been gone by halftime. A sign that I'm right about this (besides Meg Culmo's agreeing with me on it) is that in the second game, she got whistled a lot more and had to play a more subdued defensive game and they were crushed.
Now I think Morrow is an awesome offensive talent. But she's mainly gotten a pass on her defensive fouls in their home games this year and this may be doing them a disservice. My worry is that if DePaul makes it into the tournament, she won't get the benefit of "Chicago" refereeing, will foul out early, and they'll get eliminated too soon. I'd like to see them get a chance to make a run in the tournament, since they're an impressive team in lots of ways. But they'll need Morrow on the court to do it. Better refereeing might have induced her to develop better defensive skills.