Another amazing game by Paige, and barely played in second half. She shot 8/9 and 2/2 and perfect from the line, lock down D, 7 boards and no one will even mention her. It'll all be about Brady or the freshmen. Literally a better game than anyone on the team has ever played in college and it'll be ignored.
We all know that Paige is the best player on the team and she very well maybe the best player in women's college basketball. lt is my humble opinion that we expect her to always play well and it is a known fact that if she doesn't play well they will not win. Also there is a chance that she does play well and they still lose. Just an observation
I said to the lady next to me, "look Paige is already at fifteen points in the first half " and we agreed it was a very quiet 15. She spends so little time on the ball and lets the game come to her. She moves so well without the ball.
Ashlynn, KK, and Ice are fresh breath of air. No dramas from last year who will show up to play. Ashlynn looks like a player who has practiced her shot million times. KK's speed and her dribbling ability can break any press. Great to see Ice down in the post and moving much better.
I'm pleased UConn is doing well as well. But let's not confuse St. John's defense with what UConn will see against South Carolina in a few weeks. Also curious to see how they do against Notre Dame when that comes up.
I was at the game today. Nice arena. Seemed to be more U Conn fans. Friendly crowd, but not very big for such a large stadium. U Conn is at a completely higher level than St John's. I am glad i included this as part of my visit to New York. As a Canadian, it was nice to see each team featuring Canadian players in prominent roles. I guess Drake must get some Canadian props, too, just on the basis of her surname.
The small crowd was by design (for some reason). They only sold tickets for one side of the lower section. Even though those seats were almost sold out, they never opened any other sections for sale!
@@zigner I am pretty sure they would have expanded the areas available if that part had sold quickly. I have seen this strategy before. They want the side most visible on tv to look full.
@@canadaclaret of course! Yes, the side facing the cameras was the first to be sold but I will tell you that those sections were pretty much sold out for at least 2 weeks, except for a handful of seats.
@@canadaclaret How are you "pretty sure" of this? Which sporting events at UBS can you supply examples of this happening in the past? Show me discussion of newly opened sections at past events at UBS after "tickets sold quickly"?
@@zigner That was my first (and likely only) visit to that arena. I live in Canada and was in New York to attend theatre and music events. I don't care much about this issue but base my guess on what I have seen elsewhere. I went to a men's basketball game featuring Canada v France, for instance, at the arena in Toronto where the Raptors play (then called Air Canada Centre). They scheduled the game hastily with little lead up (it was a friendly functioning as a tune-up for some tournament). The organizers followed a similar strategy, but had added availability behind one basket. I have also seen events at other arenas and stadiums where the idea was to concentrate the fans, but where some expanded areas had happened. That includes soccer games at BMO in Toronto and at Olympic Stadium in Montréal, and basketball and CFL games in various venues. But maybe they wanted to keep ticket sales down because lord knows, the NCAA is famous for avoiding opportunities to increase its revenue.
UConn has beaten the most number of ranked teams compared to anyone else (Maryland, Louisville, North Carolina, Marquette, and Creighton), but none of them were Top 10 teams They lost to UCLA, NC State, Texas. They've stabilized their starting lineup and gotten very good play from KK and Ashlyn (and maybe Ice TBD), but the true test of where they stand will be against South Carolina. They should beat Notre Dame (ranked #18) and everyone else in the Big East, but the Top 10/elite teams ahead of them are whom they need to beat to make it to the championship game.
With the type of play they are executing now, they could beat a bigger team. Employing the 4 guard offense is actually the best concept by Geno. The men used it in 2014 with Shabazz. All the teams they beat had more size, especially Michigan and Kentucky. They're hitting their outside shots, and as Geno said, playing WITH Paige as opposed to watching and playing great defense to boot, which is essential in this offense. They could surprise people.
Ice is beginning to understand the game at this level -- and that's going to be the key to UCONN's season. She will have to be a Division I, Top 20 school starter down low if the Huskies are going to get beyond the Sweet 16. This small lineup is playing great right now, but they will not be able to match up with the top 5 teams with Edwards as their only post presence.
Maybe you are right about her, but I am sold on her yet. It looked to me like St John's was way undersized, allowing Brady to play like she was playing against a High School team. Let's see her playing anything like this against a top 25 team with size!
@@zigner Don't disagree at all. I'm just happy she's looking good against a bad team right now -- early in the season she didn't even look good against the EU exhibition teams and those were awful.
Yea....I got too used to the freight train that was the Stewie/Jefferson/Tuck..Collier/Samuelson era....at least now they can't say NCAA WBB isn't competitive and blame UConn.....
Geno needs to figure out a way to get something from Amari on a daily basis, even in games it won't matter score wise. Her confidence and game speed need to increase. There has to be something there!
Pretty sure Coach A knows how to coach bigs (Lobo, Charles, Edwards etc); It is not there for DeBerry; she may be a nice person, a good student, but a Div I player, no...
Mistake everyone makes em you've made a few, right? I know I've made a ton. @@tellylott77 But really, hard to say what UConn thought they were going to get from DeBerry. One thing for sure, UConn values practice time, and she's had loads of practice time to improve her pretty sketchy high school skills.
Azzi has been plagued with injuries; we can not just forget her performance when she played without injuries. Samuels, Ice Brady, Shade, and Arnold give me hope for a better Uconn team next year.
The way these girls are playing, they should be called "Bueckers' Brigands" or "Geno's Vandals". They have a Wheatie's Box full of talent & they play like Parisian Pickpockets on a NY holiday. They steal everything in sight and they're gone faster than the Paris metro leaves the Premier Arrandisement. Station. Jumpers from everywhere, steals from anyone, blocks on everyone. There isn't enough room on a Wheaties' Box for all of them. Niki Muehl is now an outside shooting threat, KK is so fast that she might be Ms. Flash, Ashlyn Shade is shooting as well as Hannah Jump or Pow-Pow. Ice Bradey bathed in WD-40 to get the rust off & finally remembered that she can shoot. Paige is free to run with a team that can find the orange, round circle off her dish. We're watching four point guards vandalizing a defense backed up by 6'3" center who can hit from outside the circle. That's Sweet Sixteen. Cadence found her stroke. Bettencourt learned enough English to play for Geno his way, and in a stunning reversal, "Rumplestilkstin" Dewberry awoke from her three year nap/coma to show some low post moves. They are so good that Geno is unhappy that they are not better. They will probably get a good temper tantrum from him, but he knows that the following players are on one team & it isn't in the Big East: Hidalgo, DeWolff, Citroen, Westbelt & Hoosiewhatsis. In other words, there are many showdowns looming on the horizon: Notre Dame, LSU, Gonzaga, Stanford, UCLA & others. Bueckers' Brigands will have to get past them to make it to the "Elite Eight". If they get beyond that, they are so good and have so much potential that one or more of them could fill up a Wheatie's Box.
