RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Toliver...Holy Cow!]

Swanier was a Street and Smith All-American multiple times, Georgia State Player of the Year and I'd guess at least a national top 40/30 player- granted there are competing services that do these rankings.

So maybe UConn is down to 7 Top 30 recruits in its rotation? Maybe 8 if you include Hunter? I give them credit for assembling such a group. It is amazing. Looks like they'll have even more next year.

How many teams legitimately have anywhere close to such a stacked roster? UConn, Tenn., Duke, MD (3 HS AAs out for season with injury), UNC, Stanford, Rutgers?

[memphis10]

[Mirage32]

[spikeybedhead]

[BBallFanCT729]

UNC does have a good team, but UConn was able to clamp down on them in the second half. Charde & Tina were just on a mission to deny anyone who tried to shoot in the lane in the second half.


Ketia was questionable tonight...but thankfully Charde/Tina/Maya/Renee played well enough to overcome that. Lorin, despite a few WTF moments (every player had them this evening), still did a great job for the situation she's in.

I am so happy for Charde...just a great game for her. Tina was an absolute monster, especially in the second half. She made Larkins look silly at times.

I'm also happy for this team...I think they needed this win. I'm so very proud of them. They have the biggest HEART and CHARACTER for a UConn team in a *long* time.

PROPS to the CROWD. Holy shoot were we loud!!! I hope that came across on TV.

What a game...what a second half. First half: UNC 44-UConn 33. Second half: UConn 49-UNC 27. Final: UConn 82-UNC 71.

UNC got beat at their own game. I have to say, UConn looked like the better conditioned team, as they can run all 40 min. if need be. Not sure if even UNC could completely do that.

Part of the UNC fan contigent was sitting next to my section...they were a passionate crew. I let them know that they have a good team (they do). I hope the UConn-UNC series continues.

[ucbart]

[Toliver...Holy Cow!]

I'm not sure UConn's starting 5 takes a back seat to anyone. That is an amazing crew.

[accommodatingly]

How can there be just two pages on this game? What a second half. What a first half for UNC, come to think of it, but what a second half for UConn. I didn't think they could do it.

UConn almost always gets better after the break, except when they don't need to get better, because they have the game in hand. (The exception, the Big East final two years ago, doesn't bear dwelling on.) Charde had her head in the right place at last, and Tina Charles fought through a dry spell on offense. UConn got more focused as the game went on, and UNC-- for the first time ever in a game I've watched-- got tired.

(Note on the ACLs: Mel Thomas is completely ineffective against a team this athletic-- she would have had limited minutes anyway, though Greene would have been good to have. Of course I wish they were both healthy, but only one of the two season-ending injuries had a big impact on this particular matchup.)

Wow.

[mercfan3]

The game started off kind of depressing, we watched Mel hobble out there for her 1,000 point ceremony. She had a smile on her face. And then the game for the first half seemed to be somber, like the team's heart and rebounding was missing. The just seemed out of sync, which was to be expected. Mel Kalana and Brittany could have quite possibly had 80 minutes (or more) in this game, out of the 200..you would expect a team to be out of sync.

This was a great win, however I truly believe that Uconn is no longer the best team in the country. With Kalana and Mel, Uconn wins by double digits. (not anything against UNC, but Uconn was just that good) Not that I'm upset with the win...I just don't feel anymore optimistic about Uconn's circumstances (especially with Hunter possibly not being a huge part of the rotation.) I also don't think it's fair to say how well Thomas, Greene, or Hunter would have been. Syracuse and Louiville are athletic and Thomas played pretty well, and who knows whether Greene's shot would have been on or off, and Whether Brittany would have done an outstanding job defending Larkins. Moral of the story. I'm proud of these girls for winning, but I don't think this is a.."Uconn's still the best team in the country without Hunter, Thomas, and Greene" thing. Just a realistic feeling. Granted, we still have our three best players, and hopefully Charde continues to play like this.

The difference in this team for winning in a close game and losing in a close game was three things. Maya Moore, Charde Houston, and Renee Montgomery. Renee, although almost shooting us out of it, played just as well tonight as she did against the regular season game against LSU last year. She made big shots, she played great defense. She was outstanding. Maya Moore, wasn't going to lose this game. Plain and simple. And Charde Houston. I really think people are going to look back at the shot and steal against Syracuse, and pin point the positive change in Charde Houston's season. For the first time, Charde Houston won a game for the team, to see her confident and pumped up this game was amazing. There were people in back of me who kept talking about how bad she was, "pathetic" was the term...I made sure to cheer REALLY loudly whenever she did something positive. I also felt Lorin Dixon played pretty well. She was in the game when the big run happened, but

A few negatives..The out of syncness, and besides Uconn's run, they still looked a bit funny. As I said, I would expect it now, whether it remains is a whole other question. Ketia was not very good, although did have a few key steals. She turned the ball over a bit too much, and was good when we needed her to be. The halfcourt offense was poor. Especially when Meghan was in there. (It wasn't her fault.) If UNC is going to refuse to cover someone..whose at least made a few shots before, if she's going to play, her teammates need to have the confidence to pass it to her, and she needs to have the confidence to make the shots. Instead of forcing it into the paint where four UNC players are...Oh, and the refs blew, both ways. Although a few calls against Uconn they got right. (Charde's offensive foul, the over and back..)

_________________
“Anyone point out that a Donald Trump anagram is ‘Lord Dampnut’�- Colin Mochrie

[kage]

Darnit. I had to leave halfway through so I missed the second half. >:/

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http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6329/lindseyhardingsig3oh2.jpg

[beknighted]

Nice win by UConn. The toughness to come back from being down by 11, to hold Carolina under 30 in the 2nd half, and to withstand the repeated Tar Heel runs was very impressive.

That said, I think I've finally found an answer to the question of why you want to play a good OOC schedule. Carolina had no real idea how to handle the end game behind by a few points. For instance, when there was an obvious "time to foul" situation, they let something like 24 seconds run off the clock before the first foul (and they still had 2 to go to get UConn into the bonus). And it wasn't like UConn was making it particularly hard to foul, either.

It also seemed to me that Carolina wasn't really very effective in the half court, partly because of UConn's defense and partly because it was too much work. I bet you could do a nice little chart showing Carolina's shooting percentage declining steadily the later a shot comes in the possession.

[RedEqualsLuck]

I also wonder about fitness -- especially for a running team that doesn't care about TOs... when you're tired, bang, it all gets worse...

just looked at UNC OOC -- and you're right -- tn and uconn are the best matchups... and good ones they are, but no mid-level toughening tests...

_________________
When Jefferson wrote: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," he didn't include the word "except."

[bballfan2005]

[mercfan3]

[bballfan2005]

[umbeta1455]

I know Montgomery now has more of an option to shoot, but why is she just throwing up everything. She did have some good timely buckets, but going 9-24 isn't good. That is the most shots by anybody for both teams.

Having her as an option is a good thing. But there are other players on her team who should be taking more shots.

[spikeybedhead]

[spikeybedhead]

[waterloosunset]

I just wanted to copy a quote from the only UNC player I've ever liked*:

"They did a great job of coming in to double team and we did a great job of standing.”

Hahahaha.

*That would be Larkins.

[Whizzer]

UNC will be fine. They will return to their dominating ACC run over Maryland this Saturday. UConn will do the same in the BE.

UNC's 3-point shooting problem sat on the bench. Gray (despite other posts, is a white girl that can play), shoots around 40% and actually feeds the posts. But is still out with the stress fracture.

Rashanda needs to look inside as well. Forcing too many horse shots. Claytor can hit the open three but is very slow on defense.

UNC and UConn are both Final 4 teams in my opinion. You probably saw the best of both teams tonight.........UNC in the first half, UConn in the second. Both are capable of putting two good halves together on any given night. We'll see how it pans out in the end.

[beknighted]

[Whizzer]

I've got to say that you're going to have to do a lot more to convince me that UNC is a Final Four team. The Tar Heels have played two contenders this year and are 0-2. Their conditioning seems somewhat suspect, which I must admit does not entirely surprise me, but will be a problem in the tournament. Also, the UConn game showed that they're vulnerable if you can make them play half court, which is not the easiest thing in the world, but doable for most of the top tier teams.

UConn, on the other hand . . .[/quote]


UNC's half court/points in the paint were great in the first half. They should have dumped in down more often.

They have played two contenders that were #1 on the road, and were basically in both games until the end. If UT and UConn are contenders, so is UNC.

[CourtsideTix]

[myt]

[Whizzer]