RebKell's Junkie Boards

[bballfan2005]

You basically said she was lucky to hit that shot. I'm not sure if a 40% 3-point shooter "gets lucky" by hitting an open shot from the top of the key. By saying that people would've bagged on her had she not hit that shot and bringing up her performance earlier in the game, you're implying that she shouldn't have taken that shot in the first place--and I disagree with that notion completely. It was a good look and she is a good shooter. That is her shot, whether she's 10-10 from the floor or 2-17.

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Avatar: The King has his ring!

Mathies to LA 2013

[jaye]

[thatGAgirl]

[bballfan2005]

[GlennMacGrady]

Misc. observations:

I don't think Rutgers' offense was so bad. In fact, it was better relatively than UConn's. Rutgers got 56 shots on goal to UConn's 47, and made 23 to UConn's 21. Rutgers hit 7 3pters to UConn's 5, and out rebounded UConn by one in total and by 4 in o-boards.

UConn's offense was actually worse in the second half than the first: 9 fg's made compared to 12 in the first half.

UConn won the game in the second half because it clamped down on its defense and because Rutgers committed 15 fouls, giving UConn 17 points from the foul line in 19 attempts.

Carson is a great player and defender, but the box-and-one defense on Moore was by a committee that included Ray, Zurich and Ajavon in addition to Carson.

Moore's dagger 3 came against Carson (who got picked off by Charles), and was part of a two-play plan. UConn ran the same play again, but instead of shooting, Moore passed to a rolling McLaren, who hit the layup. Nice sequence of plays.

Rutgers played probably the best defense possible against UConn, but the box-and-one carries the risk that other shooters hit from the open outside. For the most part, Rutgers' gamble paid off. Montgomery and Swanier only shot 4-17.

[beknighted]

I'm not going to disagree that Stringer's decisions on the offensive end didn't work, but I am going to say that I think fatigue was a factor.

The reason I say that is the evidence of several other games after the McCurdy injury. Remember that RU was down to seven players who could give significant minutes, and one of those (Junaid) really can't go more than 5 or 6 minutes at a time most games. In any event, if you look at the Louisville game and the second UConn game, you would see something similar to what happened last night. In the second UConn game, RU kept it fairly close until there about 10:00 to go, then UConn broke it open. Against Louisville, RU had a similar decline late in the game.

I was a little surprised by this, honestly, as RU usually is about as well conditioned as any team can be, but the pattern seems pretty clear. For better or worse, Stringer seems to have decided that expending energy on offense was not the way to go, and so she went with taking the air out of the ball. Maybe being more aggressive would have worked better, or maybe they would have ended up completely gassed anyhow. On the other hand, if Ajavon hadn't been so aggressive with some of her passes (and I'm thinking about a couple of sequences late in the first half that led to easy UConn buckets), maybe RU never gives up the lead.

Either way, they held one of the top offensive teams in the country 15 points below their season average and below their average shooting percentage, held the most dangerous player on the court to 7 shots and 7 points, and were tied with 3 minutes to go. You could do a lot worse, and nearly every other team has.

[jaye]

@ thatgagirl.......looking at it.....yeah.....you're right.....but man.....rutgers was dragging trying to keep up with it.....they really were dragging man.....but anyway.....you're right.....it was a set play.....and to tell the truth.....one that they ran several times during the game....my bad.....

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sammy can ball....

[jaye]

[AJDowntown390]

[beknighted]

Given the questions about RU's performance in the 2nd half, I thought this article from the RU student newspaper might be of interest. The gist is that CVS says that fatigue was a big factor, particularly on the defensive end.

As an aside, looking at the scores from the Elite 8, RU actually scored more than 4 teams and tied the number of points scored by LSU.

Here's the link: Too tired

[jaye]

i whole heartedly admit that thatgagirl was right and i was wrong about the cut play for maya.....i've watched it and the game again.....and it wasn't the only time the play was run.....i'm 58 and if i had a dime for everytime i've been wrong.....well....i'd have enough money to be a dream founding fan....

but as to the rest.....that article is exactly what i've been saying about the composition of the game.....rutgers has no bench.....they play a swarming....energetic aggressive type of defense that their offense feeds off of.....they got tired......on their half court sets.....they stopped cutting and started standing....and matee wasn't the only one forced to chunk up shots with the clock running out.....and on defense the speed of swanier and montgomery in the second half kept them on their heels.....they got tired and just couldn't keep up.....add to that....the errors....whether fatigue related or not.....they didn't take care of the ball....

hat's off to uconn tho....i was really impressed with the game swanier played.....and not just because she's cute as all get out.....and the composure uconn showed.....i've been in trailing games and it's easy to get into a "oh well" mindset and just give up.....

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sammy can ball....