Can't believe it

[BEVOFAN2]

4:20 left in the game 74-47 and UCONN still has all its starters in. Well --- kinda rubbing dirt in Tennessees face but just go ahead and run the legs off of your players.

Maybe the sports announcers were wrong and UCONN vs TENNESSEE really wasn't the "championship" game of the Final Four. http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/biggrin.gif:

GO http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/ou.gif take it to them !!!

[YCN]

We are going to deliver it like nobody's business...

C'mon UConn, let's work it up to 30+...

We are waiting...

[Bevo]

I love how the ESPN's "GAME OF THE YEAR" turned into a boring UConn rout.

[ConnMan]

Hey - ESPN doesn't pick the teams.

[ConnMan]

BEVOFAN - All year UConn has taken players out early. The only reason UConn had just five 100 point games this year, and not fifteen, was because of liberal use of the bench. When UConn removed their starters in the 2000 NC game aginst Tennessee, Pat Summitt kept her regulars in and chiseled 8 points off the score.
Atr the end of the game Paige Sauer was holding the ball over her head and Tennessee was swiping at it with five seconds to go.

That's a good way to piss off Geno. Kathy Englise of BC also does that to UConn - not smart, in my opinion.

This year Tennessee knocked 9 points off at the end of the game. What do you want?

[vickie1ok]

Connman, I'm not sure why you think Pat Summit shouldn't have left her regulars in in the title game against Uconn in 2000 and why they shouldn't be swiping at the ball with 5 seconds left. Huh? Are you saying that because Geno pulled his players, the other team should concede? That's outrageous. Truly outrageous. I didn't expect Duke or Colorado to pull their starters, quit playing and concede once Sherri pulled her starters at the end of these games. I'm sure the Duke or CU fans didn't expect that either. (except Roger) There is nothing wrong with a team playing hard until the bitter end. I expect nothing else from my team. And trust me, the Sooners will not concede tomorrow night and I think Geno knows that as well as anyone.

[PeachBasket]

One thing Geno does for the senior starters toward the end of very important games that are being won is to put them all in so they can each get ovations as he replaces them one by one. If you haven't seen UConn much I can see where suddenly seeing all the starters at that phase of the game might be surprising, and may have caused some viewers not to notice that UConn's 3 main subs (Moore, Battle and Conlon) had all been in the game much of the time after UConn opened up to 55-33. The minutes those three subs played against UT are consistant with the numbers they ordinarily got throughout the season (Conlon 15mins, Moore 13 mins, Battle 8 mins) Battle's playing time is a bit down now that Williams seems to have finally overcome a health problem she has struggled with most of the last year. Basically Geno was using his normal rotation, the same as any other game except in total blowouts and when Williams has been physically unable to go.

OU fans might be surprised to hear that most serious UConn fans foresaw a UConn-OU NC game for much of the past two months. Although the Huskies defeated both the Sooners and the Lady Vols by identical final margins of 14 points in regular season meetings, serious fans knew that the similarity was in margin only, and the reality was the difference between a thumping of Tennessee, and a hard-fought and overly-officiated close game with OU. If you visit the UConn board (The Boneyard), you'll find much respect, even affection there for Coach Sherri Coale and the Sooners wbb program. Heck, how can we do anything but love a program that has Stacy Hansmeyer as an assistant coach?!

Here's to an exciting and injury-free NC game tomorrow night, being played as it should be between the two best teams in the land! (And refs, let 'em play, the running games and crisp skills these two teams have should make a GREAT advertisement for WBB.)

[vickie1ok]

PB, do you have a link for the Boneyard? I saw your stats on the top subs, and I'm a little surprised they don't have more with more minutes given the margin of victories. Dionnah Jackson averages about 29 minutes a game as a sub for us, so it appears UCONN and OU have about the same amount of sub time a game. I'm just surprised about UCONN's sub minutes given the superior talent of their team and I thought they must have equally great subs.

We both agree the refs need to hold their whistles in this championship game. If they blew whistles like in Hartford, people would change channels and change them quickly!! We need to let the women showcase their talents, and not let zebras take away from it.

[PeachBasket]

Vickie, here's the link for The Boneyard:
http://the-boneyard.com/wbb.pl

The Husky bench has been thin all year, as the anticipated #1 bench contributor for this year, Kennitra Johnson, decided to transfer to Purdue (where things went really wrong, but that's another story.) Unlike OU with Dionnah J., the Huskies don't really have a benchplayer that at present can come into the game and on a regular basis contribute equally to the starters. Moore and Battle are redshirt freshmen, and have great future potential, but are still early in their learning curves. Conlon is a solid role-player, but lacks a bit of the athleticism necessary to really be a supersub. All three have had their moments this year, but none are ready as yet to really be major contributors.

[vickie1ok]

Thanks, PB. Then next year will truly be a rebuilding year for UCONN, won't it? Although, I hear you had an all-world recruiting class. OU will obviously be rebuilding as well. Two senior laden teams go at it tomorrow in San Antonio!

Thanks again for the link.