It'll be just the opposite tonight Joel. UConn vs ND, UConn has a big edge in size and talent on the front line tonight. Irish have the edge in guard play...at least that's the way it looks on paper. Going to be even tougher to beat UConn without our starting center and team leader, Natalie Anchowa. Young freshman who is trying to replace her has potential but she's a freshman, and post players take longer to mature in college than guards and wings. Irish inspite of playing in the toughest womens basketball conference and being undefeated are decided underdogs to the Huskies. But that's what makes upsets so sweet!! Go Irish!
Lot of trash talking between the coaches for tonights game. The teams and the coaches don't like each other clearly. I'd have just as soon that Muffett stayed out of that conversation, if she doesn't win to night I do believe the media is going to rip her a new one for giving UConn a lot of BB material. Oh well. Conversely I don't believe that Geno will get any backlash from the media should UConn lose.
I like Muffet's toughness. She's not concerned about being politically correct. I just watched both of them on the pre-game show. She came off much better.
In term of fundamentals, unselfish team play, and realization of the concept that college athletes are also students, tonight's game was superior to last night's game. Although the game ended up one sided, I thought the players on both teams, both in how the played and conducted themselves on the court and in interviews, were really impressive.
Womens game is clearly different, not so much showboating, in your face stuff ...way fewer tatoo's! UConn's Stewart is far and away the best women's basketball player in college right now. I'd actually rather have her than Griner to tell you the truth. Dolson was a little clumsy and such earlier in her career but as a Sr. she's matured into a very good post player. Lewis their guard was the best 3pt shooter in basketball last year but spent much of the year dealing with various injuries/health issues, but she showed last night that she is back. UConn had 3 WBCA All America's on the court, and a 4th who if she had played more (Lewis) vs the Irish with 2 WBCA All-America's. I don't think that we'd have won even if our Sr. center had played as she is shorter than either Stewart or Dolson.
Hard not to note that in the 3 Championship games, the Irish were beaten by the team with the better post player. We couldn't stop the A&M post player she just bulled her way over us, Britney Griner was a different style than the A&M player but result was the same, Baylor could go inside. Last night again it was our lack of a dominating inside player that spelled our doom.
Yes, Terry, it was obvious last night. The way the 2 Uconn bigs just reached above our 6'3" and 6'1" post players for rebounds was very disheartening. It seems to be the norm that, all else being equal, the team with one or two 6'4" or taller post players dominates the game. In this case, Uconn had outstanding players at every position, which is why they dominated women's BB this season. When I see who's coming back next year, I'm comfortable that we'll be highly competitive again on the national scene. I'm not concerned that we likely will not go undefeated.
T, One advantage ND has is that women athletes tend to be much better students than their male counterparts. Therefore, even though ND make lack the basketball amenities that larger state schools offer, the value in later life of securing a ND degree has to be an invaluable recruiting asset. Obviously, to build a great program you also need a outstanding coach and ND has that. So, if I were a ND fan, I would be very optimistic about the future I guess the big problem is that in women's basketball, UConn seems to be the reincarnation of the Wooden era UCLA teams. Their level of past success probably means that the elite players in the smaller pool of female basketball talent are drawn to play for UConn because of their domination. But, Geno's pregame comments wondering if ND will overtake UConn as UConn overtook Tennessee shows he realizes the threat ND poses to his program.
I would agree Bob, since there is no big money contract waiting for the women in the WNBA (which I believe has strict salary guidelines) they do tend to stay in college. I can think of only a couple of women who left early, there was a Tenn player who gave up her last year of eligibility to go to the WNBA, but she was a 3 time AA and I think maybe even graduated. As far as UConn goes, like Wooden, Geno has taken a program that nobody even heard of and has built them into an incredible powerhouse. They will be the favorites to repeat next year, again. Irish are well positioned and Muffet has sort of turned a corner with the program. Her recruiting has been top level since she got Skylar Diggins to come to ND. Next year we have the National Gatorade Player of the year coming, she's from the Houston Area. Plus the midwest still produces a lot of top talent in basketball, it hasn't all moved to the Sun Belt, and Indiana/Illinois are right in our backyard and loaded with talent. I do imagine that for some players and their families who are not Catholic that they might worry about sending their daughter to a Catholic school when they are being recruited by Duke, N.Car, UConn, Stanford, etc. But that's probably a minority. Same thing for diversity concerns for parents of black girls seeing more diversity in religion and culture at those other schools.