Just finished watching the replay of the game (once wasn’t enough in this protracted season). I noticed some marginal play by UCLA, but it didn’t compare to the physical street brawls we played in LA a few years back. Yesterday, post Lauryn Miller got caught for a push in the back, and Natalie Chou got away with a defensive undercut under the basket, probably unintended (Chou plays hard, but not dirty). And yes, there were aggressive, yet subtle, pushes and shoves that would have gone unnoticed back in the day of Cal's Reshanda Gray's forearm-to-the-face play ten years ago.
UCLA fans may have objected to Lexie's slap in the eye of a player in the last minute of play, although it was clearly meant for the ball. Lexie added insult to injury by grabbing the ball away from her distracted opponent before play was stopped by a foul call—this was fair, appropriate guard play on Lexie's part.
I also recall our team beating a very physical (dirty in my opinion) North Carolina at Maples in a lead up to the NCAA Tournament in 2014. After the game Assistant Coach Andrew Calder said something to the effect that, "we should have beaten up Ogwumike even more!" (And he meant it literally.) Some fans saw that game as a tune-up for the tougher tournament play, which often overlooked defensive aggressiveness (ie hard fouls).
As for Taurasi, I sat behind her team's bench at Maples a few years back. Her bench behavior — taunts, attitude, and mouth — not to mention her play, soured me on her thereafter.
By the way, after watching the game a second time, I can report that it ended with the same winner and the same score!
UCLA fans may have objected to Lexie's slap in the eye of a player in the last minute of play, although it was clearly meant for the ball. Lexie added insult to injury by grabbing the ball away from her distracted opponent before play was stopped by a foul call—this was fair, appropriate guard play on Lexie's part.
I also recall our team beating a very physical (dirty in my opinion) North Carolina at Maples in a lead up to the NCAA Tournament in 2014. After the game Assistant Coach Andrew Calder said something to the effect that, "we should have beaten up Ogwumike even more!" (And he meant it literally.) Some fans saw that game as a tune-up for the tougher tournament play, which often overlooked defensive aggressiveness (ie hard fouls).
As for Taurasi, I sat behind her team's bench at Maples a few years back. Her bench behavior — taunts, attitude, and mouth — not to mention her play, soured me on her thereafter.
By the way, after watching the game a second time, I can report that it ended with the same winner and the same score!