[81alum]

Arizona used their physicality and speed to never let UConn get comfortable.  Expect them to try the same against Stanford, who looked a bit shaky against L'ville's speed and a little bit of South Carolina's physicality.  Stanford's beaten all comers this year though, so...here we go!

Geno's and Christyn William's press conference was revealing.  "Arizona took us out of our offense" is what they both basically said.  How did they do it? 

"They had great ball pressure, we got flustered, and it wasn't like anything we had seen before this season, and we just couldn't get enough flow offensively."  "They had great ball pressure, they picked up full court all game, and they trapped the ball screens, and that is something that we haven't really seen throughout the season."  Williams.

Geno was much less specific, he refused to blame the loss on officiating although the reporters certainly noticed that more than 40 fouls were called, and Geno indicated that this usually favors the more aggressive team since "Arizona made the officials think about whether to call a foul or not on every possession." 

From this I think we need to think that Arizona might play us quite differently than they did the last two games we played against them.  Our offense is actually quite a lot like UConn's--a so-called rhythm offense that depends upon player movement, passing, and screens over individual players creating for themselves.  Arizona will certainly try to disrupt us, just as Dawn Staley said her team needed to do, and cutting off passing lanes, trapping screens, playing so physically that refs are forced to think about calls on every play--all that is designed to ruin "flow" and "rhythm."  I don't recall them being quite so disruptive that last two times we played them, but their morale is sky-high, they will place no pressure on themselves, and they did beat us a year ago.

In my view, getting out to an early lead and hitting some treys early in the game could make things much easier.  Our players will be able to use a confidence boost early in the game and it would not be bad to sow seeds of doubt in our opponent that things are going to go the same way they did the last two times we played.  In their hearts, Arizona knows we have beaten them twice, and it will be hard for them to come back from an early deficit if we are so fortunate as to grab a lead.

I think the earlier observations that McDonald did not have her best games against us are apt--even though she scored 20 in the last game.  Wilson helped keep her under control but McDonald does seem to be playing better offense now than over a month ago.  It reminds me a little of our games against Kelsey Plum--you know you are going to give up a lot of points, but can we make the opponent so one-dimensional that even a great player cannot beat you?

Also, our own Williams has had a couple of less than perfect nights shooting the ball--her red-hot shooting has cooled off.  If she gets it back, great, but given that McDonald will be defending her I doubt that it will happen tomorrow.  Our scoring is going to have to come from others.  I do think we should have a gigantic advantage inside, but to prevent Arizona from sagging and clogging the paint we will need some viable three point shooting from people other than Williams.  Prectel, Lexie, Wilson, Brink, and even Jones need to hit treys.

[81alum]

Arizona used their physicality and speed to never let UConn get comfortable.  Expect them to try the same against Stanford, who looked a bit shaky against L'ville's speed and a little bit of South Carolina's physicality.  Stanford's beaten all comers this year though, so...here we go!

Geno's and Christyn William's press conference was revealing.  "Arizona took us out of our offense" is what they both basically said.  How did they do it? 

"They had great ball pressure, we got flustered, and it wasn't like anything we had seen before this season, and we just couldn't get enough flow offensively."  "They had great ball pressure, they picked up full court all game, and they trapped the ball screens, and that is something that we haven't really seen throughout the season."  Williams.

Geno was much less specific, he refused to blame the loss on officiating although the reporters certainly noticed that more than 40 fouls were called, and Geno indicated that this usually favors the more aggressive team since "Arizona made the officials think about whether to call a foul or not on every possession." 

From this I think we need to think that Arizona might play us quite differently than they did the last two games we played against them.  Our offense is actually quite a lot like UConn's--a so-called rhythm offense that depends upon player movement, passing, and screens over individual players creating for themselves.  Arizona will certainly try to disrupt us, just as Dawn Staley said her team needed to do, and cutting off passing lanes, trapping screens, playing so physically that refs are forced to think about calls on every play--all that is designed to ruin "flow" and "rhythm."  I don't recall them being quite so disruptive that last two times we played them, but their morale is sky-high, they will place no pressure on themselves, and they did beat us a year ago.

In my view, getting out to an early lead and hitting some treys early in the game could make things much easier.  Our players will be able to use a confidence boost early in the game and it would not be bad to sow seeds of doubt in our opponent that things are going to go the same way they did the last two times we played.  In their hearts, Arizona knows we have beaten them twice, and it will be hard for them to come back from an early deficit if we are so fortunate as to grab a lead.

I think the earlier observations that McDonald did not have her best games against us are apt--even though she scored 20 in the last game.  Wilson helped keep her under control but McDonald does seem to be playing better offense now than over a month ago.  It reminds me a little of our games against Kelsey Plum--you know you are going to give up a lot of points, but can we make the opponent so one-dimensional that even a great player cannot beat you?

Also, our own Williams has had a couple of less than perfect nights shooting the ball--her red-hot shooting has cooled off.  If she gets it back, great, but given that McDonald will be defending her I doubt that it will happen tomorrow.  Our scoring is going to have to come from others.  I do think we should have a gigantic advantage inside, but to prevent Arizona from sagging and clogging the paint we will need some viable three point shooting from people other than Williams.  Prectel, Lexie, Wilson, Brink, and even Jones need to hit treys.