[Spiny_Norman]

Bueckers has amazing skill. However, in the tournament it appeared that it was very easy for the opponents to get into her head. I would have expected Geno to have adequately prepared his star player for such pressure, though I guess I over-estimated him. I was thinking back a lot on the 2001 semifinal U-Conn. had against ND. I don't remember Taurasi looking so flustered, just ticked off when they were losing.

Geno couldn't really prepare her because UConn didn't play anybody who could challenge her talent wise and scheme wise. You can talk about it, and you can try to "simulate" it, but it isn't the same has having what usually works for you taken away. There is a reason Tara usually plays some good teams that might actually beat us in preseason. COVID-19 really cut down on both the ability to practice and the ability to travel and play against top-tier opponents. That undoubtedly affected UConn as well. We saw some really good teams in our league. UConn, for the most part did not.You can't simulate playing a motivated and skilled opponent that knows what you want to do, has a plan to take that away and is physically capable of doing so.

UConn played South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas in non-conference games. They were supposed to play Baylor as well, but that regular season game was cancelled because of Covid. It's a reasonable schedule. But UConn is not challenged at all in conference. My $0.02 is that their conference schedule does not allow them to develop the mental toughness needed to win 3 consecutive games against strong opponents (regional final, semifinal, final). Perhaps that is why they have lost 4 consecutive semifinal matchups.

[Spiny_Norman]

Bueckers has amazing skill. However, in the tournament it appeared that it was very easy for the opponents to get into her head. I would have expected Geno to have adequately prepared his star player for such pressure, though I guess I over-estimated him. I was thinking back a lot on the 2001 semifinal U-Conn. had against ND. I don't remember Taurasi looking so flustered, just ticked off when they were losing.

Geno couldn't really prepare her because UConn didn't play anybody who could challenge her talent wise and scheme wise. You can talk about it, and you can try to "simulate" it, but it isn't the same has having what usually works for you taken away. There is a reason Tara usually plays some good teams that might actually beat us in preseason. COVID-19 really cut down on both the ability to practice and the ability to travel and play against top-tier opponents. That undoubtedly affected UConn as well. We saw some really good teams in our league. UConn, for the most part did not.You can't simulate playing a motivated and skilled opponent that knows what you want to do, has a plan to take that away and is physically capable of doing so.

UConn played South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas in non-conference games. They were supposed to play Baylor as well, but that regular season game was cancelled because of Covid. It's a reasonable schedule. But UConn is not challenged at all in conference. My $0.02 is that their conference schedule does not allow them to develop the mental toughness needed to win 3 consecutive games against strong opponents (regional final, semifinal, final). Perhaps that is why they have lost 4 consecutive semifinal matchups.