[81alum]

Haley also made a couple of critical, head-scratching decisions in the 4th quarter when the game was in doubt:

At 2:45 left in the fourth quarter, she attempted a three-pointer with 20 seconds left on the shot clock. She was not that open, her specialty is not three point shooting and we were only down by 6, that was a poor decision.

At another point, Jones had an open lane to the basket but then she tried passing it to Prechtel and the ball got intercepted and turned over.

A significant reason we won last year's national semis against South Carolina and Arizona was that Jones knew she couldn't stop her in the paint with her midrange jumpers and her agility/maneuverability around the net.

While she had glimpses of it in tonight's game, she lapsed into her poor decision making choices at the worst time.

---

11. Finally, I don't want to use the word choke or even wilted because everyone takes those as perjoratives and I don't mean to convey that kind of negative tone, but the mindset or emotions of our players didn't seem right. It wasn't a matter of not hustling, being aggressive, tough, or play with energy. They were fine and maybe even better than usual. Perhaps it was the pressure or expectations of winning and going after a repeat title that caused them to do things uncharacteristically or not be confident. The body language and demeanor just seemed off. Maybe somebody else who agrees that we were not ourselves can better describe what I'm trying to say.

I agree with all of your points but I wanted to highlight this. Especially on offense, all game long, for whatever reason, we seemed to second-guess ourselves and just was operating at less than full speed. It felt like I was watching the game on half speed sometimes. The passes weren't crisp, they were a lot of standing around and the players looked indecisive.

Yes, there was something not right with our team chemistry.  Rather than playing like we were the defending national champions, each miss seemed to erode our confidence.  Tara said in the sideline interview that we were not moving the ball enough or getting it inside enough, but even after telling her players this they seemed to make poor decisions and failed to carry out those instructions.  UConn plays sound defense but certainly nothing worse than we have overcome many times in the past--so it seems to me it was more the occasion than the defense that was the difference.  Geno said about the same thing--they won because we had an off night.  As evidence of this are the three point shots that began to fall at the very end when impending defeat finally made us fully focused.     Jones in the presser said the same thing--it wasn't anything special the UConn defense was doing, but the shots just weren't going in. 

UConn played just well enough to win, and we largely beat ourselves.  It is a psychological more than a physical loss, and that makes it more disappointing, not least for the players themselves.  That is the danger of the NCAA's one-and-done system, you cannot afford to have any one of the 6 potential games be an off-night.  I do think that this year we have been a better team than UConn, but not at the one moment where it counted.

All that said, I remain filled with admiration and love for our team, as well as hope for more wonderful seasons to come.  It says a lot, compared with some past years, that getting to the final four and not to the title game is seen as any sort of "disappointment."

[81alum]

Haley also made a couple of critical, head-scratching decisions in the 4th quarter when the game was in doubt:

At 2:45 left in the fourth quarter, she attempted a three-pointer with 20 seconds left on the shot clock. She was not that open, her specialty is not three point shooting and we were only down by 6, that was a poor decision.

At another point, Jones had an open lane to the basket but then she tried passing it to Prechtel and the ball got intercepted and turned over.

A significant reason we won last year's national semis against South Carolina and Arizona was that Jones knew she couldn't stop her in the paint with her midrange jumpers and her agility/maneuverability around the net.

While she had glimpses of it in tonight's game, she lapsed into her poor decision making choices at the worst time.

---

11. Finally, I don't want to use the word choke or even wilted because everyone takes those as perjoratives and I don't mean to convey that kind of negative tone, but the mindset or emotions of our players didn't seem right. It wasn't a matter of not hustling, being aggressive, tough, or play with energy. They were fine and maybe even better than usual. Perhaps it was the pressure or expectations of winning and going after a repeat title that caused them to do things uncharacteristically or not be confident. The body language and demeanor just seemed off. Maybe somebody else who agrees that we were not ourselves can better describe what I'm trying to say.

I agree with all of your points but I wanted to highlight this. Especially on offense, all game long, for whatever reason, we seemed to second-guess ourselves and just was operating at less than full speed. It felt like I was watching the game on half speed sometimes. The passes weren't crisp, they were a lot of standing around and the players looked indecisive.

Yes, there was something not right with our team chemistry.  Rather than playing like we were the defending national champions, each miss seemed to erode our confidence.  Tara said in the sideline interview that we were not moving the ball enough or getting it inside enough, but even after telling her players this they seemed to make poor decisions and failed to carry out those instructions.  UConn plays sound defense but certainly nothing worse than we have overcome many times in the past--so it seems to me it was more the occasion than the defense that was the difference.  Geno said about the same thing--they won because we had an off night.  As evidence of this are the three point shots that began to fall at the very end when impending defeat finally made us fully focused.     Jones in the presser said the same thing--it wasn't anything special the UConn defense was doing, but the shots just weren't going in. 

UConn played just well enough to win, and we largely beat ourselves.  It is a psychological more than a physical loss, and that makes it more disappointing, not least for the players themselves.  That is the danger of the NCAA's one-and-done system, you cannot afford to have any one of the 6 potential games be an off-night.  I do think that this year we have been a better team than UConn, but not at the one moment where it counted.

All that said, I remain filled with admiration and love for our team, as well as hope for more wonderful seasons to come.  It says a lot, compared with some past years, that getting to the final four and not to the title game is seen as any sort of "disappointment."