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*****UCONN vs Iowa (W) Game Thread*****

Geno in the presser playing the victim.
its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-charlie-kelly.gif
 
Obviously, this was an even more emotional game tonight. The question is, how will the Hawks come out on Sunday? They have to be ready for SC. They won't play around. We'll have to play smart and as a team, one last time.
 
The mantra of March Madness is "survive and advance" and Iowa embodied that idea to outlast UConn in a 40-minute thriller, 71-69. The Hawkeyes overcame a poor start -- cold shooting and a surplus of turnovers stymied them throughout most of the first half -- to claw the game back to even after three quarters, before edging the Huskies in the final quarter.

The story of the game in the first half was UConn's smothering defense -- Caitlin Clark was held to just two points in the first half and had only six points in the opening 20 minutes. UConn guard Nika Muhl harassed Clark all over the court and made it hard for Iowa's superstar guard to get the ball, let alone get easy looks. Clark had three of Iowa's 12 first half turnovers as sloppy passes by Iowa and active hands by UConn led to 11 steals for the Huskies.

Clark found her shooting touch in spurts in the second half, scoring 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting after the break, including a trio of three-pointers after going 0-for-6 from deep in the first half. Clark finished with 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists for the game.

She was not Iowa's leading scorer, though -- that was instead Hannah Stuelke, who was brilliant in the post and in transition for the Hawkeyes, finishing with 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Her scoring helped keep afloat while her teammates struggled to find their shots.

MORE HERE:
 
The mantra of March Madness is "survive and advance" and Iowa embodied that idea to outlast UConn in a 40-minute thriller, 71-69. The Hawkeyes overcame a poor start -- cold shooting and a surplus of turnovers stymied them throughout most of the first half -- to claw the game back to even after three quarters, before edging the Huskies in the final quarter.

The story of the game in the first half was UConn's smothering defense -- Caitlin Clark was held to just two points in the first half and had only six points in the opening 20 minutes. UConn guard Nika Muhl harassed Clark all over the court and made it hard for Iowa's superstar guard to get the ball, let alone get easy looks. Clark had three of Iowa's 12 first half turnovers as sloppy passes by Iowa and active hands by UConn led to 11 steals for the Huskies.

Clark found her shooting touch in spurts in the second half, scoring 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting after the break, including a trio of three-pointers after going 0-for-6 from deep in the first half. Clark finished with 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists for the game.

She was not Iowa's leading scorer, though -- that was instead Hannah Stuelke, who was brilliant in the post and in transition for the Hawkeyes, finishing with 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Her scoring helped keep afloat while her teammates struggled to find their shots.

MORE HERE:

"Caitlin Clark was held to just two points in the first half and had only six points in the opening 20 minutes."

I've had some delta 9 this evening, but I'm pretty sure that sentence makes no sense.
 
For most of Iowa's 71-69 comeback victory over UConn, Caitlin Clark and Hannah Stuelke shouldered the scoring load. Stuelke had a game-high 23 points, including 11 in the third quarter to help Iowa erase UConn's six-point halftime lead. Clark struggled for much of the game against Nika Muhl's blanket defensive coverage, but exploded for seven quick points in the first 2:05 of the fourth quarter to help Iowa build a 60-55 lead after trailing for most of the game.

Iowa would build the lead as large as nine in the final frame before UConn made one last charge, casting the game back into doubt in the final few minutes.

As the game tightened late, though, it was Kate Martin, Sydney Affolter, and Gabbie Marshall who stepped up and made a series of crucial plays that tipped the outcome in Iowa's favor. To win a close game late in the Final Four, you need a great team. Against UConn, Iowa showed how valuable every player on the floor can be in winning time.

More here: https://iowa.rivals.com/news/iowa-71-uconn-69-a-final-four-team-win-in-crunch-time
 
Linda Cohn did journalism a disservice last night in her description of the play, and every talking head has been off point, I assume to drive content. As many have mentioned when you take the time to look at the multiple angles offered it was clearly a foul.
Geno Auriemma must be feeling some heat, or just a douche. I give a lot of credit to Paige Bueckers in the post game for being the adult on the UCONN team. They had plenty of chances, and instead of pissing and moaning at a call Auriemma should be evaluating what he could have done during the game to produce 3 more points.
 
Van Pelt says the call shouldn't have been made with 3.9 seconds left. It was a blatant foul and should have been called at any point in the game.
Maybe Van Pelt can enlighten us as to what point in the game should fouls not be called?
I don't have the rule book memorized.....perhaps someone can point out where it outlines the times and situations where the rules don't apply.
 
If we’re going to talk about this foul to death at least point out the mugging allowed all game against Iowa and CC.
On the play O’Grady got called for a foul for boxing out the following happened:

5 mins left in the 4th quarter. Paige was being guarded and then fronted in the post by Gabbie. Paige proceeds to shove Gabbie in the back as she’s fronting her. And then gives a subtle knee to her as well. Meanwhile, Caitlin is chasing someone through the lane and Edwards does a clear hook and hold stopping Caitlin. This all results in a missed shot where O’Grady tries to box out and gets called for a foul.
UConn can get out of here about the refs. They were fine both ways.
 
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Everyone bemoaning Paige Buekers not getting a chance to win with a final shot, don’t think about Gabbie being denied a chance to block that shot or get the steal.
The foul created an unfair advantage and the correct call was made.

When Auriemma says that the same call could be made on every possession he is wrong. Unless, of course his team sets illegal screens on every possession.
 
Selling what? The UCONN player took a BIG step sideways and threw her shoulder into Gabby. That was not a "borderline" call....it was a blatant foul. Gabby was hit pretty hard.
Relax. See the "wink.gif"?
 
It was a foul.

But I hear the point that that never gets called at the end of a game. I would be livid if it had happened the other way around (although we don’t set hard illegal screens like that so that’s fantasy land).

What sucks is they looked like the shot they were gonna get off was horrible and so we would’ve most likely won even without it. But now everyone is only gonna talk about how we were handed the game.
What makes people think that UCONN would have made a shot anyway. Looked to me they would have gotten off a desperation shot at best
 
What makes people think that UCONN would have made a shot anyway. Looked to me they would have gotten off a desperation shot at best
The slip was wide open for Edwards. The closest player was basically under the rim. I don't think she would have been able to get all the way to the rim but would have had about an 8 footer.
 
The first angle they show, it is no doubt a foul. She was sliding left and had the forward body lean. The close up you can't see the movement but see the elbow flare out.
look at Edward's base. Far wider than allowed when setting a sceen (should width)
 
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I’m confident when my teams are good except playing other teams that have that championship “aura”. Kim Mulkey last year. Geno. There’s just programs and teams that you don’t want to meet in the playoffs. Win or lose Sunday, I will always be thrilled Iowa beat UConn in a Final 4.

I was nervous too, and for the same reason even though I was convinced we ARE better.

Something about that first half just struck me as odd… Connecticut didn’t play great by any means, but they had us down by 12 and we played awful…

But there was some pretty classic truisms there if you looked…

Rarely (sometimes) but rarely does a good shooting team shoot poorly all game. Typically you regress to the mean over 40 minutes…

Second, we weren’t likely to continue throwing the ball away at the Pace we were…

And we were out rebounding them…

Annnnnddd they were exerting all kinds of energy guarding us….

And we were only down by 6…


As a funny side story, I I went upstairs to the bathroom and somehow managed to miss the first three or four minutes where we got it within two… Then I went to the bathroom again ( i get nervous sometimes lol parentheses
The ball is in CC hands 10X more than Paige. Had not watched Paige play but I expected someone more dynamic as far as speed, ball skills, etc.

I said the other day she is very good but not nearly as explosive and not at all the same kind of player…
 
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