In Reply to: Re: Anyone worried that UCLA is not thumping their opponents like the posted by Eight8clap on March 24, 2026 at 06:49:26
I thought we came out with top level energy and also that Gabriela led our rebounding in the first half largely because of her fight and all out effort. I thought after that dominant first quarter other than a lapse for perhaps two minutes right in the middle before we bore down again and clearly shook OSU up a bit so they were missing even the decent looks they got, I thought we relaxed a bit. There can be a big focus on proving you're better than the opponent and when you open 21-6, you can take that for granted. I thought we tried some fancy plays after that and they backfired.
Also Dugalic and Rice and - in the first half - also Kneepkens who started 3-11 before hitting her last three shots in the game in the second half - their shooting was off - and Gabriela also except for her steals and slashes to the basket which she does at a pure elite level.
I think atrojanedbruin's comment - think it was his - that we aren't playing at our peak is accurate and, as he says, the measure is how we will perform against So Carolina, Texas, LSU and that level of team and ultimately, we all hope, against the ultimate challenge: UConn with their two transcendent star players. So seeing us regain our peak is awfully important.
I would attribute the slow down the last three quarters last night to OSU upping their intensity level and our players, once they showed they were going to win this game, getting affected a.bit by the nature of the occasion - a final curtain call to four years of their lives for some of them and peak level achievements in their chosen sport. Together. Last time at home with one another and their fans. Emotional.
I think we have one more game to regain our peak level of play - better shooting, make the workmanlike plays (Be like Lauren! And Gabriela!) and eschew the fancier ones. Shots sometimes fall and sometimes they don't. But we need our shooters to be on from the opening tip - going two quarters with Gianna and Kiki cold on their jumpshots will put us up against it especially in those final three rounds of the tournament.
One last thing - Cori Close has been sitting back to force her players to right the ship themselves when they get into dead periods. I get it. It's pure John Wooden philosophy. But the very top of women's college basketball is far better than it's ever been and this team is going to need all hands on deck - including their head coach. There have been times Cori has opted not to call a time out to change what's been going on out on the court, but she needs to be a more active and assertive coach from this point on, more a participant in the situation on the court rather than just the overall developmental process.
Sometimes when she does call a time out, it's the players who get the change accomplished before she can even say a word to them. That's great leadership. Sometimes it's just the break in the action to allow the players to take a breath and reset in order to resume action at a highly level. But it needs to happen right when it needs to happen going forward imo.
We have a great team. But so does UConn for sure and also So Carolina and Texas and LSU seems to be right there as well. We have a chance to go all the way - we're all just looking at it, hoping to see the path before us