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Baylor Women's Basketball

Preview and Game Thread: Lady Bears at UConn

January 9, 2020
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Two legendary programs and coaches square off Thursday night on ESPN. Kim Mulkey and Geno Aureiema are first and second in winning percentage over their careers and also active national championships. The game could be a precursor to the Final Four in New Orleans, but that is getting ahead of the game. What this game will show is the weaknesses and strengths of both programs and what it will take to get to New Orleans and possibly take home another title. 

The Lady Bears stumbled without All-American Lauren Cox against #6 South Carolina during a grueling Thanksgiving tournament for their lone loss. Connecticut has remained unbeaten, but also less battle tested by only facing one other ranked opponent, while this will be the fourth for the Lady Bears. 

With Cox’s return, the Lady Bears will have their full assortment of weapons on offense and defense to push UConn and beat them, but they will need to slow 6-1 junior forward Megan Walker (21.0 ppg, 9.4 rebounds), senior guard Crystal Daingerfield (15.0 ppg, 4.4 assists) and 5-11 sophomore guard Christyn Williams (16.3 ppg, 5.2 assists). Look for DiDi Richards to draw the assingment of frustrating Walker. Juicy Landrum and T’ea Cooper will need to take Daingerfield and Williams out of rhythm and force the Huskies to the guard beyond the three point line. 

Inside, Cox will face a talented big in 6-5 Olivia Nelson-Ododa. Nelson-Ododa has struggled recently and look for Baylor to go inside to get Cox and NaLyssa Smith going offensively. UConn is predominantly a guard oriented team, but Nelson-Ododa does score 13 a game. 

The Lady Bear defense holds opponents to 34.4% shooting on the season, while UConn is shooting 55.3% from the field. If the Lady Bears hold UConn under 40%, look for Mulkey to come out the victor to even the series at 4-4. If not, the Huskies will remain the top team in the country and leaving Baylor with more tape to correct the flaws.


How To Watch:

ESPN 6PM CST


Keys To The Game:

Baylor: Guarding the three point line, staying out of foul trouble, pounding the paint on offense and defense

UConn: Guarding the paint, staying out of foul trouble, hitting the three, stopping Baylor breaks

Discussion from...

Preview and Game Thread: Lady Bears at UConn

29,200 Views | 253 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by Bearpaws
blueeyedbear
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Eball said:

Excited for game and to see that Brian is going to keep up the game thread...it is exhausting to do! My wife and I will be concentrating on the game more so than usual so I doubt I will post a whole lot...I think it could certainly go either way...I hope our defense is just too good for them...tow different teams than last year...I am thinking we win going away in a shocker or we lose a hard fought back and forth at the end.

I just don't see anyone running away from us if we play our defense like we do...I am convinced we were tired when we played USC third game three days without LC and lost. Someone is going to have to beat us at our own game defense or get ridiculously hot from three to beat us. I think we have a better chance of pulling away than they do...We are not as strong scoring inside as last year but we are better at scoring in transition and from the guard position than last year.(or should I say we are just as good as last year but we are utilizing our outside game more)

72-58 Bears win...
Predicted Score 72 - 58 Actual Score 74 - 58. Eball ever though about getting a 900# and offer psychic advice ??
blueeyedbear
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DanaDane said:

Lady Bears 35
UConn 34

HALF


Really bad final 3 minutes there. Didi needs to come back in. Egbo is not ready for this caliber of competition.
Yes, Thankfully it was only three minutes - CKM will get it fixed.
Major disappointment for Queen I have taken a lot of heat for comments I wrote about her weak fundamentals especially not blocking out but a team like U Conn will expose you. Easy to pile up stats vs teams that are 6 foot or less but stats can be deceiving and nor a true indicator where a player really is. Again she had the deer in the headlights look. She has amazing talent - and enormous upside - she has the rest of the conference schedule to get herself going. I have faith she can grow into the player she is capable of but the clock is ticking.
Jack Bauer
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whitetrash
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blueeyedbear said:

Eball said:

Excited for game and to see that Brian is going to keep up the game thread...it is exhausting to do! My wife and I will be concentrating on the game more so than usual so I doubt I will post a whole lot...I think it could certainly go either way...I hope our defense is just too good for them...tow different teams than last year...I am thinking we win going away in a shocker or we lose a hard fought back and forth at the end.

I just don't see anyone running away from us if we play our defense like we do...I am convinced we were tired when we played USC third game three days without LC and lost. Someone is going to have to beat us at our own game defense or get ridiculously hot from three to beat us. I think we have a better chance of pulling away than they do...We are not as strong scoring inside as last year but we are better at scoring in transition and from the guard position than last year.(or should I say we are just as good as last year but we are utilizing our outside game more)

72-58 Bears win...
Predicted Score 72 - 58 Actual Score 74 - 58. Eball ever though about getting a 900# and offer psychic advice ??
Eball
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blueeyedbear said:

Eball said:

Excited for game and to see that Brian is going to keep up the game thread...it is exhausting to do! My wife and I will be concentrating on the game more so than usual so I doubt I will post a whole lot...I think it could certainly go either way...I hope our defense is just too good for them...tow different teams than last year...I am thinking we win going away in a shocker or we lose a hard fought back and forth at the end.

I just don't see anyone running away from us if we play our defense like we do...I am convinced we were tired when we played USC third game three days without LC and lost. Someone is going to have to beat us at our own game defense or get ridiculously hot from three to beat us. I think we have a better chance of pulling away than they do...We are not as strong scoring inside as last year but we are better at scoring in transition and from the guard position than last year.(or should I say we are just as good as last year but we are utilizing our outside game more)

72-58 Bears win...
Predicted Score 72 - 58 Actual Score 74 - 58. Eball ever though about getting a 900# and offer psychic advice ??
Hah...I am just used to advising clients what to do when it comes to litigation and settling a cases...this was mostly just dumb luck...
willtalk
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I don't know why anyone is so surprised at the outcome. Baylor should have always been a heavy favorite. They are a bad matchup for Uconn. They are the type of team that would expose Uconns weakness in the paint and their lack of depth. That showed itself via the lack of production from Ono and the team just running out of gas with 5 minutes to play. This is despite the fact that Baylor played uncharacteristically weak defense- for them.
blueeyedbear
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Eball said:

blueeyedbear said:

Eball said:

Excited for game and to see that Brian is going to keep up the game thread...it is exhausting to do! My wife and I will be concentrating on the game more so than usual so I doubt I will post a whole lot...I think it could certainly go either way...I hope our defense is just too good for them...tow different teams than last year...I am thinking we win going away in a shocker or we lose a hard fought back and forth at the end.

I just don't see anyone running away from us if we play our defense like we do...I am convinced we were tired when we played USC third game three days without LC and lost. Someone is going to have to beat us at our own game defense or get ridiculously hot from three to beat us. I think we have a better chance of pulling away than they do...We are not as strong scoring inside as last year but we are better at scoring in transition and from the guard position than last year.(or should I say we are just as good as last year but we are utilizing our outside game more)

72-58 Bears win...
Predicted Score 72 - 58 Actual Score 74 - 58. Eball ever though about getting a 900# and offer psychic advice ??
Hah...I am just used to advising clients what to do when it comes to litigation and settling a cases...this was mostly just dumb luck...
You did not call your Vegas bookie and lay a few Benjamins on it ?????
Bearpaws
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Still celebrating, wow, just wow, loved it.

The only thing I don't get at this point is why South Carolina are 1 and Oregon are above Or St, OR have 2 bad losses and we lost without LC
 
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