SU caught last night’s UConn women’s basketball game vs. Maryland at MSG with long-time subscriber M. Levine. It’s important to periodically see how basketball is supposed to be played by watching a true team in action. Every player touches the ball on each possession. There are back door cuts, high/low plays to score underneath and full-court pressing defense. Sure, they turned it over a lot last night but this is the game that I like to watch. No isolation plays, no jab stepping for 15 seconds, no walking the ball up the court and no dogging it getting back on defense. Yes, fans, there is still real basketball being played out there – in Golden State, San Antonio, Michigan (see John Beilein’s style of play) and a few other places. There is hope.
SU thought this was an interesting perspective on the Chapman trade and how a suspension helps the Yankees in multiple ways. Worth a few minutes to check it out here:
Sports Update Intergalactic 
The math will be very interesting here. The free agency timing is dependent on the number of days of service, not the number of games played. 46 days is about 40 games, one-fourth of the season. You have to believe the Yankees talked to the Commissioner’s office in advance as to the likely number of games. Among the many talking heads on the MLB Tonight show last night weighing in, Joel Sherman said he would be surprised if it was more than 25 games.
Howard, As you may know, our family (and many of our friends from New Haven)are huge uconn basketball fans.
For many, many years a few of my friends attended to every home men’s games and many away games. They never missed NCAA tournament games.
When the woman’s team became good, they started attending all of the woman’s games and they became friendly with Geno. To your point, they actually preferred the women’s games over the men’s. They also enjoyed observing and participating in the culture of the women’s game.
Geno’s critics say he gets all of the best players. He does get many great players but as he points out it’s often his system/culture that wins championships.
Sent from my iPad
Jon, you are spot on regarding the culture. Just a lot of nice people who are passionate about their basketball. No booing, no cat calls during foul shots. Feels very middle America. What’s impressive about UConn is that Geno is able to recruit the best of the best but incorporates them into his system. You can see the freshmen shooting at the wrong time in the flow of the offense – it takes time for them to see that they are no longer the focal point of the team and have to learn to fit in. It’s rare that their freshmen are highly comfortable or impactful – even Brianna Stewart struggled her freshman year. I agree with Andy’s comment below that they are more entertaining than most NBA teams. Calipari gets the top recruits at Kentucky but they are basically playing Mt. Vernon style basketball – throw it up and get all of the offensive rebounds. They have athletes who can jump higher than everyone else and will fight. But to me, it’s not pleasing to the eye.
Talking to the choir on the U Conn Husky women. I’d watch them before most NBA games.
What a thrill, to be included by name in SU…I guess on some level this counts as the 15 minutes that Andy Warhol was referring to…
>
Yes, these are important milestones that you will want to mark down.