Bad Plays - Notre Dame Beats UCONN Women

ND handled the UCONN women who made too many bad plays. 

Bad plays are often our undoing. Here's an excerpt from The Boston Globe column by Ben Volin via Tom Brady's "Let's Go" podcast:

“When I watch football now, the only thing I see, nine out of 10 times it’s, ‘Man, that was a really bad play,’ ” Brady told guest Charles Barkley. ”As opposed to, ‘Wow, the spectacular play that [Patrick] Mahomes made, or the spectacular play that Josh Allen made.’ Now it’s like, ‘Man, what a bad defensive play, what a bad play by the quarterback.’ When you play with Randy Moss, with Wes Welker and [Rob Gronkowski], and Edelman, and Mike Evans, you see greatness, and there’s a standard for perfection that I want to see the game played at.”

This confirms Coach Bob Knight's contention that mistakes decide games. Obviously, with limited scoring, football is especially vulnerable to errors. In Kevin Eastman's book Why the Best Are the Best, he informs that in an NBA Finals game, Celtics' defensive mistakes led to 32 Los Angeles Lakers points in a win. How many more errors do lower level teams make? 

Transition defense. "Stop the ball." And it's not enough to get back unless getting back fully engaged. 

Turnovers arise from poor decisions or execution. Small margin for error here... 

More of the same. Foreshadowing a long day. 

Contain the ball. Don't foul. Azzi Fudd looks like she's forcing middle but gets beaten and fouls. Last video analysis I highlighted field goal defense, fouling, and free throw shooting as UCONN vulnerabilities. 

"Stay home." Shot fake turns into a layup. 

Dribble penetration burns UCONN again. ND shot 56 percent and these are layups.

 

Defenses make choices. Burned by layups, UCONN plays PnR drop coverage and give the mid-range jumper.

 

Live ball turnovers = high points/possession with struggling transition defense.

 

More transition defense woes. Drive and kick for an open three.

 

Position in life is everything and "the game honors toughness." ND creates advantage in the paint with position and toughness and exploits it. 

Unforced errors are zero percent possessions. When defense is struggling, offense can't afford mistakes. 

Lagniappe. 

PLAYERS: "If you just want to be average then you do average work. If you want to be a little bit above average, you do a little more work. If you want A’s in basketball, you have to do stuff other people aren’t willing to do.“ (Geno Auriemma)

~via @Jammer2233 pic.twitter.com/CKcborpHlL

— Jamy Bechler (@CoachBechler) November 28, 2022