Uconn Seeks Some Balance In Its Attack
On deck Saturday’s games Mideast Old Dominion vs. LSU Florida vs. Louisiana Tech West Stanford vs. Virginia Georgia vs. Vanderbilt East N. Carolina vs. George Wash.
Notre Dame vs. Alabama Midwest UConn vs. Illinois Colorado vs. Tennessee At 6-foot-7, with great hands and a soft touch, Connecticut’s Kara Wolters is so good she often makes the game look easy.
Sometimes, her coach says, she makes it seem a little too easy.
While Wolters is the focal point for the top-ranked Huskies, who play Illinois in the Midwest Regional semifinals on Saturday night, coach Geno Auriemma doesn’t want her to be the only point.
“We could just pass the ball in to Kara, because we know that every time we do that, she scores,” Auriemma said. “So it would be easy for our kids to come down and say, ‘I don’t feel like cutting, I don’t feel like screening, I’m tired, so why don’t I just throw it to Kara and get it over with?’
“But I don’t think we can live with that in this tournament and be successful. I don’t think anyone can do it by themselves. I think Kara needs help.”
The fact that she usually gets it is the reason Connecticut is 32-0 and winning by an average margin of 28 points.
Wolters, a two-time All-American, leads Connecticut with a 17.1 scoring average and is shooting 62 percent - a good reason to throw her the ball.
But she’s averaging only 25 minutes a game, and the Connecticut system is such that Nykesha Sales had enough opportunity to shine that she became a second-team All-American.
“When we don’t attack offensively and we get into a let’s-pass-to-Kara-and-stand-around type of mode, that’s when we struggle,” Auriemma said. “When our offense is moving and everybody is touching it and we’re able to get all five people involved, that’s when we’re at our best.
“That’s what we’re going to be working on in the next couple of days, making sure that we have all five players in synch.”
Playing in Iowa City, Connecticut will face an Illinois team that has made major strides in just two years under coach Theresa Grentz, who had a long, successful tenure at Rutgers before moving to the heart of Big Ten country.
The Illini (24-7), tri-champions of the Big Ten, had eight consecutive losing seasons prior to Grentz taking over. They were 13-15 last season.
“I honestly believe Theresa Grentz has done a national coach of the year type job this year because of the fact this is so unexpected from everybody except for her and her kids, how so quickly she has been able to get the program to this point,” Auriemma said.
“The reason for that is they play so well together. They have great team chemistry, they shoot the three exceptionally well, they do solid things to help themselves win. They obviously believe in Theresa and her system and that’s really important.”
Defending national champion Tennessee (25-10) plays Colorado (23-8) in the other Midwest game.
In the West
At Missoula, Mont., Virginia (23-7) will rely on its defense to try to slow down Stanford (32-1), which has won 23 straight.
Virginia leads the nation in field-goal defense, allowing opponents to shoot only 33.7 percent. But Stanford is the nation’s deepest team and can score from every position. The Cardinal ran past Texas Tech 67-45 in the second round even though All-American Kate Starbird, slowed by a sprained ankle, scored only six points.
SEC rivals Georgia (24-5) and Vanderbilt (20-10) meet in the other West game.
In the Mideast
Old Dominion (31-1) risks a 30-game winning streak against LSU (25-4) in the Mideast Regional at West Lafayette, Ind.
LSU just lost its best inside defender, Keia Howell, to a knee injury and that could be critical against Old Dominion’s talented front line of 6-5 Clarisse Machanguana, 6-3 Nyree Roberts and 6-1 Mery Andrade.
In the other Mideast game, Florida (23-8) sends its talented duo of Murriel Page and All-American DeLisha Milton against Louisiana Tech (31-3), which is seeking a ninth trip to the Final Four.
In the East
At Columbia, S.C., North Carolina (29-2) meets George Washington (27-5) and Notre Dame (29-6) faces Alabama (25-6).