The team has not looked consistently sharp so far this year. Few games where they appeared to put it all together. People can say it’s early in the season or that Turner was rusty or that Marina just got back into the lineup, but this is a team of experienced starters who won a NC,. UConn had youth, but they had it all together. During the game I thought that ND at times looked almost lazy and that Turner needs to play with much more intensity. MM has a lot of work to do before playing some of the better teams and especially any rematch with UConn.

Agree with your post. In several ways, last year was easy. There was great leadership and "glue" from Kat and spirit and valuable minutes from Coco. Roles were easy to define. Arike was not known across the country by basketball fans. And, yes, you didn't have two low post players to keep happy. Muffet talked about getting the ball to Turner more, but I too felt she didn't look ready for the magnitute of the game. Of course, no one really played well and the other big girl seemed to get pushed ayound like Turner underneath. It's a long year and yesterday should be a wake up call. But, as any old coach would tell you, winning the second is much harder than the first. A challenge has been put down. It's up to this group to relish it.

Here's why I respectfully disagree about reading more into the loss that extrapolates to a bigger issue for the team this season:

- UConn played as well as they could - they could not have shot any better or gotten anymore 50/50 balls; and we still went toe to toe until the 4th quarter. I mean, that bank shot/flop "and 1" from KLS showed it was their day.

- Compare that to ND shooting 8% from three and 66% from the free throw line. Credit to UConn's D effort, but we also missed open looks and free throws that we won't miss in most games.

- Every year since I can remember, Muffet's teams have improved significantly on O in how they play up to December and after December. The O yesterday looked like a team who hadn't played much with Marina or Bri in the lineup and still has to develop chemistry. The chemistry and flow will continue to improve. I think we'll see it in January.

- We missed having a true PG to start the half court O, and, guess what, that won't be an issue for long when Nixon is ready. The more MM can play on the wing, the better it is for this O. Sure, she can clearly handle point at a high level, but she's just such a threat as a scorer on the wing.

- Patterson is just scratching her potential and her growth will improve our D exponentially against teams with athletic bigs. Shep had trouble with the match-up, but if she was spelled even more, she probably would've gotten more of those "almost" rebounds

- Did I mention how many 50/50 balls UConn got?

are all good. This game was a wake-up message for the offense that they need to be poised and purposeful when confronted by an athletic, motivated defensive team. The game at Marquette will be a good test after last year's OT victory at ND last year.

I agree the bounces seemed to go the way of the huskies. Some of that may have been their effort, but clearly we were just unlucky at times. And I heartily agree we should improve. Mostly, I was referring to the lack composure and, well, responsibility, individually, and for the team. Blaming refs, looking for excuses, not playing team defense, or, for that matter, team offense, we did not measure up to UConn in character. I probably should not post for a couple of weeks. I'm still upset with the lack of character. It was disturbing.

It sometimes takes them a shock to get into form.

Remember the Louisville game last year. The team on that court looked miles apart from the one that made the NC run (and even the one that later lost to Louisville in the ACCT).

ready to play at the level needed yesterday and she was also out of the ideal position we want her in -- but was in the same one she was in the F4 when we beat them.

We can't beat UConn with Marina at 60-80% physically -- conditioning wise. That aspect won't be an issue the next time we play them. Her conditioning affected her defense, her FT shooting and her 3 PT shooting.

We need Marina to play wing versus PG about 50% of each game. When she isn't playing PG we need her 3 point shot. That was gone entirely this game, but will not be gone next game.

Other points:

Turner is still not a great fit in this team. We haven't really figured out how to really run our offense consistently with her because she isn't the same skillset we lost from last year and Jess isn't quite able to just flip into Kat's spot either.

Our defense is in flux now too. Marina's conditioning didn't help, but again Turner isn't the same as the players we had last year in a zone -- certainly not the wide body Nelson was in a zone -- and not as nasty as Kat was. Man to man we seemed to either flat out not match up with UConn no matter what we do or we didn't have the right player assignments -- something coach can sort out for next time.

UCONNs addition of Christyn Williams. She creates the mismatch. I don’t think Arike or or healthy Marina have the foot speed to hang with her.

come up with someone else that does have the foot speed.

Nixon when man defense. But I respectfully disagree with you regarding Turner. She came to ND and stayed to win a championship. I will bet the family farm that she wins MVP of ACC and Final Four. Starting next game this is her team.

I agree the team's lack of composure and lack of responsibility was a disappointment. I'll build and add the lack of trust that led to too much hero-ball was disappointing as well.

The team had been on such a magical run that they probably forgot last year's Louisville pounding and how hard it is to win against top teams.

I imagine your observations are exactly what Muffet will be messaging to the team. And, it's not a bad time to get it...as everybody's going to gun for last year's champ with their A game.

Just like Muffet used the Louisville loss last year to light a fire, she'll use this one and I bet this team's got another level to it that's going to be really, really, really fun to watch.

And, hopefully, it's rolling by the time we get to Louisville!

we went toe to toe despite missing FT's and layups and letting good passes fall out of bounds (loved when Arike did the double scoop layup/brick when we were down 55-50 in the 3rd Q). I kept waiting for one of the runs we tend to unleash that reflect our mental toughness. I think the team just had a collective let down when it didn't come before the 5 minute remaining mark in the 4th Q and then all hell broke loose with bad shots/loss of poise and whatever the hell Arike was trying to do on D.

But I seem to recall that Muffet put a pretty good team on the floor at tournament time.

I trust she will do so again.