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!