All eyes on South Carolina and UCLA for national championship fireworks. Will they deliver?
PHOENIX — Within the drama of a spat between two of the sport’s greatest coaches and another game that was within one possession in the final minute was a dirty little secret: The Final Four on Friday night was not a great showcase for women’s college basketball. UCLA came in as the nation’s leading offense, averaging 1. 014 points per possession, and it scored only 51 points in its win against Texas.
South Carolina and UConn each made fewer than 40 percent of their field goals despite each team making about half during previous games. (Count the Longhorns in that group as they came in last at 49. 7 percent.
) The Huskies looked incapable of running a secondary offensive set in their 62-48 loss to South Carolina . The Bruins suffered from a season-high 23 turnovers in their 51-44 win over Texas . The Gamecocks missed 15 layups, and Texas’ best offensive player missed 20 field goals.
This is not how these national semifinals were supposed to go. These were definitively the best four teams in the country during the regular season, and they were supposed to bring out the best in each other during the Final Four. “It definitely was not a pretty game,” UCLA coach Cori Close said.
“I wanted to apologize to all the fans for the rugby match and the 23 turnovers. ” Close is outspoken about wanting to grow the game, and part of that process is entertaining the fans. Sure, the Bruins are happy about getting to play in the national championship, but in the grander scope of the sport, it would be better if Friday’s score had been 70-58, like the Elite Eight game when UCLA played a similarly defensive-minded team in Duke.
Continue to the original source for the full article.