BROOKLYN, N.Y. — On a Saturday night in December, Iowa women’s basketball head coach Jan Jensen explained to her players what it means to be first at something. In her words, there’s more of a responsibility than anything at stake regardless of winning or losing.
“Man, this is a moment,” she said. “Win or lose, you got to be part of something really special. I think you have to take time to celebrate that regardless of whether you win or lose.”
The first ever Shark Beauty Women’s Champions Classic took place at Barclays Center on Saturday night, a place where over a month and a half ago the WNBA Champions New York Liberty were crowned. UConn head coach Geno Auriemma was shouted out by Jensen and Louisville head coach Jeff Walz as one of architects of putting this event together. Auriemma’s main role in the showcase was to try to bring in three other teams that have had histories either competing for national championships or competing on some of the most prominent stages in women’s college basketball.
When asked to reflect upon helping put the event together, Auriemma described how David Levy, former President of Turner Networks and now CEO of Horizon Sports and Entertainment spearheaded the initial vision in putting the inaugural event together. Then Auriemma mentioned that network television network FOX was the next piece of the puzzle and UConn’s pre-existing partnerships with the network helped move along the process. And lastly Auriemma shouted out the Barclays Center who, unlike Madison Square Garden which was the originally desired arena for the showcase, snapped their fingers immediately at the chance to host an event like this.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
“We needed this,” Auriemma said about the showcase. “We needed this because right now is the time when people are looking for ways to invest in women’s sports and women’s basketball in particular, so we just have to give them things to invest in and then deliver great performances.”
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While there was no Ellie the Elephant present at Barclays on Saturday night to provide peak arena energy, the lower bowl was filled for the late night double header that featured a UConn dominant blowout of Louisville that establishes the Huskies as a team primed to return to the final four, an impressive “Star is Born” type performance from Tennessee’s Talaysia Cooper and a post focused Iowa Hawkeyes that are still trying to figure out their best offense.
“I thought it was a first class event,” Walz said postgame following his team’s 85-52 loss. “Unfortunately we looked like shit.”
An off shooting night from Paige Bueckers didn’t rattle UConn
UConn had three scorers in double digits and none of them were named Buckers. Louisville made sure to show her more of a crowd early and while the former National Player of the year shot 2-11 and scored only 8 points, she had 10 rebounds and 6 assists, so almost a triple double.
But the significance isn’t in the December shooting struggles of a future WNBA No. 1 overall pick, but rather in the fact that Bueckers is now on a team where she doesn’t have to do everything herself. It’s a luxury after two seasons previously that tested her bandwidth and health.
Azzi Fudd had an efficient 18 points on 6-10 shooting including 4 rebounds and 2 assists, although a scare in the second half had the entire UConn bench holding their breath. Fudd left the game with 6:40 remaining in the third quarter after she fell being hit on a screen by Louisville’s Olivia Cochran and then falling to the ground and holding her knee. Moments later Bueckers frantically called a timeout after UConn picked up a steal and pushed the ball in transition.
When asked about Fudd, Auriemma didn’t sound concerned and noted that she was walking around postgame. He didn’t think it looked like the worst case scenario for Fudd. “So we’ll know more when we get back, but I hope I’m right but it’s not that worst case scenario that we’ve seen so many times before,” he said.
In addition to Fudd, sophomore sharpshooter Ashlynn Shade added 13 points on 6-9 shooting and 4 rebounds off the bench. Sarah Strong showed exactly why she’s not only a WBCA freshman of the year front runner, but the latest generational post talent UConn has had since Breanna Stewart. Strong put up 21 points on 8-10 shooting along with 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Like Stewart, Strong plays well beyond her years. Bueckers alluded to her basketball instincts and how she doesn’t often overthink when she’s out on the floor as what sets her apart.
“She just reacts and you can tell she’s been watching basketball, been around basketball,” Bueckers said. “It’s been a huge part of her life, just by the way she plays. And I think the underrated thing about [Strong] is her hands. Call her go-go gadget arms. Just like throw the ball, whatever the ball comes off the rim and you can see five feet away, she just goes, grabs it and gets it and it shows up on the boards on defense, getting deflections, getting tipped blocks, steals.”
While listening to Bueckers speak postgame, Strong had no idea what her teammate was talking about with the term “go-go gadget”. Clearly she didn’t watch Inspector Gadget. Moments later, UConn’s sports information director put a phone in front of Strong to show her what Inspector Gadget was. While looking at what was put in front of her during the presser, Strong murmured about how the fictional character first came on television in 1983, 23 years before she was born.
Tennessee’s athleticism and system fits their star
In Tennessee’s 78-68 upset of Iowa, the Vols used their athleticism and length to disrupt Iowa’s offense and expose their defense. Tennessee scored 17 fastbreak points to Iowa’s 9, and scored 42 of their 78 points (almost 54%) off of 30 total Iowa turnovers.
The game went back and forth for the first three quarters with 16 lead changes and 10 total ties. But in the fourth quarter, South Carolina transfer Talaysia Cooper took over the game unassumingly. After getting into foul trouble in the first half and only playing 5 minutes, she ended the game scoring 23 points on 10-22 shooting. In the fourth quarter alone she shot 5-9 and scored 10 of her team’s 23 fourth quarter points.
But Cooper’s shotmaking isn’t just what makes her an intriguing talent. Her defensive instincts and athleticism were on full display. Also, she came up with pivotal stops on Iowa’s best perimeter threat Lucy Olsen.
“She’s a three level scorer and she’s just an awesome player,” said teammate Tess Darby who added 6 points on two pivotal treys in the win. She creates so much for others but most importantly she’s a hard worker and she’s a great teammate.”
While first year head coach Kim Caldwell was satisfied with getting a win and upsetting 17th ranked Iowa, she didn’t sound close to satisfied. She admitted that she believes her team’s offense can get a lot better, and that the more and more her players get in the gym and practice their shooting and have confidence in it, more shots will fall in games. She isn’t just going to accept that making teams play in the muck and turn the ball over around 30 times is the only way they can win.
“I think we are very we’re closer to our floor than we are to our ceiling right now,” Caldwell said. “And so we got to start getting over the hump, getting over the top. Our shooting percentage isn’t great…in the gym, building their confidence up, and once it clicks it’ll click.”
While the work continues for an intriguing Tennessee team that is less than a month away from SEC play, Cooper made sure to enjoy the win in the moment on the court in front of thousands of fans at Barclays Center. After the final buzzer went off and both teams greeted each other in the handshake line, Cooper did a cha-cha and bumped chests with a teammate who wasn’t playing but in street clothes.
Iowa’s new look offense is working through growing pains
Iowa’s strength is in their ability to find their rim running posts in transition, but without a traditional point guard, Tennessee’s style of play where they turn teams over around 28 times a game, the best in the country, interrupted their flow.
Lucy Olsen, who is playing a combo lead guard role for the Hawkeyes, along with Sydney Affolter who came off the bench for the majority of last season, combined for 11 of Iowa’s 30 turnovers.
The Hawkeyes had efficient scoring from both Olsen (23 points on 7-14 shooting) and Center Addison O’Grady (17 points on 8-11 shooting), but it wasn’t enough. The 42 points scored off Iowa’s 30 turnovers overcame the successes Iowa had on offense on Saturday night.
“That team is going to make you win ugly and it’ll probably make you lose ugly unless you have some tremendous depth of ball handlers,” first year head coach Jansen said. “And that’s just one thing right now with a, you know, a relatively young team in the sense of minutes playing in pressure situations.”
Jansen’s new offensive identity for the Hawkeys in the post-Caitlin Clark era is much more “inside-outside” oriented. Her best players are two posts (O’Grady and Hannah Stuelke) and one guard (Olsen). Tennessee’s high ball pressure and commitment to flying around on defensive rotations made it difficult for Iowa to make the level of reads that Jansen expects out of her players.
“I wanted to hit the post from the top and in, but the pressure made us forget that, and we truly tried to force it from the wing, and we just kept forgetting every weak side,” she said postgame. “But I’d like us to be a little bit more inside, outside oriented.”
Jansen was encouraged by the fact that her team stayed in the game and competed throughout. But if she were to have administered a formal test on making reads on Saturday night, her team wouldn’t have passed.
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Louisville’s passive and less-focused showing played a role in blowout
When head coach Jeff Walz approached media members postgame, he didn’t try to beat around the bush. He said it loudly and clearly that his team “looked like shit.” But Louisville came into Saturday night’s showcase ranked No. 22 in the country. While UConn is jonesing for a national championship this season, why weren’t the Cardinals even competitive?
Walz first explained that his team’s rough shooting night going 16-62 from the field and then 6-27 from three is not an ingredient for success. But also, he was clearly dissatisfied with his team’s lack of attention to detail and passivity while guarding the basketball. When a team has a poor shooting night, the way they stay competitive and still have a shot at winning is via much more effort based defense. He did not see that on Saturday night. Walz described multiple situations when his players didn’t follow the scout or the game plan.
He mentioned that his team didn’t follow the defensive guidelines he’s set for when the Cardinals are playing in 2-3 zone defenses and baseline out of bounds plays. There wasn’t much discipline in guarding anyone who wasn’t Bueckers, and this year’s UConn team is just not like the most recent ones that have come before it. The Huskies are loaded with depth, and guarding just Bueckers isn’t enough. He lamented that his team gave Strong everything she wanted and didn’t face her with resistance.
On offense, however, Walz’s main issue with his team was simply that they weren’t making plays for each other, and he pointed toward UConn’s commitment to cutting away from basketball as a cornerstone of their success. He explained that his players have had issues with cutting when it doesn’t lead to their individual scoring opportunities rather than seeing the greater team picture.
“I challenged our players that were on the bench,” he said. “This is what we’re asking you to do, and we don’t do it all the time, but if you want to be elite, you do it every time, even though you might not score. Every cut is an opportunity to score. So defensively, you have to guard every single cut. For us, if it’s not for me, meh, might cut her this time, might not, but it’s what I’m trying to explain. Every cut is to score.”
While Walz was peeved at his own team and their lack of willingness to meet the moment, he took responsibility for it also. But most of all he felt the worst for all of the organizers of this inaugural event, one that according to Walz is going to continue for years and years to come.
“So I take that to heart, and I really do apologize because it was just a great event,” he said. “Everything from the half time the first game, the time outs, it was a big time produced two games. And you know, we’re really fortunate, because you don’t get that all the time at women’s events. And they absolutely blew it out of the water and did a fantastic job.”
