Chong and Williams played 9 and 5 minutes respectively against ND, as Geno went with a "Fantastic 6" rotation of Tuck, Stewart, KML, Jefferson, Nurse and Stokes, although considering MoJeff's performance it was really a "Fantastic 5 out of playing 6". Chong I can understand getting single digit minutes because her horrible defense was a big reason why UConn lost to Stanford, and Geno was NOT going to watch that repeated allowing of unimpeded penetration to the hole again, especially against a team like ND which would exploit her if she played more. In the case of Williams, I suspect Geno's thinking is that it would be unfair to her to play her a lot of minutes on this stage. The fact Geno is starting and playing Nurse as many minutes as he is strongly suggests he think she will be an all time great, however the guard rotation at the moment does not allow him to bring her along more slowly anyway. Despite her 6 TOs I think Nurse is ready for big time games. She makes smart plays and her turnovers are turnovers of aggression, not of stupidity, much like Tuck.
It's gotta be Jefferson's worst game at UConn. 21 minutes, 0-8 FGs, 0 points, 5 TOs, 5 fouls. I look at a line like that and I wonder. She is a MUCH better player than that. Something was not right with her mentally or physically to put up that kind of stinker. She had a career high 19 the game or two before then and she has been VERY erratic so far this year. It's surprising to me. I was expecting consistency from her in this, her junior year. She plays hard and hustles so I don't understand why she has thrown in a few stinkers so far this year with some good games.
UConn actually had 24 turnovers and only 14 assists. Nurse, Tuck and MoJeff had 16 TOs between the 3 of them. But UConn outrebounded ND 52-34, a +18 beating on the boards that very few teams recover from (although the UConn men won a game in which they were outrebounded 55-24 a few years ago, because they shot the lights out that night).
