Veteran broadcaster Antonelli breaks it down
MINNEAPOLIS — We asked Debbie Antonelli, a national college basketball analyst for ESPN and other networks, to break down the national championship matchup between UConn and South Carolina. Antonelli is working as an analyst for Westwood One radio at her 26th Final Four this weekend and will be covering Sunday’s national championship game at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
Antonelli, who played for legendary coach Kay Yow at NC State in the mid-80s, was inducted into the NC State Sports Hall of Fame last year and will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame this summer.
Here’s how Antonelli breaks down Sunday’s game:
How does UConn stop South Carolina’s consensus national player of the year Aliyah Boston?
Antonelli:
She’s 6-5, she gets great position, she rebounds 50 percent of her misses and she can score through a double team. You have to box her out, limit her touches and it’s the quality of her catch. The deeper she is, the more impossible she is to defend. You got to push her up the lane. When she catches it in the high post area, let her do what she wants, she’s not really that much of a threat. She does have 3-point range but I would take my chances on that.
She can get an and-one and get your whole front line in foul trouble. When you watch her play, one of the numbers people don’t talk about is the number of personal fouls she draws on the opposing team. That’s a problem for UConn without Dorka [Juhasz].
Keys to the win for UConn?
They have to play fast. They have to score in transition before the length of South Carolina becomes a factor. If you go punch for punch for them, South Carolina is just physically bigger and stronger and longer. Destanni Henderson has more quickness than anybody on UConn’s team. If you let them do what they want to do defensively, that’s the challenge.
The wonderful thing about Geno [Auriemma] in this environment is that they’ve always scored. They always find a way to score. If you can faceguard [Paige Bueckers] and take her out, that’s one thing I might consider. All over the floor. I don’t know if Dawn [Staley] will do that. She will have Henderson on her. She guarded her in the Bahamas, too. They have to score in transition. They have to
limit South Carolina’s offensive rebounds. You have to have someone else like Evina Westbrook who made shots [Friday].
What is the most intriguing matchup?
To me, it’s ‘Can Destanni Henderson affect Paige?’
Do you think UConn has an advantage with its history of 1 1 national titles?
They have Geno and he has already put them through every scenario, every situation, anything you can possibly experience inside a game. There’s not a situation in the game they are going to be uncomfortable
with. He has put them through everything they could possibly need to be able to win.
Who will win?
I think South Carolina has a chance to win. They’ve been the best team all year. [UConn’s] adversity has made them stronger. I think Dawn [Staley] has
something, they got something this year with their connectivity. They didn’t get to play in the COVID year and then last year, the last-second [loss to Stanford in the national semifinal]. It might be their turn.