Amari? Did we forget about her?

[Tonyc]

Amari made a commitment. A commitment to stay in Storrs and get better. That tells me she's got the "want to" and wants it. She has the skills and from what I was told in HS she was a very good back to the basket player. With Dorka coming back from her injury Amari at 6'5 and long arms could be the answer and could be the biggest surprise this season. She doesnt hesitate and can shoot. We will wait and see how she performs this season . Again we have a lot of talent and alot of height. We have some great shooters and scorers. Our only lack is at the point with Nika being the most experienced PG. Get healthy, Play hard, and Get going.

 

[Bone Dog]

It’s like the team motto from 00s: “Tape it up and go.”

 

[Stymie]

Amari made a commitment. A commitment to stay in Storrs and get better. That tells me she's got the "want to" and wants it. She has the skills and from what I was told in HS she was a very good back to the basket player. With Dorka coming back from her injury Amari at 6'5 and long arms could be the answer and could be the biggest surprise this season. She doesnt hesitate and can shoot. We will wait and see how she performs this season . Again we have a lot of talent and alot of height. We have some great shooters and scorers. Our only lack is at the point with Nika being the most experienced PG. Get healthy, Play hard, and Get going.

Don’t need her to shoot.
Need her to intimidate on defense in close, block shots and rebound.

 

[Bone Dog]

I suspect we’ll get most of our blocks from the smaller bigs — Ayanna Aubrey Ice Caroline. I don’t care for pushing Dorka and Amari to get blocks just because that’s a path to foul trouble. They can intimidate players with only a few blocks and drive them to the other bigs who will do the actual blocking.

 

[Mdoggie]

Did we forget about her? What was to remember?

Right. Really hope she changes that.

 

[CL82]

I have never forgotten about Amari. Folks have mocked me for my optimism about her. She’s got excellent skills. But she’s yet to show the sort of energy we need to see. I can hardly wait to see what her decision to spend the summer in Storrs means for next season.

In the video, she says she wasn’t used to playing against kids her size in high school. I think that says a lot about why her first year at UConn unfolded the way it did.

I could never forget about Amari. She’s like the moon, a glowing effervescent presence, striking every time you see her, as comforting as your favorite pizza.

Yep, when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that’s Amari.

 

[Stymie]

I could never forget about Amari. She’s like the moon, a glowing effervescent presence, striking every time you see her, as comforting as your favorite pizza.

Yep, when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that’s Amari.

Bartender-I’ll have what he’s having.

 

[cbraarj]

Ok, fair - but he continued to play in games. If he didn't play, he wouldn't be paid.

It was his job! Just like any other person he went to work.

 

[JordyG]

I just said this in another post. I believe that Amari will shut the pie holes of all the naysayers and perform at least on a BE all conference player level. Clearly skill wise she's at that level, and last year showed her the benefits of a proper mindset and the folly of poor conditioning, poor preparation, poor application, and poor decision making. IMO Amari is going to be the seasons biggest surprise.

 

[Stymie]

I don’t believe that saying “show me” qualifies one as being a naysayer.
S-H-O-W U-S.
Better yet—S-H-O-W G-E-N-O

 

[Longtime fan]

I have never forgotten about Amari. Folks have mocked me for my optimism about her. She’s got excellent skills. But she’s yet to show the sort of energy we need to see. I can hardly wait to see what her decision to spend the summer in Storrs means for next season.

In the video, she says she wasn’t used to playing against kids her size in high school. I think that says a lot about why her first year at UConn unfolded the way it did.

I'm not sure how to interpret Amari's reason for not having a productive or explosive first year at UCONN ( " I wasn't used to playing against kids my size in HS." ). So, she did well because she was 6 inches taller than everyone and had longer arms? All she had to do was stand under the basket and put in a lay-up? What we are left to conclude is that this was a player who gained notoriety due to her size. And that once that advantage was neutralized( i.e. she arrived in college ) , she went limp and into a shell? The kids she has to now play against in college won't have gotten any smaller. So I hope there is a lot lost in the translation here. Because this suggests she may not be a competitor at all. Hope that is wrong. We need her to be a star.

 

[Longtime fan]

I just said this in another post. I believe that Amari will shut the pie holes of all the naysayers and perform at least on a BE all conference player level. Clearly skill wise she's at that level, and last year showed her the benefits of a proper mindset and the folly of poor conditioning, poor preparation, poor application, and poor decision making. IMO Amari is going to be the seasons biggest surprise.

 

[cancontent]

I'm not sure how to interpret Amari's reason for not having a productive or explosive first year at UCONN ( " I wasn't used to playing against kids my size in HS." ). So, she did well because she was 6 inches taller than everyone and had longer arms? All she had to do was stand under the basket and put in a lay-up? What we are left to conclude is that this was a player who gained notoriety due to her size. And that once that advantage was neutralized( i.e. she arrived in college ) , she went limp and into a shell? The kids she has to now play against in college won't have gotten any smaller. So I hope there is a lot lost in the translation here. Because this suggests she may not be a competitor at all. Hope that is wrong. We need her to be a star.

This is more common than some may realize for a variety of reasons (lack of viable competition in area, family ability to pay fees for competitions, etc.). I was a little surprised at the comments myself however, considering her AAU and USA Basketball experience.

Players get a large dose of reality once they get on campus as freshmen. I've seen tweets and IG posts from other players from different programs talking about how they didn't realize how important things like nutrition, sleep, and proper conditioning are at this level.

Based on how I've read her comments in articles, it sounds like she's learned some lessons from last season. Time will tell if translates on the court.

 

[cgshuskie]

We need to bring Tina Charles back to inspire Amari!

 

[socal613ws]

I just said this in another post. I believe that Amari will shut the pie holes of all the naysayers and perform at least on a BE all conference player level. Clearly skill wise she's at that level, and last year showed her the benefits of a proper mindset and the folly of poor conditioning, poor preparation, poor application, and poor decision making. IMO Amari is going to be the seasons biggest surprise.

why is she shutting the pie hole of anyone? Her own coach said that she didn't think she was giving effort. That's on her, why would any poster give her the benefit of the doubt when her own head coach came out and said that.

 

[Alydar]

I suspect we’ll get most of our blocks from the smaller bigs — Ayanna Aubrey Ice Caroline. I don’t care for pushing Dorka and Amari to get blocks just because that’s a path to foul trouble. They can intimidate players with only a few blocks and drive them to the other bigs who will do the actual blocking.

+1 I remember Okafer. He was the best shot blocker UConn ever had. He would block a few and then the shooters would be intimidated to the point that they stopped driving. I think Patterson is a block machine. She has a strong upper body, a huge wingspan, great elevation and those fast twitch muscles that let her wait for the shooter to go up. And she's smart enough to know that a block needs to end with a change of possession so while swatting it into the 5th row is a crowd-pleaser, the opponent still has the ball.
It would be huge if DeBerry could become part of the rotation. I actually think she's 6'6. She was taller than ONO, always at the end of the line for the anthem before games. And they always line up by height. With her playing UConn becomes a tall team.

 

[Bone Dog]

It would be huge if DeBerry could become part of the rotation. I actually think she's 6'6. She was taller than ONO, always at the end of the line for the anthem before games. And they always line up by height. With her playing UConn becomes a tall team.

I’ve wondered this before. But the camera angles make it so hard to tell from the TV. Is Dorka also taller than Liv?

 

[Alydar]

I’ve wondered this before. But the camera angles make it so hard to tell from the TV. Is Dorka also taller than Liv?

I never saw a difference. 6'4,6'5. Those numbers are wrong as often as they are right.

 

[Bone Dog]

I never saw a difference. 6'4,6'5. Those numbers are wrong as often as they are right.

Prolly. Though I remember Geno saying in a preseason interview last year how he was impressed when Dorka first showed up that she was exactly as tall as listed.

 

[BBallF]

I could never forget about Amari. She’s like the moon, a glowing effervescent presence, striking every time you see her, as comforting as your favorite pizza.

Yep, when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that’s Amari.

When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine, that's Amari.

As comforting as your favorite pizza? Sicilian with pepperoni for home games, thin crust with sausage for away. More agita in away games.

 

[hoophuskee]

I'm not sure how to interpret Amari's reason for not having a productive or explosive first year at UCONN ( " I wasn't used to playing against kids my size in HS." ). So, she did well because she was 6 inches taller than everyone and had longer arms? All she had to do was stand under the basket and put in a lay-up? What we are left to conclude is that this was a player who gained notoriety due to her size. And that once that advantage was neutralized( i.e. she arrived in college ) , she went limp and into a shell? The kids she has to now play against in college won't have gotten any smaller. So I hope there is a lot lost in the translation here. Because this suggests she may not be a competitor at all. Hope that is wrong. We need her to be a star.

IMO you have made an extremely way too harsh post. Extremely. Why would you automatically expect all freshmen to perform well in their 1st year? Just because she wears a UCONN jersey she is supposed to be good enough to play for a team that wound up going to the Finals?

The prior year UCONN went to the FF they had 3 players (I'm excluding Aubrey) back that were an enormous part of getting to FF in Liv, Edwards, and Evina. Then this year they picked up Dorka, and when they want to go small instead of Evina, they have Ducharme who was a higher recruit and better player. We know UCONN has zero zero issues playing small.

We know that Geno plays his best players. So with Amari being 6th on the depth chart, the expectation should have been muted/caution.

And your point of saying that we need her to eb a star imo is way way way off base. You're never going to be satisfied with her because you have put up extremely high expectations. Kiah Stokes is doing fine in the WNBA and she was never a star.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Prolly. Though I remember Geno saying in a preseason interview last year how he was impressed when Dorka first showed up that she was exactly as tall as listed.

Geno said Dorka is a legit 6'5". I forget the order at the national anthem last year, but I think Amari was the tallest, and Dorka was next. Liv and Piath were right behind. All looked to be 6'5" or close.

 

[Skeets]

Prolly. Though I remember Geno saying in a preseason interview last year how he was impressed when Dorka first showed up that she was exactly as tall as listed.

Geno is impressed with everyone's height

 

[Carnac]

To me it was never about the skills, it was about the physicality and the toughness. If she progresses in the strength department, which I am sure is being worked on now, we may hopefully see an improvement which can make her a consistent contributor under the basket. We already know that she can shoot. A lot of upside for her.

Amari has been in the UConn program now for 15 months. More than enough time to assimilate to the customs and norms of the program and Geno’s way of doing things. When you associate, you assimilate. The other players all work hard trying to improve their game. Amari does not want to be the team’s weak link. I think she has changed her mindset and approach to being an active and productive member on this team.

She has lived with and played with other players that have a vigorous work ethic. She has seen and experienced what a lackluster or non-exsistent aggressive mental approach will get you in Geno’s program. The coaches have been in her ear from day one. We will see this year if her “want to” and physical conditioning catches up with her
Skillset.

 

[Rixxx]

I watched the video again and one thing stands out, namely that she knows how to shoot quickly without bringing the ball down. That's just instinctive for her I suppose. How many times did we see Olivia and Aaliyah bring the ball down and then get caught by smaller players stripping it or forcing a jump ball? That's not going to be Amari's problem. The question for her, I think, is can she play energetic, ball-hawking defense? I hope so.

I think of someone like Monika Czinano, a bit undersized, but if she gets the ball in the low post, she turns and shoots so quickly that larger players often don't have time to react. Brink does something similar.

Gustafson (SP) is another example.