Kelsey Mitchell is not an All American...

[DavidinNaples]

Despite being know for friendly fluff pieces, I'm taking a stand against calling players who do little else than score tons of points, All Americans. Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell is one of those talented players who dominates the headlines by scoring, and scoring and scoring. Yes, she single handedly kept Ohio State close against UConn by pouring in 19 first half points. Three of those points came on a near half court bomb as time ran out in the half. She has talent, no doubt. But, how about the 3rd and 4th periods?

Mitchell ended up scoring 4 points the rest of the game, bringing her total to 23. She took 24 shots and made 9. That is 37.5%. Here is a list of UConn players that shot better than that last night.

1. Gabby went 3-5 or 60%
2. Napheesa went 9-19 or 47.4%
3. Katie Lou went 8-21 or 38.1%
4. Crystal went 3-5 or 60%
5. Kia went 4-11 or 36.4% which was almost equal to Michell.

So basically, the WHOLE starting Huskies' line up shot the ball the same or better than Mitchell, in OSU's biggest game of the year.

What else did Kelsey do to beat UConn? Well, she had 1 assist. That's right, 1 and only 1 assist. She also had 2 rebounds and 3 steals vs 3 turnovers and 3 fouls. I'm sorry, not All American statistics.

What to see a real All American..?? Check out the picture above... Collier had 27 points (on fewer shots), 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 8-9 or 88% from the free throw line, 1 block, 1 steal and only 1 turnover.

Go Pheesa..!!

 

[Carnac]

View attachment 17822

Despite being know for friendly fluff pieces, I'm taking a stand against calling players who do little else than score tons of points, All Americans. Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell is one of those talented players who dominates the headlines by scoring, and scoring and scoring. Yes, she single handedly kept Ohio State close against UConn by pouring in 19 first half points. Three of those points came on a near half court bomb as time ran out in the half. She has talent, no doubt. But, how about the 3rd and 4th periods?

Mitchell ended up scoring 4 points the rest of the game, bringing her total to 23. She took 24 shots and made 9. That is 37.5%. Here is a list of UConn players that shot better than that last night.

1. Gabby went 3-5 or 60%
2. Napheesa went 9-19 or 47.4%
3. Katie Lou went 8-21 or 38.1%
4. Crystal went 3-5 or 60%
5. Kia went 4-11 or 36.4% which was almost equal to Michell.

So basically, the WHOLE starting Huskies' line up shot the ball the same or better than Mitchell, in OSU's biggest game of the year.

What else did Kelsey do to beat UConn? Well, she had 1 assist. That's right, 1 and only 1 assist. She also had 2 rebounds and 3 steals vs 3 turnovers and 3 fouls. I'm sorry, not All American statistics.

What to see a real All American..?? Check out the picture above... Collier had 27 points (on fewer shots), 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 8-9 or 88% from the free throw line, 1 block, 1 steal and only 1 turnover.

Go Pheesa..!!

Hi David, I have to agree. You make some very compelling points that are hard to argue with (not that I was going to). Collier is one of my two favorite players, so you'll get no argument form me.
I'm biased where Collier is concerned. I'm the president and CEO of the Napheesa Collier marching and chowder society.

Since the Baylor game, I've been advocating that she should be on the "watch list" for AA this year. If she continues to play the remainder of the season the way she has thus far, I don't see any reason why the committee voters don't put her on the first team. If you're a voter, what could you possibly ask/want her to do that she's not doing? She shows up EVERY game, plays hard and produces across the board.

 

[meyers7]

View attachment 17822

So basically, the WHOLE starting Huskies' line up shot the ball the same or better than Mitchell, in OSU's biggest game of the year.

Yes, but they didn't have to play against UCONN.

I'll take Mitchell every day and twice on Sunday for my AA team.

 

[HopJim]

Hi David, I have to agree. You make some very compelling points that are hard to argue with (not that I was going to). Collier is one of my two favorite players, so you'll get no argument form me.
I'm biased where Collier is concerned. I'm the president of the Napheesa Collier marching and chowder society. I've been advocating since the Baylor game that she should be on the "watch list" for AA this year. If she continues to play the remainder of the season, the way she has thus far, I don't see any reason why the voters don't put her on the first team. What could you possibly ask her to do that she's not doing? She shows up EVERY game, and produces across the board.

Hate to present negative posts but have to agree. Mitchell a scoring leader but at best would be 3rd team due to volume of points.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Hate to present negative posts but have to agree. Mitchell a scoring leader but at best would be 3rd team due to volume of points.

I won't argue - but basing whether or not she is an all-American on her performance against the best team in the country is just not fair, IMHO.

Her Season Stats - 22.7 points on 33 minutes per game, 45% shooting over all, 36% from 3, 81% from the stripe.

Averaging 3.5 assists and 3 turnovers per game. She has 15 more assists on the season than the player with the next highest amount. She also gets a little under 2 steals per game.

She certainly deserves consideration for all-American, as do many of the UConn team leaders.

 

[Carnac]

Hate to present negative posts but have to agree. Mitchell a scoring leader but at best would be 3rd team due to volume of points.

 

[housekeys]

Well, instead of saying Mitchell is not an all american, I prefer to say that Collier and KLS and Gabby are.

I have taken issue with the idea that "we have Geno and you don't", championed by Antonelli. That thinking has lead many posters to parrot phrases like "we don't have the best talent on the floor" or don't have "overwhelming" talent. This is a myth, IMO. Geno himself said last night about his sophomores, "they are not exactly walk-ons, they where among the top-10 coming out of high school".

No one is denying the genius of Geno or that he is one of a kind. However, his greatest strength is that he takes super talented players and makes them sacrifice individual accolades for the sake of the team. He makes his players share in each others talents, masking the superiority of their individual skills. This is why superstars like Stewart averaged rather ordinary pts/gm totals. Trying to separate the impact of Geno's coaching from the impact of talented players is as fruitless as trying to pick out the "bad-ass" player of the game, from a group which emphasizes playing as a team. It is near impossible. UConn has both the talent and the coach. IMO.

 

[schmendrick]

No one is denying the genius of Geno or that he is one of a kind. However, his greatest strength is that he takes super talented players and makes them sacrifice individual accolades for the sake of the team. He makes his players share in each others talents, masking the superiority of their individual skills. This is why superstars like Stewart averaged rather ordinary pts/gm totals. Trying to separate the impact of Geno's coaching from the impact of talented players is as fruitless as trying to pick out the "bad-ass" player of the game, from a group which emphasizes playing as a team. It is near impossible. UConn has both the talent and the coach. IMO.

Indeed. My vote for the bad-ass player of the Ohio State game is the team, including Natalie. Meaning, this game symbolized the triumph of teamwork--even with a foreshortened bench--over individual play.

 

[cbraarj]

Mitchell is a really good one on one offensive player who dribbles to much, passing is her 3rd option, lazy on defense, doesnt make her teammates any better and cant win the big game. She will pass KML next year for most 3 ptrs. made by taking double the shots. They will be lucky to make the sweet16 because of her this year. AA no way and the same goes for Turner for Notre Dame!

 

[Checkmate]

Yes, but they didn't have to play against UCONN.

I'll take Mitchell every day and twice on Sunday for my AA team.

There are plenty of players who could score a lot if they were given a green light to shoot, however;

 

[Dennygrnn]

I'm not sure if Kelsey qualifies for AA recognition or not - there is no question that she is an extremely gifted basketball player. Unfortunately, she plays in a system that is undisciplined and promotes a one-on-one style of play. David mentioned that she "carried" her team in the first half, but only because she dominated ball possessions and took most of the shots (Shayla Cooper was hot at the start of the game - I'll bet that she would love to have had a few more looks at the basket).

 

[DefenseBB]

The question of All-American comes down to two basic questions- does the player make those around them a better player (i.e. Raise the others game) and/or do they make the team better? In Kelsey Mitchell's case I don't think she makes her teammates better as she doesn't pass, set screens, rebound or work off the ball. She does score though, and while not truly efficient at it she is OSUs best option and OSU is a top 20 team because of it. Not much higher (or lower number) ranked team than 20 but still a top team.

 

[BigBird]

The question of All-American comes down to two basic questions- does the player make those around them a better player (i.e. Raise the others game) and/or do they make the team better? In Kelsey Mitchell's case I don't think she makes her teammates better as she doesn't pass, set screens, rebound or work off the ball. She does score though, and while not truly efficient at it she is OSUs best option and OSU is a top 20 team because of it. Not much higher (or lower number) ranked team than 20 but still a top team.

Exactly! Your criteria make good sense. But too many votes for too many sports awards are submitted by people who either don't know a given sport, or who just don't care. I know a newspaper intern (he only covered HS football) who cast a Heisman vote, subbing for a colleague/editor who didn't want to be bothered with it.

In an ocean of (let's face it) mediocre WBB, it's way too easy for a player to become an AA by being really good at one visible or prominent particle of the game.

 

[carpe diem]

Lets look at what the UCONN players do and not worry about comparisons. Clearly both KLS and Nepeesa are the same players they were last year, with the exception that they have more playing time and are asked to assume a different role. They are not playing to be AA, they are playing the role their genius coach has assigned to them. In other words, on UCONN teams, it is not about becoming AA but winning. As with last year it was just too obvious to ignore that UCONN had three AA even within the context of relatively small numbers compared to other teams AA. I would speculate that if Geno were the coach of Ohio Kelsey would not be putting up the same numbers because she would either become a team player or have limited playing time. The point is Geno is not about making AA of his players but molding those he has into a beautiful orchestra that at times is so tremendous that even those sports authorities who are most impressed by points scored cannot ignore the obvious. KLS and Nepheesa have always had it within them to do what they are doing now, they just did not have that role. Stokes is a good example of a player who on any other team would have been an AA but that was not here role at UCONN. It is called discipline - you do what your coach asks you to do in order to win, not to become an AA.

 

[tonehill68]

No one is denying the genius of Geno or that he is one of a kind. However, his greatest strength is that he takes super talented players and makes them sacrifice individual accolades for the sake of the team. He makes his players share in each others talents, masking the superiority of their individual skills. This is why superstars like Stewart averaged rather ordinary pts/gm totals. Trying to separate the impact of Geno's coaching from the impact of talented players is as fruitless as trying to pick out the "bad-ass" player of the game, from a group which emphasizes playing as a team. It is near impossible. UConn has both the talent and the coach. IMO.

This is a great point and because of their sacrifices, they've picked up a lot of individual accolades as well as a lot of team accolades. Soon to be more of both.

 

[UcMiami]

Have to disagree on the basic premise - Those Uconn starters were not playing against a Uconn quality defense while Kelsi was - huge difference!

I think Kelsi is going to be a great pro, she is athletic, fast, and can score, and as a pro she will likely get better coaching. She will likely break KML's three pointers made record, and Styles scoring record as a collegian. She has played on pretty talented teams, but they have never been great 'teams' and I don't think you can blame Kelsi for that - with her on the bench the team went into a deep hole, she came back and bailed them out twice.

 

[HuskyNan]

Another thread judging how good a player is based on stats? Skylar Diggins never scored much against UConn but when she did, the shots were daggers. She's a playmaker, like Mitchell. Mitchell single-handedly kept OSU in the game last night.

Is the person with these stats a "good" player?

6.7 points per game (31.5% from three, 43.8% overall)
5.2 rebounds per game
4.3 assists per game
in 28.9 minutes per game

 

[Florida Fan]

I hate to be the person that settles this argument, once and for all, but based on her first 20 minutes, Kelsey Mitchell is an All American. Glad to add clarity to the conjecture that is, at best, a smokey room. Based on this game, against a ranked, ten-deep athletic basketball team, everyone playing for UCONN deserves the accolade. Geno cements his coach-of-the-year credentials. CD, Shea and Marisa win best associate and assistant coach respectively, and we all go home happy, capiche? Now all we have to do is get by Maryland and South Carolina. And say we do, accomplish the previously unthinkable, what then? Are we then immune to the aforementioned foul happy referees, the vagaries of physical wear and tear? No, we're not; we still have to weather the storm of high expectations on a six member rotation through March Madness and beyond. I'm with Geno, "We need to get our asses beat!" Then we can run the AAC, and start planning for the March draw as the number one seed. I'm losing it here, but that can happen when your favorite group of castoffs is playing out of their minds, and having a good time doing it.

 

[DavidinNaples]

If Mitchell is an AA based on the first 20 minutes, then she is not even all conference based on the last 20 minutes. She was shut down by Crystal Dangerfield, who face guarded her all over the court. All Americans don't get shut down by freshman, even good ones.

 

[Charliebball]

Could you imagine if Geno gave Breanna Stewart or KML the four quarter green light the Mitchell has?

 

[triaddukefan]

Guess i'll look at the preseason all-american lists again and see who else isnt an all-american

 

[Fiftyish]

Could you imagine if Geno gave Breanna Stewart or KML the four quarter green light the Mitchell has?

Hard to believe BG and KML didn't always have the green light when they believed they had a makeable shot.

 

[Charliebball]

Hard to believe BG and KML didn't always have the green light when they believed they had a makeable shot.

You used the key word................makeable.................there are green lights and then there are GREEN LIGHTS!!!! UConn plays in an assist first offensive system where each player is looking to make the best pass to get the best shot..............OSU plays here's the ball, now somebody shoot!!!!! If I'm not mistaken the assists were 17-6 last night ............

 

[CTtransplant]

Guess i'll look at the preseason all-american lists again and see who else isnt an all-american

I think I would have a hard time voting for Nina Davis if I were allowed to vote. If I were a WNBA GM, I would pick Kelsey Mitchell long before Nina.

 

[triaddukefan]

I think I would have a hard time voting for Nina Davis if I were allowed to vote. If I were a WNBA GM, I would pick Kelsey Mitchell long before Nina.

I may have asked this before... my memory fades as Im aging........ but I recognize Wait Chapel and Pilot Mountain in your avatar. Are you a WFU fan, graduate ?