Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd ready to lead UConn women's basketball together: 'Capture those moments

[Carnac]

They did lead the Huskies to the national championship game when Fudd was a freshman and Bueckers a sophomore. Still, they’re both upperclassmen now looking to properly shape their college legacies. “Obviously, all that has gone on is not at all what we envisioned,” Bueckers said. “But hopefully we are ready to sort of capture those moments that we envisioned this year, us trying to stay healthy, us just wanting to play on the court together. But we envisioned winning, having fun, winning national championships. That's still a goal that we want to attain and a goal we're going to work extremely hard for.” Hopefully, everything goes well this season and we get a full season of all of us playing together.”

Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd ready to lead UConn team this season

Longtime friends Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd dreamed of playing together and UConn and winning championships. Injuries has derailed what they envisioned.

www.ctinsider.com

 

[Huskee11]

At their best they are two of the three best guards in the country, with Clark also in the top three.

We will be reminded of this soon. Not soon enough, but soon.

 

[Bone Dog]

… two of the best three… — who’s the third? I couldn’t bring my eyes to focus on the last part of that sentence. What could it possibly say? Certainly not Caitlin because there doesn’t seem to be enough letters. Plus I’m not sure the English language can make a sentence like that. And even if it could, it would make my brain hurt anyway.

So who is the third best guard in the country? Hailey Van Lith? Kelly? Sheldon? Miles? Rice? I can’t think of anyone else.

 

[Huskee11]

I said Clark and stand by it. She is terrific. But she is 0-2 against UConn.

Miles is great but a bit inconsistent and she has injury issues of her own to deal with.

Many others who are very good but not at the level of the ones mentioned above.

 

[Kaizen]

Certainly not Caitlin because there doesn’t seem to be enough letters. Plus I’m not sure the English language can make a sentence like that. And even if it could, it would make my brain hurt anyway.

So who is the third best guard in the country? Hailey Van Lith? Kelly? Sheldon? Miles? Rice? I can’t think of anyone else.

I will say the 3rd one is Caitlin Clark... pretty sure

 

[Skeets]

… two of the best three… — who’s the third? I couldn’t bring my eyes to focus on the last part of that sentence. What could it possibly say? Certainly not Caitlin because there doesn’t seem to be enough letters. Plus I’m not sure the English language can make a sentence like that. And even if it could, it would make my brain hurt anyway.

So who is the third best guard in the country? Hailey Van Lith? Kelly? Sheldon? Miles? Rice? I can’t think of anyone else.

OK, I get it. Humor. I'm not an English major but it sounded like pretty good English to me.

FYI, I think Caitlin is right up there. It should be one heck of a competition if all 3 stay healthy. (I'll go with Paige, Azzi, Caitlin, in that order)

 

[Bone Dog]

OK, I get it. Humor. I'm not an English major but it sounded like pretty good English to me.

FYI, I think Caitlin is right up there. It should be one heck of a competition if all 3 stay healthy. (I'll go with Paige, Azzi, Caitlin, in that order)

Ok, let's be serious here. Paige and Azzi will have a huge advantage over Ca***in simply because there's two of them and only one of her. Opposing teams will be able to focus all their defensive energy on her, but not on Paige and Azzi. Of course, this will probably also mean C**tl*n will score more, since there will be fewer Hawkeyes she can reliably get lots of assists with. O! the complexities of this whole competitive business.

Maybe the only way to fairly compare them is to treat Paige-Azzi as a corporate entity and pool their stats to compare with C*I*l*n. Otherwise it's hardly fair.

 

[Skeets]

Dear Dog, I see where you are coming from. It's unlikely that both Paige and Azzi will score 20/25 points apiece every game, but Caitlin may have to do that, and more because she has to. I don't necessary think that makes her better than either Paige or Azzi. The measurement has to be more than purely points scored. For example, efficiency, level of competition, other stats, etc. I'd like to think that Paige and Azzi can stand on their own and not be a "corporate entity".

Having said that, Caitlin can put up of amazing numbers. Going to have to put Nika on her and annoy the hell out of her

 

[Bone Dog]

Dear Dog, I see where you are coming from. It's unlikely that both Paige and Azzi will score 20/25 points apiece every game, but Caitlin may have to do that, and more because she has to. I don't necessary think that makes her better than either Paige or Azzi. The measurement has to be more than purely points scored. For example, efficiency, level of competition, other stats, etc. I'd like to think that Paige and Azzi can stand on their own and not be a "corporate entity".

Having said that, Caitlin can put up of amazing numbers. Going to have to put Nika on her and annoy the hell out of her

Caitlin’s a great player. But I take your point. Freshman year, she was better than Paige by simple measures like points or assists. But in terms of the more complex stats the “experts” prefer Paige was head and shoulders above her. I will not be surprised by such a result again this year. Caitlin will score a lot, maybe even lead the nation, and will still fall short of Paige’s achievement.

 

[Tonyc]

Catlin and Paige are great players. Both in different offensive strategies. Catlin is depended on to score and run the offense. Paige is to however Paige has a better supporting cast that can score also. Could Catlin fill Paiges shoes at UConn and become a player that can get her team mates involved and set them up to score? We can argue that forever but in the offense Catlin plays in her team depends on her to score first while at UConn there are many scorers. Both players fit into their teams offensive strategy.

 

[Centerstream]

I could be mistaken and I am not going to look at stats to confirm or deny:
I have the impression that Clark scored as many points as she did last season because she consistently took the vast majority of Iowa's shots and also made the majority their shots. I am aware that she also had a huge number of assists (did she end up leading leading the NCAA???) too. However, she was Iowa's main outside threat, and some might say their only outside threat. If Paige and Azzi, and I am going to include Caroline, are on the court together, there are three outside threats so of course they are going to be taking less shots individually than Clark. Most "sports" writers and broadcasters will fail to mention this.

 

[Bone Dog]

Most "sports" writers and broadcasters will fail to mention this.

Nice post, and I agree with your insight. The distribution of shot opportunities is just so different between the two teams.

But I “also” really love your use of quotation marks in this one sentence.

 

[itsasport]

I think the duo of Azzi and Paige will score 50 points a game with the higher and lower scorer in each game shifting back and forth.

 

[SEbluebood]

I think the duo of Azzi and Paige will score 50 points a game with the higher and lower scorer in each game shifting back and forth.

If Geno said “the heck with the team concept go combine for 50 points every game “, they might be able to do it, but even then I think it’s a long shot. Opposing coaches will take one or the other of them away and make someone else beat them. Plus, UConn’s offense is more focused on ball movement among 5 players, not focusing on just two. Plus both players are unselfish. It would also require them to play far more minutes than most people on this board have speculated about, which would also be detrimental to the development of overall team depth and the younger players who need playing time, IMO. I don’t think Geno will go there. I think it could happen on occasion, but not consistently. Either way it should be fun to track this through the season to see what happens.

 

[Bone Dog]

If Geno said “the heck with the team concept go combine for 50 points every game “, they might be able to do it, but even then I think it’s a long shot. Opposing coaches will take one or the other of them away and make someone else beat them. Plus, UConn’s offense is more focused on ball movement among 5 players, not focusing on just two. Plus both players are unselfish. It would also require them to play far more minutes than most people on this board have speculated about, which would also be detrimental to the development of overall team depth and the younger players who need playing time, IMO. I don’t think Geno will go there. I think it could happen on occasion, but not consistently. Either way it should be fun to track this through the season to see what happens.

My sentiments exactly. I suspect the team will probably average over 80 pts/g but spread over more players than would allow Paige or Azzi to average over 20. Not if Caroline finds her form and scores 10 and Aaliyah adds 15, and Aubrey gets 8 and Nika gets 8 and the bench puts up another 10-12. This wouldn’t be a departure from what happened toast season. One thing that really won’t surprise me is if Aaliyah averages a double double on the season.

 

[Skeets]

My sentiments exactly. I suspect the team will probably average over 80 pts/g but spread over more players than would allow Paige or Azzi to average over 20. Not if Caroline finds her form and scores 10 and Aaliyah adds 15, and Aubrey gets 8 and Nika gets 8 and the bench puts up another 10-12. This wouldn’t be a departure from what happened toast season. One thing that really won’t surprise me is if Aaliyah averages a double double on the season.

Mr. Dog, I agree. Paige and Azzi may combine for 50 points a couple of times, but there is too much talent on this team for that to become a regular thing. Plus, I don't think either Paige or Azzi wants this to become a 2 woman team. They are more like "everyone eats" kind of players.