Excellent rebuttal!
Aaliyah played really good defense vs Siegrist on Saturday. Defending a player like MS for most of the game forces you to be locked in 100% both mentally and physically. With all the minutes she's played this season, some of her stats right now are not surprising.
Let's not call it the "psychology angle" anymore, although I understand your intent. As a psychologist I can tell you that the main focus of most, if not all, work with an individual today comes from a place of positivity and building an individual up, not tearing her down. Reverse psychology may have worked in the past, but I see a lot of tired and dejected faces on this team, and reverse psychology runs the risk of destroying whatever confidence may be left, especially if one feels the individual(s) she looks up to no longer has faith in her. Is UCONN a team of "people-pleasers" who are going to rise to the occasion just to prove a coach wrong? I guess we'll see, but I doubt it. This season has been a grind that no one bargained for, and it certainly showed last night. I'm hopeful for a bounce back in the remaining games, but my tournament expectations are more measured than before, my own coping mechanism.
If you have the right bench pieces it can work as evidenced by Kim at LSU but for most teams having seven possible starters is beyond reality this late in an injury induced season.
I would hope Azzi knows where things stand with her injury. She knows if she's coming back or not. There aren't any questions directed to Azzi, the coaches or players as far as I can tell. Not one question to Geno last night and no questions about Azzi after the Villanova game. The questions are on this board.
A similar situation occurred during the 2016-17 season when Kia Nurse suffered a severe high ankle sprain late in the season, causing her to miss approximately 3 weeks. She came back to play limited minutes during the AAC tournament and then exploded during the Big Dance, setting the tournament record for made 3-pt shots in only 5 games. I think everyone still remembers her game against Syracuse when Kia hit 9 of 12 shots from the arc.
St. John's is not 'very mediocre.'
But I was commenting on Nika's performance against St. John's, not her season or career - which I don't have a problem with!
I’m also in LA for another few days and didn’t see the game. But it seems to me a bit of an overreaction to say their spirit is broken because they lost a game and had a few other close ones. Tired maybe, but geez, if their spirit is so easily broken because a few players can‘t finish plays in one game, i don’t know. It’s only basketball.
You watched a different Nika last night than I did... I saw the St. John's players driving by her with regularity and, other than hitting three 3s, her offense was ineffectual.
No that was my word but why am I not surprised you called me out without knowing what was said? And personally, I don’t care one iota what his motivations were, I never commented on them and frankly I am certain it was not meant to be mean spirited for the sake of being mean spirited; that doesn’t change my opinion of what he said that same one iota. Those ladies have gone above and beyond all season, for the program, for the coaching staff, for themselves and for their teammates that can’t play. He is a great coach but he is far from infallible.
Not looking for infallibility, face it, the two players that were supposed to be 30-40 minute players on this team were Nika and Edwards. Every other player was supposed to be a 15-20 minute roll player, including Lou. (Again I go back to UConn traditionally only plays 7 deep) The injuries have forced the roll players to be 30-40 minute players and that's not their day in and day out bailiwick. I agree with the poster that said in all actuality we are a barely a top 10 team. Two of the teams under us beat us remember. I have followed this team before Geno even was the coach there so I think I can speak my mind on this.
I asked this question in the Chat but didn't see any reply...if a player has their shot blocked, is it a TO in addition to being a missed shot? (This ? is not directed at tchalla1 specifically.)
At this point, sit her for the remainder of the season.
Azzi herself publicly stated that she will be back before March. This was said before Caroline returned to play in the Creighton game. So....
It is considered a shot attempt and not a turnover. But if a player were to attempt to shoot and is rising up to shoot and, on the way, up with the ball the shooter is stripped by the defense then this would be considered a turnover and a steal awarded to the defender.
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