hoophuskee- - -Ines if used more often DURING the season may have shown the same improvement level others have shown!
Don't agree with the entre context.
And she may have "not shown." I suspect she hasn't. Aren';tyou always on board with Geno and what he speaks of in practices? Why assume the best coach in History is wrong? OFC you can crticize- and disagree with him - I'm just offering a view that I don't see the things many of you see in Ines. I agree with Geno on this. If I agree with him - I hopeothers won't translate this into I'm a hater or anything. I've just always been "play your best .. ."
Like Geno I cannot believe this needs to be said: When you have four fouls you do not straight arm opponents like you are a running back.
Why is she going to Cleveland? The next stop is Portland!
If you didn't like Ines's playing time this year your going to hate what she gets next year.
On a serious note...leaving Nika in with 4 fouls with serious time left in the game might not be a bad time to slip in even a couple of minutes from the bench. She needs a cooling off period from time to time. Reminds me of Pili from Utah. I don't think she counts her fouls or even cares.
yup. she was 'thickheaded.' she admits it's one of her flaws. but lordy, you gotta weigh that against her pluses -- which are many.
I believe that the position most are taking is how to best handle the Nika 4th quarter 5 min to go foul out (again just like the ND game). Seems as though when she exhausts herself covering the other teams best quick guard she hits a wall and makes mistakes. All we are saying is that a short break - subbing Q or Ines (better defender) and a timely reminder from Geno is a better option than what happened. That run that Syracuse went on was real scary and it was only Paige (and KK) that saved the day.
If that is the case, then it's a classic example of successfully baiting one's opponent. That's a normal part of competitive sports, and it's Nika's fault for allowing it to work.
No. The best option is when you win. UCONN won. So how is what he did worng? If he pulls her for 2+ minutes that might be the difference in a loss. So where is teh msitake? It's just personal prefernce. So we are going to crticize him for not being abosultely perfect with NIka rather than just winning? When he wins -no injuires - with the team having a 1 week break the substituion pattern isn't wrong.
Having half your possible starters not in uniform is a bigger reason not to win a championship. As far as subbing went, with Nika out and KK in the first half, his choice had to be with adding a front court defender and rebounder or adding a possible other scorer. No way is Bettencourt ready to defend that team especially not helping with one of the most hard to defend players in college hoops. I can’t see Q having much rebounding success against that team plus she is known to have taken a few bad shots now and then. Brady was not going to score a lot and she did what was pretty important, rebound and defend and importantly, didn’t commit a single foul. Her getting into foul trouble would have really hurt. Syracuse is way better than the old Big East version. Tough out.
I am hoping that Portland isn't the end of the road for Nika and the Huskies.
I didnt say it wasn't Nika's fault. She absolutely shouldnt have committed those last to fouls. I'm just trying to come up with a reason.
I claim a BrainFart on the Final Four, I was only thinking about the next game.
There really is no lesson for Nika to learn. When you play an attacking aggressive point guard you are going to get into or be in foul trouble. Aggressive point guards who attack the defender put a tremendous amount of pressure on the defender. When Fair drives to the hoop it's basically a coin flip on whether a foul will be called. Nika did a great job defending her in the first 1/2 when Fair was basically probing our defense. In the 2nd half she started heading downhill to the hoop and really attacked Nika. If I was playing UConn that's what I would do, especially if I had a deep bench. Go right at Nika and Edwards early and often and get them in foul trouble.
hoophuskee- - - My thinking is if Geno didn't think Ines had potential why offer and give her a scholarship in the 1st place!
Certainly a mystery, that a coach would not anticipate a situation like what happened yesterday. And get Ines lots of minutes during those laughers in much of Big East play. 2 minutes is no preparation.
For the same reason he offered DeBerry. He saw potential or his assistants did. But it doesn’t always work out. I had a few bad hires in my day. I think in Ines’s case, she has more potential to contribute than Amari but has several guards in front of her who are plainly better. That’s seems unlikely to change next year.
You actually think that performing in laughers translates to performing in a close NCAAT game?
A lot of what's being said here is not criticism of Nika. Check the title of the thread again.
Yes, court time against anyone is better than bench time. Ditch the "judged in practice" stuff. When you've got so few players, and foul trouble can really put your team in a tight spot, you want to prepare a bit for that possibility. Beyond the laughers, there actually were games against Creighton and Marquette where it would have been "safe" to give Ines time against a quality team. This is not new with Geno, and it won't change.
Yea we don't need long 3 pointer misses, They are turnovers !
And yet, there she sits. I wonder why.