diggerfoot
Humanity Hiker
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2011
- Messages
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Better than we were last year, better than Notre Dame.
Yes, yes I heard Auriemma's comments that did not compare the current make-up of this team favorably to last years. Auriemma often has an agenda that goes beyond the surface of his comments. More to the reason why I'm posting this, I've also seen the comments that if you replace Faris, Doty, Buck, Tuck and KML with Chong you're not going to be better.
I'll be a broken record on here and support my opinion with what I see from the STATS site. I'll admit we are better with KML than without her, but we seem to be do pretty well in many areas with or without her.
What some people ignore in the "swap for Chong" rationale is that returning players are supposed to get better, and obviously have at UConn. Thus we see, both from STATS and from our own eyes, that our offensive and defensive efficiencies have not taken a hit from last year. Meanwhile what has decidedly improved, both according to STATS and what should be obvious to anyone watching and paying attention, is our ballhandling and our miscues (meaning, there are fewer now).
Faris was sterling in these latter categories last year, but pales in comparison to Jefferson's and Hartley's handling of the ball this year. We simply control the ball better and make fewer mistakes than last year, a consequence of great returning players getting even better working together. Most notably, we were worse than Notre Dame in these categories last year, the reason why we lost close games to them; we are better than them in these same categories now.
As it stands today we are better than last year, we are better than Notre Dame, even without KML (though I admit having KML back will provide some extra comfort and increased likelihood of repeating as champions).
Yes, yes I heard Auriemma's comments that did not compare the current make-up of this team favorably to last years. Auriemma often has an agenda that goes beyond the surface of his comments. More to the reason why I'm posting this, I've also seen the comments that if you replace Faris, Doty, Buck, Tuck and KML with Chong you're not going to be better.
I'll be a broken record on here and support my opinion with what I see from the STATS site. I'll admit we are better with KML than without her, but we seem to be do pretty well in many areas with or without her.
What some people ignore in the "swap for Chong" rationale is that returning players are supposed to get better, and obviously have at UConn. Thus we see, both from STATS and from our own eyes, that our offensive and defensive efficiencies have not taken a hit from last year. Meanwhile what has decidedly improved, both according to STATS and what should be obvious to anyone watching and paying attention, is our ballhandling and our miscues (meaning, there are fewer now).
Faris was sterling in these latter categories last year, but pales in comparison to Jefferson's and Hartley's handling of the ball this year. We simply control the ball better and make fewer mistakes than last year, a consequence of great returning players getting even better working together. Most notably, we were worse than Notre Dame in these categories last year, the reason why we lost close games to them; we are better than them in these same categories now.
As it stands today we are better than last year, we are better than Notre Dame, even without KML (though I admit having KML back will provide some extra comfort and increased likelihood of repeating as champions).
