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Message: [QUOTE="CocoHusky, post: 4113857, member: 5823"] This question seems designed to blame Geno regardless of the chosen option. I don't think Geno hand any good options available to him. [B]Factor1:[/B] Past UCONN teams 2018-2021 have lacked depth specifically at the guard position resulting in players having to start as freshman (Christyn Williams & Paige) & play well in excess of 30 minutes per game. It is only 4 games into the season so far but... 36, 35, and 32 MPG are the averages for Paige, Christyn, Evina thus far-this is very concerning. [B]Factor2:[/B] Has already been pointed out by [USER=6072]@Gus Mahler[/USER] and that is lack of ideal Height (Size) at the PF/post position. This factor was not an issue of skill because since 2016 UCONN has had 3 AA players (Napheesa, Gabby, Megan) playing the post position. The tallest of these players Napheesa collier at 6'2" & all three players were better suited for wing position. You may also recall that three UCONN players who did have the ideal size to play the post position ( Morgan, Natalie, Azura) all decided to leave UCONN with remaining eligibility. Those three early departures were compounded by some notable recruiting misses. Compounded in the sense that all three departures were announced well after the recruiting classes had closed. The three most notable IMO were (Charli Collier, Boston, Ezi Magbegor). [B]Factor1B: [/B] Lack of a quality perimeter defender. I get very little support for this factor but I believe it to be more significant than the two above. Kia Nurse was the national defensive player of the year as a senior. Even as a senior Geno could not deploy Kia the way he had in previous year to change game tempo primarily because of factor 1 above. In the South Carolina Game Geno brought Nika into the game to pick up the defender full court-it had practical no positive effect on the game. What was more significant about that move is that one of very few times that UCONN has played full court defense in a meaningful game. UCONN has pretty much been conceding 1/2 of the court since Kia graduated. That's a major concession and what ends up happening is ball handlers are getting comfortable. The best example of a player getting comfortable against UCONN was Didi Richards last season and T'ea Cooper the season before that. These are players that even an above average defender should be able to speed up. Cooper dropped 27 on UCONN and even a hobbled Richards played 30 minutes and pretty much controlled the game tempo as Baylor primary PG. With this years team I think Geno will have it (rotations) figured out by January. For Factor 1 Geno has Azzi who is really the 4 guard with the other three (Paige, Evina, Christyn) starting. For factor 2 Liv. Dorka, and Aaliyah is a good enough post rotation but they need to play with more consistency, force and skill than they are currently playing with. Factor 1b remains a concern because frankly I projected Azzi to be an above average defender and so far she has been a surprisingly poor defender and lacking major lateral quickness defensively. Nika offensive thus far has regress to be unreliable. Aubrey has not been healthy enough to contribute thus far. [/QUOTE]

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