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Message: [QUOTE="#12in21, post: 4738777, member: 10763"] I decided to take a look at who and how often Nika assisted each of her teammates last season. I went through the play by play of the 36 games that Nika played in and tallied who each of her assists went to. I've read posts on here that suggest Nika's record setting season could be attributed to feeding the very efficient Aaliyah and Lou. I would argue that that was a two way street and that their efficiency was equally boosted by Nika's approach to the game. It's also been posted that Nika's accomplishment could be credited to the number of minutes she played - unsaid but implied, that if another guard had played those minutes they would have had the same success. I think this discounts Nika's gifts, namely she always aggressively pushes pace, communicates constantly and with her head up is always looking for the right pass (whether for the assist or to set up the best play). As Geno has said Nika is supremely confident in herself and her teammates and that creates the same confidence among her teammates - succinctly and repeatedly stating that the team is just better with her on the floor. So on to the stats, Nika assisted on: 26.67% of made baskets by the team; 25/36 games she assisted 4 or more different players (1 game each 6 and 7 players); only 12/36 games were Aaliyah and Lou the top two recipients; here's the breakdown of both number of assists and % of their total made baskets she assisted on for each teammate, Lou 68 (32.23%), Aaliyah 66 (26.57%), Dorka 52 (31.71%), Aubrey 40 (27.4%), Azzi 27 ( 30.34%), Carolyn 19 (29.19%), Amari 6 (25%), Ines 5 (41.67%), Ayanna 1 (4.65%). At the next level (the WNBA) it can be argued that Nika may need to be more of a scoring threat but within the UCONN system with the talent we have on the rooster for 2023-2024, I would argue that, Nika is made to order. As some have pointed out, with less pressure to have to play as many minutes coupled with her maturity as an established team leader, we should expect to see Nika regain her defensive tenacity while continuing to aggressively push pace and find her teammates on the offense end. She is the consummate teammate and I fully expect that she will be a significant part of the equation in bringing home #12 this season. Their freshman year Geno called out the trio of Paige, Aaliyah and Nika as special players - we saw a glimpse of what they could do together the second half of that season. Both Aaliyah and Nika made tremendous jumps in their junior campaigns and Paige is finally healthy and ready to take it to the next level. Along with Aubrey, and the three classes to follow theirs, these guys are poised to make UCONN wcbb [I]bad for basketball[/I] again. Bring on November! [/QUOTE]

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