JoePgh
Cranky pants and wise acre
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After Aaliyah Edwards's commitment yesterday, I took a suggestion on this board and went back to watch the game between Team USA and Team Canada that occurred recently in Puerto Rico. This was not an age-limited game; it featured mostly WNBA players on the US side, including Olympians such as Sylvia Fowles and Tina Charles.
Aaliyah was by far the youngest player in the game at 17, only half as old as Fowles, against whom she had to contend for rebounds. She was the first player off the bench for Canada, and seemed to be their most effective rebounder and inside presence. She got a few offensive rebounds against Tina, Sylvia, and Stef by hustling to the basket as soon as her teammate's shot went up. She certainly did not look out of place playing against those players.
Here are some more specific observations:
1. She seems to be comfortable on the perimeter as well as in the paint. She grabbed defensive rebounds and brought the ball up just like Napheesa, and she even hit a banked-in 3-point shot. (OK, that involved some luck.)
2. If you want to compare her to past UConn players, I would offer Morgan Tuck as a comparison, but Edwards is bigger (see my other thread about height measurements) and faster, and just as strong. We will have to see if she has the same "basketball IQ".
3. Another comparison might be to Kiah Stokes in terms of strength and presence in the paint, but Aaliyah obviously has a turbocharged engine that was never in evidence with Kiah.
4. Actually, I think the closest comparison would be to Tina Charles, but that would be the junior/senior version of Tina, rather than the freshman/sophomore version that preferred to be a spectator much of the time.
5. On defense, she often defended Napheesa Collier. and Napheesa had trouble getting an open shot when they were 1-on-1 with each other.
I don't have the box score of this game (maybe someone else can post it or link it), but I think Aaliyah had 8 or 9 points and double-digit rebounds. She appeared to play as many minutes in the game as any of Canada's starters (although Kia Nurse was not on the Canadian roster for this game).
Somewhat related: Olivia Nelson-Ododa also played in this game as the last US post player off the bench (but she was, of course, the only US player who was still in college). I did not think that ONO looked like as much of a peer to the older post players as Aaliyah did. She seemed to have a particular problem with opponents dislodging the ball from her hands. There was one play near the end of the first half where ONO had the ball in her hands for (I believe) four consecutive times without being able to move an inch. She would grab the ball with two hands, someone would knock it loose, she would pick it back up (much to her credit), and then she would lose it again in the same way. On the fourth iteration of this pattern, the Canadians were able to steal the ball and move it up the court. Although she did get a few rebounds, it appears that she still has some strength work to do, and she needs to break the habit of holding the ball below the tree line where opposing guards can dislodge it.
Aaliyah was by far the youngest player in the game at 17, only half as old as Fowles, against whom she had to contend for rebounds. She was the first player off the bench for Canada, and seemed to be their most effective rebounder and inside presence. She got a few offensive rebounds against Tina, Sylvia, and Stef by hustling to the basket as soon as her teammate's shot went up. She certainly did not look out of place playing against those players.
Here are some more specific observations:
1. She seems to be comfortable on the perimeter as well as in the paint. She grabbed defensive rebounds and brought the ball up just like Napheesa, and she even hit a banked-in 3-point shot. (OK, that involved some luck.)
2. If you want to compare her to past UConn players, I would offer Morgan Tuck as a comparison, but Edwards is bigger (see my other thread about height measurements) and faster, and just as strong. We will have to see if she has the same "basketball IQ".
3. Another comparison might be to Kiah Stokes in terms of strength and presence in the paint, but Aaliyah obviously has a turbocharged engine that was never in evidence with Kiah.
4. Actually, I think the closest comparison would be to Tina Charles, but that would be the junior/senior version of Tina, rather than the freshman/sophomore version that preferred to be a spectator much of the time.
5. On defense, she often defended Napheesa Collier. and Napheesa had trouble getting an open shot when they were 1-on-1 with each other.
I don't have the box score of this game (maybe someone else can post it or link it), but I think Aaliyah had 8 or 9 points and double-digit rebounds. She appeared to play as many minutes in the game as any of Canada's starters (although Kia Nurse was not on the Canadian roster for this game).
Somewhat related: Olivia Nelson-Ododa also played in this game as the last US post player off the bench (but she was, of course, the only US player who was still in college). I did not think that ONO looked like as much of a peer to the older post players as Aaliyah did. She seemed to have a particular problem with opponents dislodging the ball from her hands. There was one play near the end of the first half where ONO had the ball in her hands for (I believe) four consecutive times without being able to move an inch. She would grab the ball with two hands, someone would knock it loose, she would pick it back up (much to her credit), and then she would lose it again in the same way. On the fourth iteration of this pattern, the Canadians were able to steal the ball and move it up the court. Although she did get a few rebounds, it appears that she still has some strength work to do, and she needs to break the habit of holding the ball below the tree line where opposing guards can dislodge it.
