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Achonwa (merged)

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rocky rococo said:
Stanford is a known quantity and UConn has their number. I want the Cardinal to erase the very unpredictable wild card, UNC. It's not conventional wisdom, I'm sure, but with Achonwa out, I make the Tar Heels to be UConn's most dangerous potential foe. They can be awful, but they can also be magnificent. That's what comes of having a young, highly talented but undercoached team. You really don't know what you're going to get on any given night. I'd rather not encounter that in the national semis.
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UConn was a "known quantity" and ND had their number (4 in a row, 7 of 8.. iirc) going into the final four last year and we all know how that ended.

Even though UConn has beaten every other team in the final four handedly the last time they faced doesn't mean they should overlook any of them.
 
A 4 guard lineup would be a challenge , but when they shoot it they better not miss. And Stewie along with Stef would eat their lunch on the other end on offense. I think UConn will be better at guarding 4 guards than ND would be guarding UConn's size on offense. We may get a chance to see the 4 guard offense of ND against the Terps.

Bring on the 4 guards.
 
xHunt3r said:
UConn was a "known quantity" and ND had their number (4 in a row, 7 of 8.. iirc) going into the final four last year and we all know how that ended.

Even though UConn has beaten every other team in the final four handedly the last time they faced doesn't mean they should overlook any of them.
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Do you think that this team would look past anyone?
 
Geno-ista said:
Not me - Chiney can only hurt u around the hoop- where she really can't hurt us!!!!
DD is a Maya like threat from everywhere and difficult to guard everywhere.
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I don't understand why people keep making this comparison. Yes, both are very athletic tall guards, but that's where the comparison ends.

This year, Diamond shot 43% from the floor and 28% from 3. She had an A/TO of 0.76. In Maya's freshman year, she shot 54% from the floor and 42% from 3, with an A/TO that was twice as good at 1.45. Both scored about the same number of points, but DeShields needed 21.1 possessions a game to make that happen, compared to Maya's 16.2 (a pretty astonishing difference).

Diamond might be Maya-like someday, but she ain't there yet.
 
ndmb said:
I don't understand why people keep making this comparison. Yes, both are very athletic tall guards, but that's where the comparison ends.

This year, Diamond shot 43% from the floor and 28% from 3. She had an A/TO of 0.76. In Maya's freshman year, she shot 54% from the floor and 42% from 3, with an A/TO that was twice as good at 1.45. Both scored about the same number of points, but DeShields needed 21.1 possessions a game to make that happen, compared to Maya's 16.2 (a pretty astonishing difference).

Diamond might be Maya-like someday, but she ain't there yet.
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I don't think she is Maya Moore. I am not sure she is capable of playing the game like Maya Moore- BB IQ and team first stuff. I think her numbers that you quoted would be much better if she had the advantage of being on a significantly better coached team, with significantly better players that were also veterans that Maya had the luxury to play with. Tina Charles, Renee, Kalena,..... I don't think that is a fair comparison at all either. And maybe she is not built to come and play at CT for Geno either. She has athletic gifts and abilities and was streaky at times. DT missed every shot against ND in the semis her freshman year also. Stewie couldn't get it together our last two games either. DD can almost dunk also and can take over a game at times like few can- I am not sure their coaching staff will be able to mold that team into a Nat champion- but they certainly have the stable of thoroughbreds to do it! And DD is one of them. If she didn't roll that ankle and then hurt the knee the game before, I think they would have handled Stanford. I'm no expert admittedly, just my take!
 
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And not that she could perform well against it, Maya never had Stewie guarding her. I am sure Diamond would have had that honor had that game happened. Not a fun task.
 
UConnCat said:
Four-guard lineup discussed in SBT story with comments from Stephanie White. Of course, a four-guard lineup with Achonwa is much different than a four-guard lineup with Braker/Reimer.

http://www.the-boneyard.com/threads/achonwa-merged.56935/page-3

White thinks that the Irish may shift to a four-guard lineup.

“I like Notre Dame with four guards, because they’re dynamic on the offensive end, and it certainly presents a challenge on the defensive end,” White said. “With the versatility you have with four guards out on the floor, to be able to show a different type of defense, switching, getting out in the passing lanes, creating turnovers … I think what Notre Dame already does on both ends of the floor is a transition four-guard offense.”

McGraw said that the four-guard lineup, with either Michaela Mabrey or Madison Cable starting in place of Achonwa, is a strong consideration. Notre Dame played mostly a four-guard lineup last season to great success, beating Connecticut three times and reaching the Final Four. The four-guard offense would leave senior Ariel Braker, a 6-1 forward, as the probable starting post.
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Interesting, and I think ND is still dangerous if they can keep their emotions in check. The issue defensively is they have a lineup of three teams with very good size and that can play two bigs at once - while you can pressure the perimeter, all three teams have players that will be able to see over those guards to make interior passes from the top of the key and can make wide open shots if you sag off them to protect your 'post' defender. And all three teams also shoot a high percentage from three so sagging off the wing is also dangerous - MD -35.7%, Stanford - 36.6%, and Uconn - 37.2%.
One thing that I will guarantee though is that whoever guards Thomas for ND will know that she is left hand dominant and will be sitting on her left side unlike the TN double teams who time and again down the stretch played her straight on and allowed her to go left consistently.
 
I posted before somewhere, but I will post again because I think it is an important point. Muffet touted her bench as 'being the best', the pundits begin every discussion about Uconn with the proviso that they do not have a bench. But the fact is that that while ND has a very good bench, that bench does not contain height and when Natalie went down that strong bench means not much. Uconn does not have a 'strong bench' but it does contain one player with height and skill and two players with guard skills. No one wants to see what would happen if the team had to rely on one of those players because of fouls or injury, but I do think that short bench is more prepared to cope than NDs long bench was. And both Stanford and Maryland I think are the teams with the best benches in the FF - Maryland has 10 players who have averaged 14 minutes or more pr game this year and 8 of them average 6 points or more per game with a mixture of posts wings and guards. Stanford has seven that average 16 or more minutes and another three at 10 or more. Notre Dame had eight, but only Reimer with height. They have Wright and Thomson but I am not sure either is ready for prime time.
 
This is a bit off topic, but ever since she came on the scene, I've been curious about Natalie's surname. Does anyone have ideas about its origin? My first thought was it might be American Indian. Then it seemed to me it has a Japanese ring. Other than those possibilities, I'm at a loss. Since she's Canadian, perhaps it's French, but I doubt that.

Any help?
 
It's Nigerian, from the Igbo tribe. Her father was a Nigerian who emigrated to Canada at age 12.
 
xHunt3r said:
UConn was a "known quantity" and ND had their number (4 in a row, 7 of 8.. iirc) going into the final four last year and we all know how that ended.

Even though UConn has beaten every other team in the final four handedly the last time they faced doesn't mean they should overlook any of them.
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Who said anything about "overlooking"? I just didn't want any nasty surprises. We have 3 more years of dealing with Diamond ahead of us, it's nice to put it off for one. Of course Stanford is a good team, but Huskies know what it is. The Heels were a different story entirely.
 
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Geno-ista said:
I don't think she is Maya Moore. I am not sure she is capable of playing the game like Maya Moore- BB IQ and team first stuff. I think her numbers that you quoted would be much better if she had the advantage of being on a significantly better coached team, with significantly better players that were also veterans that Maya had the luxury to play with. Tina Charles, Renee, Kalena,..... I don't think that is a fair comparison at all either. And maybe she is not built to come and play at CT for Geno either. She has athletic gifts and abilities and was streaky at times. DT missed every shot against ND in the semis her freshman year also. Stewie couldn't get it together our last two games either. DD can almost dunk also and can take over a game at times like few can- I am not sure their coaching staff will be able to mold that team into a Nat champion- but they certainly have the stable of thoroughbreds to do it! And DD is one of them. If she didn't roll that ankle and then hurt the knee the game before, I think they would have handled Stanford. I'm no expert admittedly, just my take!
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Yeah, but what does it mean that Maya came into a team with all of that talent ahead of her, didn't start at first, but still led the team in scoring. For all we know, if freshman Maya had played for UNC this year, she would have shot 45% but scored 25-30. Ultimately, it comes down to the eye test and, at this point in her career, Maya was much better than DeShields.

As an aside, I can't help but wonder how much better DeShields would be if she came into the UConn system and was forced to be more disciplined. Alas, we'll never know.
 
doggydaddy said:
That's May be true, but even on a funk she is more effective than Reiner.[/quote


Hammond was a negative for the Vill after first round! I think Reimer could give ND more upside than Hammond gave Louisville.
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