All five 2020 recruits have signed, and Geno has comments.

[Zorro]

Many times in the past I have thought, this is the season where Geno will have enough talent that he can send them at the opposition hell for leather from the git-go, without having to worry much or at all about foul problems, the "second string" being clost enough to the first string in talent that the loss of any single player (especially guards) would only affect the play marginally, if at all. However, that has never happened. It always seems to come down to seven or maybe eight players. Looking at next year's roster, it looks like Gabriel may be the only one on the squad who is not quite ready for prime time (although with great potential). So the question seems to be, who will be the other two or three players who will not be part of the core. Or will Geno manage to have a core of ten?

 

[slug25]

He had more than 10 useful players on the national team and managed to keep them all happy, and successful.

 

[Zorro]

It is a nice sort of problem to have!

 

[BroadwayVa]

Nice article in the Courant. If you can't work the link, just do a search of "Here’s what Geno Auriemma had to say about UCon\\\\\\\\\may produce and exceptional teamn’s No. 2 ranked 2020 recruiting class" and you can access the article that way.

BTW UCONN fans who were worried that they all didn't sign at the same time (or on the first day) can now step away from the ledge.

And keep his comments in perspective. It's the honeymoon period. Once they get to campus, they will become the "worst ______ (post/guard/wing) player in the nation"...

2020 class signs

Lots of good comments by Geno on each one. But on the core group...

"I think we’ve got a good mix of inside, outside, middle,” coach Geno Auriemma said in a statement. “When you look at our team now, we’re young in some ways. We’re inexperienced in some ways. We don’t have the kind of size that we’ve had in the past. Even though we’re going to be young next year, I think the depth and the experience that we have this year plus the youth next year. ... I like how we’ve been able to package a lot of different things into five different players. Not one of them is remotely like the other one, and that’s a really neat thing."

Of them all, and they are all great looking, I like Piath she is intriguing. She's a post defender that needs to learn to score. That Christine shall teach. I enjoy her beauty. Physically I think she can be intimidating.
Adding these 5 may create an exceptional team--ERIC you just built a desire to move on to next year quickly and this year just started. Thanks.

 

[BroadwayVa]

He had more than 10 useful players on the national team and managed to keep them all happy, and successful.

Happy? Not a good word for them. ACCEPTING is a more probably word for high numbers talented teams at Uconn. Geno and CHRISTINE (SHE had the big role in keeping them accepting. She wasn't thrilled with being a minutes book keeper.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Check out Geno's comments on Paige from Doug Bonjour today/yesterday.

 

[HopJim]

Let's not forget that Evina Westbrook will now be a de facto sixth member of next year's incoming class. I wonder how Geno will handle the back court congestion next year. Certainly Christyn will be Numero Uno. My guess is that at the beginning of the year, Evina will be her back court partner; Paige will be the 3rd guard (first off the bench, just as MoJeff was as a freshman), and Nika will get whatever minutes remain available.

I know some people here think that Evina will play on the wing, and I guess at 6-0 she could do that. But honestly I doubt that she would do that as a starter, with a returning front court of ONO / Megan / AubreyAnna. It makes more sense for Evina to remain in the back court (which doesn't mean that on certain occasions she couldn't be on the court with Christyn, Paige, and AubreyAnna).

For those of you who may be wondering, "AubreyAnna" should be correctly pronounced as "Aw, Breanna".

Another reason why Evina won't play on the wing is that Aaliyah will need to get her minutes, and they shouldn't come at Megan's expense.

Love thinking about Megan at the small forward position and Evina as a true guard. Doesn't solve the "who gets minutes?" question but would be a difficult task for competition to game plan for.

 

[HopJim]

Of course there is always the mass substitution pattern...if there becomes a log jam of talent. You start your A team...play them for 10 minutes of the first quarter...they run the score up...You let the starting five start the 2nd quarter..let them play for 3 minutes, then you pull the entire A team out. Then you run the B team play them for the remaining 7 minutes of the 2nd quarter...while substituting your number 11 player the last two minutes of the 2nd quarter. Repeat the same substitution pattern in the 2nd half. Of course, should problems arise foul trouble, injury, uninspired play, or playing a really good team or a player absent from the roster for the day then you adjust the strategy accordingly.... At least the playing time issue is resolved.

Geno has always liked to focus on match ups, often having a very athletic guard (i.e. M. Jeff) or forward (i.e. Gabby) come off bench as frosh or sophs to harass the top offensive players. Opposition coaches must be dreading the flexibility Geno will have with the many athletic options the next few years.

 

[chrissaran]

They're not all in that picture at the same time. It might prove difficult to keep everyone happy because they're all highly competitive and want to start. If they didn't want to start, Geno wouldn't have recruited them.