All time UConn WBB starting 5 as of today... | The Boneyard

All time UConn WBB starting 5 as of today...

ktuck911 said:
Not sure if anyone started a thread like this, but I'm doing so now...
Any takers on an ALL TIME starting 5 for UConn WBB?

I got:

PG: Bird
SG: Taurasi
SF: Moore
PF: Collier
C: Stewart
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add two please. Who would be the first BIG off the bench and the first guard off the bench?
 
visitingcock said:
add two please. Who would be the first BIG off the bench and the first guard off the bench?
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It's that hard, right? (LOL) ... Soooo many great players over the last 30 years came through this illustrious program...

To me, first BIG off the bench: Rebecca Lobo ... 1st guard off the bench (extremely difficult) - I'll go with Moriah Jefferson (her last year at UConn she showed OUT as a complete PG)
 
Paige isn’t done yet “as of today,” so can she really be considered? If she can, then we ought to weigh her per game impact. She got to 1000 pts last season with Maya-type efficiency in terms of total number of games played. I think that puts her into the starting lineup.

I guess that makes my starting 5
Paige
Diana
Maya
Tina
Stewie

With Sue and Phee coming off the bench.
 
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Based on UCONN (college) career. I'd go with

Jefferson
Taurasi
Moore
Stewart
Charles

then

Bird
Lobo

next would be Abrosimova.


If we went on totality of basketball career (NCAA/WNBA/Olympics/Europe), then it would be different.
 
Bone Dog said:
Paige isn’t done yet “as of today,” so can she really be considered? If she can, then we ought to weigh her per game impact. She got to 1000 pts last season with Maya-type efficiency in terms of total number of games played. I think that puts her into the starting lineup.

I guess that makes my starting 5
Paige
Diana
Maya
Tina
Stewie

With Sue and Phee coming off the bench.
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Too bad for those injuries, Paige very well could’ve reached 1000 PTS earlier in her career had the injuries not gotten in the way.
 
I gotta feeling a lot of the all time 5 will be very similar. Mine would probably be:

PG: Bird
SG: Taurasi
SF: Maya
PF: Stewie
C: Lobo

Bench: PB, Phee
 
PG - Sue Bird
SG - Katie Lou Samuelson - Diana is the obvious choice but nobody could match KLS's combination of size and shooting ability
SF - Maya Moore
PF - Brianna Stewart
C - Stefanie Dolson - There are others that have more name recognition than her but I don't think anyone can match her passing and screening ability.

Bench - Diana Taurasi and Tina Charles.
 
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Ok, let's take this in a side direction.

All time starting 5, as of today, of players who DID NOT make the Huskies of Honor:

Rita Williams
Tiffany Hayes
Asjha Jones
Jamelle Elliott
Dorka Juhassz

Off the bench:
Azura Stevens/Kia Nurse
 
Great topic for debate. I think people will need to decide between individual accomplishments (Wade, NPOY, AA) vs. NC's. Unfortunately for Pheesa, who I think will be an all time great pro, she doesn't quite stack up for college accolades. Sue "only" one 1 Wade and one NPOY (2002), but won the Lieberman award 3 times, compared to Moriah's 2.

Sue
Diana
Maya
Stewie
Tina

Not only did Tina win 2 NC's, but she is a 2X AA and a 2X NC, and NPOY once.

Sveta was so good the year she was injured that she was an AA even tho she missed a host of games. She was a 3X AA. After this season, I have no doubt Paige will be added as 1st guard off the bench. For many Lobo is a shoe-in, but I checked - "only" 1 NC and 1 NPOY. Did they not have AA's back then? Pheesa was "only" a 2X AA. KLS was a 3X AA. So for my bench:

Jefferson (replace with Paige after this season)
Sveta
Lou
Pheesa
Rebecca

There really are very few "wrong" answers! How blessed are we to have so much historical talent that we get to have this debate??!!!
 
Some thoughts in terms of a list, using UConn career only:

Some form of NPOY:

Lobo
Rizzotti
Wolters
Bird
Taurasi 2x
Charles
Moore 3x
Stewie 3x
Bueckers

AP All-American (top-5, starting in 1995):

Lobo
Rizzotti
Wolters 2x
Shea
Sveta
Bird
Taurasi 2x
Moore 4x
Montgomery
Charles
Stewie 3x
Moriah
Lou 2x
Phee 2x
Megan
Paige 2x
 
Just one more reflection: the phrase "all time UConn WBB starting five" is a bit vague.
  • Is it seeking a comparison of awards and stats?
  • Or is it asking who could best run together as a pack (Husky pun)?
If I take the latter sense of it, then I think we'd all have to agree that Paige could run with all the greats. She has the same ferocious will to win that characterized anyone on the wall of honor, but was especially true of Diana and Maya.
 
ucbart said:
Ok, let's take this in a side direction.

All time starting 5, as of today, of players who DID NOT make the Huskies of Honor:

Rita Williams
Tiffany Hayes
Asjha Jones
Jamelle Elliott
Dorka Juhassz

Off the bench:
Azura Stevens/Kia Nurse
Expand ...
Well, if not being on the wall (yet) is the criteria then Paige has to be on the non-wall team.
 
EricLA said:
Great topic for debate. I think people will need to decide between individual accomplishments (Wade, NPOY, AA) vs. NC's. Unfortunately for Pheesa, who I think will be an all time great pro, she doesn't quite stack up for college accolades. Sue "only" one 1 Wade and one NPOY (2002), but won the Lieberman award 3 times, compared to Moriah's 2.

Sue
Diana
Maya
Stewie
Tina
Expand ...
Yeah, it's the defense that puts Jefferson ahead of Bird for me. (and the availability). Bird was a better 3pt shooter, shot more. Jefferson was a better 2 pt shooter, better assist/to ratio (significantly). So they are pretty close, but Jefferson was a lock down defender you could put on the other teams best player (guard wise).

Now, beyond college, completely different story.
 
.-.
ucbart said:
Ok, let's take this in a side direction.

All time starting 5, as of today, of players who DID NOT make the Huskies of Honor:

Rita Williams
Tiffany Hayes
Asjha Jones
Jamelle Elliott
Dorka Juhassz

Off the bench:
Azura Stevens/Kia Nurse
Expand ...
Mine would be

Dangerfield (way better numbers than R. Williams, Muhl would come before Williams for me too)
Nurse
Hayes (let her play the 3)
Elliott
A. Jones

Bench
Strother
T. Williams

Then probably C. Williams
 
PG - Bird
Wings: Paige and DT.
PF: Maya
C: Stewart.

I took this thread for what we feel would be our best starting 5- not "the greatest all-time players."

The only issue with this team is no bulk inside. Though at the other end the bulkier player has no shot to defend this lineup.
 
meyers7 said:
Yeah, it's the defense that puts Jefferson ahead of Bird for me. (and the availability). Bird was a better 3pt shooter, shot more. Jefferson was a better 2 pt shooter, better assist/to ratio (significantly). So they are pretty close, but Jefferson was a lock down defender you could put on the other teams best player (guard wise).

Now, beyond college, completely different story.
Expand ...
I was considering putting MoJeff ahead of Bird. I go back-and-forth a lot with them. While Bird missed 1 year - Mojeff's frosh year wasn't much. And her soph year I still p[icture Stanford deliberately leaving her wide open in FF. And on that team she was the 5th best player. So, one year she is a bench player worse than 5/6 combined with her soph year she is 5th best player and both years not A/A -- vs Bird being spectucular for 3 years - I gave slight nod to Bird. But I get it either way.

I do beleive she gets underrated. I couln't believe Meg and Kara didn't feel she was top 10 several years ago on that tv show they did for UCONN all-tiem great top 10.
 
Bone Dog said:
Just one more reflection: the phrase "all time UConn WBB starting five" is a bit vague.
  • Is it seeking a comparison of awards and stats?
  • Or is it asking who could best run together as a pack (Husky pun)?
If I take the latter sense of it, then I think we'd all have to agree that Paige could run with all the greats. She has the same ferocious will to win that characterized anyone on the wall of honor, but was especially true of Diana and Maya.
Expand ...
I took it to mean both as reflected in my chosen filter# which led me to choose Sue over Paige or Moriah and Rebecca over Napheesa or Svetlana.

# Filter:
  • Sort Huskies of Honor by position (Paige and Aaliyah have satisfied the key requirement);
  • By position, apply successive filters: (1) is the player the key player on a NC/FF team? (NPOY is a great proxy); (2) did the player’s team win a NC?
But if I only use your latter condition on the Huskies of Honor list with an eye toward Geno’s modern WBB coaching, I would end up with @hoophuskee ‘s lineup:

First Five:
Plus Two:
 
yhun89 said:
I gotta feeling a lot of the all time 5 will be very similar. Mine would probably be:

PG: Bird
SG: Taurasi
SF: Maya
PF: Stewie
C: Lobo

Bench: PB, Phee
Expand ...
You picked the exact 7 I had picked in my head.
 
.-.
hoophuskee said:
I was considering putting MoJeff ahead of Bird. I go back-and-forth a lot with them. While Bird missed 1 year - Mojeff's frosh year wasn't much. And her soph year I still p[icture Stanford deliberately leaving her wide open in FF. And on that team she was the 5th best player. So, one year she is a bench player worse than 5/6 combined with her soph year she is 5th best player and both years not A/A -- vs Bird being spectucular for 3 years - I gave slight nod to Bird. But I get it either way.

I do beleive she gets underrated. I couln't believe Meg and Kara didn't feel she was top 10 several years ago on that tv show they did for UCONN all-tiem great top 10.
Expand ...
They were both AA their Jr/Sr years. Jefferson struggled her Fr year, somewhat. Bird was injured most of her Fr year. Sooo, let's compare the Soph years.

Jefferson: 40 games / FG 157/273 (.575) / 3pt 33/79 (.418) / FT 53/69 (.768) / 136 rbs / 196 assists / 66 t/o / 2.97 a/to / 9 blocks / 106 steals / 400 points

Bird: 37 games / FG 140/279 (.502) / 3pt 72/145 (.497) / FT 53/59 (.898) / 94 rbs / 160 assists / 80 t/o / 2.0 a/to / 1 block / 69 steals / 405 points

You're right, we do underrate Jefferson (college). If Bird had 3 spectacular years, what did Jefferson have?
 
Good stuff folks.. Glad I brought up this topic... Amazing how many great players we've been honored to witness over the last 3 decades
 
meyers7 said:
You're right, we do underrate Jefferson (college). If Bird had 3 spectacular years, what did Jefferson have?
Expand ...
A good year but not spectacular one. As stated before anyone can see in Final Four Stanford was deliberately giving MoJeff wide open shots. This sort of highlights her soph year as her being the 5th leading scorer. Unlike Bird who was 3rd in overall in team scoring 2nd in assists while Mofjeff 1st in assists but 5th in scoring. On Offense she didn't have to do much but pass the ball and hit an occasional shot.

While Sue Bird Final Four game was an example of a signature game. With 7 minutes left (and even before that she had 19 points. When she got her 19th pt it was one-third of team's points in a tight game in the 2nd half.) the game was still close And in her 1st matchup vs Tenn she was also a beast and scored 22 or 23 points. And with her 22nd point they were about one-third too in a tight game. These are signature games.

You got any signature games for MoJeff her soph year? Maybe the Baylor game that Simms got shut down? But with that said - do we recall who was on that team? Dolson, Stewart and Stokes. What was Simms going to get going to the basket on the inside?

I just can't recall Moriah putting her team on her back her soph year. She was a contributor. I can see the Moriah point but Bird in some big games was doing some heavy lifting I can't recall Moriah doing.
 
hoophuskee said:
A good year but not spectacular one. As stated before anyone can see in Final Four Stanford was deliberately giving MoJeff wide open shots. This sort of highlights her soph year as her being the 5th leading scorer. Unlike Bird who was 3rd in overall in team scoring 2nd in assists while Mofjeff 1st in assists but 5th in scoring. On Offense she didn't have to do much but pass the ball and hit an occasional shot.

While Sue Bird Final Four game was an example of a signature game. With 7 minutes left (and even before that she had 19 points. When she got her 19th pt it was one-third of team's points in a tight game in the 2nd half.) the game was still close And in her 1st matchup vs Tenn she was also a beast and scored 22 or 23 points. And with her 22nd point they were about one-third too in a tight game. These are signature games.

You got any signature games for MoJeff her soph year? Maybe the Baylor game that Simms got shut down? But with that said - do we recall who was on that team? Dolson, Stewart and Stokes. What was Simms going to get going to the basket on the inside?

I just can't recall Moriah putting her team on her back her soph year. She was a contributor. I can see the Moriah point but Bird in some big games was doing some heavy lifting I can't recall Moriah doing.
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Do we need to focus exclusively on MoJeff's sophomore year? Here's some highlights from the game against SC that year. This was a blowout against the #1 ranked team and it was a total team effort. But when I look at what MoJeff did on both ends of the floor, face guarding Tiffany Mitchell on defense and exposing Bianca Cuevas who was touted as the quickest guard in D1 by many "experts," I see one of the all time greats Pay special attention to these moments:

1:24
3:26
4:29
5:02
5:25

Moriah was like a shot across the bow for SC and opened up the court in so doing.
 
Bone Dog said:
Do we need to focus exclusively on MoJeff's sophomore year?
Expand ...
Yes. The entire point of our conversation was soph year. I had made a point that Bird was spectacular 3 years while MoJeff wasn't until her jr year. You're giving me "jr year Moriah," right? I had said they were right there - near even so yeah she was spectacular her jr and sr years which is why I have Bird and her so close.

And it's why I disagreed several years ago with Meg and Kara.
 
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