Alot of different thoughts

[JellyBean]

So we head to Oregon to face Duke. Still not healthy, we need to stay out of foul trouble. Caroline is still not healthy with her neck stiffness. I have to wonder if thats all it is at this point. Its been a long time. BTW it really none of our business. Dorka out too and 'The Griff" has proven she can be a spark that can handle the starting position. The questions are when will Caroline and Dorka be healthy to play quality minutes. We have a very short bench and need them. As good as we look now a few players in foul trouble and we could have a problem.

My other thought is when Dorka is healthy will she start or will Griff? Think about this. Dorka had and is recovering from an injured wrist and a broken thumb. She looked pretty good coming back from the wrist injury now the thumb. I think both Dorka and Griff see starters minutes. Both have proven their valuable assets to the team. We will need them close to 100% later in the season for sure. Nika and Griff bring so much pressure to our defense especially on opponents guards. They are both stoppers and bring intimidation which makes it difficult for opponents offenses to flow smoothly. If we face Iowa they will meet Catlin Clark and she will be a tall order, however nothing they cant handle.

Some other thoughts. How is the portal working??? We've seen teams ranked high in the beginning of the season only to fall hard. Why with all that talent? IMO you throw a bunch of talent together without chemistry and without leadership and your looking at disappointment. It takes time to build team chemistry. Chemistry is created by practice and playing together and a leader must be at the point to run the team. One or two players added to a roster from the portal or transfers could work their way into a teams flow and learn to play within the teams concept and build on chemistry however bringing in more players does not always seem to work and we've seen that.

Another thought. We are blessed with Azzi and Nika at the point and Ines learning the system. We have 2 starting point guards who are really good and are leaders on the floor. Other teams dont have a point guard and play point guard by committee. Look at some of the top teams losses and see where they fall apart. IMO its team chemistry and lack of leadership at the point. Some teams have some really good players who are good one on one but not facilitators on the floor. This leads to disaster.

Edwards looked really good and especially very little hesitation underneath with the ball. She will get alot of bigs in foul trouble continuing to do what she does. UConns defense is suffocating with their doubling down when the ball goes inside puts more pressure on opponents. As aggressive as UConn plays we have managed to stay out of foul trouble. We must continue to do so.

To start the season we were ranked 6th in most polls. Texas and Tenn ahead of us were built on transfers and portal players. Both are struggling now. UConn with 4 key injuries has moved up to 3 in the polls. Geno builds teams, and builds players and most of all he has done it over 30+ years and continues. This is probably the greatest thing he has accomplished and done it for a long time, without missing a step. You hear about coaches yelling at their players and Geno does too however his kids know he loves them. They also know his intentions are to make them better then they've ever dreamed. Genos results speak for themselves. Bottom line Geno knows how to make kids successful and if you doubt it just look at all the international players who are thrilled at the opportunity to have "just a chance" "just a chance" to play for him.

At some point Geno will retire. I believe UConn learned after seeing great coaches retire from their programs that they must have Geno's replacement in the wings and ready to step in. I would expect over the next few seasons that that replacement will be on board working with Geno. Will Geno ever retire???? I think initially he will stay onboard to work with who ever is brought in to replace him. What Geno has built is a legendary program and a very valuable asset in itself. UConn will not let that die with Genos retirement. They will keep him on board in a lesser capacity giving him his freedom to work with the coaches and the team until they can continue on their own.

One last thought. If you made alot of food how bout putting a plate or 2 together and dropping it off that the American Legion or VFW for those who would appreciated it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and God Bless.

Bravo!!! This was an awesome post!! Well said, @Tonyc especially the last part, showing appreciation and some love for the American Legion & VFW

 

[Bone Dog]

Aubrey has done exactly that, played with confidence and taken the open shots when they were available. She's made a couple threes and some midrange shots over the past couple games.

What Aubrey was great at before the injury she’s still great at, like rebounding and running the floor and generally bringing a burst of energy at key moments. And she’s added outside shooting, and I hope she does much more of this.

One thing she wasn’t great at before the injury is making decisions with the ball. She occasionally picked up the dribble if she got stopped in the paint, and then was stuck looking for someone to bail her out. She is apparently still prone to this particular error as she did it again in the NC St game and got whistled for 3 seconds as a result.

On the other hand she made some brilliant passes last game too, including an awesome touch pass out of the lane to Lou. I hope this means she can learn to avoid that other error. I suspect Aubrey can learn to do anything. That’s how great an athlete she is.

 

[TeamFirst!]

https://www./features/sights-and-sounds-from-uconns-win-over-nc-state/

 

[jabstep]

Some other teams will step it up before the end of the season.
UConn is fortunate to have such high performing players, especially our transfers.

I can't help but wonder if the collective NIL money has an affect on players at some schools, especially on transfer players who are only there for their 5th year.
Once they're on the team what's their incentive to excel for the money that they're essentially getting by virtue of simply being there.
I'm not so sure that it's the chemistry when it could be that they're just going through the motions to last through their 5th year to collect their pay checks.
All of this stuff is happening in the dark but we can still speculate about the effect of payola.
Maybe they're just like mercenaries without having any real dog in the fight, unless they have a chance of going somewhere in the NCAAT's or the WNBA.

UConn fans should be ecstatic at the prospect of UConn going undefeated into the South Carolina game.
That should be the next regular season showdown game of the year now that Stanford has lost to them.
The Stanford game was an indication that anything can happen when the top teams play to vie for #1.
Our Scar game is several months away in Feb. and anything can happen before then.

When Boston got called for throwing an elbow during their game it showed that she can act desperate.
It didn't make her look good.
She also spent a lot of time on the bench in foul trouble.
Scar was fortunate to have enough depth of bigs to win that game, and Stanford has elite bigs too.

It was the first time I saw her get called for physical fouls which she does everygame on offense and under the boards. Don't get me wrong. I think she and Brink are the two best defenders of the paint in the country. She also has develeped an outside game.
She is just so much bigger and stronger than most of her opponents that when she turns toward the basket with the ball and creates contact they just bounce off her and thats how she creates space for her shot.
That being said I wish we had her on our team.