An ode to Jana | The Boneyard

An ode to Jana

Bone Dog

Bone Dog

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Jana has struggled to live up to a lot of our expectations. But whether that's fair or not, it may have distracted many of us to some of the wonderful things she does for the team. A couple of them spring to mind for me.
  • In the Utah game, around the 3 minute mark in the 3rd quarter (iirc) she lost the ball in the lane to a double team that perhaps she could have avoided. It led to a fast break with a Utah guard racing down the court almost unimpeded. But Jana sprinted down after her -- as quickly as I've ever seen her move -- and though she didn't get a block, she deterred the Ute from even attempting a layup. Jana doesn't always move like that. But occasionally she can really pour it on, and when she does, it's kinda wonderful.
  • In a recent interview, when she was asked who her favorite teammate is, Blanca named Jana. And I think many of us have seen the way Jana has worked to support Kayleigh and welcome her to the team. Jana is the 'heart' of this team, the big kid who holds everyone together. Great teams need great personalities to rally around, and Jana has really filled this need for the Huskies.
 
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When it mattered, Jana was a superb post player. I think she's one of those players that gets up for the big games and moments. Her career is young and started with an achilles injury.

For context, we were saying the same thing about Azzi for 3 years and now she's the biggest star and celebrity off the court and everything else on the court.
 
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People forget that Jana is effectively in her first full year of confident basketball after playing a season coming off of injury and it just so happens that Serah comes in through the portal and her time is decreased. It's been telling that recently GA has been subbing Jana in earlier to help keep both bigs fresh without making Sarah S. play the 5.
 
Jana has generally had an underachieving season, but she is still only a sophomore and has room to grow. Expect that she will be a starter at least at the beginning of next season.

When the Huskies play teams in the Big Dance with good big players, she will have her chance and it is nice to have a big strong body to keep opponents away from the block.
 
NW-MW said:
People forget that Jana is effectively in her first full year of confident basketball after playing a season coming off of injury and it just so happens that Serah comes in through the portal and her time is decreased. It's been telling that recently GA has been subbing Jana in earlier to help keep both bigs fresh without making Sarah S. play the 5.
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Sarah Strong still plays the 5 a lot in every game, and that is by design. I don't think Geno sees that as suboptimal. He constantly notes how UConn's small lineup gives opposing defenses a big problem, because how will "Crooks, Beers, Oldacre, Betts, etc." defend against the speed and agility of Sarah? The evidence to date is that they don't do it very effectively. The best response for many opponents will be to remove their lumbering, immobile big from the floor, which will certainly mess with their offensive and defensive planning.

Of course, Serah and Jana will still have a role to play -- he doesn't want Sarah to be playing the 5 for the whole game, or even a large part of it. Maybe she will do that for about 15 minutes, leaving the other 25 minutes to Serah and Jana.
 
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I like how Jana plays because she usually works her butt off. I think after her concussion related absence, she became a bit more tentative.
And I will always believe that the refs that are familiar with the BE teams make calls on certain players, and won't make calls on others. In Jana’s case, they call a lot of moving screens on her, justified or not...they are looking for her. Another thing is when she has the ball and two or three opposing players are trying to get the ball, because her rep is that she "loses" the ball, the refs don't call the hacks she is receiving.
One call is still vivid in my memory. Someone was guarding Azzi and Jana had assumed a position to set a screen. Azzi drove to her right, nudged the defensive player, who fell back and bounced off of Jana. Jana was called for a moving screen. UFB.
I hope Jana begins her "2025 March-April" persona on Saturday and, if the refs let her play, she has another great post season.
 
Bone Dog said:
Jana has struggled to live up to a lot of our expectations. But whether that's fair or not, it may have distracted many of us to some of the wonderful things she does for the team. A couple of them spring to mind for me.
  • In the Utah game, around the 3 minute mark in the 3rd quarter (iirc) she lost the ball in the lane to a double team that perhaps she could have avoided. It led to a fast break with a Utah guard racing down the court almost unimpeded. But Jana sprinted down after her -- as quickly as I've ever seen her move -- and though she didn't get a block, she deterred the Ute from even attempting a layup. Jana doesn't always move like that. But occasionally she can really pour it on, and when she does, it's kinda wonderful.
  • In a recent interview, when she was asked who her favorite teammate is, Blanca named Jana. And I think many of us have seen the way Jana has worked to support Kayleigh and welcome her to the team. Jana is the 'heart' of this team, the big kid who holds everyone together. Great teams need great personalities to rally around, and Jana has really filled this need for the Huskies.
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Thank you dog. Very nice.
 
Jana has had a good year. Her biggest issue is that her team has been incredible. Blanca was thought to be more like 6'1 - she looks 6'3 and she looks bigger so it means she can easily play the 4. moving Sarah to the 5 as their best lineup which cut into Jana's minutes. If she isn't better than Sarah or Serah at the 5, and the bench players of Blanca and Allie are better - she just got squeezed this year. Otherwise she was better, She didn't regress.
 
Bone Dog said:
Jana has struggled to live up to a lot of our expectations. But whether that's fair or not, it may have distracted many of us to some of the wonderful things she does for the team. A couple of them spring to mind for me.
  • In the Utah game, around the 3 minute mark in the 3rd quarter (iirc) she lost the ball in the lane to a double team that perhaps she could have avoided. It led to a fast break with a Utah guard racing down the court almost unimpeded. But Jana sprinted down after her -- as quickly as I've ever seen her move -- and though she didn't get a block, she deterred the Ute from even attempting a layup. Jana doesn't always move like that. But occasionally she can really pour it on, and when she does, it's kinda wonderful.
  • In a recent interview, when she was asked who her favorite teammate is, Blanca named Jana. And I think many of us have seen the way Jana has worked to support Kayleigh and welcome her to the team. Jana is the 'heart' of this team, the big kid who holds everyone together. Great teams need great personalities to rally around, and Jana has really filled this need for the Huskies.
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Not going to lie, but given the title, I was expecting an epic poem. Something like:

In the days of UConn women's basketball past,
Tales of greatness and glory are told.
This is the tale of Jana El Alfy.

That said, my sense with Jana is that she is still physically young. It's easy to forget that given her size, but physically she doesn't have "grown woman muscles "quite yet. I think that's the biggest contributing factor of what causes her to struggle handling a pass or finishing in the paint. She's still a kid. It wouldn't surprise me if she made a big jump next year as a junior.
 
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Her smile is one of those rare smiles that fit the cliche: It lights up the room. She has a tremendous heart and it is there whenever needed.
 
Bone Dog said:
Jana has struggled to live up to a lot of our expectations. But whether that's fair or not, it may have distracted many of us to some of the wonderful things she does for the team. A couple of them spring to mind for me.
  • In the Utah game, around the 3 minute mark in the 3rd quarter (iirc) she lost the ball in the lane to a double team that perhaps she could have avoided. It led to a fast break with a Utah guard racing down the court almost unimpeded. But Jana sprinted down after her -- as quickly as I've ever seen her move -- and though she didn't get a block, she deterred the Ute from even attempting a layup. Jana doesn't always move like that. But occasionally she can really pour it on, and when she does, it's kinda wonderful.
  • In a recent interview, when she was asked who her favorite teammate is, Blanca named Jana. And I think many of us have seen the way Jana has worked to support Kayleigh and welcome her to the team. Jana is the 'heart' of this team, the big kid who holds everyone together. Great teams need great personalities to rally around, and Jana has really filled this need for the Huskies.
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Thanks for providing this acknowledgement of Jana--on a team full of stars and superstars, sometimes contributions such as hers are often overlooked as you pointed out. I also think she is the heart and soul of this great team!
 
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