oldude
bamboo lover
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During the 2015-16 Season, UConn’s regular rotation was pretty much confined to 7 players, up until the national championship game when the rotation was reduced to 6 following Lou’s broken foot in the national semifinal. Of course, those 7 players included 6 present and future first team AA’s. The only player not earning AA honors eventually became the 3rd of 3 straight NDPOY’s on that team. UConn has never been particularly deep. But considering their short bench over each of the past two years, the 2016 championship team felt like it had an embarrassment of riches.
Over the past two seasons, UConn has struggled mightily to build a 6-player rotation come tournament time, particularly when you consider injuries to key players along the way. While yesterday’s scrimmage demonstrated that UConn’s starting 5 will be very, very, very good, imo, no one off the bench looked like they could yet be counted on in the big games to come.
I know it is way too early to consider UConn’s rotation this year as finalized. But I had really hoped that one or more of the returning reserves, beyond Megan Walker, would be fighting for a starting position. Yes, Christyn is going to be a very special player at UConn, but I must confess that I was alarmed when I heard that she was the 5th starter several weeks ago. Liv will also be a special player at UConn eventually, but yesterday, as she got knocked around in the post, I had this terrifying vision of Liv matched up in the low post with Kalani Brown.
So where does that leave the Huskies? As he did throughout the regular season last year, and again yesterday, Geno will throw some minutes to various reserves with three to four starters on the floor to see if he can buy a few minutes of rest for his starters in big games, or in case of foul trouble, or, god forbid, in case of injury. UConn will also be playing a lot more zone this year to both limit fouls as well as fatigue, something a certain short-handed team in South Bend did extraordinarily well last season.
As of right now, I believe Batouly and Mikayla are the most likely to get minutes in the big nonconference games vs ND, Baylor, Louisville and SC. Batouly can set picks, rebound and bang in the low post against opposing teams Bigs, similar to Kristina Nelson’s role with ND last year. If Mikayla can play tough defense, penetrate on offense and dish to her teammates, she doesn’t have to score much to be effective in short spells as a sub for Crystal or Christyn. As everyone agrees, Liv is a tremendous athlete and she will be a player. Whether it’s this year or not remains to be seen.
But here’s the good news. Lou and Pheesa will be as good as any pair of teammates in the country. Crystal looks like she will be dropping spectacular dimes as well as raining down threes all over Husky opponents. Megan is ready to show everyone why she was the NPOY as a HS senior and Christyn will be a frontrunner for NFOY. Take that starting 5, and just get them a little bit of help off the bench, and this team is capable of winning it’s 12th national championship banner. It surely won’t be easy, but it’s definitely possible.
One final positive relative to UConn’s short bench was mentioned by several BY’ers yesterday. UConn’s incredible guest list of four future NCAA superstars from the 2018 U17 World Championship Team had to be watching and absolutely believing, “I can come to the best program in the history of WBB and play right away.” Hopefully, that pipeline of four HS AA’s to Storrs will begin with Ms. Jones and Ms. Boston in a few short weeks.
Over the past two seasons, UConn has struggled mightily to build a 6-player rotation come tournament time, particularly when you consider injuries to key players along the way. While yesterday’s scrimmage demonstrated that UConn’s starting 5 will be very, very, very good, imo, no one off the bench looked like they could yet be counted on in the big games to come.
I know it is way too early to consider UConn’s rotation this year as finalized. But I had really hoped that one or more of the returning reserves, beyond Megan Walker, would be fighting for a starting position. Yes, Christyn is going to be a very special player at UConn, but I must confess that I was alarmed when I heard that she was the 5th starter several weeks ago. Liv will also be a special player at UConn eventually, but yesterday, as she got knocked around in the post, I had this terrifying vision of Liv matched up in the low post with Kalani Brown.
So where does that leave the Huskies? As he did throughout the regular season last year, and again yesterday, Geno will throw some minutes to various reserves with three to four starters on the floor to see if he can buy a few minutes of rest for his starters in big games, or in case of foul trouble, or, god forbid, in case of injury. UConn will also be playing a lot more zone this year to both limit fouls as well as fatigue, something a certain short-handed team in South Bend did extraordinarily well last season.
As of right now, I believe Batouly and Mikayla are the most likely to get minutes in the big nonconference games vs ND, Baylor, Louisville and SC. Batouly can set picks, rebound and bang in the low post against opposing teams Bigs, similar to Kristina Nelson’s role with ND last year. If Mikayla can play tough defense, penetrate on offense and dish to her teammates, she doesn’t have to score much to be effective in short spells as a sub for Crystal or Christyn. As everyone agrees, Liv is a tremendous athlete and she will be a player. Whether it’s this year or not remains to be seen.
But here’s the good news. Lou and Pheesa will be as good as any pair of teammates in the country. Crystal looks like she will be dropping spectacular dimes as well as raining down threes all over Husky opponents. Megan is ready to show everyone why she was the NPOY as a HS senior and Christyn will be a frontrunner for NFOY. Take that starting 5, and just get them a little bit of help off the bench, and this team is capable of winning it’s 12th national championship banner. It surely won’t be easy, but it’s definitely possible.
One final positive relative to UConn’s short bench was mentioned by several BY’ers yesterday. UConn’s incredible guest list of four future NCAA superstars from the 2018 U17 World Championship Team had to be watching and absolutely believing, “I can come to the best program in the history of WBB and play right away.” Hopefully, that pipeline of four HS AA’s to Storrs will begin with Ms. Jones and Ms. Boston in a few short weeks.
As for changing his players, maybe he can stop by his local Walmart and pick up a half dozen additional HS AA’s off the shelf. 
