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But she's a 2 (a defensive specialist and a great sub for Azzi), not a 3 (W) where a player with height, cue Blanca or Carolyn would be better.
Another starting five prediction
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Last I remember, Geno was still describing Caroline's availability as day to day (though based on the practice videos she seems to be available more often than not.) I don't think she gets that starting spot at the 3 for the simple reason that it's less disruptive to have her unavailable off the bench than unavailable in the starting lineup. As is so often the case, I would be delighted to be wrong.
I also think it is only a matter of time before we see Blanca getting the most minutes at the 3. She breaks down a defense.She is also 6'2" like Caroline. A slasher and very strong driver. An adjustment to ge sure to American basketball so I like CD at least in the beginning. Never underestimate the power of determination for someone who has something to prove. CD does.
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I think there is a very good chance that Caroline is currently playing essentially at 90-95% but Geno is protecting her from expectations. Obviously, I’m just throwing darts at the wall here but what I’ve seen from practice film (admittedly, not a lot) she seems to be playing at full speed and does not appear to be gun shy either. Clearly, playing real games is different but my guess is that regardless of where she really is in terms of her concussion issues, he will continue to keep a protective shield over her in terms of expectations just to make it easier for her.
Obviously, this is simply wishful thinking on my part but I really do believe/pray/hope that we will finally get to see a healthy, happy Caroline back in the UConn lineup as a legitimate contributing force this season! Could she start? If she’s really fully healthy, of course she could! I would love that but really, I just want her to be a contributor.
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Agree and believe Blanca will be a top 4 relative to upcoming season's minutes. That being said, unless its a Paige, Strong, or Azzi, Geno rarely starts a Frosh (of if he does, like Jana, they play a specific role which often does not translate into significant minutes). Would love to see Blanca step up but too early to predict.
I don't think Geno is shy about playing 3 guards. In fact, with positionless basketball I expect Geno to put his 5 best players on the court. A nice coincidence is that a couple of them will be bigs and some will be not-so-bigs.
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Blanca is not a normal Frosh and should start. She has more experience then any other Frosh in the country since she has already played against older more experienced players.
My prediction ... the starting five in the first 8 to ten games will not necessarily be the same starting five towards the end of the season.
The first part of the season, Geno will go with experienced players from last season who know his system, the fluidity of it, and have seniority. Once the transfers, the freshmen and the previously injured players start to develop a better flow for it, once he sees who can play both ends of the court, he will be starting the best players he has at that point in time. I don't see Fudd and/or Strong ever not starting, I guess barring some type of injury or illness, those two start and play significant minutes in every game.
First part of the season, KK will be the starting point guard, K9, as well as the guppy will substitute. Will Arnold lose that starting spot later into the season? Maybe, maybe not, there are definitely others on the team with talent! One thing for certain, all three are incredibly fast and play great defense!!! Who will be most prone to turn the ball over?
First part of the season, Shade will be starting on the wing, and Blanca and Carol will substitute. Perhaps in some games, UConn may want to go with power forwards in the starting lineup alongside of Sarah Strong; initially I'd say Ice before Patterson, but that may change as well. Will Ashlynn be the starter throughout the season? Maybe, maybe not. That is five incredibly talented players vying for one starting spot; three will likely get quite a bit of play time, and two will play only minor wrap up minutes at the conclusion of the games. Which? Who? I don't know!
At center, I think he starts Jana in the first part of the season. For the same reason he started Ice over Jana in the first ten games last season, he will start Jana over Serah initially. I don't however see El Alfy holding that spot from Williams throughout all of the 35 games. Just based upon previous season's play, with the exception of the UConn experience, those players are not in the same ballpark. But perhaps the Great Pyramid develops to become a national player of the year candidate and keeps that spot? I personally think that is the standard that will be necessary to hold off Williams! Malou-Mamel will not start any, she will only be seeing wrap up minutes towards the end of the games.
Who have I missed? I don't think we will see Allie start in any game; she will be behind Azzi as a shooter and just ... well, she will not start. Morgan? She is currently hurt. I don't know how bad the injury is but either way I am not going to predict that she will start any games at all, even if she is healthy. There are just too many on the list who will be in front of her by the time she gets healthy.
The first part of the season, Geno will go with experienced players from last season who know his system, the fluidity of it, and have seniority. Once the transfers, the freshmen and the previously injured players start to develop a better flow for it, once he sees who can play both ends of the court, he will be starting the best players he has at that point in time. I don't see Fudd and/or Strong ever not starting, I guess barring some type of injury or illness, those two start and play significant minutes in every game.
First part of the season, KK will be the starting point guard, K9, as well as the guppy will substitute. Will Arnold lose that starting spot later into the season? Maybe, maybe not, there are definitely others on the team with talent! One thing for certain, all three are incredibly fast and play great defense!!! Who will be most prone to turn the ball over?
First part of the season, Shade will be starting on the wing, and Blanca and Carol will substitute. Perhaps in some games, UConn may want to go with power forwards in the starting lineup alongside of Sarah Strong; initially I'd say Ice before Patterson, but that may change as well. Will Ashlynn be the starter throughout the season? Maybe, maybe not. That is five incredibly talented players vying for one starting spot; three will likely get quite a bit of play time, and two will play only minor wrap up minutes at the conclusion of the games. Which? Who? I don't know!
At center, I think he starts Jana in the first part of the season. For the same reason he started Ice over Jana in the first ten games last season, he will start Jana over Serah initially. I don't however see El Alfy holding that spot from Williams throughout all of the 35 games. Just based upon previous season's play, with the exception of the UConn experience, those players are not in the same ballpark. But perhaps the Great Pyramid develops to become a national player of the year candidate and keeps that spot? I personally think that is the standard that will be necessary to hold off Williams! Malou-Mamel will not start any, she will only be seeing wrap up minutes towards the end of the games.
Who have I missed? I don't think we will see Allie start in any game; she will be behind Azzi as a shooter and just ... well, she will not start. Morgan? She is currently hurt. I don't know how bad the injury is but either way I am not going to predict that she will start any games at all, even if she is healthy. There are just too many on the list who will be in front of her by the time she gets healthy.
Fisher would be my guess. I expect she will get plenty of playing time.
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Ice was in much earlier than Jana today.
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I was unaware before today that Jana has been battling an injury this preseason.
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I believe UCONN will go undefeated. If they do I expect his lineup will remain the whole season that he used vs BC. Shade is a 2/3 in the college game and UCONN is much stronger at the 4/5 spots than theyhave been in a very long time. What teams coudl match up with Sarah and Serah? having 3 legit 3point shooters on the floor allows the offense to spread out beuatifully.
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Williams is well ahead of both of them. That’s why GA went and got her in the portal. He wanted/ needed consistent production for 30 mpg from a big.
CL82
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CL82
NCAA Woman's Basketball National Champions
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She sure looked it last night. Here's the thing, though, as well as she played, you could see she still working her way into our system. I think she's going to be an amazing player in the second half of the season.
Okay, after watching the BC scrimmage, I think that most of this I will still stick with. The one big exception now that I would like to change from previous statement; Williams starts from Game #1 and never relinquishes her roll to Jana or Gandy (baring an illness or injury, etc.)
I mentioned within the body of this post that I thought Williams would be a 'National Player of the Year' candidate ... it is going to be difficult to achieve that status, because the other Sarah is going to win that award and they likely will not like to put two (or three) teammates on the 1st Team All American list. But I'll say this of the two of them, they are going to be really problematic for teams to deal with anywhere near the paint. Throw in the perimeter shooting that Fudd will contribute, and add Shades' shooting and defense/long rebounds, KK's defense; wow, there are some really big problems for other teams in the forecast!
Starting five: KK, Azzi, Ash, Strong, Williams.
I think that some on here are missing how good Ash has been and can be. She is a three level scorer. She was 40+% from 3 last season and her midrange game is excellent. She can also drive to the hoop very well too. She has restricted herself somewhat because she had been prioritizing Paige, Azzi, and Sarah over her own scoring (last year).' I expect Geno to emphasize to her this year to be more aggressive on the offensive end (she was doing this more toward the end of the year). On defense last year, she was switching onto wings and power forwards a lot of the time. It's possible that she could get displaced at some time during the season especially if Blanca is what some of the International scouts predict her to be.
I think that some on here are missing how good Ash has been and can be. She is a three level scorer. She was 40+% from 3 last season and her midrange game is excellent. She can also drive to the hoop very well too. She has restricted herself somewhat because she had been prioritizing Paige, Azzi, and Sarah over her own scoring (last year).' I expect Geno to emphasize to her this year to be more aggressive on the offensive end (she was doing this more toward the end of the year). On defense last year, she was switching onto wings and power forwards a lot of the time. It's possible that she could get displaced at some time during the season especially if Blanca is what some of the International scouts predict her to be.
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And Fudd is a beast. UCONN has a 3-headed monster.
I am convinced that ucla can’t play the Betts sisters together. I was thinking about that today. And I was wondering what small ball lineup UConn could use to take advantage of them. Small ball was huge for us last season. So, I was wondering… what would be the best small ball lineup for us this season?
And this was what I came up with:
G KK
G Azzi
G Shade
F Blanca
F Sarah
I hope to see this lineup to get a better feel for how it can perform… especially when Blanca is more used to things. 🤔
And this was what I came up with:
G KK
G Azzi
G Shade
F Blanca
F Sarah
I hope to see this lineup to get a better feel for how it can perform… especially when Blanca is more used to things. 🤔
oldude
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One thing that was very apparent from yesterday’s game is that just about every Husky, not named Azzi Fudd, is aware of where Azzi is on offense at all times and ready to get the basketball to her whenever possible.
Azzi floats around the 3-pt line until a teammate finds her for a catch and shoot 3. Several times yesterday, UConn players passed up open looks to get the ball to Azzi who shot a cool 5/7 from the arc. You can’t really question anyone passing up their own shot to get the ball to Azzi.
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Pragmatically, the starting five has been obvious to large majority of the boneyard for some time now, as reflected in the recent poll. Nothing that happened in this first exhibition seemed to challenge that. The more interesting speculation now is how the depth chart fills out in order (particularly for the next 5 spots as it won't likely go in deeper than that in crunch time). Based on last night, although Blanca may have a few more rough edges than anticipated, she would be candidate one (for bigger lineup combinations). KK9 is still strongly in the mix based on some of KKs limitations. Both Brady and Jana will likely remain in the mix, Z looks possible. I'm up to 10 already without including speculation on a fully healthy Chelli and Ducharme.
I think NPOY will come down to Strong and Azzi being submitted. Folks seem to be forgetting about Azzi. She was the Natty MOP... I mean she basically walked out of halftime and said we'll I'm only going to get to play this quarter so let me fire off 5 3s... That's how you can break open a game.
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Time will tell how successful playing Lauren and Sienna together will be, but they only have one year to be teammates together and I think you will see them on the floor together more and more as the season unfolds. They will be difficult to stop in the paint.
Last year in the national title game. We were able to torch ucla and a lot of it had to do with Lauren Betts and her soft drop coverage. So, I need to clarify. I think skilled teams will destroy ucla defensively if they try to play those two. But it would work against 95% of teams. Just my theory.
oldude
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Slight correction. Last year we played UCLA in the national semifinals.
Bigboote
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