Any Updates on Wilson?

[hoophuskee]

First off, Aja hasn't signed with Geno and Uconn. No one said that a player would dictate to Geno where they wanted to play. That's silly. A player like Aja can make requests and coaches will listen. If what your saying is true, why does Uconn and Aja have mutual interest in each other??

Okay so then what was the point of these posts which I was getting at. These posts you made aren't "requests." You said A'ja can choose any position she wants. That's not a request. Further to number 2, just as you say above A'ja can request, but you made it seem like Gneo will yield to her request. Which now we agree that Geno may not oblige to her request? A concession yes. But not as you made it sound with numbers 1 and 2 as if A'ja will choose the position she wants ot play. So we agree Geno will choose not A'ja?

1---"Aja is the type of elite player that can pretty much choose what position she wants to play...."

2---"Geno, like every other coach who is recruiting her, will certainly respect her playing wishes if it means getting her on campus. . ."

3---"You don't think geno would make that kind of concession if it meant getting the caliber of player aja is? . . . "

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

You have a good team, that has good execution but you really havent played anybody good. Tenn GA UNC are not great teams. They are better then most but not a Baylor Stanford UConn ND Lville. Southern Cal was not a great team when you played them.

Next year you will be a young team lacking experience and senior leadership. You will have alot of talent but so do many other teams. If you get Wilson UConn will still win championships and if UConn gets Wilson UConn will still win championships. Your not there yet. It takes years.

Aleighsa Welch, Elem Ibiam and Olivia Gaines will be seniors. One of those players was first team all-SEC this season and one was first all-defensive-SEC. Tiffany Mitchell, Asia Dozier, Khadijah Sessions and Tiffany Davis will be juniors. Mitchell was the SEC POTY this season. Alaina Coates, the SEC FOTY will be a sophomore and then we will be adding a top 5 class, whether Wilson is a Gamecock or not. I've never said we will win the national championship next year, but how can you dismiss the obvious that we will improve upon this year's 27-4, SEC Champion team? We DO have a couple of weak links this year, but those gaps will be filled with young talent next season.

 

[JS]

Okay so are you are backing off the below statements in italics you made? What I was saying is that I believe many had an issue with the below comments in italics which can be implied that A’ja should be taken under any circumstance.

I'd say you're beating a dead horse, hoophuskee --
but the horse keeps on talking.

 

[doggydaddy]

It actually confuses me about all the bickering in this thread about A'ja Wilson "dictating" this and that to Auriemma and other WCBB HCs. I don't think I've seen any quote from her or article stating that she's "dictating" to HCs.....anything.

Wilson once played the G position then had a substantial growth spurt. Despite this she retained her ball handling skills and the ability to face the basket and shoot jump shots. Playing facing the basket along the perimeter, making moves and drives to the basket, or pulling up and hitting jump shots is still a very big aspect of her game, and an aspect that she's most comfortable with, despite her height...

From my interpretation, I haven't gotten the msg that she wants primarily to play the point, bring the ball up court, and have everything run through her on the offensive side of the court. I do simply see that she prefers utilizing her skills facing the basket, working the ball around the horn. As opposed to always having her back to the basket, battling constantly with other big bodies in the paint for positioning, and making post moves with hooks or up-and unders, etc. She didn't develop her game playing that way, and it isn't what she's most comfortable doing...

IMO, Wilson doesn't have to play the 1, or even the 2 to do this. Offenses utilizing 3-guard lineups on the floor is very common, or where the 3 - small forward - has skills facing the basket like a guard. If the 3 SF also happens to be a 6-4, 6-5 player with exceptional rebounding or shot-blocking abilities, all the more better, isn't it? Imagine an opposing 2-Guard or 3-forward (which in some cases on teams can be very similar roles) that's 5-11 to 6-1 having to effectively jump shoot over a 6-4-5 defender. Usually there's a mis-match and her own post player has a smaller player on her in the paint, and she just passes it off for an easy layup. Not in this case...

Wilson has options to choose from: USC, UT, UConn, UNC. IMO, she's not trying to "dictate" to any of those HCs where to utilize her. But then again, she isn't in a situation where any of the HCs of those programs are dictating to her that she has to choose a program they say and therefore play how they want her to play in that program. If she chooses that program, then yes she has an obligation to be coached and developed the way that HC chooses. But she hasn't chosen a program yet, has she?

IMO she's only deciding which program her preferred style of play - the style she grew up playing and is most comfortable playing - best fits to give her the best opportunity to play that style. Isn't that what 90% of EVERY prospective college student-athlete looks for, regardless of sport? A prep FB player that's an ATH plays both WR and DB, or RB and LB: he prefers one side of the ball over the other, and makes his choice that gives him the best opportunity. She hasn't given any indication that she's some spoiled, entitled brat like so many on this board try hard to portray her as: the only reason she won't choose to play for Auriemma and UConn would of course be because she's a prima-donna. I haven't seen that at all with Wilson. She just wants to be able to play the way she grew up playing. She's done that well enough to earn overall national #1 prep rankings and Naismith POTY awards. What's so bad about that?

It appears to me that one Tennessee fan was having some fun and we all let him/her play us.

I find it doubtful that Wilson was requesting, dictating, demanding anything when she spoke with the various coaches.

I believe that every coach told her how they felt her skills would work in their systems.

All she has to do is see how Stewart plays in the Uconn system.

One more thing. There have been a few posters here that said she is a prima-donna or spoiled. Very few. Really far from the many you called it. Many many more have taken those posters to task for that very opinion.

 

[winlots]

It's still impressive when a woman can dunk a basketball. I sure wish I could! I couldn't, even when I was a young rooster.

ROOST: well, young "rooster" or old, I never could dunk even with a step ladder.
(And, my thanks to the wise and wondrous mods from saving us all from a whole round of stuff with the PC police/Posse.............to whom I will never knuckle under. Good call, I realize.....had the feathers hit the public fan, I was going to point out that my dad was raised on a farm and that folks should be thinking "rooster" and that is exactly where you went.) Keep smilin'

 

[Icebear]

Well I mean at the college level. I just have to go off her words..Who knows, she might make a great post player

Those words were prior to playing USA Basketball. I expect she has a clearer view of college reality now.

 

[Icebear]

While we are on this subject, does anyone know of an elite player making such unreasonable demands during the recruiting process, that the coach just ends the recruitment..be it Geno or any other coach

Geno ended recruiting Massengale.

 

[Boxerpups4me]

What's wrong with those statements?

1---A'ja has more than one option of college to choose from, doesn't she? You act as if she only has ONE choice, and if she doesn't wish to lose that choice, then she must "conform". But that's not the case: if USC for example gives her a better opportunity to play to her style than UConn does, then she can "pretty much choose" the Gamecocks, can't she? So statement #1 is supported....

2---If Auriemma want's Wilson, and if not giving Wilson the opportunity to play in the style she feels most comfortable playing means losing Wilson to one of her other finalist programs, then he'll give her that opportunity. Or he won't and she'll go elsewhere. That may be just find with him, but the concept seems pretty simple to me...

3---see above: if it comes down to getting Wilson or not getting Wilson - if he wants to get Wilson, he'll make whatever concessions it takes to get her. If he wants Wilson but not enough to make those concessions, then he'll certainly live on without getting her. There's great talent coming out of the prep ranks every cycle. But this is a "if He wants it bad enough to do it, he will do it. If we don't he won't" kind of thing: it's simple on an elementary level and self-explanatory. Not worth debating, IMO...

Very well said cle802a

 

[Icebear]

What's wrong with those statements?

1---A'ja has more than one option of college to choose from, doesn't she? You act as if she only has ONE choice, and if she doesn't wish to lose that choice, then she must "conform". But that's not the case: if USC for example gives her a better opportunity to play to her style than UConn does, then she can "pretty much choose" the Gamecocks, can't she? So statement #1 is supported....

2---If Auriemma want's Wilson, and if not giving Wilson the opportunity to play in the style she feels most comfortable playing means losing Wilson to one of her other finalist programs, then he'll give her that opportunity. Or he won't and she'll go elsewhere. That may be just find with him, but the concept seems pretty simple to me...

3---see above: if it comes down to getting Wilson or not getting Wilson - if he wants to get Wilson, he'll make whatever concessions it takes to get her. If he wants Wilson but not enough to make those concessions, then he'll certainly live on without getting her. There's great talent coming out of the prep ranks every cycle. But this is a "if He wants it bad enough to do it, he will do it. If we don't he won't" kind of thing: it's simple on an elementary level and self-explanatory. Not worth debating, IMO...

This is simply ignorant of the way that Geno has conducted the program for 20 years and why it has produced 8 NCs and a plethora of WNBA players, WNBA champions, International champions, and Olympic champions. Each will tell you the most impressive thing about Geno and his staff is they made no concessions, no painting of special treatment or promises of minutes. Those statements from the players themselves have been in print again and again.

Also, the offense and defense that UConn plays gives a player the opportunity to maximize their skills and development. It is as simple as that. The most important step in recruiting is being clear to a recruit the expectations and opportunities and then let the player make the choice.

If you do this for this recruit and that for that recruit then you have lost credibility both at the recruits house and back home on campus.

 

[Boxerpups4me]

It appears to me that one Tennessee fan was having some fun and we all let him/her play us.

I find it doubtful that Wilson was requesting, dictating, demanding anything when she spoke with the various coaches.

I believe that every coach told her how they felt her skills would work in their systems.

All she has to do is see how Stewart plays in the Uconn system.

One more thing. There have been a few posters here that said she is a prima-donna or spoiled. Very few. Really far from the many you called it. Many many more have taken those posters to task for that very opinion.

Actually I made a serious comment about how aja would help usc. I'm not sure how that's playing anyone. Some people just enjoy starting fires where there are none

 

[doggydaddy]

Actually I made a serious comment about how aja would help usc. I'm not sure how that's playing anyone. Some people just enjoy starting fires where there are none

Hahaha...that is exactly what you have been doing.

 

[doggydaddy]

The only ignorance here may be in the eye of the beholder of my comments: it's like that old Vaudeville skit where a man walks into a coffee shop and orders a coffee and a slice of lemon pie. The waitress tells him that they are all out of lemon pie. So the man says, "OK, then I'll have a glass of tea and a lemon pie". The waitress, perplexed, repeats they are out of lemon pie. The man then says, "OK then, how about a glass of milk and a lemon pie". Now upset, the waitress hotly repeats they have no lemon pie. The man says, "then how about a glass of water and a lemon pie". Now voice raising, the woman scolds the man and tells him for the last time, no lemon pie. The man finally concedes, "fine fine, have it your way. I'll just have the lemon pie then!"....



Your argument here only applies if there is ONLY ONE college option for Wilson to choose from, and it's UConn. She must conform to Auriemma's development, despite her wishes, or give up her hopes of playing college BB. That Auriemma WILL NOT BY GOD acquiesce to Wilson's preferences, and Wilson simply has to live with that...

But no one is saying that. They are saying that there's no lemon pie. They have already given the option that indeed Auriemma may not agree with Wilson's preferences. There's no argument with you. You seem to think that there's no THIRD OPTION. All that has been stated above is that Wilson has that 3rd option, and a 4th and 5th option, too. She could play at UConn, but conform to Auriemma's wishes, she could choose to NOT conform, and therefore not play at UConn, or....

You know. Have a slice of apple pie...

Nice story. I heard it with chocolate cream and it was much funnier.

The point is, if she said to Geno "I want to play guard" and Geno said "no promises, I will play you where it helps the team best" then why would she still have Uconn on the list?

Sorry, USC fans, it's fantasy.

No one is saying she doesn't have other options. Where are you getting that from?

My guess is she didn't make any demands, Geno didn't make any promises and she will decide where to go based on things other than where she can play guard.

 

[Boxerpups4me]

Hahaha...that is exactly what you have been doing.

Your right that's laughable because it's not true you're good at spinning things like you buddy hoophusky

 

[Boxerpups4me]

I'd say you're beating a dead horse, hoophuskee --
but the horse keeps on talking.

Is that you ?

 

[doggydaddy]

Your right that's laughable because it's not true you're good at spinning things like you buddy hoophusky

Listing your exact words is spinning?

No, trying to spin those exact words as if you didn't say them? Extreme spinning.

I don't know hoop husky, but I do enjoy his posts.

 

[Icebear]

Answers within the enclosed text in blue.

The only ignorance here may be in the eye of the beholder of my comments: it's like that old Vaudeville skit where a man walks into a coffee shop and orders a coffee and a slice of lemon pie. The waitress tells him that they are all out of lemon pie. So the man says, "OK, then I'll have a glass of tea and a lemon pie". The waitress, perplexed, repeats they are out of lemon pie. The man then says, "OK then, how about a glass of milk and a lemon pie". Now upset, the waitress hotly repeats they have no lemon pie. The man says, "then how about a glass of water and a lemon pie". Now voice raising, the woman scolds the man and tells him for the last time, no lemon pie. The man finally concedes, "fine fine, have it your way. I'll just have the lemon pie then!"....



No, the man can simply pass on pie and have next week's cake instead.

Your argument here only applies if there is ONLY ONE college option for Wilson to choose from, and it's UConn. She must conform to Auriemma's development, despite her wishes, or give up her hopes of playing college BB. That Auriemma WILL NOT BY GOD acquiesce to Wilson's preferences, and Wilson simply has to live with that...

Not true at all. No one believes UCONN is A'ja's only option. I have no idea why you think anyone thinks that is the case.

It is possible she has no comparable offer. UCONN is unique.It depends on having the strength of your convictions and believing that letting a player occasionally walk away because they decide you are not right for them. That presumes they do have other options.

Your concept presumes that there are no other options for recruiting other than A'ja. There are always other options even if it means waiting a year. Better to wait and maintain the integrity of the program and its principles that have born the fruit they have to date and your credibility with current AA players who you treated the same way.

But no one is saying that. They are saying that there's no lemon pie. They have already given the option that indeed Auriemma may not agree with Wilson's preferences. There's no argument with you. You seem to think that there's no THIRD OPTION. All that has been stated above is that Wilson has that 3rd option, and a 4th and 5th option, too. She could play at UConn, but conform to Auriemma's wishes, she could choose to NOT conform, and therefore not play at UConn, or....

Absolutely, she has the second and third and fourth option. The option for Geno is to say those are fine options if that is what you want. We don't do that here. He has done it before and will no doubt do it again.

You know. Have a slice of apple pie...

 

[hoophuskee]

I may have gone too far JS- after I posted to boxer on one post I read down and see he posted again. I just don't think he gets it. Nor do I think Cle8 gets it. ANd I mean no disrespect to the both of you - I mean you aren't gettign where I'm coming from (I'm beating a dead horse that don't know he's dead.). . I'l yield to doggydaddy and icebear. ForCLE8-I did NOT act like A'ja has one choice. Inever said there wasn't other options. I reacted to different posts I've said many times as JS has mentioned regarding how UCONN would react to Boxer's comments. No disrespect but after all the times I posted - if you don't get what I said- you'll never get it. This is why I posted again JS- I tried to make myself more clear. Apparently-- I couldn't get it done. I yield!

 

[doggydaddy]

It's like a poster saying, "if Geno wants Wilson to choose UConn, he'll have to make concessions to give her an opportunity to play the style she's most comfortable playing"...

And then another poster saying in response, "That's not Geno's way, he'll never make that concession"....

What I'm saying is, BOTH posters may be right. That's there's no argument here. Wilson has other options, and that arguing the above implies that's not: that it's a take it or leave it...

Again, I haven't seen any articles where she demands on playing certain positions.....only certain styles. The Wing/Swingman position was what UNC's DeShields was described as as a prep talent: like Wilson, she was a 5* 98-grade player per ESPN's Hoopgurlz, and at 6-2 is only 2 inches or so shorter than Wilson. DeShields rarely ever plays with her back to the basket, but she's also not the PG on the Tarheels' team. I imagine that's similar to what Wilson sees for herself...

You should take up that with Boxer. He clearly feels that Wilson is demanding/requesting a certain position. I agree with you. She is more than likely not demanding anything.

Wilson is 6'5".

 

[msf22b]

From the little I've seen of Wilson, mostly USA
her game is quite different from De Sheilds

 

[Icebear]

I agree with DD that I doubt she made any demands at all it everything else is simply trolling. She did state a preference in a single article over 18 months ago before her turn with USA Basketball when she played the 3/4 the whole time that I saw.

 

[Boxerpups4me]

I may have gone too far JS- after I posted to boxer on one post I read down and see he posted again. I just don't think he gets it. Nor do I think Cle8 gets it. ANd I mean no disrespect to the both of you - I mean you aren't gettign where I'm coming from (I'm beating a dead horse that don't know he's dead.). . I'l yield to doggydaddy and icebear. ForCLE8-I did NOT act like A'ja has one choice. Inever said there wasn't other options. I reacted to different posts I've said many times as JS has mentioned regarding how UCONN would react to Boxer's comments. No disrespect but after all the times I posted - if you don't get what I said- you'll never get it. This is why I posted again JS- I tried to make myself more clear. Apparently-- I couldn't get it done. I yield!

You just read to much into what I was trying to say. This is a fan forum, so I doubt uconn or geno take s very seriously what is said here

 

[doggydaddy]

I will say one thing. She'd be nuts to not verbal to Uconn and win the next two NC's. And with the talented guards playing with her and possibly Durr and Samuelson joining her for her last two years, she would have a chance for two more NC'S.

Wow, I just TonyC'd this post.

 

[doggydaddy]

You just read to much into what I was trying to say. This is a fan forum, so I doubt uconn or geno take s very seriously what is said here

No, he just read exactly what you said. You just keep trying to distance yourself from the quotes.

 

[Boxerpups4me]

You should take up that with Boxer. He clearly feels that Wilson is demanding/requesting a certain position. I agree with you. She is more than likely not demanding anything.

Wilson is 6'5".

Wow you've hit a new low. I never said she was demanding anything. You are taking my words and twisting them into something else entirely

 

[DaddyChoc]

we'll all find out soon enough... some will say Geno didnt buy into her demands, some will assume Geno bought into her demands.

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