AP All-America Team Announced | Page 2 | The Boneyard

AP All-America Team Announced

bbballfan23 said:
She scored 27 on 23 shots HAHAHA. Give any of our girls 23 shots and they get 40. Give me quality over quantity. That being said I understand she should be on the list but 3rd Team is more deserving.
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40 on 23 shots? So 20/23? Even if you are shooting only 3s you still need to go 14/23 (61%) to get 40.

10/23 = 43.4%, not great but only a shade under her percentage on the season.

Fun fact: Do you know whose career WNBA shooting percentage is exactly 43.4% (per Basketball Reference)? Diana Taurasi!
 
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Orangutan said:
Her shooting percentage is solid for a high-volume shooter. She is at 45.3% on 596 FGA. Kelsey Mitchell was 44.8% on 643 FGA. Durr is 44.6% on 527 FGA.

But you were talking about how overrated she was in the A&M game thread and she ended up with 27 pts, 6 reb, 5 ast. So maybe your dislike isn't purely rational.

Realistically, ND is 32-3 against the #1 SOS. *Someone* is going to get the All-America hype, so it falls on Ogunbowale as the leading scorer. Maybe she is overrated, but Mabrey and Young are probably underrated, so it's a wash. Think of that as the Notre Dame "spot" if it helps.

And if you really think no one on ND belongs on the All-American team this year, then McGraw must be the Coach of the Year for sure...
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eebmg said:
Definitely agree. I am surprised Mabrey did not make Honorable mention. While her season average numbers may be an issue, she comes out for the biggest games.
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And Arike averages 5.5. rebounds per game and had accumulated 101 assists (versus 3.1 rebounds and 86 for Durr). This is not to make a one to one comparison with Durr but more to show the overall value that Arike is bringing to an Irish team that plays three guards. And remember, Arike is 5'8" getting those bounds and driving that lane.

I've seriously got to wonder who or what the AP voters were looking at to have one slot for the Irish, vis a vis multiple choices for most other top teams. Maybe Mabrey, Jackie Young and Jess Shepard cancelled each other out. Or maybe the voters just think Muffet took her Gryffindor wand out and make it all happen.:rolleyes:

I usually don't get too bent out of shape on these type of things but I've got to wonder how two Oklahoma State players make honorable mention over a Mabrey or Young.

Personally, I think Mabrey has been killing it since she's gotten more used to her role as a "lead" guard, both as a leader and a scorer. Just speak to Gary Blair and Kelly Graves on whom they were worried about/are worrying about.

Lastly, the honorable mentions may say more to me about the voters than whom they're voting on....Geesh.
 
Orangutan said:
40 on 23 shots? So 20/23? Even if you are shooting only 3s you still need to go 14/23 (61%) to get 40.

10/23 = 43.4%, not great but only a shade under her percentage on the season.

Fun fact: Do you know whose career WNBA shooting percentage is exactly 43.4% (per Basketball Reference)? Diana Taurasi!
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Yes, our girls shoot those things called FT’s & if you’re that aggressive putting up shots odds are you will get an additional 6-8 points from the line.
 
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bbballfan23 said:
There’s still the WBCA team to be announced. But I really believe she wins DPOY but doesn’t make that team. However, has UConn ever had a defensive player of the year that wasn’t on the WBCA team? To me, that’s elite company and deserves a spot on the wall with or without the AA honor.
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The announcement said this about Kia....

"Meanwhile, Nurse is one of the most underrated factors in the Huskies’ success despite only making honorable mention. She is the team’s top perimeter defender and routinely locks down the opposing team’s top guard. Nurse is also a prolific shooter, hitting 44.4 percent of her three pointers. In November, she broke the school record by hitting 13-consecutive threes over a three game span."
 
bbballfan23 said:
Yes, our girls shoot those things called FT’s & if you’re that aggressive putting up shots odds are you will get an additional 6-8 points from the line.
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Ogunbowale has a free throw rate of 26.3%. UConn's starters have rates of 23.6%, 25.3%, 26.7%, 25.9%, and 11.6%. So Arike shoots those things called FT just as much as UConn players do.

The median free throw rate of UConn's starters is 25.3. .253 x 23 = 5.8. So let's give the hypothetical player 6 FTAs and say she drains them all. You still need 34 points on 23 shots. So 17/23 on 2 pt. attempts (74%) or 12/23 on only 3 pt. attempts (52%). Possible but implausible.
 
bbballfan23 said:
Yes, our girls shoot those things called FT’s & if you’re that aggressive putting up shots odds are you will get an additional 6-8 points from the line.
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This is no way to diminish what Katie Lou does because she's a fantastic player, but in her last game against Duke, she was 5/12 which is 41% which is lower than Arike's percentage in the game that you are laughing about so heavily. Lou was also 1/2 from the FT line. So she only got 1 additional point and finished the night with 15pts.

Some games one player has to shoot more to make more depending on the team needs and to simply scoff at the amount of shots taken without taking into consideration the FG% is ridiculous.

They are both high talent players who have different roles for their teams. Lou doesn't need to shoot as much because the UConn offense doesn't rely on one single person, Notre Dame is low on options and is very guard oriented so Mabrey and Ogunbowale are going to have higher FGA than a typical UConn player.
 
Orangutan said:
Her shooting percentage is solid for a high-volume shooter. She is at 45.3% on 596 FGA. Kelsey Mitchell was 44.8% on 643 FGA. Durr is 44.6% on 527 FGA.

But you were talking about how overrated she was in the A&M game thread and she ended up with 27 pts, 6 reb, 5 ast. So maybe your dislike isn't purely rational.

Realistically, ND is 32-3 against the #1 SOS. *Someone* is going to get the All-America hype, so it falls on Ogunbowale as the leading scorer. Maybe she is overrated, but Mabrey and Young are probably underrated, so it's a wash. Think of that as the Notre Dame "spot" if it helps.

And if you really think no one on ND belongs on the All-American team this year, then McGraw must be the Coach of the Year for sure...
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I'd have Ogunbowale on my team any day, but not Mitchell. Ogunbowale is a team player and takes coaching.

I continue to think that Sabrina is setting herself up to be NPOY in 2019 and 2020. I haven't seen a talent like that since Maya nor a pure guard like that since D. Sabrina will soon be the best player in the world, pro or amateur (whatever that is).
 
vowelguy said:
Btw, her #2 school was Louisville.
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While I was disappointed she left the West Coast, neither OSU or UO was in nearly the position they are now when Russell was finishing her HS career. Although it was a year later fairly similar for Nared.
 
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Still, if MR would have gotten her foot issues corrected at OR, a la TN, I believe her career would have turned out differently. I believe she still has a chance in the WNBA.
 
RockyMTblue2 said:
AA is for sizzle; Kia is the steak. very sad.
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Let me see if I can possibly brighten yours and other Kia loyalists day on this. From what I know on this- the Defensive POY makes the WBCA 10 person team and the candidates come from each of the conferences DPOY winners. That means Kia who won the American is completing against:
Big12 Lauren Cox
Big 10 Ar’rianna Harris Purdue
ACC Lexie Brown
PAC 12 Jordin Canada
SEC co-winners Wilson and McCowan.
Interesting that 3 are guards and 3 are centers.
Don’t recall that many guards winning DPOY before.
 
PAHuskeyFan said:
Congrats to the Core Four!!! Well Deserved. Interesting how close the voting was between Aja and Lou... 2 first place votes and 4 points. Interesting given the "pre-ordained" situation going on.
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Well actually I think it shows the opposite.

Which of these players deserves to be on the 1st team ahead of Lou? (ordered by most 1st team votes received).
  • K. Brown (13)
  • Williams (8)
  • Gustafson (7)
  • Mitchell (7)
  • Ogunbowale (1)
  • Collier (1)
  • McCowan (1)

I know some will say Gabby deserves 1st team but not over Lou. There are 2 panelists out there who think one of the players listed above are more deserving of being on the 1st team than her.
 
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Husky pride said:
As Geno has said in the past, UConn players ( more so than others) are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to awards. They play team basketball and spread the points around, they miss out on a lot of minutes being taken-out during blowouts and often are competing against one another for a given award (in that giving too much to UConn players is often frowned upon).
As Geno has stated, if you come to UConn looking for individual awards rather than NC you’ll often end-up being disappointed ....and he cautions recruits accordingly. It’s in some ways , sad, in that if you look at overall performance on the court and not strictly point totals , how can you deny Gabby? Or Kia? Let alone Phesssa or Crystal? More times than not they’re the more “complete” contributors/players in WCBB!!! It’s too bad, we ourselves, don’t take that into consideration in regard to the “Huskies of Honor” but instead strictly hold to letting an outside AA designation influence us in that regard.
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You hit that nail squarely on the head! It would open up a can of worms for sure but, like it or not, the responsibility for Wall selection is directly being abrogated to an external committee. But if 1st Team AA is the criteria for the Wall and always has been, then so be it. I guess what bugs me the most is that Kia has been very consistent all year along for the most part. Her defensive play for sure. Her offense stats started to drop when she took over the PG spot from Crystal while Crystal was sidelined, and she has continued to fill in this role as needed. This wasn't the case for any other player. And then some players get "hot" two-thirds into the season and she suddenly becomes an after-thought. Who said life is fair?
 
DefenseBB said:
Let me see if I can possibly brighten yours and other Kia loyalists day on this. From what I know on this- the Defensive POY makes the WBCA 10 person team and the candidates come from each of the conferences DPOY winners. That means Kia who won the American is completing against:
Big12 Lauren Cox
Big 10 Ar’rianna Harris Purdue
ACC Lexie Brown
PAC 12 Jordin Canada
SEC co-winners Wilson and McCowan.
Interesting that 3 are guards and 3 are centers.
Don’t recall that many guards winning DPOY before.
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This actually isn’t true. There’s been 2 winners of DPOY since 2010 I believe that weren’t on the AA team.
 
Lynx23 said:
You hit that nail squarely on the head! It would open up a can of worms for sure but, like it or not, the responsibility for Wall selection is directly being abrogated to an external committee. But if 1st Team AA is the criteria for the Wall and always has been, then so be it. I guess what bugs me the most is that Kia has been very consistent all year along for the most part. Her defensive play for sure. Her offense stats started to drop when she took over the PG spot from Crystal while Crystal was sidelined, and she has continued to fill in this role as needed. This wasn't the case for any other player. And then some players get "hot" two-thirds into the season and she suddenly becomes an after-thought. Who said life is fair?
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So you’re saying Kia should be an AA over Pheesa or Gabby??
 
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nwhoopfan said:
While I was disappointed she left the West Coast, neither OSU or UO was in nearly the position they are now when Russell was finishing her HS career. Although it was a year later fairly similar for Nared.
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That's technically true but very short sighted. Mercedes was class of 2013. By the 2014-15 which would have been here sophmore year Oregon State would win the regular season Pac 12 Championship. For the next seasons two season Oregon State would win either the regular season and/or the Pac 12 tournament championship and played in the FF against UCONN in 2016. Oregon of course made it to sweet 16 last year and are on the verge of making the FF this year. At either school Mercedes could have developed along the lines of Ruth Hamblin, Marie Gulich, or Ruth Hebard.
 
Dillon77 said:
And Arike averages 5.5. rebounds per game and had accumulated 101 assists (versus 3.1 rebounds and 86 for Durr). This is not to make a one to one comparison with Durr but more to show the overall value that Arike is bringing to an Irish team that plays three guards. And remember, Arike is 5'8" getting those bounds and driving that lane.

I've seriously got to wonder who or what the AP voters were looking at to have one slot for the Irish, vis a vis multiple choices for most other top teams. Maybe Mabrey, Jackie Young and Jess Shepard cancelled each other out. Or maybe the voters just think Muffet took her Gryffindor wand out and make it all happen.:rolleyes:

I usually don't get too bent out of shape on these type of things but I've got to wonder how two Oklahoma State players make honorable mention over a Mabrey or Young.

Personally, I think Mabrey has been killing it since she's gotten more used to her role as a "lead" guard, both as a leader and a scorer. Just speak to Gary Blair and Kelly Graves on whom they were worried about/are worrying about.

Lastly, the honorable mentions may say more to me about the voters than whom they're voting on....Geesh.
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I notice that you avoid commenting on Arike's defensive prowess ( or lack thereof). A 5 hour highlight video could be created of opposing players blowing by her for layups or being left uncovered for open looks. But to be fair I rarely see any mention of defensive performance for any AA or POY.
 
CocoHusky said:
That's technically true but very short sighted. Mercedes was class of 2013. By the 2014-15 which would have been here sophmore year Oregon State would win the regular season Pac 12 Championship. For the next seasons two season Oregon State would win either the regular season and/or the Pac 12 tournament championship and played in the FF against UCONN in 2016. Oregon of course made it to sweet 16 last year and are on the verge of making the FF this year. At either school Mercedes could have developed along the lines of Ruth Hamblin, Marie Gulich, or Ruth Hebard.
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I have no doubt she would've developed as a player more if she had gone to OSU or UO. I was trying to give her a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. I don't think anyone anticipated how rapidly Rueck would turn OSU around.
 
vowelguy said:
Cross matching this against the 2014 HS rankings (my composite):

View attachment 30106


NO 2014 HS RANK
Tashia Brown, Western Kentucky; Tinara Moore, Central Michigan;

HS 2013
3rd - Lexie Brown
HM - Natalie Butler, Loryn Goodwin, Teana Muldrow, Imani Wright

HS 2015->
1st Team - Lou, Ionescu, Durr
2nd Team - Kelani Brown, Megan Gustafson, Ogunbowale
3rd Team Pheesa, McCowan
HM - Chennedy Carter, Lauren Cox, Sophie Cunningham, Bridget Carleton, Ruthy Hebard
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vowelguy said:
Cross matching this against the 2014 HS rankings (my composite):

View attachment 30106


NO 2014 HS RANK
Tashia Brown, Western Kentucky; Tinara Moore, Central Michigan;

HS 2013
3rd - Lexie Brown
HM - Natalie Butler, Loryn Goodwin, Teana Muldrow, Imani Wright

HS 2015->
1st Team - Lou, Ionescu, Durr
2nd Team - Kelani Brown, Megan Gustafson, Ogunbowale
3rd Team Pheesa, McCowan
HM - Chennedy Carter, Lauren Cox, Sophie Cunningham, Bridget Carleton, Ruthy Hebard
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Thanks. Interesting post.
 
bbballfan23 said:
So you’re saying Kia should be an AA over Pheesa or Gabby??
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Another piece of info that didn't help Kia. Some seem to forget that she missed parts of last year and was a relative non-entity in the playoffs due to ankle/foot injury. Rightly or not, many saw her as average player at end of 2017. Likely left impression a great 2017-18 couldn't change.
 
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nwhoopfan said:
I have no doubt she would've developed as a player more if she had gone to OSU or UO. I was trying to give her a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. I don't think anyone anticipated how rapidly Rueck would turn OSU around.
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True but Mercedes should have anticipated how quickly Holly would turn TN into a dumpster fire though.
 
nwhoopfan said:
I have no doubt she would've developed as a player more if she had gone to OSU or UO. I was trying to give her a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. I don't think anyone anticipated how rapidly Rueck would turn OSU around.
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And saying that Oregon was a complete mess at that time would be a massive understatement. This is only Graves's fourth year in Eugene.
 
The reality is, maybe unfortunately, that scoring and offensive #'s, have always been given, more value than defensive ones, in almost any team sport where players play both ends. In a perfect world they would be equally weighted.
Yes, all the comments by Geno and here, clearly indicate it's not fair, when your team is almost always better than everyone else and plays team ball and often wins by good margins.
The reason I am as engaged as I am in women's sports and particularly U Conn women's bb is just because of those things. Most sports fans would rather watch the big scorer, the dunks, the homers, the goal scorer or the quarterback or wide receiver all do something that has a WOW factor excel than see the finer points of those games and what it takes for a team to excel beyond individual accomplishments. It's part of why women's basketball is not significantly more appreciated than it is and should be.
Even myself, who adores Kia and Gabby, is more aware and troubled by their offensive limitations than many others players defensive ones.
I actually think it's pretty amazing that our so-called core four all got honored on one of the teams and one could argue that AZ & CD, in many ways should have been recognized.
One can always argue or quibble with some of the placements but I'm sorry to say from my perspective, these choices in general were not way off. I'd say Gabby should have been first team and maybe Pheesa the 2nd team and maybe Kia third team. But there were other players from other teams, who were also slighted in some way. Maybe as someone else mentioned Monique Billings didn't get mentioned at all.
As to Kia and her likely not being named an AA, although she may well be the best defensive player in the country or maybe 2nd best to Gabby. She in many ways is a substantial part of the glue on this team, but might be the 4th, 5th or 6th best player on the team.
I personally don't think Kia is amongst the best ten players in college ball even though she's a lock down defender and a good offensive player. I know that's not a popular opinion here as all of us love everything she has brought for the last four years.
The U Conn rules are meant to assure that only the very, very best of the players in its history are recognized. Unless they change the rules which probably ain't happening, she won't be on the wall. But if all goes well she will have been a significant part of three NC teams and a favorite of many U Conn fans. Maybe that's still not fair, but it sure ain't too shabby.
Bronx23
 
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