April 2021 Recruiting Thread

[pacific 44]

Dorka actually had covid this year and you can't really go by her sporadic playing schedule during this season. Her previous year shooting percentage is her under normal scheduling and one would expect her to probably shoot threes at closer to 40% again. The bigs only need to consistently hit from 15-17 feet to open up driving lanes for teammates, and if the other bigs can't do it, or won't improve from their, then i would think that Geno wouldn't mind having one more arrow in his quiver in certain situations. If she came on board, i bet you would see Edwards and Liv spending 5 hours daily practicing their 15-17 foot shot so as not to fall behind at that particular skill.

 

[Stymie]

So are you saying that Liv has reached her potential after 3 years of coaching? I actually like Liv, a pretty good defender, good passer, good rebounder and for a while late last year and earlier this year her shots were on a higher arc but for some reason, she has reverted back to a more line-drive shot later in this past season. Maybe it's a little thing that can be tweaked to get Liv back to where she can be.

Hope that is the case.

 

[Heytherego]

So are you saying that Liv has reached her potential after 3 years of coaching? I actually like Liv, a pretty good defender, good passer, good rebounder and for a while late last year and earlier this year her shots were on a higher arc but for some reason, she has reverted back to a more line-drive shot later in this past season. Maybe it's a little thing that can be tweaked to get Liv back to where she can be.

Liv still has another year. Her development isn’t even done yet. Posts take much longer to mature and reach their peak. I think the staff has done as much as they can do. Liv is always going to have a tough time against bigger posts and was never going to be the star player, she’s an elite role player. Are we forgetting how far she has come?! Just because she isn’t developing the way YOU think she should be doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

And Liv aside, all the other great players that have come before her. Why do you think UConn has the most players in the WNBA? DEVELOPMENT

 

[jazz]

Everybody who thinks Dorka sucks, they will all change their minds, just like magic, if GA takes her. Then it will be 'what a great player to have, great size, good movement, didn't shoot well last year but she did the year before and if GA wants her, then I better change my rhetoric on her'.

Wait for it.....

 

[Fossil]

I really don’t want another player I think the roster is large enough I just want live to be better maybe another year of maturity and some off-season work. Her shot needs to be adjusted maybe put a little arch on it she throws darts right now that are inconsistent as is the case with her free throws. This next statement may sound negative but it’s really not meant to be I think a good sports psychologist would help her she seems to wear her heart on her sleeve and you can see it in her body language and her face when things don’t go well. I truly believe she has the skill level to be better so maybe it’s more psychological than physical. I would love to see her come in next year with more attitude maybe be a little pissed that so many people are putting her down. She seems to be a wonderful teammate and young lady but I’d like to see a little more fight in her game.

 

[Stymie]

I really don’t want another player I think the roster is large enough I just want live to be better maybe another year of maturity and some off-season work. Her shot needs to be adjusted maybe put a little arch on it she throws darts right now that are inconsistent as is the case with her free throws. This next statement may sound negative but it’s really not meant to be I think a good sports psychologist would help her she seems to wear her heart on her sleeve and you can see it in her body language and her face when things don’t go well. I truly believe she has the skill level to be better so maybe it’s more psychological than physical. I would love to see her come in next year with more attitude maybe be a little pissed that so many people are putting her down. She seems to be a wonderful teammate and young lady but I’d like to see a little more fight in her game.

All good points.

 

[sweetspot]

Dorka actually had covid this year and you can't really go by her sporadic playing schedule during this season. Her previous year shooting percentage is her under normal scheduling and one would expect her to probably shoot threes at closer to 40% again. The bigs only need to consistently hit from 15-17 feet to open up driving lanes for teammates, and if the other bigs can't do it, or won't improve from their, then i would think that Geno wouldn't mind having one more arrow in his quiver in certain situations. If she came on board, i bet you would see Edwards and Liv spending 5 hours daily practicing their 15-17 foot shot so as not to fall behind at that particular skill.

I don't think you can expect someone who hasn't shot above 54% from the foul line either of the past two seasons to "probably shoot threes at closer to 40% again."

 

[oldude]

For some reason, I thought it was higher. Since you bring up ONO, I see that Juhasz gets more rebounds, playing in a better conference. I still believe she could help.

We could cherry pick stats all day long. Liv had more blocks, steals and assists, while playing fewer minutes. UConn was also a much better shooting team than tOSU, so Juhasz had a lot more rebound opportunities.

As to whether or not she could help, we’ll never know. She’s not going to leave a program where she was a starter playing 30 mpg to come to UConn where she will be behind Liv, Aaliyah and possibly Aubrey on the depth chart, while competing with Amari for minutes.

 

[ABCDFE]

Actually, we already have a player like that. This past season Liv shot 27% from the arc. Dorka shot 20%.

I believe she shot much better the year before (mid 30s% from three). Not sure what happened, but perhaps the pandemic and other issues that we're not aware of?

 

[EricSD]

All true. But @MilfordHusky, people are going to need to see this kid to believe her. You and I have hyped this kid a lot (especially you), but the truth is the minute she hits the floor with Paige it'll be a new era in UConn BB. Just the idea, as I've said to you, of someone that can consistently hit that shot as the trail in transition and hit that weak side corner 3, both as KML used to do, changes UConn's offense. Along with Caroline Ducharme it will make teams less likely to press or trap on defense, make teams less likely to try to force UConn into a quarter court offense, and because of their FT shooting, less likely to put our guards on the line.

My friend, you saw Azzi on a bad day. I saw her in full splash mode several times. Yep, she will do what Kaleena did and more. Defenses will have to pick their poison, which could be letting Liv go one-on-one in the paint or leaving Nika/Caroline/et al. open at the arc. I saw Georgetown Visitation try to play Azzi straight up in the 2019 City Championship game, and she torched them for 38 (still the arena record). Some shooting and scoring records will go by the wayside over the next 4 years. Not only can Azzi hit shots, but also Paige can find her in her sweet spots.

Both Ken and Jordy make great points about how how defenses will have to defend us. A good number of people complained about ONO being soft on the offensive end, etc. Well how many times was she double or triple teamed?

We were not an elite 3 point shooting team last season. This coming season I expect we will be. Not saying everyone will hit over 40%, but if you have CW, Nika, Evina (and maybe Saylor) in the mid-high 30% range, and CD/Paige/Azzi in the mid-high 40's, I would imagine that would give our post player(s) more room to maneuver around the basket...

 

[oldude]

You have to think though how much better she could be (really any player) under UConn’s staff. They develop players to really reach their full potential. And any player playing with a Paige Bueckers is automatically going to be better, she gets them easy shots and builds confidence for her teammates.

Certainly UConn’s coaching staff could make her a better player, but I just don’t see any PT for her. She is a C/F who averaged 30 mpg for a 13-7 team (9-7 in conference). She’s not going to put Liv on the bench or take minutes from Aaliyah. She would likely compete for minutes with Aubrey, Amari and perhaps others.

I think of Evelyn Adebayo last season. Evelyn was the best player on a mediocre Murray St team. Many of us thought she would be a contributor at UConn. Unfortunately, Evelyn struggled to learn the system at first and it was very difficult for her to adjust to being a role player off the bench after being the “go to” player at Murray St.

Dorka’s not coming to Storrs and she’s likely not on Geno’s radar. Anyone who believes so is fooling themselves.

 

[Heytherego]

Certainly UConn’s coaching staff could make her a better player, but I just don’t see any PT for her. She is a C/F who averaged 30 mpg for a 13-7 team (9-7 in conference). She’s not going to put Liv on the bench or take minutes from Aaliyah. She would likely compete for minutes with Aubrey, Amari and perhaps others.

I think of Evelyn Adebayo last season. Evelyn was the best player on a mediocre Murray St team. Many of us thought she would be a contributor at UConn. Unfortunately, Evelyn struggled to learn the system at first and it was very difficult for her to adjust to being a role player off the bench after being the “go to” player at Murray St.

Dorka’s not coming to Storrs and she’s likely not on Geno’s radar. Anyone who believes so is fooling themselves.

I don’t believe she’s coming to Storrs either. I was simply just stating that I could see her developing nicely.

 

[oldude]

I don’t believe she’s coming to Storrs either. I was simply just stating that I could see her developing nicely.

I hope she ends up somewhere where she has an opportunity to achieve her goals and she’s happy.

 

[UcMiami]

We could cherry pick stats all day long. Liv had more blocks, steals and assists, while playing fewer minutes. UConn was also a much better shooting team than tOSU, so Juhasz had a lot more rebound opportunities.

As to whether or not she could help, we’ll never know. She’s not going to leave a program where she was a starter playing 30 mpg to come to UConn where she will be behind Liv, Aaliyah and possibly Aubrey on the depth chart, while competing with Amari for minutes.

Liv played 783 minutes, Dorka played 513 this past year so Liv actually played 50% more minutes. Rebounds 234 to 188, pts 360 to 248. Based on that their stats by minute are pretty comparable with a slight edge to Dorka. The rebounding stat that stands out to me is offensive rebounds Liv 78, Dorka 72.

Dorka is a good player - first team Big10 in 2020. She and OSU had a really bad 2021 with basically December cancelled with no team activities. She and the team struggled. Her sophomore season was very good, her freshman season pretty good. But she also played in a very different system with a very different coach. FYI, she has played 2 games against Uconn, the first her 2 or 3rd game in the US, and the second in 2020 - neither that distinguished but both available on Husky Games - box score and replay.

All that said - I don't think the team needs anyone added to the roster. There will be four bigs on the team next year and they need game minutes to develop. We have a plethora of young guards and wings that also need some game minutes. There isn't a single player in the transfer portal that I would take over one of our freshman coming in. And with 13 scholarship players and a walk-on it is a full roster.

If the team were to take a transfer I am sure Geno/CD would have a good reason, but I do not see a need.

 

[huskiemaniac]

We could cherry pick stats all day long. Liv had more blocks, steals and assists, while playing fewer minutes. UConn was also a much better shooting team than tOSU, so Juhasz had a lot more rebound opportunities.

As to whether or not she could help, we’ll never know. She’s not going to leave a program where she was a starter playing 30 mpg to come to UConn where she will be behind Liv, Aaliyah and possibly Aubrey on the depth chart, while competing with Amari for minutes.

Actually, UConn missed 921 shots while tOSU missed 752. I guess ONO had more (offensive) rebound opportunities.

UConn opponents missed 1174 shots. tOSU opponents missed 764.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Both Ken and Jordy make great points about how how defenses will have to defend us. A good number of people complained about ONO being soft on the offensive end, etc. Well how many times was she double or triple teamed?

We were not an elite 3 point shooting team last season. This coming season I expect we will be. Not saying everyone will hit over 40%, but if you have CW, Nika, Evina (and maybe Saylor) in the mid-high 30% range, and CD/Paige/Azzi in the mid-high 40's, I would imagine that would give our post player(s) more room to maneuver around the basket...

I would not damn Saylor with faint praise. She got dumped in the deep end and was concentrating the grey matter on basic movement in whatever the Huskies were doing on the floor. Very recently Geno said Saylor is an excellent shot. This fall she'll get comfortable and her shots will be falling. Both she and Caroline are NBA range 3 ballers. It's going to be fun. Oh, and there's this kid call Azzi.

 

[oldude]

Actually, UConn missed 921 shots while tOSU missed 752. I guess ONO had more (offensive) rebound opportunities.

UConn opponents missed 1174 shots. tOSU opponents missed 764.

C’mon now. You can’t go from comparing per game stats to full season stats when it suits you. Let’s compare apples to apples. tOSU only played 20 games, 10 fewer than UConn. tOSU shot 43% while UConn shot 51%.

 

[Gus Mahler]

Thoughts on Liv: First thought is that I hope she is able to go to a 'Big' camp this summer along with Piath.

Second: Her development thru her first three years at UConn has been significant...especially on defense/shot-blocking/shot-altering. Offense...less so. I have [maybe stubbornly] hopes to see a nice step-up on that side of the game next season.

Third: she is around 20-21...correct? When you look at the games of players...UConn or otherwise...my bet is that rarely do you find a player who has peaked at 20-21. Just generally...when we read about players in the WNBA around 26-27..do we not say that they are approaching their prime basketball years? Maybe their prime is thru early 30's? If that is true...and I think it is for basketball and almost all other sports [maybe gymnastics is an exception], would it not be perfectly reasonable to think that LIv is nowhere near her peak years...and that next season will be the next step in that improvement?

Go Liv! For that matter Piath and Amari too!

Good post.

 

[Heytherego]

I would not damn Saylor with faint praise. She got dumped in the deep end and was concentrating the grey matter on basic movement in whatever the Huskies were doing on the floor. Very recently Geno said Saylor is an excellent shot. This fall she'll get comfortable and her shots will be falling. Both she and Caroline are NBA range 3 ballers. It's going to be fun. Oh, and there's this kid call Azzi.

Excellent point. What we saw was not a true reading on Saylor. Really got thrown in the deep end and she was trying to stay afloat. She’ll be the one with the advantage in her class with the extra time she got in Storrs.

 

[huskiemaniac]

C’mon now. You can’t go from comparing per game stats to full season stats when it suits you. Let’s compare apples to apples. tOSU only played 20 games, 10 fewer than UConn. tOSU shot 43% while UConn shot 51%.

"Come on now"?

There were roughly 600 more available rebounds in UConn games this season. ONO tallied a total of 46 more than Juhasz in 250+ more minutes on the court.

 

[oldude]

"Come on now"?

There were roughly 600 more available rebounds in UConn games this season. ONO tallied a total of 46 more than Juhasz in 250+ more minutes on the court.

Let me try this one more time, and I’ll keep it simple. There were 71.8 rebounds per game on average in 30 UConn games. There were 81 rebounds per game in 20 tOSU games, almost 10 more per game. Based on those numbers, which player, Liv or Dorko had more opportunities to pull down rebounds per game?

In addition, Liv averaged 26 mpg to Dorko’s 30 mpg. So on a per game basis Dorko played 13% more than Liv. Anyway you look at it, Dorko had more opportunities to rebound than Liv.

 

[huskiemaniac]

It gets no more simple than this: 600 more available rebounds for UConn, 250 more minutes of playing time for Liv, 46 more total rebounds Liv.

You can have the last word.

 

[oldude]

It gets no more simple than this: 600 more available rebounds for UConn, 250 more minutes of playing time for Liv, 46 more total rebounds Liv.

You can have the last word.

There’s no comparative basis on the numbers you cite. It’s like saying DT scored more total points than Paige, played in more games and played more minutes. OK I agree.

For the record, Dorko pulled down 18.2% of all available rebounds when she was in the game, to Liv’s 16.6%. So on that basis alone, Dorko’s per 40 stats were slightly better than Liv’s. For every other stat, Liv has better numbers.

On whether or not Dorko would be a valuable addition to UConn, you and I will have to agree to disagree. The one thing I am reasonably certain of, is that she will not end up in a UConn uniform, so our disagreement is pretty much moot.

 

[Kaizen]

 

[oldude]

Raoul’s current list actually shows 836 D1 WBB players in the portal. A significant number of those transfers are listed as “grad transfers,” many of whom were handed an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA. Syracuse seems to lead the pack. 10 of their 15 players hit the portal. With 1 senior declared for the draft, that leaves the Orange only 4 returning players.

 

[UcMiami]

Seeing as we are into the transfer numbers at this point I thought I would copy my post from the general women's basketball thread into this thread:
Just thought a few numbers would put the transfer madness in a little context:
2020 transfers 490, of which 19% were grad transfers (94)
2021 transfers 813, of which 32% are grad transfers (262)

Increase in transfers = 323 or 66%
increase in non-grad transfers = 155 or 39% increase
increase in grad transfers - 168 or 179% increase

Still more transfers to come I am sure, but certainly shows that the 5th year of eligibility offered this year is having a significant impact on the raw numbers - 179% increase in grad transfers compared to 'only' a 39% increase in pre-grad transfers.

 

[CocoHusky]

Certainly UConn’s coaching staff could make her a better player, but I just don’t see any PT for her. She is a C/F who averaged 30 mpg for a 13-7 team (9-7 in conference). She’s not going to put Liv on the bench or take minutes from Aaliyah. She would likely compete for minutes with Aubrey, Amari and perhaps others.

I think of Evelyn Adebayo last season. Evelyn was the best player on a mediocre Murray St team. Many of us thought she would be a contributor at UConn. Unfortunately, Evelyn struggled to learn the system at first and it was very difficult for her to adjust to being a role player off the bench after being the “go to” player at Murray St.

Dorka’s not coming to Storrs and she’s likely not on Geno’s radar. Anyone who believes so is fooling themselves.

The comparison of Dorka to Evelyn Adebayo is quite laughable. A better comparison statistically, size and strength of the conference played in is Azura Stevens. Many also fooled themselves into believing Geno would never be interested in a transfer from Duke yet there we were.

 

[Charliebball]

Seeing as we are into the transfer numbers at this point I thought I would copy my post from the general women's basketball thread into this thread:
Just thought a few numbers would put the transfer madness in a little context:
2020 transfers 490, of which 19% were grad transfers (94)
2021 transfers 813, of which 32% are grad transfers (262)

Increase in transfers = 323 or 66%
increase in non-grad transfers = 155 or 39% increase
increase in grad transfers - 168 or 179% increase

Still more transfers to come I am sure, but certainly shows that the 5th year of eligibility offered this year is having a significant impact on the raw numbers - 179% increase in grad transfers compared to 'only' a 39% increase in pre-grad transfers.

I'd love to know what percentage of all the active DI basketball players went into the transfer portal this season.........

 

[Centerstream]

I'd love to know what percentage of all the active DI basketball players went into the transfer portal this season.........

Don't players have until July 1st to enter the portal and not have to sit out a year, if it is approved by the NCAA (relatively soon I believe)?

 

[bluedevil]

Where are all these ladies going to go? 836!