Are We Missing Kelly Yet?

[Sonny44]

Sentimentally, of course we all are.
I mean on the court, are we lacking? I don't think we will know until the final four.
Thoughts?

 

[Icebear]

Sentimentally, yes. Overall, I didn't think we would miss Kelly in any absolute sense because we had the available talent and a staff that is very capable of adapting. MoJet and Bria have very capably filled the role of peripheral defenders driving opposition guards crazy (see Baylor) and when one gets by our three grands dams shut it down.

 

[alexrgct]

If Moriah starts hitting threes at a clip Kelly could against Louisville in last year's NC game, I'd say we adore and miss Kelly but can replace her contributions. This assumes Mo keeps playing great on-ball defense, including on the perimeter against guards (see Kelly in last year's national semis).

 

[JS]

Would bet your question is prompted by Rebecca's observation that this year Shoni Schimmel should surely shape up and shoulder more shcoring for Shaint Louey.

Yes, Kelly was unique, in that now you just can't assign her to the opponent's best scoring guard or forward and forget about it. There's a bit more of a choice to be made, and perhaps a little drop-off in skill due to experience level and/or physical qualities.

But I don't think UConn misses a beat. With the loss of every senior you lose something unique, and you're always gaining other things.

There are other options for dealing with Shoni than sending a Schwiss Army all-purpose gizmo to shunt Ms. Schimmel to the shelf.

 

[Icebear]

Amen, JS.

 

[HGN]

Have we missed Kelly? Absolutely. If only from a health standpoint. For whatever reason Kelly always seemed ready , willing , and able. This year we have experienced some major to minor bumps and bruises to many players. IMHO, we miss Kelly's healthy body and the ability to play multiple positions from the 1-4. Now only Stewie offers that kind of versatility.

 

[Sonny44]

Would bet your question is prompted by Rebecca's observation that this year Shoni Schimmel should surely shape up and shoulder more shcoring for Shaint Louey.

Yes, Kelly was unique, in that now you just can't assign her to the opponent's best scoring guard or forward and forget about it. There's a bit more of a choice to be made, and perhaps a little drop-off in skill due to experience level and/or physical qualities.

But I don't think UConn misses a beat. With the loss of every senior you lose something unique, and you're always gaining other things.

There are other options for dealing with Shoni than sending a Schwissh Army all-purpose gizmo to shunt Ms. Schimmel to the shelf.

Love it! I would just add an "h".

 

[UcMiami]

Stats wise the answer would be no as our defense is performing very very well. What the team stats don't show is that most of the principle guard/wing scoring threats on opposing teams have scored their points against Uconn though at much lower efficiency ratings than their season stats show. However their teams have not scored close to their season averages.
This year with so much zone being played it really is a different defensive mindset. Part of that is not having Kelly, but I suspect with the shorter bench, even if Kelly were still on the team the zone concept would still prevail.
The other aspect of this all is with the amount of switching that Uconn did and still does when they play man, while Kelly was amazingly good, it was never simply her shutting down players. She might only be guarding her 'man' of 50% of the time spent on defense. So it has always been the team defense that has been strong.

 

[Phil]

Would bet your question is prompted by Rebecca's observation that this year Shoni Schimmel should surely shape up and shoulder more shcoring for Shaint Louey.

Yes, Kelly was unique, in that now you just can't assign her to the opponent's best scoring guard or forward and forget about it. There's a bit more of a choice to be made, and perhaps a little drop-off in skill due to experience level and/or physical qualities.

But I don't think UConn misses a beat. With the loss of every senior you lose something unique, and you're always gaining other things.

There are other options for dealing with Shoni than sending a Schwiss Army all-purpose gizmo to shunt Ms. Schimmel to the shelf.

Schur enough.

 

[Kibitzer]

Of course we miss Kelly. And Diana and Sue and Tina and Swin and Maya and a couple dozen others. What makes it acceptable is that Stanford misses Jayne and Janet and Notre Dame misses Skylar and Ruth and so on. So everybody deals with the endless cyle of recruitment to replace graduates. So move on.

 

[UConnCat]

This year with so much zone being played it really is a different defensive mindset. Part of that is not having Kelly, but I suspect with the shorter bench, even if Kelly were still on the team the zone concept would still prevail.

How much zone does this team play? I haven't watched every game but this team still plays mostly (wo)man defense, particularly in big games. I know for certain lineups (BS, KS and SD) and in certain game situations (2nd half of blow-outs, just to mix it up) Geno will go zone, but it doesn't seem like this year's team is playing more zone than in other years.

 

[doggydaddy]

How much zone does this team play? I haven't watched every game but this team still plays mostly (wo)man defense, particularly in big games. I know for certain lineups (BS, KS and SD) and in certain game situations (2nd half of blow-outs, just to mix it up) Geno will go zone, but it doesn't seem like this year's team is playing more zone than in other years.

Gotta disagree Cat. I've been surprised with how much zone they are playing.

 

[Scotter]

Is Kelly missed in the sense that UConn will lose because she isn't there? No. But she is certainly missed in the sense that this team does lack the things Kelly could uniquely do. Her ability as a universal defender able to guard anybody from point to post is missed, but her help defense is as well which still isn't a strong point of the current guards.

UConn is playing more zone not because of a short bench. Geno still played man to man in all the recent seasons even when he was limited to 6 or 7 players, which is actually most years, because those teams could. He's coaching around the lesser aptitude of this team to play the same man-to-man defense that was played through almost all of Kelly's time at UConn. Stef has already blocked more shots this season than in any of her previous seasons. Which I think reinforces that while all the blocks are great they are also symptom of UConn not playing the same switching man-to-man that denied penetration in the first place.

And Kelly is missed in the offense as well, particularly setting screens and passing. This team even with the gawdy assist and turnover stats is short on players that know how to get other players open within the offense and that can anticipate the passes, particularly into the post which continues to be a weakness of the team.

 

[UConnCat]

Gotta disagree Cat. I've been surprised with how much zone they are playing.

Any idea what percentage of possessions are zone?

Do you expect a lot of zone against Louisville?

 

[Sonny44]

I think MoJett is going to take it upon herself to blanket Shoni.

 

[UcMiami]

Is Kelly missed in the sense that UConn will lose because she isn't there? No. But she is certainly missed in the sense that this team does lack the things Kelly could uniquely do. Her ability as a universal defender able to guard anybody from point to post is missed, but her help defense is as well which still isn't a strong point of the current guards.

UConn is playing more zone not because of a short bench. Geno still played man to man in all the recent seasons even when he was limited to 6 or 7 players, which is actually most years, because those teams could. He's coaching around the lesser aptitude of this team to play the same man-to-man defense that was played through almost all of Kelly's time at UConn. Stef has already blocked more shots this season than in any of her previous seasons. Which I think reinforces that while all the blocks are great they are also symptom of UConn not playing the same switching man-to-man that denied penetration in the first place.

And Kelly is missed in the offense as well, particularly setting screens and passing. This team even with the gawdy assist and turnover stats is short on players that know how to get other players open within the offense and that can anticipate the passes, particularly into the post which continues to be a weakness of the team.

While the rotation may have been 6-7 players there was still the ability in emergency situations to put a Heather into the game to kill some minutes if Stef picked up a third foul in the first half. Losing Morgan and playing most of the season that way is huge in that regard. I do think the hand check emphasis has also greatly impacted the way the perimeter is guarded and decreased the ability of any guard to stop penetration. When this team does play man it is still very effective, but it also tends to get more fouls called, especially for bigs hedging around screens - something that doesn't happen as much in zone.

 

[VAMike23]

Is Kelly missed in the sense that UConn will lose because she isn't there? No. But she is certainly missed in the sense that this team does lack the things Kelly could uniquely do. Her ability as a universal defender able to guard anybody from point to post is missed, but her help defense is as well which still isn't a strong point of the current guards.

UConn is playing more zone not because of a short bench. Geno still played man to man in all the recent seasons even when he was limited to 6 or 7 players, which is actually most years, because those teams could. He's coaching around the lesser aptitude of this team to play the same man-to-man defense that was played through almost all of Kelly's time at UConn. Stef has already blocked more shots this season than in any of her previous seasons. Which I think reinforces that while all the blocks are great they are also symptom of UConn not playing the same switching man-to-man that denied penetration in the first place.

And Kelly is missed in the offense as well, particularly setting screens and passing. This team even with the gawdy assist and turnover stats is short on players that know how to get other players open within the offense and that can anticipate the passes, particularly into the post which continues to be a weakness of the team.

I would add that Geno is actively encouraging his guards to play tighter on the perimeter, trap more and also take more gambles in the passing lanes, due to the fact that we do have such a strong back line. In the past Geno would sometimes have them use a sagging m2m that looked more like zone.

So while we don't have anyone as good as Kelly on defense, part (not all) of the increased penetration we're seeing is the price Geno is willing to pay in exchange for more steals, turnovers coming from on traps and closer coverage on outside shooters. So far it's an exchange to our benefit.

 

[huskybill]

Kelly Who?

 

[Scotter]

I would add that Geno is actively encouraging his guards to play tighter on the perimeter, trap more and also take more gambles in the passing lanes, due to the fact that we do have such a strong back line. In the past Geno would sometimes have them use a sagging m2m that looked more like zone.

So while we don't have anyone as good as Kelly on defense, part (not all) of the increased penetration we're seeing is the price Geno is willing to pay in exchange for more steals, turnovers coming from on traps and closer coverage on outside shooters. So far it's an exchange to our benefit.

While I agree that Geno is actively coaching the guards to aggressively gamble for steals. I tend to see it as Geno covering up for the weakness of his guards as much as taking advantage of the shot blocking back line. Being hyper focused on getting steals at least has Bria, Moriah, Breanna, and others who tended to play passively off the ball on defense and get lost last season playing aggressively and engaged off the ball at the cost of defensive breakdowns. Geno talked about it last season for example where they couldn't get Bria to play good defense until they just locked her on one player and took all of the help defense and switching responsibility away from her. This year Bria is making plays in help defense, but it is a similar narrow focus that Geno has seemingly given her of just trying to anticipate steals. It's not the same as what Kelly and others did defensively, particularly when the defense was at its absolute peak in 09-10.

 

[Hongster]

Kelly Who?

Schumacher?

 

[msf22b]

Different players, different strengths and weaknesses (perhaps?), Geno coaches them up to take advantage of what they bring.
New style of aggressive attacking of passing lanes the result of MoJeff's early success in this area ( remember Maryland?) together with Bria's renewed well-being and aggression as well as the back lines confidence in swatting down the occasional guard/wing who enters their territory.

Notice how the guards and wings take their stance on their opponents strong side, inviting them to go the other way into the clutches of Stewie and friends. At most one gives up the occasional low-percentage floater to a Sims, Davis et al. in no mans land.

Results seem just peachy, I leave the stats to those whose proclivity lies in that area.

Scotter's claim of "covering up for weakness" is either just wrong or an oversimplification.

 

[Henry]

Unless someone else steps up and plays lock down defense on the other teams best player, we certainly will miss her. I think Bria and Moriah can together do a decent job and Geno may have to work on more team defense/switching.

 

[Icebear]

They've done it all year.

 

[JoePgh]

Mental experiment: What if Kelly hadn't graduated? Would she start this year? Whose place would she take? (My answer: No, she would be back to being the "sixth man", albeit with lots of minutes.)

The major effect of her being here (besides 20-25 minutes of good offense and great defense) would be a significantly lengthened bench and therefore far less reliance on zone defense. Kelly could back up the front court (in case of foul trouble) as well as the back court.

 

[itsasport]

re: Henry, No one has been able to, almost single-handed, neutralize the other teams best scorer; partly because she was much bigger and stronger than any of our guards this year. She even guarded forwards. It will be interesting to see what next years crop of big, strong, fast guard/forwards will add defensively.