Article: Case for UConn's Geno Auriemma being best coach ever goes beyond basketball

[StarMan]

Case for UConn's Geno Auriemma being best coach ever goes beyond basketball

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I posted this in another thread a couple of hours ago. I like your title better.

 

[DefenseBB]

Wait a minute! This idea reeks of plagiarism, was the author monitoring the BoneYard over the weekend? Seems to me, we were discussing this exact same thing...

 

[noirwestern]

Siiiigh...can't go anywhere without running into the, "sure, he's a great with GIRLS but how would he have done coaching real basketball" crap. Can't even work up the internet dander high enough to bother with a reply.

Oh, not in the article but the predictable reply

 

[chrissaran]

UCLA rarely played East Coast teams when John Wooden was their coach. When did his teams take the court when the other team had the same level of talent? Lew Alcindor, Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich, Keith Wilkes, Henry Bibby, Larry Farmer, Lynn Shackleford, Marques Johnson. Case closed.

 

[JordyG]

UCLA rarely played East Coast teams when John Wooden was their coach. When did his teams take the court when the other team had the same level of talent? Lew Alcindor, Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich, Keith Wilkes, Henry Bibby, Larry Farmer, Lynn Shackleford, Marques Johnson. Case closed.

Or when did his teams ever walk onto a court where the other side had more talent. UConn has arguably done this 3 or 4 times this year alone.

 

[Wally East]

Or when did his teams ever walk onto a court where the other side had more talent. UConn has arguably done this 3 or 4 times this year alone.

Hmm. I don't know. If UConn winds up with 3 All-Americans, that will be a hard thing to argue with regards to this year.

Sure, you could argue that at the time, the perception was that UConn had less talent, but, that perception would need re-assessment.

 

[xHunt3r]

Or when did his teams ever walk onto a court where the other side had more talent. UConn has arguably done this 3 or 4 times this year alone.

UConn is easily more talented then ND, Baylor, Maryland, and South Carolina.

Naismith player of year finalist (10 players). UConn = 3, those four combined teams = 3 (SC=1, MD=1, ND=1)
EspnW First Team AA. UConn = 3, those four combined teams = 1 (SC=1)

UConn will easily have more players on WBCA AA and AP AA when the list comes out as well.

 

[JordyG]

Hmm. I don't know. If UConn winds up with 3 All-Americans, that will be a hard thing to argue with regards to this year.

Sure, you could argue that at the time, the perception was that UConn had less talent, but, that perception would need re-assessment.

Perhaps their starting five. But when you consider bench strength UCONN has frequently been out talented.

 

[JordyG]

UConn is easily more talented then ND, Baylor, Maryland, and South Carolina.

Naismith player of year finalist (10 players). UConn = 3, those four combined teams = 3 (SC=1, MD=1, ND=1)
EspnW First Team AA. UConn = 3, those four combined teams = 1 (SC=1)

UConn will easily have more players on WBCA AA and AP AA when the list comes out as well.

Read above post.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Perhaps their starting five. But when you consider bench strength UCONN has frequently been out talented.

Yeah, well maybe, if the other team's bench put on their big girl panties. Sorry, it was just such a pure serve it up fungo!

 

[JordyG]

Yeah, well maybe, if the other team's bench put on their big girl panties. Sorry, it was just such a pure serve it up fungo!

OH! No you didn't! And mine was lobbed in too. Yet the sight of those poor young ladies in grandma panties makes me cringe.

 

[DefenseBB]

Perhaps their starting five. But when you consider bench strength UCONN has frequently been out talented.

Huh? First, let's go 6 and really 7 deep as those play 98% of all teams minutes. Show me a team like Baylor who in theory has a "deep" bench that you want Cave or Chou on the floor with the game on the line? No way. The UConn 6 is easily the top group and the UConn is probably the top group. If you have to say, well the 8th or 9th players are better-to what effect on the game do they havei?

 

[JordyG]

Huh? First, let's go 6 and really 7 deep as those play 98% of all teams minutes. Show me a team like Baylor who in theory has a "deep" bench that you want Cave or Chou on the floor with the game on the line? No way. The UConn 6 is easily the top group and the UConn is probably the top group. If you have to say, well the 8th or 9th players are better-to what effect on the game do they havei?

Again you're making my point. UConn's starting 5 and 6 is great, but Baylor goes 12 deep. More means aggregate, and Baylor can certainly bring more talent in off the bench than UConn. And I would argue that a healthy Jones is right now better than (I love you but) Saniya and as good Kia. No where do I speak of effect on the game.

 

[DefenseBB]

Again you're making my point. UConn's starting 5 and 6 is great, but Baylor goes 12 deep. More means aggregate, and Baylor can certainly bring more talent in off the bench than UConn. And I would argue that a healthy Jones is right now better than (I love you but) Saniya and as good Kia. No where do I speak of effect on the game.

Alexis Jones is arguably their best player. So Brown, Jones, Davis, Wallace, Prince, Cox, Cohen, Cave and Chou is their 9. Collier better than Brown, Samuelson better than Jones, Gabby better than Davis, Kia much better than Wallace and let's call Soniya a wash with Prince (Soniya better offensively, Prince better defensively). Cox is usually 1st of the bench with Cohen next. Crystal Dangerfield is much better than either. Nat is slightly behind those two.

So you have lost me that if Cave and Chou are in for Davis/Wallace, how is Baylor better than us on the depth issue? Those two don't offer value relatively. Now if you want to add "foul trouble", ok, I understand. Seeing as Geno never shows a propensity to go 8 deep in critical games, moot point on depth beyond 7.

 

[JordyG]

Alexis Jones is arguably their best player. So Brown, Jones, Davis, Wallace, Prince, Cox, Cohen, Cave and Chou is their 9. Collier better than Brown, Samuelson better than Jones, Gabby better than Davis, Kia much better than Wallace and let's call Soniya a wash with Prince (Soniya better offensively, Prince better defensively). Cox is usually 1st of the bench with Cohen next. Crystal Dangerfield is much better than either. Nat is slightly behind those two.

So you have lost me that if Cave and Chou are in for Davis/Wallace, how is Baylor better than us on the depth issue? Those two don't offer value relatively. Now if you want to add "foul trouble", ok, I understand. Seeing as Geno never shows a propensity to go 8 deep in critical games, moot point on depth beyond 7.

You're a natural contrarian. Okay. First, Lou is a forward/wing and is better than Prince, a forward/wing. Gabby is better than Brown, but to me Brown is an AA, so it's close. Collier is better than Davis, but Davis coming off an AA year last year so to me it's close. Kia is better than Wallace, but Jones is better than Saniya. Crystal Dangerfield is better than her competition which is Chou, but Cox is better than Nat. After that, Cave, and Cohen is better than anything UConn can bring out. And let's not forget someone you've conveniently forgotten and that's Mompremier, and I've still got Dry and Landrum who I think are better than Molly and Kyla. So, what we have is a Baylor aggregate that is superior.

 

[JordyG]

Alexis Jones is arguably their best player. So Brown, Jones, Davis, Wallace, Prince, Cox, Cohen, Cave and Chou is their 9. Collier better than Brown, Samuelson better than Jones, Gabby better than Davis, Kia much better than Wallace and let's call Soniya a wash with Prince (Soniya better offensively, Prince better defensively). Cox is usually 1st of the bench with Cohen next. Crystal Dangerfield is much better than either. Nat is slightly behind those two.

So you have lost me that if Cave and Chou are in for Davis/Wallace, how is Baylor better than us on the depth issue? Those two don't offer value relatively. Now if you want to add "foul trouble", ok, I understand. Seeing as Geno never shows a propensity to go 8 deep in critical games, moot point on depth beyond 7.

And of course because Geno only goes 7-8 deep hardly negates the fact that many team's do not. Again, more as aggregate.

 

[JordyG]

Alexis Jones is arguably their best player. So Brown, Jones, Davis, Wallace, Prince, Cox, Cohen, Cave and Chou is their 9. Collier better than Brown, Samuelson better than Jones, Gabby better than Davis, Kia much better than Wallace and let's call Soniya a wash with Prince (Soniya better offensively, Prince better defensively). Cox is usually 1st of the bench with Cohen next. Crystal Dangerfield is much better than either. Nat is slightly behind those two.

So you have lost me that if Cave and Chou are in for Davis/Wallace, how is Baylor better than us on the depth issue? Those two don't offer value relatively. Now if you want to add "foul trouble", ok, I understand. Seeing as Geno never shows a propensity to go 8 deep in critical games, moot point on depth beyond 7.

Ok Maryland. I think it's a toss up between Jones and Gabby. Lou's better than Kimbrough, though it's close, and Collier is better than Confroy. Slocum is better than Saniya, Charles and Kia are a wash. Crystal Dangerfield trumps Myers. After that it's all Maryland with Gillespie, Fraser and S.Jones. Call it piling on.

 

[Ozzie Nelson]

Perhaps their starting five. But when you consider bench strength UCONN has frequently been out talented.

Perhaps?(starting 5)

IAC, do you consider(In BB) winning as an index of talent working in concert??

Finally, what point about game results are you suggesting?

Thanks

 

[mauconnfan]

UCLA rarely played East Coast teams when John Wooden was their coach. When did his teams take the court when the other team had the same level of talent? Lew Alcindor, Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich, Keith Wilkes, Henry Bibby, Larry Farmer, Lynn Shackleford, Marques Johnson. Case closed.

This is an awful argument. They played other really good teams in the tournament and beat basically everyone. Do you think that Syracuse and Providence could beat them? When they had to beat "east" teams like Louisville and UNC they did. His teams were great and as far as parity is concerned the way things were back then is very similar to what UCon faces in the womens tourney. I mean Geno basically faces no one with a chance until the FF, truth be told.

 

[JordyG]

Perhaps?(starting 5)

IAC, do you consider(In BB) winning as an index of talent working in concert??

Finally, what point about game results are you suggesting?

Thanks

A team is not limited to its starting 5, and there isn't always a correlation between talent and winning. Tennessee is a prime example of a talented team, a team with more McDonald AA's than UConn incapable of consistency for various reasons. Lastly, as Geno has and will say winning poorly is less preferable than playing hard and the right way yet losing.