Ashlynn

[AzzisBraids]

That left handed lay up on the right side of the basket she did looked easy but is not. Her calling for the ball when she's open as well. She's quicker than she looks and stronger than she looks. Reminds me so much of Kia Nurse and Kelly Faris

 

[CL82]

Shade is not slow. She as fast as Fudd and Caroline

 

[HuskyNan]

Because her dad is a personal trainer, I don't think any freshman has entered the program in better overall shape. This girl is solid, and the way she plays shows off her strength and savvy. She is smart, aggressive, is always moving on every play. She doesn't force shots but chooses the time to make a move. She is the kind of player that we will love going forward, and I hope Geno uses her more than he has so far. I am a fan of hers right now.

The entire freshman class, and I’m including Ice, is full of keepers.

 

[TCC Kid]

I'd say Ash had a heck of a game vs Maryland - 10 pts, a couple of rebounds, a steal, and no turnovers in 15 min on the court. I really like this kid and want to see more of her.

3 Uconn kids proved, last night: Basketball players play the GAME anywhere, against anyone. Miss Indiana--was all Indiana expected from her. KK--a balloon could not be higher on her. The kid plays for keeps. (as did Paige). Mickey Mouse eared Q--the world is watching because she is something to watch. Geno the king of WBB defense--proved it once again., No 42, DeBerry

 

[MSGRET]

Ashlynn has been dedicated to become a better player in more ways than just playing. She has one of the most dedicated fitness routines. Gave up the chance of winning the Indiana Miss Basketball player of the year in back to back years to get herself prepared for going to UConn.

Instead of staying at Noblesville she decided to go to a prep school in La Porte, IN to prepare herself for the next chapter in her life. She did it for two reasons, one to be on her own, away from family and friends so that she would be acclimated to living in a dorm and be prepared for that life she would have at UConn. The second reason was that she would play against many teams that would require the life of travel, hotel stays, and stiffer competition.

She said that it would help settle in at UConn and she would be able to concentrate on basketball more because she had gone through the living away from friends and family. To me that is dedication not only to herself, but to UConn.

 

[JellyBean]

Because her dad is a personal trainer, I don't think any freshman has entered the program in better overall shape. This girl is solid, and the way she plays shows off her strength and savvy. She is smart, aggressive, is always moving on every play. She doesn't force shots but chooses the time to make a move. She is the kind of player that we will love going forward, and I hope Geno uses her more than he has so far. I am a fan of hers right now.

Wow. I did not know that her father was personal trainer. Having that as option puts her ahead of the game greatly! You hit the nail on the head with her style of play. She is a aggressive but not a wild aggressive, if you know what I know. She plays with an awareness of her surroundings. I just loved her ball line defense last night. I know Coach G talks about defense but watching Ashlynn play last night. It was like I was back working a Tubby Smith basketball clinic.

I was just glad that she got some minutes out there and, like Coach G always says "Might me look like an idiot for not playing you more, when you get out on the floor." Ashlynn was under control on defense and offense. She was ball hawking. She knew where to be in certain spots of the floor. She cut with a purpose. She was a joy to watch. She is taking some minutes from somebody and that is what I love to see. These freshmen are going to push the "starters" and that is only going to make the "starters" better as well as the bench players and those bench players don't want minutes, a freshmen like Ashlyn will gladly scoop up more minutes out there.

 

[Biff]

Wow. I did not know that her father was personal trainer. Having that as option puts her ahead of the game greatly!

This Youtube vid is a good summary of her prep including the physical training aspect.

 

[PacoSwede]

some here seem entranced by ms. shade

all right all right -- but don't you realize she's small

well i suppose she's well-muscled ... and talented ... and is very energetic ... and has great basketball-savvy.

but she's small. or at least -- short. like jennifer, moriah, crystal, maria et.al

we need TALL kids. bigs. .. .we don't need no ashlynns at uconn! what's wrong with geno these days?

 

[Forego]

Ashlynn made one heck of a sharp cut to the basket last night that resulted in an easy layup (that went in - all those not cutting to the basket and missing layups should take note).

 

[SEbluebood]

She takes smart shots didn’t force anything and is not afraid to hustle. She will be beloved by all in short order as she makes up for size and athletic gifts with grit, tenacity and attitude

Great point! She is not as physically gifted, but her mentality is off the charts! It will be interesting to see how she performs against more athletic teams!

 

[Cornell Lt]

Ashlynn will be UConn's swiss army knife kinda player, she can do several things well

 

[Longtime fan]

That left handed lay up on the right side of the basket she did looked easy but is not. Her calling for the ball when she's open as well. She's quicker than she looks and stronger than she looks. Reminds me so much of Kia Nurse and Kelly Faris

I watched Shade in the HS championship game of Indiana two years ago. Noblesville HS. She just took over and won the game, And this was top grouping of public HS teams. Then, she switched schools and I lost track for her final year of play. But she does everything well. She actually played in the post for a while. and used a step-back jump shot to score points. No one could stop it. And the shot seemed to always be perfect. She is a terrific player.

 

[CB360]

Very Happy for the Kid and YES, she played well! Please remember all these Positive comments when she starts the Freshman slump that almost all Freshman go through before we start asking what is she doing here.......
Good game young Lady!!!

 

[Bills Fan]

I love this kid. She reminds me so much of Faris, but with a smoother shot. She's always in the right spot on defense, which is so tough when you're a freshman. I actually could see her getting more time than CD by the end of the season.

At this point, unless something major changes for Caroline, I would think the time for Ash to be getting more minutes than CD is now, not at the end of the season. Caroline clearly brings more to the table than Ashlynn, IF CD is playing as she did as a Freshman but not if she is playing as she has this year.

 

[Mandoo]

I love this kid. She reminds me so much of Faris, but with a smoother shot. She's always in the right spot on defense, which is so tough when you're a freshman. I actually could see her getting more time than CD by the end of the season.

can do everything Nika can do with better offensive skills. Hope to see more of her, this kid can ball.

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[rubymae4]

I was at the game last night. The movement off the ball improved instantly when Shade came into the game. She is not content to stand in one place, so she forces others to move. Love her game.

 

[Skeets]

Because speed was an issue, and Shade, for all her upside, isn't particularly quick, or at least doesn't appear to be.

The thing that I think about with Shade, KK and Q is that they are only going to improve. Think about it all three of them look dramatically better every game. As they get more comfortable with their defensive assignments and the speed and physicality of the college game, they're only going to be better. We need Azzi back, but the ability to have more minutes to give to these amazing freshmen is a bit of a silver lining to that dark cloud.

Great post. Time to remind ourselves that these are basically high school kids with at most 3 D1 games under their belt. Where will they be a month from now? A year from now? They could be really good, the future of UConn WCBB.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Her motor and conditioning are impressive. Before it's all over, I predict she will be amongst the top rebounding guards at UCONN. She loves contact. And despite her height...she's a paint bully.

 

[HuskyNan]

Her motor and conditioning are impressive. Before it's all over, I predict she will be amongst the top rebounding guards at UCONN. She loves contact. And despite her height...she's a paint bully.

The Huskies have had several undersized players in the paint that didn’t mind contact- Jamelle, Barb Turner, Stacey Hansmeyer, Gabby Williams…

 

[oldhusky]

I was watching Ashlynn 100% to see what she could do. As the posters above pointed out--she has something special to contribute. Not counting Page, Ashlynn moved without the ball better than the rest of the team. She was fearless, but not reckless (Q is fearless, but not as thoughtful as Ashlynn.) Ashlynn kept moving and she picked her spots to shoot. She was relentless on D and she has good feet (not as good as KK.) She is tough as nails (equal to Nika) however, I see an overall BASKET BALL PLAYER. KK & Ashlynn are street smart and have an overall high IQ. Q does remind me of Aubrey as an athlete, but Q has the offense.
Many of us bone yarders have always wanted to see more subs and more time for the new kids (every year.) Ashlynn is a solid sub and if she gets 15+ minutes each game I think everyone will be happy. That girl is hungry and knows what she can do!

Agree, it is getting very interesting regarding the potential for a very deep rotation, particularly due to Ashlynn and Q looking like they are rotation ready now. Heading into the season I expected KK to find a way to make the rotation, but I thought Ashlynn and Q most likely face a learning year gaining experience at the end of safe wins.

We still have Ayanna out of course, and who knows about Azzi's knee, or Caroline's ongoing concussion issues, but if the players are healthy it seems like Geno could contemplate using up to 11 in a contested game. I am leaving Amari and Ines out of that projection, and also note it is lopsided towards the perimeter (7 players including caroline as a 3) vs a limited number of bigs (4 even counting Aubrey as a 4).

Because of the excess of perimter players that appear to be ready for prime-time, it might be hard to incorporate all of them in every game on occasions where matchups and team situational needs will dictate who plays. The four out that some prefer (not me) will contine to be the norm for sure until Ayanna returns and/or Ice starts playing closer to 30 minutes a game. But even if those two bigs start consuming far more minutes, the small ball option will still be there in part because Ashlynn and Q have apparently earned Geno's trust more than Amari.

 

[Bone Dog]

In HS, if you earned a D1 scholarship you were likely the best kid on your team and most of the others were not going on to play D1 ball. This would also be true of most of the best opponents you might face: one maybe two best players would earn D1 scholarships.

Now you’re in college and every kid on every team is that “best player” from HS. It’s a really different set of challenges. They’ll all have strengths and weaknesses, but they’ll all be comparable to the best kids you saw. And to top it off, they’ll be grown women, not 14-17 year olds.

You show up at a school like UConn and it’s like you’re that precocious 8th grader who somehow made the HS varsity team. Everyone seems smarter and more mature than you. They’ve seen more and know more and can trick you into mistakes in ways you haven’t seen before. It can be a shock. And it all happens again if you get to the W.

The only advantage you have is some small talent that isn’t fully developed yet. But you’ll keep growing and getting better and eventually you catch up to the older players and even surpass them.

This is where Ashlynn KK Qadence Ice and Jana (and to some extent Inês and Amari) are right now. There will be disappointments along the way, but the future looks bright for them if they stick with it and can avoid injury.

 

[Conndog]

At this point, unless something major changes for Caroline, I would think the time for Ash to be getting more minutes than CD is now, not at the end of the season. Caroline clearly brings more to the table than Ashlynn, IF CD is playing as she did as a Freshman but not if she is playing as she has this year.

One thing I see Caroline doing is cutting to basket but not stopping & trying to post up- instead, she continues to opposite corner where too often she becomes not involved. I’d love to see her spend more time inside and around basket, maybe Geno can design some plays to isolate her. She’s 6’2 and could set up around basket more often.

 

[Zarathustra]

Nice video clip... Ashlynn, KK, and the bunch on the bench!

 

[Zarathustra]

Ashlynn Geno quotes " She's a workout freak" " Reminds me of Shea"...... Geno's comments remind me
of the old commercial: " (she) does it the old fashion way...... she earns it!" (an old EF HUTTON advertisement)

 

[Zarathustra]

Agree, it is getting very interesting regarding the potential for a very deep rotation, particularly due to Ashlynn and Q looking like they are rotation ready now. Heading into the season I expected KK to find a way to make the rotation, but I thought Ashlynn and Q most likely face a learning year gaining experience at the end of safe wins.

We still have Ayanna out of course, and who knows about Azzi's knee, or Caroline's ongoing concussion issues, but if the players are healthy it seems like Geno could contemplate using up to 11 in a contested game. I am leaving Amari and Ines out of that projection, and also note it is lopsided towards the perimeter (7 players including caroline as a 3) vs a limited number of bigs (4 even counting Aubrey as a 4).

Because of the excess of perimter players that appear to be ready for prime-time, it might be hard to incorporate all of them in every game on occasions where matchups and team situational needs will dictate who plays. The four out that some prefer (not me) will contine to be the norm for sure until Ayanna returns and/or Ice starts playing closer to 30 minutes a game. But even if those two bigs start consuming far more minutes, the small ball option will still be there in part because Ashlynn and Q have apparently earned Geno's trust more than Amari.

Also Ms. "ICE" Brady will be a game changer for years to come. Go "ICE". Work off that "rust".. GO GIRL, GO!!

 

[Jaml]

I love her game. I'm pretty sure Geno regrets not playing her against NC State. His decision to go with her against Maryland might have been a combination of Azzi not playing (so extra minutes for guards) and he couldn't have been happy when Q got the ball with 2 seconds on the shot clock and didn't go straight up with a foul line jumper.

Overall, the freshman are certainly not playing like freshman.

 

[AmeriConn]

Because speed was an issue, and Shade, for all her upside, isn't particularly quick, or at least doesn't appear to be.

The thing that I think about with Shade, KK and Q is that they are only going to improve. Think about it all three of them look dramatically better every game. As they get more comfortable with their defensive assignments and the speed and physicality of the college game, they're only going to be better. We need Azzi back, but the ability to have more minutes to give to these amazing freshmen is a bit of a silver lining to that dark cloud.

Ash looks quick to me.

 

[Bone Dog]

Ash looks quick to me.

Agree. She’s basketball quick. She never stops moving her feet. As she runs the length of the floor at full energy every time up and down the court. There are kids with quicker first steps — like KK — but the quickness that matters most is the one where you don’t stop moving your feet. That’s Ashlynn.