Assuming We Have a Season, Who Will Be Our All-American(s) This Year?

[oldhusky]

I'm in almost full agreement. The one notable exception is regarding Liv being "the only completely sure thing starter". Liv will definitely start because we need her size up front and she needs to continue her upward arc she was on under Jamelle. If I had to pick a sure fire starter though it would be Christyn because she is literally 2X (+) more experience in the UCONN offense than any other player on this roster. 2X= twice as many starts, minutes and experience in big games.

I knew questioning Christyn as a lock to start would be questioned but here is my reasoning on that. I do not consider Anna or Paige to be a serious threat to Christyn at SG for a couple of reasons, but Evina I think is.

Anna is probably best at the 3 and Paige obviously at the 1, but Christyn is much better at the 2 and that is also in my opinion, the best position for Evina. A couple of things would have to happen for it to boil down to a Christyn vs. Evina battle for the two.

First Paige would have to win the PG battle, including against Evina, and Anna would have to improve enough to fight off Evina's challenge there as well. Paige is the top recruit and Anna is the incumbent starter, so it could happen. Then it would be Christyn vs. Evina for the SG spot.

I suspect if the question was framed in that way, either Christyn or Evina at SG that a vote would be pretty close between the two. Both highly rated recruits who may have under-performed expectations a little bit so far, with Evina having the disadvantage of coming back from injury and Christyn being the incumbent.

Evina is a threat to start at multiple positions, but she has significant competition at all of them, the high school player of the year and two incumbent starters, and even if you stretch to the small-ball argument playing way out of position against Griffin or Edwards. Not a sure thing against any of them, and head to head against Christyn, Evina could be better.

I suspect Evina will start at PG or SF and a head to head battle between her and Christyn won't happen, but my point is it is possible, and if it comes to that you can't be sure Christyn would emerge on top. So in my opinion Christyn is fairly secure, but far from a lock, mostly because she could be in competition with Evina.

 

[The CDR-Ret]

After this team stomps U of South Carolina by 13, to gain the #1 ranking. I would order up two first team, 2 second team and a third team, plus one honorable mention - let the players play their way into those slots. No limits!

CWill already is AA in TikTok, and PB is AA in Twitter followers....

Now just play the games by any means possible to also defeat CoViD 19.

Stay Healthy, my friends!

 

[Husky fanatic]

Theirs just to much parody on the UConn team for any player to rise head in shoulders above the others. Sure, Paige is quite the Pre-Madonna, but she'll have a tough road to hoe in becoming UConn's best player and an All American. For all intensive purposes UConn will be fielding 5 AA quality players on the court at all time.

I just hope we get most of UConn's games free and don't have to watch this great team on paper view.

On the origami network?

 

[visitingcock]

After this team stomps U of South Carolina by 13, to gain the #1 ranking. I would order up two first team, 2 second team and a third team, plus one honorable mention - let the players play their way into those slots. No limits!

CWill already is AA in TikTok, and PB is AA in Twitter followers....

Now just play the games by any means possible to also defeat CoViD 19.

Stay Healthy, my friends!

Yeah, well like Yogi kinda' said: "You won't win if we beat you."

Hopes for your (and your team's) health as well!

 

[hoophuskee]

Projecting the AAs from the team requires projections both about the team itself and the individual players. On paper, with the talent, depth and coaching, this is a FF team and legitimate contender for a NC. Also, the team is a guard driven, guard oriented team with a strong transition game highlighted by two superior passers in Anna and Paige with Evina being overlooked in this regard and mistakenly so. The team is likely to run the aggressive pressure defense that turned the team around last year, especially with JE's return, certainly against BE teams and also against top tier non- league teams if it has proven to be successful at least for portions of the games. That is where I see Paige, Edwards and Mir making very strong contributions with probably only Paige and Edwards seeing meaningful time against the other top 5 teams. I am also assuming that our leading scorer, unless it is only by a small margin, is our most highly placed AA. So the questions become first, with a likely starting team of Aubrey, ONO, CW, Evina and Anna, with Paige and Edwards as 6th and 7th man respectively, who are the probable beneficiaries of a pressure defense that will result in transition baskets and who are the probable beneficiaries of a stand alone transition game based on defensive rebounding and a traditional fast break? Secondly, who are the probable beneficiaries of the half court offensive sets? I think the second question is easier. In the half court sets, the shots will mostly be taken by ONO, CW and Evina with Anna taking open 3s with regularity but looking to distribute first and getting the ball underneath to ONO. I am projecting the ability of ONO this year to have moves over both shoulders and to be able to finish on both sides of the basket. With her shot blocking and improved offense, I see no less than 3rd team AA and a probable second team. As for the guards in the half court sets, I see rough parity in the number of shots between Evina and CW but I see Evina scoring more off of those sets because she has a solid game from 8-12 feet away. I don't think that Evina's year not playing will hurt her at all in knowing and fitting into Geno's system because she was there. As for the transition game, I give a slight edge to CW in benefitting from it because Anna knows her game so well and she will receive "deferrence" passes as well. I project a more athletic game from her as well as a result of summer work outs. It will be close however because Evina appears to have a better all around offensive game. Evina has something to prove also and she will be stronger and improve all aspects of her game over the summer, I am projecting, while she also strengthens her knee. So I see CW and Evina benefitting from the running game with Anna and Paige getting the ball to them with a slight edge to CW there. I give Evina the edge in the half court offense between the two. I have CW as first team AA and the leading scorer and Evina as second team even though my gut says these two will likely be reversed. I just see an awful lot of determination in Evina. So I have 3 AAs on this team.

Excellent post!

I just want to add - Evina (if Evina is a very good pg) and Paige are going to have very good assist numbers. We expect to beat an elite team or two etc, and if that happens, one or both are going to have highlighted assist numbers.

Thus there is a strong chance these two will be the highlighted "playmakers" for this team. The ball will more than likely be mostly in their hands moreso than others in big games. They can/will get in the lane with an option to either pass or score. They will be the decision makers to pass or score in these circumstances. These two players - pg's - are very unique vs what UCONN has had in a long time. Play after play they have an equal option to pass or score in the lane. And to further that, because Paige is such a gifted passer - there may be more teams that challenge her to score in the lane. In other words, "prove it." Because we know with Danger and then with MoJeff - if they penetrated in halfcourt sets- teams would play them for the pass.

The reason I bring this up is that with CWill - she is "just" a scorer. OFC she can make some plays off the dribble. But Evina and Paige possibly can penetrate and pass or score off the dribble (they can slash better I think?) . But ofc CWill could become a tremendous scorer. Then if that's the case she becomes awesome.

The thing is Paige is going to score too. UCONN is that much tougher to defend when your pg can do both at a high efficiency. And if you are going to put your worst perimeter defender on her - she is going to more than likely punish that defender - more than just passing. That's why I lean towards Paige as an Honorable Mention A/A to possibly an A/A. And it's why I think her 3pt shot is important. If she can't shoot it well ofc her efficiency/effectiveness drops to non-A/A status depending on her fg% efficiency from the perimeter. OFC she'll still be hard to defend but teams would be able to sag more when they defend her - at least at the point of 3 pt range. There is no reason to try to defend her like teams did with KLS - if Paige can't shoot 3's well. Though imo you have to be super-elite to get into Paige's face at the 3pt line. To do that if you are the defense - you might as well beg her to try to drive into the lane. I don't think that's a good strategy overall.

 

[BBallF]

Excellent post!

I just want to add - Evina (if Evina is a very good pg) and Paige are going to have very good assist numbers. We expect to beat an elite team or two etc, and if that happens, one or both are going to have highlighted assist numbers.

Thus there is a strong chance these two will be the highlighted "playmakers" for this team. The ball will more than likely be mostly in their hands moreso than others in big games. They can/will get in the lane with an option to either pass or score. They will be the decision makers to pass or score in these circumstances. These two players - pg's - are very unique vs what UCONN has had in a long time. Play after play they have an equal option to pass or score in the lane. And to further that, because Paige is such a gifted passer - there may be more teams that challenge her to score in the lane. In other words, "prove it." Because we know with Danger and then with MoJeff - if they penetrated in halfcourt sets- teams would play them for the pass.

The reason I bring this up is that with CWill - she is "just" a scorer. OFC she can make some plays off the dribble. But Evina and Paige possibly can penetrate and pass or score off the dribble (they can slash better I think?) . But ofc CWill could become a tremendous scorer. Then if that's the case she becomes awesome.

The thing is Paige is going to score too. UCONN is that much tougher to defend when your pg can do both at a high efficiency. And if you are going to put your worst perimeter defender on her - she is going to more than likely punish that defender - more than just passing. That's why I lean towards Paige as an Honorable Mention A/A to possibly an A/A. And it's why I think her 3pt shot is important. If she can't shoot it well ofc her efficiency/effectiveness drops to non-A/A status depending on her fg% efficiency from the perimeter. OFC she'll still be hard to defend but teams would be able to sag more when they defend her - at least at the point of 3 pt range. There is no reason to try to defend her like teams did with KLS - if Paige can't shoot 3's well. Though imo you have to be super-elite to get into Paige's face at the 3pt line. To do that if you are the defense - you might as well beg her to try to drive into the lane. I don't think that's a good strategy overall.

If Paige is " dishing and swishing" to such an extent that she is Honorable AA worthy, that will mean that the offense remains high powered or gets even more powered during substitutions, something that we haven't had in years. Under those circumstances, several things happen. First, Anna gets more open 3s because of the drive and pass by Paige. Second, CW or Evina get more open 3s or openings for passes that lead to moves or closer shots. Third, Aubrey gets open underneath because she has a great instinct to find the open seam under the basket which she showed last year. Fourth, and more importantly, there is no let up on the "push" and in fact the opposite occurs. Now there is a second wave of transition and fast breaking, very difficult to contain on defense. Against BE teams, the games will be over sooner rather than later. Against the top 5 teams, we have to see. If it impacts those games significantly or even moderately, there is no limit. My only reservation is that Paige will be playing against other players who are three years older, bigger and more experienced and we will have to see if the strength factor becomes an issue. If she is that good that it doesn't matter, I'm liking the number XII a lot.