Other than the experience part and having one year left, your description sounds a lot like Ice and/or Ayanna. I know the grass can always appear greener somewhere else, but with UConn bringing in the 2 best forwards in the class of 2022, I would much rather see Geno and his staff develop their talent and ability rather than renting a player for one year.
I am not stupid enough to disagree. I do have a different take on DeBerry. As she ended the season this April she isn't anywhere near being ready to take on Boston, if used as a straight up one on one offensive/defensive player against Boston. She needs 30 pound, 3 years of Div 1 post experience, and maybe 2 inches in height.
You mentioned it sounding like the stats of two freshmen who have yet to play as opposed to proven statistics from an experienced player. I would love for our incoming freshmen to be that confident and skilled to start with but would not plan on that. So to have a proven commodity at the position would be a solid team decision. Geno and staff can still develop the freshman and sophomore players as well. If anyone is playing better than the transfer then they play over her. But to just automatically give them statistics that we hope they will obtain it’s just that hope. I do know there are other Bigs still available so I’m not locked into the one I mentioned but I know she comes from a tough defensive minded team. I don’t think Connecticut would want to depend on a freshman big or a unproven sophomore big to fill that role if heaven forbid an injury occurs.
I’m not hanging my hope for Amari’s development on her ability to take on Boston. Let’s be honest, there isn’t a player in women’s college basketball who can take on Boston right now. Amari has a big body. Not sure why so many in the BY think she needs to get bigger. She certainly needs to get stronger and fitter which is exactly why Amari committed to spending the summer at Storrs attending Andrea Hudy’s boot camp.
That could be a problem for SC but the most likely starter at PG for them is not Cooke or Amihere, but their highly rated recruit from last year that suffered a season ending injury. I believe her name was Raven, and I don't remember the last name. She was a top 5 or so recruit and a natural point guard.
Raven Johnson was generally considered the number two consensus player coming out of high school (behind Azzi). She swept Player of the Year awards her senior year of HS (Azzi didn't qualify because she only had two games in her senior season.)
They have lots of players with the potential to do the job but if their is a weakness I believe it is at point guard. Remember she scored a lot of points against us. Its like Nika is a good player but could she replace Paige's points.
i agree with most of what you say. i agree De berry is talented.
There were a couple of games when UConn was down to 7 players and Geno was forced to play Amari off the bench. In an admittedly small sample size, I was impressed that Amari appeared more than willing to bang with other posts. Of course none of those posts were named Boston.
My other issue is although there are a lot of players in the portal, I just don’t see a one year rental who can come in and make a difference. We have Aaliyah, hopefully a healthy Aubrey and the two freshmen. We only need 2 of those 4 to be productive. I’m OK with playing the hand we’ve been dealt.
OK, OK...Here you go again
Uhm... when she was beating on ONO, ONO was wearing a UCONN uniform correct? When Morrow was dropping 30 on UCONN it was a 2 point win by UCONN correct? I'm not for conceding any player 25 and 15. You can if you want.
I agree. And even in the first game, Morrow benefitted from "Chicago" refereeing. Watch the game and you'll see. The obvious one was where she nearly took Christyn's head off on a layup. By any conservative estimate, she should have had 3 fouls by halftime. Now I think it's also the case that our front court gave her too many free throw opportunities. And it's clear that when she came to Connecticut and got whistled more evenly, her game suffered.
I like Amari's skill set on offense, and she can be shot blocker. But what she seemed to lack on defense was energy, not skills. On offense, I like the way she doesn't bring the ball down when she catches it at either post. She seems already to have learned how to avoid those pesky little guards who try to claw the ball away when it's down low. She knows how to catch turn and shoot/pass. I think she'll become a quick and nimble scorer and passer rather like Czinano on Iowa.
Yea Morrow's game really "suffered" once she came to UCONN after all she only grabbed 16 rebounds (above her season average) and only scored 20 points (2 points below her season average). Quick question: Did UCONN have a front court player "suffer" this badly all season -with 20 Point and 16 Rebounds in the same game I mean? That kind of "suffering" is definitely something we should all be looking forward to.
She already committed to Duke 3 days ago.
Thanks for the info I obviously hadn't heard about it!
I don't know about you but to me 20 pts is less than 30. And you can just watch the game tape and you'll see that she wasn't the dominating factor in the second game she was in the first. Part of this is that Dorka and AE managed not to foul her so much -- only 1 for 1 on FTs as opposed to 8 for 9 -- and stayed out of foul trouble themselves. In the first game, Liv fouled out, and Dorka and CD had 4 each while Morrow only had 2. This meant she could dominate the paint and did. By contrast, in the second game Morrow had 4 fouls and Dorka had 1, and DePaul never threatened after the first 5 minutes. Sure she got 20 points, but they meant nothing.
You're spot on regarding Game 2.
Morrow's teammates are not good enough to seriously threaten UCONN. That does not change the fact that she is a terrific player.
I agree about this last bit. Morrow is an awesome talent. Beating DePaul will often mean letting her score 20 and shutting down the rest of the team. This is often the case in victories — you don’t always have to shut down their best player if you can render the rest of the team incapable of winning.
I worry about your closing thought all the time paradoxical as it is. Paige only has so much time with us. Watching her play as a freshman was a revelation. Watching the beginning of this year promised even greater things. Even that horrific game against ND was awe inspiring until the last couple minutes.
I don't think there was a post as good as Dorka available in the portal this year..........that ship sailed with Cardoso last year.......