The system must be adjusted every year to account for the varying talent level. That is the root cause of the problem. Let’s not put the cart in front of the horse. Let’s concentrate on recruiting the right horses to run a perfectly proven system. Other teams are overtaking us because we are lacking horse power not because they have better systems.
Actually no I cannot. You are asking an awful lot of me. You are asking me to be rational and clearly remember that it was the Jones family that broke that news when I’m still salty at Tara. At the end of the day Tara didn’t have to offer her a scholarship.
Good analysis, but there's one critical thing to remember too: injuries. UConn has been pretty fortunate in the past few years to endure relatively few injuries to starting players aside from a few games missed by KLS. By contrast, just in the last two seasons, Stanford has lost four starting players to injuries for some or all of a season: Nadia Fingall and Lexie Hull last season, and Dijonai Carrington and Haley Jones this season. Or think of the pile of injuries Notre Dame has endured over the past few seasons. Hopefully UConn stays blessed but another reason to slightly overload on players, in addition to transfers, is the possibility of injuries.
My concerns are mainly with the big posts. When it comes to projections I don't pay much attention to the gurus. I trust MY eyes. First off I really like Brady. By the time she gets to college she'll be a classic power 4 and a pick and pop nightmare. With DeBerry, her HS competition is weak enough that she doesn't have to play 6-5 to control the game. OTOH, the AAU and USA level is a different story. IMO it showed she needs to get much stronger, laterally quicker, and play with more motor. If Auriemma gets that out of her that would be great. But that's why I'd want Betts for insurance and I don't feel that would be overstocking. Lastly, a couple trusted coaching friends have seen Gabriel several times and tell me she's athletic and works hard but will need a lot of fundamental and skill work to play at UConn level. I hope she can develop well and be a contributor.
Having athletic talent, size, and a strong work ethic are all that one should expect, given that she will have four years in college to develop basketball-specific skills and instincts. Given those raw materials to work with, I have faith in the UConn coaches to make her a very productive player.
It’s not a large roster...it’s just a large roster for Geno cause he traditionally carries smaller ones. 15 is a full roster and anything less is a small roster.....factually. He’s going from small #s to normal ones not normal #s to large ones
I think you might want to do a study on that because I would say its more like 12-14. UConn over the past 10 years has been way too small in roster and height. I want us to go back to 2000 and 2001 size rosters with height too.
I think 11-13 is ideal, with 11 you can still practice with 10 even, with one injury. Everybody over 10 is probably blow out minutes only. With Megan's big recruiting class, if I remember right I believed Kyla and Molly were going to be 13 and 14 in my mind, but of course all but Megan departed and coming up short on a few recruits after that, and all of a sudden they were 7 and 8 on a thin bench instead.
I'm not sure they ever had 4 years of horrendous recruting in a row where only 1 in the top 100, 0 4 year players, 2, and then 2. There is need of a correction and another 5 recruit class would get us back on track.
Horrendous is a tad harsh. UCONN has also picked up some quality transfers in that span like Azura, Batouly and Evina. I'm all about the quality not quantity. UCONN has not had enough quality contributors to allow Geno to expand the rotation to say 7 players with a G/Wing and a reliable backup post player. No sense expanding the roster unless it is specifically to to fill the latter of those needs.
Three number one recruits in 4 years is the textbook definition of horrendous!
I wouldn't say UConn has had horrendous recruiting. Of the last 14 teams, every one of them has had at least one #1 recruit, nine of them had two or more #1 recruits, and one team had three (2018-19 with KLS, Megan, and CW). Going back to Stewie's freshman season eight years ago, only twice has a team had less than half of the nation's #1 recruits on it.
If I remember correctly, you need 5 players to start the game and an additional group of quality players in the rotation to win a NC.
We'll still have one--for the managers, et al. No players. I recall another one. Was it 2003? Or more recent?
