Azzi to become the new point guard?

[Charliebball]

I don’t know and don’t really care why Dawn saw and strategized on; I have made no assumptions as to Fudd’s injury status or physical condition. The fact is Auriemna gushed about her ”breakout” game the day before and I posted then I had no idea why Fernandez didn’t have defenders run at her and make her put the ball on the floor. The next day she was taken out of the game after 10 minutes and sidelined. The fact is Fudd was anointed as “generational” by many here before she ever played a game while ignoring the fact that evidently she was coming back from having been seriously injured. I certainly hope she comes back to be the best player she can be but I go by what I see and in the four games I watched her, she could not keep up with the speed of the game, something I and others posted about after the Arkansas opener.

she may well be a generational talent, but she obviously never fully recovered from her foot injury and that clearly impacted her play.........if she can get back to 100% this season let's see what she can accomplish............I expect great things from Azzi if she can avoid the injury bug going forward.....

 

[npignatjr]

Here's some newly uploaded highlights of Azzi from 2018 where she shows some of her moves while dribbling.

Before major , MCL and ACL knee surgeries, last full season I believe 2019.

 

[Littlemin]

she may well be a generational talent, but she obviously never fully recovered from her foot injury and that clearly impacted her play.........if she can get back to 100% this season let's see what she can accomplish............I expect great things from Azzi if she can avoid the injury bug going forward.....

That’s fine and I hope you are right but IF is a mighty big, small word and that’s my only point.

 

[Cuango]

Does anyone doubt that Azzi will become the new point guard once she's healthy?

Extremely unlikely! Azzi is a shooting guard with good ball skills who could play pg in a pinch but she is not a natural point guard!

 

[JoePgh]

I don’t know and don’t really care why Dawn saw and strategized on; I have made no assumptions as to Fudd’s injury status or physical condition. The fact is Auriemna gushed about her ”breakout” game the day before and I posted then I had no idea why Fernandez didn’t have defenders run at her and make her put the ball on the floor. The next day she was taken out of the game after 10 minutes and sidelined. The fact is Fudd was anointed as “generational” by many here before she ever played a game while ignoring the fact that evidently she was coming back from having been seriously injured. I certainly hope she comes back to be the best player she can be but I go by what I see and in the four games I watched her, she could not keep up with the speed of the game, something I and others posted about after the Arkansas opener.

I'm not sure where you are headed with this argument. Are you saying that Geno should not have recruited her, despite her amazing shooting skills, because of her slow feet? Or that she will/should be at the end of the bench until she somehow resolves that problem, which you seem to think is beyond her physical ability to do?

KML was quite productive for UConn despite being a slow-footed on-ball defender. I think Azzi is quicker than KML. KLS was not the fastest or the most agile defender either, but she certainly earned her substantial minutes at UConn. Caroline Ducharme seems to be cut from the same cloth as Lou, but she is learning to defend at the college level. (I don't think she would have been successful against the South Carolina guards in the game a few weeks ago, however.) I think Azzi, when healthy, can be at least as quick as Caroline, probably quicker.

Going back further, one can mention Mel Thomas -- in many ways a very similar player to Azzi, but I think Azzi has a much higher ceiling. Even further back, there is Katie Douglas (who won an NC at Purdue), who came into the WNBA as a 3-point shooter with no defensive skills and limited speed and quickness, but who became one of the best defenders in the league by being positionally smart and forcing her opponent into the team's help defense. I think Azzi is as fast and as quick as Katie Douglas already (though not as tall).

You have told us that you think Geno either overestimated or mishandled Azzi. How about telling us now how you think he should have handled her?

 

[marti3td]

What is the time frame on everyone who is out to come back? I cannot keep track of all of them

 

[Charliebball]

I'm not sure where you are headed with this argument. Are you saying that Geno should not have recruited her, despite her amazing shooting skills, because of her slow feet? Or that she will/should be at the end of the bench until she somehow resolves that problem, which you seem to think is beyond her physical ability to do?

KML was quite productive for UConn despite being a slow-footed on-ball defender. I think Azzi is quicker than KML. KLS was not the fastest or the most agile defender either, but she certainly earned her substantial minutes at UConn. Caroline Ducharme seems to be cut from the same cloth as Lou, but she is learning to defend at the college level. (I don't think she would have been successful against the South Carolina guards in the game a few weeks ago, however.) I think Azzi, when healthy, can be at least as quick as Caroline, probably quicker.

Going back further, one can mention Mel Thomas -- in many ways a very similar player to Azzi, but I think Azzi has a much higher ceiling. Even further back, there is Katie Douglas (who won an NC at Purdue), who came into the WNBA as a 3-point shooter with no defensive skills and limited speed and quickness, but who became one of the best defenders in the league by being positionally smart and forcing her opponent into the team's help defense. I think Azzi is as fast and as quick as Katie Douglas already (though not as tall).

You have told us that you think Geno either overestimated or mishandled Azzi. How about telling us now how you think he should have handled her?

I don't think Azzi is particularly fast but she's hardly slow footed either when healthy.......she also has something that many quicker players don't.......... she' smart as hell on the basketball court........like Paige, she usually knows where the ball is going before the pass is made......she'll make plenty of freshman mistakes but there's no doubt in my mind we will witness some really great basketball from this player in the years ahead.....

 

[Skeets]

Extremely unlikely! Azzi is a shooting guard with good ball skills who could play pg in a pinch but she is not a natural point guard!

You want your best shooters to be in a position to shoot, not bringing the ball up court past the mid-court line and then making the first pass. I want Azzi shooting, I want Paige shooting, Nika, you bring the ball up court.

 

[stamfordhusky]

So far today, when members of a UConn WBB group page were asked, "Do you think that Azzi Fudd will eventually become one of UConn's point guards in the future?"

66% or 70 voted yes.
22% or 22 voted no.
11% or 12 voted no opinion/ not sure

That represents a 3 to 1 margin of fans that believe that Azzi will eventually be used as a PG.

What it shows is that this group has very few people who understand basketball, even a little bit. Sounds like they understand this issue about as well as I understand nuclear physics.

 

[Alydar]

But why did Dawn see a player who couldn’t keep up with the game? (1) was it because she was already injured? (2)) was it because she was a frosh who just had no adjusted to the speed of the game? (3) was it inexperience in defending against players at this talent level? OR (4) she just doesn’t have the natural quicks to defend at the level of that game?

I would posit that it is not number 4. Probably a combination of 2 and 3 with 1 being a possibility. In other words, her defensive shortcomings in that game can be overcome by tournament time.

Remember our 2020 game? Ty Harris was our team leader and MOP of that game. However, When she was a frosh, y’all hardly even guarded her and she was ineffectual in that game.

Azzi will be fine. You can’t judge a frosh off that one, very early game against a true contender.

Good post. Thought I had put the 2020 game out of my mind. Thanks for the reminder.

Tell me, did Dawn treat Fudd like just an unproven freshman in her game plan? Watch the game and it's obvious she gave specific instructions that Fudd was never to be left alone. `

I just hope UConn's players have been vaccinated for Juvenile Paranoiaitis because there's a lot of it going around.

 

[Littlemin]

I'm not sure where you are headed with this argument. Are you saying that Geno should not have recruited her, despite her amazing shooting skills, because of her slow feet? Or that she will/should be at the end of the bench until she somehow resolves that problem, which you seem to think is beyond her physical ability to do?

KML was quite productive for UConn despite being a slow-footed on-ball defender. I think Azzi is quicker than KML. KLS was not the fastest or the most agile defender either, but she certainly earned her substantial minutes at UConn. Caroline Ducharme seems to be cut from the same cloth as Lou, but she is learning to defend at the college level. (I don't think she would have been successful against the South Carolina guards in the game a few weeks ago, however.) I think Azzi, when healthy, can be at least as quick as Caroline, probably quicker.

Going back further, one can mention Mel Thomas -- in many ways a very similar player to Azzi, but I think Azzi has a much higher ceiling. Even further back, there is Katie Douglas (who won an NC at Purdue), who came into the WNBA as a 3-point shooter with no defensive skills and limited speed and quickness, but who became one of the best defenders in the league by being positionally smart and forcing her opponent into the team's help defense. I think Azzi is as fast and as quick as Katie Douglas already (though not as tall).

You have told us that you think Geno either overestimated or mishandled Azzi. How about telling us now how you think he should have handled her?

What are you talking about! My gosh, some of you just read into every post what you want to!! I never once mentioned her recruiting but obviously her injuries have been fairly well documented. Where I am headed is that the young lady did not look good on the court outside of making some stand still shots in one game out of four. If that is not a concern for you because she dominated HS and AAU a couple of years ago, you are entitled.
She is not KML or Mel Thomas and whether you think Fudd is quicker than KML or has a higher ceiling than Thomas means nothing to me. They are all different players playing at different times. I mentioned Fudd’s lack of lateral quickness the first time I saw her play. I sincerely hope for her sake injuries have not compromised her ability to play at this level but this is my last word on the subject because my daring to mention a ”concern” has driven some of you into a tizzy.

 

[visitingcock]

Good post. Thought I had put the 2020 game out of my mind. Thanks for the reminder.

Tell me, did Dawn treat Fudd like just an unproven freshman in her game plan? Watch the game and it's obvious she gave specific instructions that Fudd was never to be left alone. `

I just hope UConn's players have been vaccinated for Juvenile Paranoiaitis because there's a lot of it going around.

Oh no, Azzi was not left alone by our defense. No no no no no. We all know what happened in the game before ours when she was left open to shoot 3s. However, she was a focus of attack when she was on defense.

 

[sun]

What it shows is that this group has very few people who understand basketball, even a little bit. Sounds like they understand this issue about as well as I understand nuclear physics.

Some are seeing Azzi as being a "combo guard", or as part of a point guard by committee.
A combo guard can play either SG or PG.

 

[CL82]

I don’t know and don’t really care why Dawn saw and strategized on; I have made no assumptions as to Fudd’s injury status or physical condition. The fact is Auriemna gushed about her ”breakout” game the day before and I posted then I had no idea why Fernandez didn’t have defenders run at her and make her put the ball on the floor. The next day she was taken out of the game after 10 minutes and sidelined. The fact is Fudd was anointed as “generational” by many here before she ever played a game while ignoring the fact that evidently she was coming back from having been seriously injured. I certainly hope she comes back to be the best player she can be but I go by what I see and in the four games I watched her, she could not keep up with the speed of the game, something I and others posted about after the Arkansas opener.

If she was injured in is coming back from injury, as you point out, does that suddenly change her status as a generational player? Or is she merely a generational player who’s been injured?

 

[Alydar]

Oh no, Azzi was not left alone by our defense. No no no no no. We all know what happened in the game before ours when she was left open to shoot 3s. However, she was a focus of attack when she was on defense.

Thank you. But USF did a pretty good job staying close. SCar did better. It was a 3rd game in 3 days and UConn had a tough 2nd game while Oregon was so bad Staley could limit her starters' minutes. Not that it lessens your win but the loss wasn't going to form the basis of my opinion of Fudd or anyone on either team for that matter.

When I was a child my grandmother had a crankup Victrola and some 78's. One was the story where an acorn hits chicken lickin in the head and he spends the entire record warning everyone about the sky falling. I got the lesson.

Counter argument"It could have been the sky falling. It was possible, wasn't it?")

 

[Soxx]

Yes, I do.

I think she will play shooting guard, not point.

 

[Florida Fan]

AZZI is a talent, but she isn't Paige. AZZI has proven she needs time to acclimate to the College game. She is not 100 percent and may not be for a while. A super talent. But Without Paige I think Muhl and Evina will be the Point, floor leader, coach on the floor. Evina has all the requirements. Ms Fudd will be a designated shooter for a while.

She has to HEAL, pure and simple; then and only then can she develop point guard skills and confidence.
ALL the injured players need to be rehabbed, if they are going to play flat out on offense and on defense. Until then we are in deep excrement against the top healthy teams.

 

[CL82]

I think she will play shooting guard, not point.

Or the 3.