Baloney ! Most Impressive ? I think not

[CTrefugee]

She was tossed in the fire and did the best she could given her experience and ability, but Aubrey gets the nod.

"As is always the case in Storrs, the UConn reserves are stepping up to fill the voids. Aubrey Griffin was crucial against Princeton and Aaliyah Edwards put up another solid game with 25 points against Maryland. But it is freshman guard Inês Bettencourt who has been most impressive.

Bettencourt was ready to head to Northwest Florida, a junior college, to get into the U.S. college system as a prospect from Portugal. In August, after Bueckers tore her ACL, she caught the eye of UConn coaches after the U18 European Championships."

Women's college basketball winners and losers: Injuries impacting top contenders; Maryland's historic win

 

[HuskyNan]

She was tossed in the fire and did the best she could given her experience and ability, but Aubrey gets the nod.

"As is always the case in Storrs, the UConn reserves are stepping up to fill the voids. Aubrey Griffin was crucial against Princeton and Aaliyah Edwards put up another solid game with 25 points against Maryland. But it is freshman guard Inês Bettencourt who has been most impressive.

Bettencourt was ready to head to Northwest Florida, a junior college, to get into the U.S. college system as a prospect from Portugal. In August, after Bueckers tore her ACL, she caught the eye of UConn coaches after the U18 European Championships."

Women's college basketball winners and losers: Injuries impacting top contenders; Maryland's historic win

Not understanding the gratuitous shot at Ines

 

[Bone Dog]

Inês has the physical skills — the perimeter shot, the handles, the ability to finish at the rim, an eye for the good pass. What she lacks is game experience. She makes mistakes because the game is still moving too fast for her. It will slow down for her soon. When folks say she’s impressive, they’re thinking of her potential, which is significant.

 

[Centerstream]

@CTrefugee are you saying that Ines is not Most Impressive?
If so, baloney on your opinion.

 

[psconn]

There are reasons Geno hates to start freshmen unless they are otherworldly good. it's not fair to the player who has to "learn-on-the-fly". They are prone to errors, and these can become a mental challenge if the player fears making a mistake and gets too tentative.

Compounding this, Ines was a late arrival and from another country. Her learning curve had to be nearly vertical.

Most impressive? Probably not, depending on how you define it. I would say, however, that Ines' story this season is the most compelling.

Her challenges are greater than anyone's and she's trying to approach them fearlessly. You can't watch her play without pulling HARD for her and being excited for every success, even when the effort also produces a number of mistakes. Everyone loves an underdog and her success is critical for the team's success. Great story in the making...?

 

[CTrefugee]

Not understanding the gratuitous shot at Ines

Not a shot...........she did the most that could be expected. A freshman can't immediately play at the top of Div 1, if they are not used to that level of play. I guarantee that WHSBB in the Azores is not top flight. The total population of all the Azore islands is less than 250,000 I think Aubrey was the most impressive - fewer than a dozen games after a 1 year layoff (not to downplay AE who is All American caliber).

 

[LoboDays]

It all depends on how high you want to set the hurdles. She is a freshman with no experience who was thrown into a starting role against a very good Division 1 program. From that perspective, her performance was impressive. It can only help her and the team when she is back on the floor.

 

[CocoHusky]

I 'm not reading it as shot a Ines but disagreement with the opinion that she has been the most impressive of all the players thrown into the fire this season.
1) Aubrey is a Junior but she was thrown into the fire when Dorka was injured and has been stellar
2) Ayanna Patterson was thrown into the fire when Ice went down with an injury and has been fairly good .
3) Amari squandered some opportunities but finally showed some fight against MD
4) Caroline has been fighting to get back to her former self but she has been more impressive than Ines
5) Ines was thrown into the fire when Azzi went down and was very good against Princeton but shaky against.

I think this article is just recency bias and agree with @CTrefugee Ines is 5th most impressive IMO.

 

[CocoHusky]

It all depends on how high you want to set the hurdles. She is a freshman with no experience who was thrown into a starting role against a very good Division 1 program. From that perspective, her performance was impressive. It can only help her and the team when she is back on the floor.

Ayanna is a freshman also and has been more impressive IMO.

 

[Bigboote]

Tomayto tomahto.

 

[LoboDays]

I think the word “most” may be the source of the problem here. I don’t view it as trying to say that her performance was better than any other player. I view it as saying that her performance exceeded expectations since she played well against a good team under the circumstances. That was impressive. Had the word “most” been left out of the article, it would have made more sense.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I'm so confused. Oy!

 

[CocoHusky]

I think the word “most” may be the source of the problem here. I don’t view it as trying to say that her performance was better than any other player. I view it as saying that her performance exceeded expectations since she played well against a good team under the circumstances. That was impressive. Had the word “most” been left out of the article, it would have made more sense.

The article specifically mentioned Aubrey Griffin. Aubrey's performance has exceeded even the most optimistic expectations all season long. If we are really talking about performance exceeding expectations shouldn't it be Lou- UCONN go to scorer averaging 17 PPG?

 

[Blond D.]

Inês has the physical skills — the perimeter shot, the handles, the ability to finish at the rim, an eye for the good pass. What she lacks is game experience. She makes mistakes because the game is still moving too fast for her. It will slow down for her soon. When folks say she’s impressive, they’re thinking of her potential, which is significant.

It would help her a lot if the players on UCONN would move and set screens. They just stand there and Ines has no one to pass to. Geno needs to get them moving.

 

[Bigboote]

It would help her a lot if the players on UCONN would move and set screens. They just stand there and Ines has no one to pass to. Geno needs to get them moving.

Agreed, but the origin of that problem is that those players haven’t played together in a game. Give ‘em time, or with any luck, get the team healthy.

 

[HuskylnSC]

Sometime reporters have to come up with a different angle to get their editors to release their story. This one is different than any article I've read about UConn's playing through injury. But if it's the reporters opinion its their opinion no sense getting outraged.

 

[HuskylnSC]

Hey @CTrefugee. Just wondering; are you a refugee from CT or to CT? Asking for a friend.

 

[ThisJustIn]

Not a shot...........she did the most that could be expected. A freshman can't immediately play at the top of Div 1, if they are not used to that level of play. I guarantee that WHSBB in the Azores is not top flight. The total population of all the Azore islands is less than 250,000 I think Aubrey was the most impressive - fewer than a dozen games after a 1 year layoff (not to downplay AE who is All American caliber).

Yah. It was a shot. An unnecessary one.

 

[CTrefugee]

Hey @CTrefugee. Just wondering; are you a refugee from CT or to CT? Asking for a friend.

From CT. NC does not tax my pension and I am near my daughter (and warmer). The only downside is being 10 minutes from both Duke and UNC and 30 Minutes from NC State. I have to listen to all that biased BB talk. Then again, I get to say when asked "UCONN only school where men's and women's BB ......etc etc."

p.s. I was in graduate school at UCONN when Dom Perno was point guard. That gives you an idea of my age.

 

[Bone Dog]

Jeez. Someone says a nice thing about Inês and the red thumb comes out. What the heck is going on here? No one pretended she’s Sue Bird. But she’s been dropped into the soup and managed to tread water. Good on her!

And pretending Aubrey is a totally different player is about as accurate. She’s rediscovered her mojo (and then some!), and she’s shooting better from the outside — which I love — but she still makes the same old ball handling errors, like picking up her dribble in the lane before she knows where to pass it and earning a three second call. Or didn’t you guys notice when she did that again in the last two games? But I don’t red thumb the folks who say she’s a viable point guard. Aubrey will be a vital ingredient in this year’s tournament run, and her slashing offense, high energy rebounding, and devastating defense will prove the undoing of more than a few teams. If we’d had this Aubrey last year, UCF would have been little more than gum in the tread of Paige’s shoes. And Haley Jones would have been toast, since Aubrey is like a perfect matchup for her.

Inês will probably not play a vital role at that time of year. But she just might help us solve a few problems in December and January as she sharpens her skills. And who knows, maybe she’ll find a spot in next year’s rotation. I think that’s pretty impressive, given her starting point.

 

[CocoHusky]

Sometime reporters have to come up with a different angle to get their editors to release their story. This one is different than any article I've read about UConn's playing through injury. But if it's the reporters opinion its their opinion no sense getting outraged.

That a solid take on things. I'm much more cynical:

Some people are way too easy to impressed.
Ines is a solid player and I'm glad she here but how far are we going to....

 

[Bone Dog]

The article specifically mentioned Aubrey Griffin. Aubrey's performance has exceeded even the most optimistic expectations all season long. If we are really talking about performance exceeding expectations shouldn't it be Lou- UCONN go to scorer averaging 17 PPG?

I think not, since many of us (ok, maybe mainly me) expected exactly this from Lou over the summer. With Azzi as her "shooting mate" I said she'd get lots of open looks -- which she did. Once Azzi went down, it got a bit tougher to find those open looks.

Ayanna is a freshman also and has been more impressive IMO.

Similarly, many folks here had sky high expectations for Ayanna over the summer -- have you forgotten about the dunk predictions? -- and she hasn't quite exceeded these. So, more impressive maybe, but not exceeding expectations. Perhaps, like Lou, she's been hampered by the injury to her running mate in the post, namely Ice. But I love her progress so far, and can't wait to see what she'll be in March.

 

[CocoHusky]

I think not, since many of us (ok, maybe mainly me) expected exactly this from Lou over the summer. With Azzi as her "shooting mate" I said she'd get lots of open looks -- which she did. Once Azzi went down, it got a bit tougher to find those open looks.


Similarly, many folks here had sky high expectations for Ayanna over the summer -- have you forgotten about the dunk predictions? -- and she hasn't quite exceeded these. So, more impressive maybe, but not exceeding expectations. Perhaps, like Lou, she's been hampered by the injury to her running mate in the post, namely Ice. But I love her progress so far, and can't wait to see what she'll be in March.

Since Azzi went down Lou has been finding it tougher to get open looks?
Since Azzi went down Lou has been shooting better both from deep and from in close so she is-exceeding expectations?

There weren't many sensible fans that expected Ayanna to have thrown down one 10 games into the season.
You can still get on the right side of sensible by dropping that expectation of Ayanna right now. She may never throw down one in her time at UCONN. So far Ayanna has exceeded expectations.

 

[uconnbill]

some of you are tough yikes I thought the football board was tough but this board is a SMH