You say they won 12 of the last 22 NPOY awards and that's true but misleading, when you dig a bit deeper, those 12 NPOY awards went to 3 or 4 Connecticut players, DT3, Maya and Stewie have 9 of the 12 between them. All of the players you listed as AA's would have had much better stats had they been at other programs, so they may not have been overlooked. That's what I meant....
No that's inaccurate.
DT only won POY in 2 years (swept all awards in 2003 and took home a couple in 2004.
Maya won 3 years but split with Charles in 2010.
Stewart took home almost all of the awards all three years.
So there have been 8 UCONN players (Lobo/Rizzotti/Wolters/Bird/Taurasi/Moore/Charles/Stewart) who've won POY awards in those 12 seasons. Actually, throw in Shea Ralph who actually won a couple over Catchings in 2000, and you have 9 different players in 13 years.
I do think all were deserving, but this shows voters did not victimize UCONN players due to less gaudy statistics or playing for UCONN. Of the POY award winners in the last 20 years, the winners with the lowest PPGs have all been from UCONN:
Rizzotti averaged about 11 per game when she won
Ralph averaged 14
Bird averaged 14
Taurasi averaged 16ppg and 18ppg
In fact, the only Connecticut player who won POY while averaging 20+ is Maya Moore. Everyone else was under 20ppg. Almost every other winner from a different program averaged 20+ points per game in the year they won: Beard/Holdsclaw/Augustus/Griner/Parker/Stiles/etc.
If you're arguing that Connecticut players would have better stats if they played for different programs, I agree 100%. No way Taurasi averages just 15ppg for her career at any other program, or that a player like Morgan Tuck would only average 11.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game for her career playing at a different program. That said, I don't think any players at Connecticut are overlooked despite having relatively modest statistics. Morgan Tuck did not have your typical AA caliber statistics last year, but was honored by almost all outlets as an AA and was a top 3 pick in the WNBA draft. No one overlooked her skills or ability as a player, but on paper her stats don't pop out at you.
Players coming to Connecticut know they aren't going to score 20ppg, but at UCONN they are in the national spotlight and do have a great shot of becoming an All-American if they are a top 5-10 kid coming out of high school and buy into Geno's system.
But, unfortunately, not for AA or Wooden voters.
and Saniya
