Biggest Surprise This Season? | The Boneyard

Biggest Surprise This Season?

D

Dancingbear

Joined
Aug 12, 2021
Messages
10
Reaction Score
36
So we're all expecting big things from this tremendously talented team. I'm wondering who will provide the biggest surprise positive impact on this squad? Dorka? Caroline? Saylor? Amari? Liv? Who's going to have the breakout year none of us expected? I'm guessing Caroline...and that's all it can be...a guess.
 
Paige will sign a multi-year, multi-million $ shoe deal with someone other than Nike…….
 
.-.
Piath Gabriel progressing enough to get meaningful minutes in the regular rotation while the games are still in doubt. That to me would be the biggest surprise since she was projected as "a long term project", and is viewed as having the most to learn of anyone on the roster. THAT to me would be the biggest surprise this year.

Other than UConn winning the NC this year, and 3 of our players being selected as 1st team All-Americans, nothing would make me happier. :)
 
Carnac said:
Piath Gabriel progressing enough to get meaningful minutes in the regular rotation while the games are still in doubt. That to me would be the biggest surprise since she was projected as "a long term project", and is viewed as having the most to learn of anyone on the roster. THAT to me would be the biggest surprise this year.

Other than UConn winning the NC this year, and 3 of our players being selected as 1st team All-Americans, nothing would make me happier. :)
Expand ...
I'm a big Piath supporter. She knows her roll and showed a great deal of improvement over the course of last season. If she can give 3-5 meaningful minutes per game I'll be ecstatic.
 
.-.
If this team can shoot 75% from the FT line, I will be very surprised and elated. I expect us to have some close games this season and FT's outside of Paige last year, were an, uhhhhhhh, adventure. Simply put, they need to be better and it'll be a pleasant surprise if they are.
 
ucbart said:
If this team can shoot 75% from the FT line, I will be very surprised and elated. I expect us to have some close games this season and FT's outside of Paige last year, were an, uhhhhhhh, adventure. Simply put, they need to be better and it'll be a pleasant surprise if they are.
Expand ...
One of my favorite parts of the SNY broadcasts ( or whatever it's called these days) are the interviews with Geno during the breaks between quarters./half. Gives a bit of insight as to HIS impression of what has just transpired.
Along with some of the sarcastic/exasperated comments about "Paige seems to be on strike.She won't shoot", he also said "I don't know, maybe someone will make a free-throw for a change".
I would not be surprised to find out that someone (Jemelle? Morgan?) is running a clinic on proper F/T etiquette. Maybe include everybody instead of embarrassing some of the biggest culprits. CW is not bad , but I remember her missing some critical ones. No doubt when one is in a stressful situation, your mechanics can elude you. You can't call a time out before critical F/T's just to tell someone to take a deep breath, see the basket in your mind, look past the ball, whatever.
It sounds like a fundamental part of the game that shouldn't require that much attention, but in some games a couple of points one way or another can not only alter the final score, but can influence how you approach the last few minutes of a tight game.
If we can have high expectations regarding a contested 3 point shot or a well executed and targeted pass through traffic, we can have even HIGHER expectations for uncontested F/T's.
 
Cornell Lt said:
I'm a big Piath supporter. She knows her roll and showed a great deal of improvement over the course of last season. If she can give 3-5 meaningful minutes per game I'll be ec
Expand ...

cferraro04 said:
I am going to go with Olivia Nelson-Ododa...she will finally play up to expectations.
Expand ...
We can only hope. And yeah, I'll be happily surprised if she finally shows up when it matters.
 
Cornell Lt said:
I'm a big Piath supporter. She knows her roll and showed a great deal of improvement over the course of last season. If she can give 3-5 meaningful minutes per game I'll be ecstatic.
Expand ...
Wow...agreed! Meaningful minutes Piath would indeed be a pleasant surprise. She never even occurred to me in my original post. Let's hope for measurable progress!
 
.-.
OK...so Azzi starts. Pencil in Paige, CW and Liv. Who's the 5th starter? AE, Evina...? Let's keep going. Nika, Dorka...? This is going to be a fun season! It would seem that "starting" will not be of great significance this year.
 
oldude said:
Paige will sign a multi-year, multi-million $ shoe deal with someone other than Nike…….
Expand ...
Bcuz of the money, everyone will be out for themselves [as I've said before]
 
.-.
CB360 said:
Agreed! If she could just show up in big Non-Conference games instead of just conference games.....
Expand ...
Just a reminder, Liv had an outstanding game vs Syracuse 6’7” Cardoso in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament.

Syracuse came out trying to force the ball into Cardoso in the low post every time down the court, and she scored a quick 8 pts. From that point on Liv played tough defense, largely containing Cardoso for the rest of the game, while putting up 17 pts with 8 rebounds.
 
Wish she could bang a bit more inside, but as much as we want her to be Tina, Steph, Kara, or Swinn she was never physically designed that way.She's quick, has great vision and the wingspan to be effective. She also gets her keister down the court in a hurry, in both directions.
I don't see Geno just benching her, but working her in tandem with another big.
She seemed to be very effective with both AE and Aubrey.
Add Dorka and Amari/Piath and we might just have the "Big" combo we need.
To use a baseball analogy, you can go very far with the right platoon system.
 
Alydar said:
What will be surprising is that Geno will be all smiles.
Expand ...
I'm sure you know better than I do, however I have been a fan and have watched since the last century and have watched Geno game in and game out and unless I've missed it Geno all smiles never happened and it's not gonna happen this year either. Just not his style.
 
.-.
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,529
Messages
4,580,587
Members
10,490
Latest member
7774Forever


Top Bottom