Born to Run

[facey76]

UCMiami brought up Svetlana at the end of the “Napheesa or Katie Lou” thread last week, and it made me nostalgic for my favorite of favorites, so I thought I would start a new thread to show Svetlana some love.

She was born to run. She flew up the court more gracefully than anyone I have ever seen. Even Maya Moore( sorry Gabby, Maya was and remains the best athlete of them all) did not have the grace of Svetlana Abrosimova. When I think of her, I see a in movie in my mind, witnessed live countless times: it starts with her grabbing a defensive rebound in traffic, she immediately comes flying out of the scrum in the lane to head up the court in an effortless gallop that does not seem overly fast, yet as she weaves her way to the other end, she passes would-be defenders easily, the trip more often than not ends with a layup for herself or another teammate if they kept up. Teammates quickly learned to run when they saw her get her hands on a rebound

She is not included in anyone’s UConn Mount Rushmore , but I am not sure I’d would leave her off any team I was picking. She was a fierce competitor. If you could measure that quality, those teams with Shea and Sveta would stand above all others.

If you are a more recent fan and missed out on seeing Sveta (and Shea) playing in their prime, Let me just say that Sveta was 1 or 2 in almost every stat category from 1998 through her senior season in ’01. She, along with Shea Ralph were the main cogs in the bridge of talent from the Sales/Wolters era to the post TASSK Taurasi/Strother&Turner era. I highly recommend you seek out some of the games on you tube from 98 through 2001. A particularly fun one was a game against then #3 Georgia to open the 2000/2001 season.

I know it is debatable but IMHO that 2001 team to me was the best, and could take on any of our more recent teams, it had it all. Post play, guard play, toughness, 3 point shooting, and an absurdly deep bench. In fact, the team that took the court against Georgia that day had 9 future WNBA players on it. Not sure if that has ever been done before or since.

Starters that day: Sue, Shea, Svetlana, Swin and Kelly Shumacher.

Bench : Taurasi, Ashja Jones, Tamika Williams, Ashley Battle, Christine Rigby (who could play but only got garbage time on this team), Maria Conlon & Kennitra Johnson (who transferred out but could have been a great one and might have been the tenth from the team to make the WNBA had she stayed).

As great as that team was, I always derived the most delight from whatever Svet was doing on the court, she consistently stood out in spite of playing with other all-americans.

She led the Huskies in multiple years in most points, assists, rebounds and steals, everything major but blocks.

Heading into the 2001 season she was large on the national radar, and I am fairly certain she would have been named player of the year that year had she not been hurt in the 19th game of the season. In the Sports Illustrated College basketball pre-season issue that year Kelli Anderson had a two page spread on her which included an across the fold, cheesecake picture. This quote sums it up, “…who has what Abrosimova has: looks, smarts, grace, talent, personality, drive and, as (Jamelle) Elliott puts it, "a knack for getting the ball over the rim?"

Check out the links below when you have time. The best is the one from march 1999 from the courant.

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn...ider-svet-abrosimova-0206-20150205-story.html

http://espn.go.com/magazine/vol2no24svet.html

http://www.si.com/vault/2000/11/20/...-svetlana-abrosimova-has-the-look-of-a-winner

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ana-abrosimova-notre-dame-coach-geno-auriemma


http://articles.courant.com/1999-03-07/news/9911160054_1_school-s-secret-weapon-girl-woman


http://articles.courant.com/2001-02-18/news/0102180420_1_russian-gampel-pavilion-hard-day

 

[Zorro]

AND the great gift of being able to understand English only when she wanted to.

 

[Sonny44]

UCMiami brought up Svetlana at the end of the “Napheesa or Katie Lou” thread last week, and it made me nostalgic for my favorite of favorites, so I thought I would start a new thread to show Svetlana some love.

She was born to run. She flew up the court more gracefully than anyone I have ever seen. Even Maya Moore( sorry Gabby, Maya was and remains the best athlete of them all) did not have the grace of Svetlana Abrosimova. When I think of her, I see a in movie in my mind, witnessed live countless times: it starts with her grabbing a defensive rebound in traffic, she immediately comes flying out of the scrum in the lane to head up the court in an effortless gallop that does not seem overly fast, yet as she weaves her way to the other end, she passes would-be defenders easily, the trip more often than not ends with a layup for herself or another teammate if they kept up. Teammates quickly learned to run when they saw her get her hands on a rebound

She is not included in anyone’s UConn Mount Rushmore , but I am not sure I’d would leave her off any team I was picking. She was a fierce competitor. If you could measure that quality, those teams with Shea and Sveta would stand above all others.

If you are a more recent fan and missed out on seeing Sveta (and Shea) playing in their prime, Let me just say that Sveta was 1 or 2 in almost every stat category from 1998 through her senior season in ’01. She, along with Shea Ralph were the main cogs in the bridge of talent from the Sales/Wolters era to the post TASSK Taurasi/Strother&Turner era. I highly recommend you seek out some of the games on you tube from 98 through 2001. A particularly fun one was a game against then #3 Georgia to open the 2000/2001 season.

I know it is debatable but IMHO that 2001 team to me was the best, and could take on any of our more recent teams, it had it all. Post play, guard play, toughness, 3 point shooting, and an absurdly deep bench. In fact, the team that took the court against Georgia that day had 9 future WNBA players on it. Not sure if that has ever been done before or since.

Starters that day: Sue, Shea, Svetlana, Swin and Kelly Shumacher.

Bench : Taurasi, Ashja Jones, Tamika Williams, Ashley Battle, Christine Rigby (who could play but only got garbage time on this team), Maria Conlon & Kennitra Johnson (who transferred out but could have been a great one and might have been the tenth from the team to make the WNBA had she stayed).

As great as that team was, I always derived the most delight from whatever Svet was doing on the court, she consistently stood out in spite of playing with other all-americans.

She led the Huskies in multiple years in most points, assists, rebounds and steals, everything major but blocks.

Heading into the 2001 season she was large on the national radar, and I am fairly certain she would have been named player of the year that year had she not been hurt in the 19th game of the season. In the Sports Illustrated College basketball pre-season issue that year Kelli Anderson had a two page spread on her which included an across the fold, cheesecake picture. This quote sums it up, “…who has what Abrosimova has: looks, smarts, grace, talent, personality, drive and, as (Jamelle) Elliott puts it, "a knack for getting the ball over the rim?"

Check out the links below when you have time. The best is the one from march 1999 from the courant.

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn...ider-svet-abrosimova-0206-20150205-story.html

http://espn.go.com/magazine/vol2no24svet.html

http://www.si.com/vault/2000/11/20/...-svetlana-abrosimova-has-the-look-of-a-winner

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ana-abrosimova-notre-dame-coach-geno-auriemma


http://articles.courant.com/1999-03-07/news/9911160054_1_school-s-secret-weapon-girl-woman


http://articles.courant.com/2001-02-18/news/0102180420_1_russian-gampel-pavilion-hard-day

 

[CTtransplant]

I moved to CT from Europe in 2000, and had never watched a women's basketball game in my life. One evening I stumbled onto a UConn game on CPTV. When I saw the grace and fluidity with which Sveta played, I could not turn away. She played beautiful basketball.

Shortly thereafter, a young woman named Taurasi joined the team and I was a committed fan. In 2015, the UConn women are still my favorite sports team. It all happened because I could not stop watching Svetlana run.

 

[cohenzone]

Damn, time flies. Just looked up the year, it was 1997 and UConn hosted a pre-season tournament. In the first round they played what was supposed to be a good Nortwestern team. My brother in law is an NU alum, so a few if us went up. UConn had Sales and Shea and Svet. In that game, UConn looked like the great old Celtics playing against an elementary school team. Svet ran and passed them into sawdust. Fans who never saw her and Shea play together missed a treat. Shea is probably my favorite all time, fierce and steady. ND won its only championship a few years later when a talented but young UConn team had to play without the injured seniors Svet and Shea in the quarters and fell apart in tte 2nd half.

ETA: Svet picked up English so fast it was impressive. By the end of a little over a year she could joke in English during interviews. It's very hard to make a joke in a new language.

Nebraska was also in that tournament. UConn fell so much in love with The Huskers huge inflatable mascot that it introduced a similar Husky mascot the next year. It never caught on.

 

[gampelcrazies]

I got excited. I thought this was going to be a thread about Bruce Springsteen

 

[UcMiami]

Facey76 - really nice post - when I was posting in the other thread, I was debating just creating a new thread rather than taking the stuff on to that one - so I am glad that you did it! I'll post my original theread which was instigated by a PhillyCoach request as he is of the unfortunate number who did not get to follow her at Uconn live.

One other thought - I wonder if ANY other WCBB (or men's for that matterZ) player has every made first team AA status playing only eighteen and a half games at the start of a season. That is what Sveta did her senior year. She was odds on favorite to win most of the NPOY awards at the time of her injury - her stats at the time of her injury: 14.8 PPG, .536/.448, 6.9 rebounds/gm, 4.3 assists/g with an A/TO of 2.4 and 3 steals per game in 26 minutes/gm.

The previous post:
Sveta was the first player at Uconn on whom I had a 'crush'! (Still do, dirty old man that I am! ) So it is a pleasure to revisit her time at Uconn.
She remains in my memory as the smoothest player ever at Uconn - she seemed effortless in everything she did. She was fast without seeming to run hard, could elevate without seeming to jump, and had a very good handle without you every really noticing. Her injury in the 2001 season was devastating, and combined with Shea's cost the team a very real shot at an NC.

She had a sophistication which I associate with Europeans - they are generally raised in an environment where socialization occurs across ages and are expected from an very early age to participate in adult conversation in meaningful ways, so she seemed more grown up than typical college kids. She and Geno had a complicated relationship (surprise, surprise!) but I think one of mutual respect - she had a wicked sense of humor and a strong will, and the two bounced off each other but I don't remember her every being in the 'doghouse' but might just be forgetting. She certainly never got the nickname 'precious'. She sought out Uconn more than Uconn recruited her - and she greatly displeased her St. Petersburg coach by leaving for the US. Just making that choice says something about her.

As for her game - she was a point forward. With range out to the three point line (career .406 #5 at uconn), she was also a great passer (#14 career in assists) and slasher to the hoop. Defensively she was very good at playing passing lanes (#4 in steals career) and a very good rebounder., but not much of a shot blocker. She variously led her teams in points (1 year), assists (1 yr), rebounding (3 yrs), 3 point percentage (2 yrs), and steals (1 yr) If she had not lost half her senior year to injury she would have ended up with numbers around 2100 points, 550 assists, 950 rebounds, 350 steals, joining only Maya Moore in the 2000/500/300 points/assist/steals club. She twice scored more than 30 points in a game and twice dished out 10 or more assists. She is all over the best lists by freshman, sophomore, and juniors, and was voted first team all american three times including her senior year when she only played the first 19 games.

She was GREAT! And she is Beautiful!

And her senior night with her parents on their first trip ever to the US - they never saw her play a college game live, only on tape sent home by Sveta - (she said she only sent the games where she played really well! )

 

[pvdoggy]

I am curious how many players in the history of this great program have ever been 3 times All American ? I would guess you may be able to count them on one and a half hand, may be ? Never saw Sveta played, but that fact alone should say how great of a player she was.

 

[UcMiami]

I am curious how many players in the history of this great program have ever been 3 times All American ? I would guess you may be able to count them on one and a half hand, may be ? Never saw Sveta played, but that fact alone should say how great of a player she was.

It is one hand - Moore 4 time, DT 3, Sveta 3
And we all assume we will be adding one more to the list at the end of this year.

 

[Fiftyish]

What a wonderful post. Facey76, like you Svet is my favorite player. I can remember the first time I saw Svet was in the summer before her freshman year. I was at the New Haven Coliseum to watch an exhibition game of the New England Blizzard featuring Jen Rizzotti. Stacy Hansmeyer attended the game with 2 or 3 of the incoming freshman with Svet being one of them. I was amazed at how young she looked (I think she was only 17) and how thin and frail she appeared.
It's unfortunate that many of our younger or newer fans didn't get to see her and many other UConn greats. As time goes on the memory of their skills and contributions to the UConn dynasty are replaced by the latest and greatest recruit. Ahaa, the cycle of life
Thanks again for posting.

 

[Bliss]

I watched her on TV games during her career at UC. Grace and beauty in motion.

 

[j66kicker]

Svetta was SOOO good! I used to take my young son to the games - he had a huge crush on 'Spet'...

 

[alexrgct]

A 6'2" power forward who could drive the ball up-court like s guard and shoot and pass like one too- she was a freak. I wondered if Stewie would be analogous, and she has been. She can push the ball up-court even though Moriah is her teammate, she's an excellent passer, and she shoots the rock quite well. I can't remember if she ever named Sveta as an influence or if she was asked, but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[UcMiami]

A 6'2" power forward who could drive the ball up-court like s guard and shoot and pass like one too- she was a freak. I wondered if Stewie would be analogous, and she has been. She can push the ball up-court even though Moriah is her teammate, she's an excellent passer, and she shoots the rock quite well. I can't remember if she ever named Sveta as an influence or if she was asked, but it wouldn't surprise me.

The comparison falls down on height and length, as it does with Maya and DT - Stewart is able to do things in the low post that those others just could not. And while Stewart is very good on the perimeter DT and Sveta's ball handling and driving ability are much more advanced than Stewarts. Maya suffers in the same way in comparison on the perimeter and her compensatory strength was just that, her athletic strength and mid-range game.
They are all great, just a little different in mixture of skills and temperament.

 

[alexrgct]

The comparison falls down on height and length, as it does with Maya and DT - Stewart is able to do things in the low post that those others just could not. And while Stewart is very good on the perimeter DT and Sveta's ball handling and driving ability are much more advanced than Stewarts. Maya suffers in the same way in comparison on the perimeter and her compensatory strength was just that, her athletic strength and mid-range game.
They are all great, just a little different in mixture of skills and temperament.

I don't have Sveta's stats in front of me, but Stewie is on pace to average close to 100 assists and 100 blocks a season. She's shooting 59-45-81 FG-3PG-FT. Her rebounding numbers are phenomenal. In other words, I'd say she has amazing hands and puts her length to perfect use, as Sveta did to an extent.

 

[UcMiami]

Alex - check my reposting above in blue on Sveta's stats - if she had completed her senior year she should have ended averaging about 140 assist a year. But the perimeter ball handling/driving that I was referring to was more putting the ball on the floor and dribbling around guards and wings - Stewart (and Maya) just aren't that effective against the shorter faster wing defenders - DT and Sveta were more comfortable on the dribble against anyone. All four players under discussion were great passers and finished with impressive assist numbers.

 

[Millenial23]

Great thread, and some great articles from the Courant! Thanks for posting!