Bria

[msf22b]

Fuller says that Bria's "cameo" was not caused by injury or illness which sounds like it came from Geno.

We were able to only listen to the game courtesy of the Oregon Radio broadcast (quite professional) and have no idea what this is about.

Does anyone have any information on this slightly strange situation?...doghouse? Seems unlikely.

 

[alexrgct]

She hasn't played at the level she needs to and is expected to at this point. Sitting her for extended minutes against a hapless opponent was a way to send whatever message Geno wanted to send, I imagine.

This is a kid who's already guaranteed her name on the Huskies of Honor, but she hasn't played like it this season. Geno loves Bria, but he knows for UConn to win it all this season, she's got to play like the All-American she is.

By the way, the fact that UConn is the runaway #1 without her playing her best ball should concern a lot of people.

 

[Sonny44]

Gotta be more to it than that.

 

[sarals24]

I think he wants consistency from her. She plays great against big opponents, and seems to be coasting against lesser ones.

 

[OneTrickPony]

Bria has had a lot of big games, and I'm guessing she no longer gets the big adrenaline rush that used to come naturally. If she wants to achieve her potential, she's going to have to learn to motivate herself...a pretty common problem for elite athletes, and one that all of the best have grappled with successfully.

 

[HGN]

If there is no injury or illness involved , which I don't think there is , Geno is clearly sending a message. Bria is a smart girl , and she will get the message to play to her fullest each time on the floor.

Geno has 2 buttons he can push , (1) he can pull her scholarship , which there is no chance of that happening ; or (2) , he can cut her PT . Which is what he has done and will continue to do until he sees the old Bria out there. We will know if she has gotten the message on Saturday. Personally , I think she has gotten the message.

 

[doggydaddy]

I believe Chris Dailey said on her post game show that there is a certain way they want them to play and Bria wasn't playing that way.

Shows that Geno uses the bench as a bully pulpit (in a good way) to motivate players. Even All American starters.

I expect a great performance from Hartley against ND.

 

[boontonbomber]

in the 5 games before oregon bria played 159 minutes ( 32 min. per), with only faris at 163 minutes playing more. i think part of her benching has to do with geno not wanting to wear her down more in the oregon track meet. people continue to forget her late start this season. bria is a thoroughbred, and geno knows that she will be there when the going gets tough. he's spoken more than once about her thriving in those situations .she's shown that in the big games more than any other player on this team, except maybe faris. i think that he wants her healthy, with rested legs under her, as she will probably be dealing with diggins on saturday. just my thoughts on it.

 

[sarals24]

He might want her to stay healthy, but if that was the case he would have said so. Chris wouldn't have said that Bria wasn't playing up to expectations.

 

[Icebear]

He might want her to stay healthy, but if that was the case he would have said so. Chris wouldn't have said that Bria wasn't playing up to expectations.

Exactly, it is probably safer to take Geno at his word than to venture many substantiated guesses.

 

[trisailin]

I think it's pretty simple - just take CD at her word. She said Bria wasn't playing the way they wanted so she sat. Why do people feel a need to find something "more than" that?

 

[pap49cba]

The only comment I read - and I can't recall where - was Geno saying Bria was 'out of sorts'.

 

[01Neaggrad02]

Bria played 38 minutes against Stanford, and is still not 100% with her ankle injury if I am not mistaken. Geno could have also reduced her playing time knowing that Bria will be needed to player major minutes against Notre Dame. Or maybe he was unhappy with how she was playing. I cannot tell as I was unable to see the game. Maybe it is because she has less assist than Stef who is a center. Who knows. Maybe he did this because Kim Mulkey said Sims was the best point guard in the country and he wanted to get Bria all worked up.... Who know...

 

[pap49cba]

I suspect it was a combination of factors including Geno's professed plan to give Tuck and MoJeff more minutes to see how they performed.

 

[blackbird]

It was just for motivation. He usually saves this type of tool for post players, but Bria took a trip to the doghouse. If she was pouting a little bit, it's probably a good way to get her out of that funk and get her angry for Skylar.

 

[Bestiarius]

I say, all of the above.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I believe Chris Dailey said on her post game show that there is a certain way they want them to play and Bria wasn't playing that way.

Shows that Geno uses the bench as a bully pulpit (in a good way) to motivate players. Even All American starters.

I expect a great performance from Hartley against ND.

I like your last sentence. Hopefully, the Oregon situation will spur Bria on. If she plays at an AA level against ND, I'll be more comfortable.

 

[Cheddie]

I'm not sure it's any of the above. One of the beat writers (sorry, can't remember who) reported that Geno wanted an opportunity to play Morgan and Moriah more minutes, as they were both getting healthy, to "see what they have" for later in the season, and he thought this was a good game for it. Someone's minutes had to suffer, and Caroline & KML were playing so well, Bria sat. The two frosh got 27 and 23 minutes, respectively.

 

[Ozzie Nelson]

I love wacthing her roar up the court.

 

[pap49cba]

Rich Elliott ‏@elliottctpost
@RMarcinczyk I was told that Geno simply wasn't happy with the way she was playing and sat her down.

 

[JimGunther]

That's the quote I remember.

Sounded like he was "motivating" her<G>.

ND had better watch out!

I believe Chris Dailey said on her post game show that there is a certain way they want them to play and Bria wasn't playing that way.

Shows that Geno uses the bench as a bully pulpit (in a good way) to motivate players. Even All American starters.
.

 

[CL82]

You can second guess Geno on a lot things, I guess, but he has shown that he knows how to motivate players to be the very best that they can be. I suspect that he was in teaching mode against a less than inspiring opponent.

 

[DriveLH]

There is a story in one of Geno's books referring to an incident with Shea Ralph. The gist was Shea wasn't playing upto Geno's standards, so she got to sit and watch ONCE. Maybe, Bria will get the hint.

 

[Husky68]

Maybe he has been reading my posts. How do you have a point guard like Bria and she can't dribble and makes so many mistakes with the ball. Come on folks, even you see her dribbling the ball at shoulder height all the time like its a beach ball and carrying it on every dribble sequence and walk lot of times before she even starts dribbling.
Better now than later in season. This is similar to the Renee issue where Geno wanted more POINT in the point guard role and it confused her and her play went down for a while.
Hartley, Sims and Simmons were the big 3 coming in; Sims is a combo of Shea/Sue; Simmons is Rick Mount without the accuracy and Hartley is looking more like Nicole coming back after her 2nd ACL (too weak and not good enough dribbler for PG position, too hesitant for shooting guard).
Can't have Doty of Stanford (2 shots-not points-20 minutes) and the Hartley of Stanford (weak with ball, bad decisions, step slow on getting to ball and through picks).
Doty seems to want playing time so for at least Oregon has gotten out of her Faris mode (Faris of prior years where she took did not pull her weight on the scoring end and too content to be helper/decoy on offense), if that continues great, if not she should lose playing time. Banks is more athletic and able to put much more pressure on ball than Hartley, and Banks may be taking minutes from Hartley rather than Doty (as I thought).
Every game vs. ND (at least seems like it) there are a few late game situations where Diggins pokes ball away from Hartley that costs (or helps cost) the lead/game. This ND game is preview of Hartley going up against Sims and is the matchup most concerned about (if Faris on Diggins it hurts rebounding and Faris is needed to fight inside against the muggers).
My question to Geno is, why did it take so long.

 

[triaddukefan]

Bria played 38 minutes against Stanford, and is still not 100% with her ankle injury if I am not mistaken. Geno could have also reduced her playing time knowing that Bria will be needed to player major minutes against Notre Dame. Or maybe he was unhappy with how she was playing. I cannot tell as I was unable to see the game. Maybe it is because she has less assist than Stef who is a center. Who knows. Maybe he did this because Kim Mulkey said Sims was the best point guard in the country and he wanted to get Bria all worked up.... Who know...

Why would she get fired up by that opinion ?