This game was a disaster mostly because of the guard play. Caroline, our best current shooter, did what she does best, and that is being aggressive. Evina, a player I supported all season, was a complete bust. She has no fire, showing nothing that we need on the floor. The biggest question mark is Nika, a player that we need on the floor to keep the team focused on every play. In a game like this we needed her scoring, or at least, her putting up shots. Geno loves her for what she does bring to the team, and I agree that I love it when she is out there. We have been harping on her lack of shooting, because when you put up only 1-3 shots a game, it doesn't help us at all. Caroline needed 21 shots to get her 22 points, and I am not knocking her at all, just pointing out that Nika may be able to do close to that if she took that many. (ten shots would be enough for me) We really don't know because she won't take more than 3 a game so far. Whose fault is that, it has to be the coaching. Apparently, Geno just wants her to do what she is doing, otherwise why is she starting? They must be telling her just to run the team and play great defense. It's funny, I don't ever remember any member of the media ask Geno why Nika doesn't shoot. This is a mystery to me, and I know a lot of you would like to hear that answer. When everyone is back, this won't be a big issue, but for now, I think it is and I would like to know what he thinks of that question.
Remember when Geno was constantly harping on both Paige and Azzi to shoot more? The point being that this group routinely seems to either ignore him or at the very least, have a hard time executing his wishes. Now you want him to bench the only PG and play with five?
I really hate to say this but I look at him and I see a coach that has basically had it with certain players on this team. Not saying it’s right, just that’s what I see. I think we are looking at the cumulative effect of numerous errors, mistakes, bad luck, and Covid. Some were probably his own fault while others, perhaps, not so much.
I think he coached his a*# off from 2016-2019 with a group that he slowly realized just wasn’t good enough to break down the door and
take the title. This forced him to use transfers and hope for a little luck. Well, he lost out on both fronts there, He’s finding through painful experience that the kids he has always won with, real down and dirty basketball savants, who would rather work on their game than anything else, who lived and breathed basketball, are becoming rarer and rarer. As a result he has had to make some reaches, some of which simply haven’t worked out. He’s missed out on at least one special recruit that likely would have rendered all this moot (one that he apparently was pretty sure of, mistakenly as it turned out).
Then, lo & behold, he gets “the one” gets Caroline, and miracle of miracles he gets another, potential “the one”! Things are looking up! He rolls up his sleeves, rejuvenated by the prospect of these “old school” kids. He is determined to work his rear off both to get off to a good start for Paige and company and to send his loyal, if somewhat underachieving seniors off with a bang.
Then came the pandemic! (I think this Covid thing has just sucked all the joy that was beginning to well up at the thought of this new group of old time players right out of the room) Then, insult to injury, Paige goes down! Azzi turns out to have injuries, Aubrey, a player he was counting on goes down with back problems, his highly touted post transfer turns out to need some work, Shea Ralph, a coach he could simply trust without question to maintain the defense and the guard play, leaves. Finally, just when he was beginning to put the pandemic behind him, here it is again! Meanwhile, throughout all these debilitating events, as UConn is in a (hopefully short) decline, women’s basketball is entering a renaissance with better and better players dispersing out well beyond the usual suspects.
Honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t hung it up after all that! Some will say, “everybody had to go through the same stuff”. First, that’s not true, and second, so what if they did? They’re not Geno! It does concern me though when I hear comments like “our good guards aren’t playing” I find those to be both alarming and disappointing as I cannot see how they can be anything but hurtful to some players who, presumably, are trying heir best.
At this point, I just want the kids to get healthy, Geno to find his mojo again, (it seems as if he has gotten back on track with his recruiting) and to finish out this year on a high note. Whether that means top 16, 8, 4, 2, or #1 really doesn’t matter anymore. Just let’s get our mojo back and get ready for a new era starting in Fall, 2022! I hope he can get the joy of the game back that (to me) he seems to have lost.
