Coaches see improvement in Heather

[pap49cba]

LINK

 

[bschwartz]

Say what you want about her, and she has taken a lot of grief, but she hasn't quit. I'd guess that years from now, she will appreciate her Husky experience more than most. Not giving up can do that.

 

[JS]

"I haven't (considered a transfer) because I want to do what I can do here," Buck said. "Sure, if I transferred I could play a ton, and of course I want to play but my goal was always to be the best player I could be.

"I always thought that coming here gave me the best opportunity to learn and grow as a player. As an experience it's been amazing. I couldn't have picked a better group of girls to be around and spend my time with every day."

The answer to those who think playing time should be the major consideration in choosing a college.

 

[EricLA]

that was a great quote from her JS. i know Husky fans are all rooting for her to "break out" and have a really solid year...

 

[FairView]

You can't teach character, you can only recruit it. And that's an advantage that will help Heather far beyond her UConn days.

Thought two: boy do I wish for her to have a year of meaningful contribution.

 

[connboy77]

I wish Heather the best of luck this season. She has the right attitude and knows what she has to do to contribute to the team. Now all Heather needs to do is put everything together and play with more confidence to have a successful year.

 

[ctchamps]

She stated she does everything perfectly in drills but when she steps on the court in real games she gets frazzled. It shows how much the mental and emotional make up of a person influence a person's performance. She is confident in practice, but not in real game situations.

 

[AboutWeston]

We need Heather to come up big, which she has done, when the chips are down - particularly against Baylor and other teams with big bigs!

 

[MilfordHusky]

When standing next to her teammates, Heather looks physically imposing. She is tall and strong.

She really helped in the Baylor game. Some of us think that she could have saved the Notre Dame Final Four game.

Heather needs to get things right in her mind--be confident that success in practice carries over to success in games. She does not need to be perfect, just good. And making an occasional mistake is ok.

 

[Kibitzer]

Heather comes up big every single day. Or do we forget that there are things that are more important than basketball?

If she never scored a point or snagged a rebound, I would want her on my team.

Now, Heather, SIC 'EM!

 

[vtcwbuff]

"Some of us think that she could have saved the Notre Dame Final Four game"

Milford - I don't know if she could have saved the game, but considering the circumstances, at least one of us (me) felt that she should have been given the chance. After all, no matter how she played the outcome could not have been worse.

 

[cohenzone]

Given that his team was gassed, and given that Heather had shown that she was at least able to defend and rebound, if only to spell a few players for 2-3 minutes at a time, Geno's decision not to use Heather at all in that game will remain one of the few really big question marks in his great career.

 

[Icebear]

We still do not know how healthy her legs were for that game. She had those stress fractures going into the tournament. We don't know if that was why she may not have been available.

 

[DaddyChoc]

She stated she does everything perfectly in drills but when she steps on the court in real games she gets frazzled. It shows how much the mental and emotional make up of a person influence a person's performance. She is confident in practice, but not in real game situations.

this is exactly why I dont think "good in practice" is more helpful than "real-game" situations.

deep down inside you know you're teammates arent you enemies...and its not real (as much as we want to believe Geno practices are) and you dont have 10,000 yelling "shoot the ball Heather".

I totally understand what she's going thru

 

[bruinbball]

I hope she can have a great year! Good luck Heather.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Given that his team was gassed, and given that Heather had shown that she was at least able to defend and rebound, if only to spell a few players for 2-3 minutes at a time, Geno's decision not to use Heather at all in that game will remain one of the few really big question marks in his great career.

I agree with you and VTCW. With Stef on the bench due to foul trouble, no one was able to stop the dribble penetration. Heather may have been able to. I know Geno is averse to putting players into the game if their practice was not effective, but it worked against Baylor. I think he needed to gamble in the situation against N.D. What was the worst that would have happened--a loss?

 

[ctchamps]

I agree with you and VTCW. With Stef on the bench due to foul trouble, no one was able to stop the dribble penetration. Heather may have been able to. I know Geno is averse to putting players into the game if their practice was not effective, but it worked against Baylor. I think he needed to gamble in the situation against N.D. What was the worst that would have happened--a loss?

The worse that can happen depends on the nature of the player. If Heather has the personality that is afraid of failure, than a bad game can reenforce her fears. So play her in situations in which she has the least chance of making mistakes that are costly to the games outcome. If she has the personality that is fearful of authoritative judgement, then allowing her to play and not take her mistakes to task would help her develop confidence. And if she has fears of both, that is very hard to overcome.

 

[MilfordHusky]

The worse that can happen depends on the nature of the player. If Heather has the personality that is afraid of failure, than a bad game can reenforce her fears. So play her in situations in which she has the least chance of making mistakes that are costly to the games outcome. If she has the personality that is fearful of authoritative judgement, then allowing her to play and not take her mistakes to task would help her develop confidence. And if she has fears of both, that is very hard to overcome.

Yeah, there could have been confidence/psychological harm. On the other hand, if Heather had bailed us out, her confidence could have soared. We'll never know. In terms of the game result, I think we would have fared somewhat better. Enough to pull out a win? Maybe.

I think Geno could have kept it simple. On defense--don't let them drive the lane. On offense--get the ball to Maya. I think Heather could have done that.

 

[cohenzone]

"]The worse that can happen depends on the nature of the player. If Heather has the personality that is afraid of failure, than a bad game can reenforce her fears. So play her in situations in which she has the least chance of making mistakes that are costly to the games outcome. If she has the personality that is fearful of authoritative judgement, then allowing her to play and not take her mistakes to task would help her develop confidence. And if she has fears of both, that is very hard to overcome."

Isn't the primary goal to win the game, especially in the tournament? If they lose and Heather was ineffective, she still has an off-season to try and improve, and with another year of maturity, the chances of being permanently damaged for good would seem relatively small. Anyway, we will never know and the game was lost and the other players has little rest.

 

[CL82]

this is exactly why I dont think "good in practice" is more helpful than "real-game" situations.

deep down inside you know you're teammates arent you enemies...and its not real (as much as we want to believe Geno practices are) and you dont have 10,000 yelling "shoot the ball Heather".

I totally understand what she's going thru

If I were to guess, I'd say that Heather doesn't want to let anyone down. Thinking about the shudda cudda of the prior play makes you tentative. She does seem like a good kid, polite and genuine. Her parents seem very nice as well. I hope she has a breakout year as well. I think it a little bit of success could allow her to play to her potential. Can't help but to root for her.

 

[ctchamps]

"]The worse that can happen depends on the nature of the player. If Heather has the personality that is afraid of failure, than a bad game can reenforce her fears. So play her in situations in which she has the least chance of making mistakes that are costly to the games outcome. If she has the personality that is fearful of authoritative judgement, then allowing her to play and not take her mistakes to task would help her develop confidence. And if she has fears of both, that is very hard to overcome."

Isn't the primary goal to win the game, especially in the tournament? If they lose and Heather was ineffective, she still has an off-season to try and improve, and with another year of maturity, the chances of being permanently damaged for good would seem relatively small. Anyway, we will never know and the game was lost and the other players has little rest.

I wasn't focusing on any game or outcome of games. Just personality types. Heather probably has the skill sets to do well in games. But something about her personality is holding her back. I'm not judging her. This is a problem a lot of us have. And it isn't confined to sports. For instance some very bright people do poorly on exams.

I'm not suggesting Geno needs to be Heather's psychoanalyst. But I hope he is aware that confidence problems come in different forms and is trying different methods to help Heather.

 

[Icebear]

this is exactly why I dont think "good in practice" is more helpful than "real-game" situations.

deep down inside you know you're teammates arent you enemies...and its not real (as much as we want to believe Geno practices are) and you dont have 10,000 yelling "shoot the ball Heather".

I totally understand what she's going thru

People yelling shoot the ball Heather doesn't bother me at all. It's when they start yelling shoot the ball Ice that gets to me.

 

[CTyankee]

I have always thought Heather could be our secret weapon... I hope this is her year of coming out...

 

[Scotter]

"]Isn't the primary goal to win the game, especially in the tournament? If they lose and Heather was ineffective, she still has an off-season to try and improve, and with another year of maturity, the chances of being permanently damaged for good would seem relatively small. Anyway, we will never know and the game was lost and the other players has little rest.

I think there is enough evidence from history to suggest Geno's primary goal is not necessarily to win the game. By that I mean that I truly believe Geno does not believe in winning at all costs or that winning is the only thing that matters in these games. There are principles that are more important than winning to Geno, despite his great desire to win.

I agree with the people who suggested that we don't know what Heather's health situation really was, but I also believe that Geno values responsibility very highly in these games as he does everywhere else in his program. And he does value protecting his players, especially the players that give their heart and soul to the program, despite not getting much playing time in return. He wants the responsibility for a loss in the NCAA tournament to fall squarely on the shoulders of the players that were chiefly responsible for the wins and losses throughout the entire season. He's not going to put Heather in a situation where she can be viewed as the reason why UConn lost a Final Four game even though the possibility exists that she could end up being viewed as the reason the team wins. From comments Geno has made I believe Geno stills views that as unfair position to put Heather in even if not playing her increases the likelihood that UConn loses in the NCAA tournament. I may be wrong about this, but that's the impression I have gathered from comments over the years.

 

[Icebear]

Scotter, a very interesting observation and one worth considering.