Morgan was a great player at UCONN and was a calming influence on the court as leader. She also had a thick, heavy, and sturdy endomorphic body (1) that allowed her to play against taller post players. Morgan was also fearless in her 3 point shooting, (2) which allowed her to get better as her career at UCONN progressed. But, Morgan was never the shot blocker or the rebounder that Napheesa is, (3) and was not the perimeter defender and rebounder that Gabby is. Would she have helped this team in her 5th season, of course. Would she start, probably. (4) Would they be undefeated, maybe. (5) I remember last season when Gabby would flash to the high post, Mariah would almost always pass the ball to Morgan if presented with the choice. (6) In my opinion, Morgan is not the passer that Gabby is. Neither is she as strong as Gabby. And many of the higher points and higher rebounds that Morgan posted last season were due to the higher number of minutes she played. In some games, Morgan was indispensable, in other games she was steady, some she couldn't make a chippy, (7) and when she took time off to rest her knee UCONN didn't miss a beat. Last year's team was an undefeated championship squad primarily because of Stewie and Mo. Their weakness, left unexposed was youth. Everyone else on that team was a role player. This year's team is made of role players who meld wonderfully. Their weakness is lack of depth, and it is apparent to everyone. That's why Natalie and Crystal's development is so crucial.
1-- Yes Morgan was able to guard good post players. Only one player in which the opposing team was any type of thread had their way UCONN, right?
2-- Yes Morgan shot better from 3. She also passed better as well. With her passing last year - she had 115 assists and 53 tunrovers. And could you imagine how much better Morgan's numbers would have been if she had the soph Collier, the Soph Lou, the junior Nurse, the jr (and healthy Chong) and a better player in Gabby? Her assist numbers vs to's would have been much higher. What I find laughable is anyone that thinks Tuck would have held back the player's and/or team like the poster waquit believes. Collier clearly said that last year she needed to work on her upper strength. She was saying that because she wasn't FINISHING WELL INSIDE-- why? BECAUSE SHE WAS A FROSH- she needed to work on her strength. In game ONE as the poster Los24 cites, she was super. How can anyone think tuck would "hold back" Collier if Collier had already shown after THE 1ST GAME OF THE SEASON she was a force?
3-- Yes Tuck was
not the perimeter defender and rebounder that Gabby is. But no one is the overall defender Gabby is, right? But Tuck was pretty darn good vs low post players like Coates, wasn't she?
4/5/7-- Who would have beaten UCONN? You mean - you meant to use a scenario that IF Morgan missed her shots vs Baylor while only giving a few minutes to Danger while Nurse would remain in a funk while Gabby would have gotten into foul trouble while Collier wouldn't do much until late -- then UCONN would have lost?
5-- While you can cherry pick specific situations of last year and define them as meaningful to you. I can remember specific plays that Tuck did -- and can easily watch the games too vs the teams last year that were potentially the biggest threat to UCONN. -- vs ND, Vs MD, vs Fla State, vs USC, Vs Texas, vs Oregon State, and vs Syracuse. Every one of these games she played well- to - great.
6-- Too bad we couldn't have Gabby passing to Morgan Tuck. And defensively who has the strength Gabby does? And on the perimeter, too bad we don't have her out there and maybe she could "grow" by leading more fastbreaks and posting smaller players and offensive rebounding more players in a half court motion offense with Nurse, Lou, Tuck and Collier?
7-- I think your statement-- is absurd in the manner you speak. A player that should have been a 1st team a/a for two years but just got one year - and you say --
Last year's team was an undefeated championship squad primarily because of Stewie and Mo.
Morgan tuck only played only 26.8 and 25.5 minutes her final two years. Mostly when Tuck was pulled - and with so few minutes played-- she wouldn't have been able to stay in late as often in games to accumulate "numbers." Anyhow last year your disregard for Morgan's importance-- I'll cherry-pick as you've done (when you said -
some she couldn't make a chippy) and highlight the games I felt
going in that the opposing team was a threat/rival big game. They were vs ND, Vs MD, vs Fla State, vs USC, Vs Texas, vs Oregon State, and vs Syracuse.
Morgan averaged 34.83 minutes.Other avgs - ppg 19.5. fg% 55% overall and 39% from 3. Only averaged 4.67 rebounds But also avgd 4.5 assists vs 2.67 turnovers -- which is an assist to turnver ratio for a post of 1.6875 which is terrific. Her efg% vs the top completion in the biggest games was 60.9%. That is tremendous. She was a HUGE THREAT each game - thus making it difficult to plan for Stewie and YOU are minimizing that? Do you realize the one game we lost two years ago had a lot to do with Morgan coming back from her injury. If she was healthy or had a few more games in her, Stanford doesn't win. As you cite the plays in which MoJeff didn't pass to the underclassman - Gabby- I'll cite how Morgan started to become a beast late in the game before she fouled out. Over the past year or two there was a lot of talk about how Chong was pulled. But so was Stokes -- to Tuck. And Tuck wound up becoming a beast.
Why don't you take a good look at the 2014-2015 game at ND -- while Stewie was 3-12 and MoJeff 0-8? These type of games make the opposition PLAN FOR TUCK ALONG WITH after the Stanford game from 2 years ago we saw what she was capable of doing -- thus UCONN/Geno put her in the starting lineup over Stokes.
http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-baskbl/stats/2014-2015/ndconn-w.html
