Does Aaliyah remind you of Morgan?

[Bone Dog]

I’ve been watching games from the Stewie years the past few days and especially the final year. On that team, Morgan seemed resurgent, dominant low post player and high post too. Great midrange jump shot and able to hit the 3 as well. Occasionally she would even bring the ball up the court. This skill set — especially her handles — really resemble what Aaliyah brings to the Huskies.

Anyone else notice this?

 

[bballnut90]

More of an Asjha Jones to me. Physical post player with range on her jumper. Not the tallest but very strong and more post oriented. Tuck was more adept on the perimeter IMO and thrived at beating opposing bigs off the dribble and had range out to 3. I thought of Tuck as a true combo forward where I see Edwards as a prototypical 4.

 

[DEpup]

I don't see it. Morgan was always so deliberate in a good way. She rarely allowed opponents to rush and impact what she was intending to do. I just haven't seen that maturity yet from Aaliyah. Morgan also played better post defense on players much taller than her without fouling.

 

[JellyBean]

Not seeing a Morgan. I think Aaliyah has created her own style of play. Sure, there may be a hint of this player or that player in Aaliyah's play, if you look hard enough. But for me, I see a player who has her own style of play.

 

[NYCHUSKIES]

I don't see it. Morgan was always so deliberate in a good way. She rarely allowed opponents to rush and impact what she was intending to do. I just haven't seen that maturity yet from Aaliyah. Morgan also played better post defense on players much taller than her without fouling.

You speak the truth.

 

[Charliebball]

I’ve been watching games from the Stewie years the past few days and especially the final year. On that team, Morgan seemed resurgent, dominant low post player and high post too. Great midrange jump shot and able to hit the 3 as well. Occasionally she would even bring the ball up the court. This skill set — especially her handles — really resemble what Aaliyah brings to the Huskies.

Anyone else notice this?

I think Ice Brady is going to be the closest player to Morgan on the squad next season........

 

[BobbyJ]

I think Ice Brady is going to be the closest player to Morgan on the squad next season........

I would agree as far as the current team is concerned, she's the closest in terms of size and skills. Brady's 15-20 foot shooting will be better initially and her passing will be comparable to the FR/SO Tuck. Of course, to have a similar long term impact she'll need to learn to play and communicate defense dependably and become a leader on and off the court.

 

[Bone Dog]

Both Ice and Aaliyah are a bit larger than Morgan. But they also both have face-up ball handling skills like she did. You could use any of them to break a press. Aaliyah improved her mid-range shot and her drive to the basket last season, which is what reminded me of Morgan in the first place. Also, her O-rebounding improved and she got a lot of putbacks, which suggests her positioning and boxing out improved. If Ice has a 'freshman' year on the scale of Aaliyah's I think we'll all be thrilled. And I wonder if we're about to see an even better Aaliyah in the fall -- more confident, better positionally, ready to take on taller opponents. This was not a situation Morgan typically faced, having to play the primary center on the opposing team.

 

[Charliebball]

I would agree as far as the current team is concerned, she's the closest in terms of size and skills. Brady's 15-20 foot shooting will be better initially and her passing will be comparable to the FR/SO Tuck. Of course, to have a similar long term impact she'll need to learn to play and communicate defense dependably and become a leader on and off the court.

If Brady shoots from the outside and midrange the way I think she will, she'll far surpass Tuck in those areas.........it was her incredible footwork and the ability to seal the defender that made Tuck so difficult to guard down low......if Brady comes anywhere close, she too could become a UConn great.......

 

[hard2please]

no

 

[Blond D.]

Does Morgan tuck remind me of Aaliyah Edwards? Not even a little bit.

 

[CB360]

NO disrespect towards Morgan, as she was a Very good player BUT, She had Stewie who was so dominate she lifted everyone elses game. While Aliyah is teammates with some outstanding talent ,I felt she had to take on a lot more this year then Morgan ever had to. Kudo's to AE stepping up!! So NO I do not believe they are that similar.....

 

[JoePgh]

Statistical mavens (looking at you, @JRRRJ) : Can you shed light on this controversy by comparing Morgan's junior-year stats (from 2014-15) with Aaliyah's stats from last year? My hunch is that they are approximately equal, with possibly an edge to Aaliyah.

I think there is a temptation to compare Morgan in her senior year (which is what we naturally remember) with Aaliyah's sophomore or junior year. Obviously that is not a fair comparison.

I think they are comparable players in natural ability, but that Morgan came to Storrs with a greater level of maturity and had less of a development journey to go through. On the other hand, the biggest difference between them is that Aaliyah has been almost injury-free during her time in Storrs, while Morgan was injury-prone.

If that trend continues, I think Aaliyah will end up with better overall stats for her UConn career, and that she will have a less injury-plagued and therefore more successful pro career -- possibly approaching the level of Asjah Jones.

 

[JRRRJ]

I'll check when i get home. Currently enroute from Paris.

 

[Stosh855]

Nope. Morgan made her layups

 

[JRRRJ]

Here you go @JoePgh: Raw first then per/40.

Aaliyah 2022-23:

Values

Player

Minutes

FGs

FGAs

3FGs

3FGAs

FTs

FTAs

ORBs

DRBs

Tot RB

Fouls

Asst

TOs

Blks

Steals

Points

Games

Edwards,Aaliyah

1209​

249​

423​

1​

1​

116​

150​

98​

234​

332​

96​

90​

112​

41​

44​

615​

37​

Stats per 40 minutes

40 min

FGM

FGA

FG%

3FG

3FGA

3FG%

FT

FTA

FT%

ORB

DRB

TRB

Fouls

Asst

TO

A/TO

Blk

Steals

Points

Edwards,Aaliyah

30.23​

8.24​

14.00​

58.9%​

0.03​

0.03​

100.0%​

3.84​

4.96​

77.3%​

3.24​

7.74​

10.98​

3.18​

2.98​

3.71​

0.80​

1.36​

1.46​

20.35​

Morgan 2014-15;

Name

GP

GS

Min

Avg Min

FGM

FGA

FG%

3FGM

3FGA

3FG%

FTM

FTA

FT%

OR

DR

TR

AvgR

PF

FO

AST

TO

A/TO

Blk

ST

Pts

Avg

Tuck, Morgan

39​

37​

995

25.5

239​

401​

59.6%​

21​

72​

29.2%​

63​

84​

75.0%​

79​

137​

216​

5.538​

65​

1​

115​

64​

1.797​

13​

31​

562​

14.4​

Name

40 min

FGM

FGA

3FGM

3FGA

FTM

FTA

OR

DR

TR

PF

AST

TO

Blk

ST

Pts

Tuck, Morgan

24.88

9.61​

16.12​

0.84​

2.89​

2.53​

3.38​

3.18​

5.51​

8.68​

2.61​

4.62​

2.57​

0.52​

1.25​

22.59​

Not much to choose between them based on stats.. Note that the FG% were virtually identical.

 

[JRRRJ]

Aaliyah also had the better FT%, and many more attempts.

 

[LarryLegend]

Tuck had great moves around the basket, up and unders, etc

 

[Majic Hands]

Humm. . . No

 

[CL82]

Aaliyah's got a good handle and looks terrific bringing the ball up and driving to the basket. I'll go out on a limb here and say I think that young woman may just have a career in the WNBA.

 

[Iluvacc2]

More of an Asjha Jones to me. Physical post player with range on her jumper. Not the tallest but very strong and more post oriented. Tuck was more adept on the perimeter IMO and thrived at beating opposing bigs off the dribble and had range out to 3. I thought of Tuck as a true combo forward where I see Edwards as a prototypical 4.

Even more impressive is that she did it on a bum knee

Tuck is one of my absolute favorite UConn players. She was ready to contribute from day 1 and Geno was ALWAYS high on her abilities. Sure, she received a lot of help from others focusing on Stewie, but even if you’re “open” you still have to be able to “hit” and Tuck was exemplary.

 

[JoePgh]

I remember that before last season, I had a Boneyard debate with CocoHusky (who seems to have left the board) on this subject -- a debate which was started when I suggested that Aaliyah had the talent to have a 4-year career comparable to Morgan's. His response, basically, was (paraphrasing), "I knew Morgan Tuck. Aaliyah Edwards ain't no Morgan Tuck." He said that the only points of commonality were that they were about the same size and played the same position, and that Aaliyah needed to learn a whole lot more from Jamelle Eliot about playing her position before she could aspire to the Morgan mantle.

To be fair, Coco was reacting at that time to Aaliyah's sophomore season, which was certainly disappointing. I think that if he had commented during or after the 2022-23 season, he would have had a more positive take not only on Aaliyah but also on Nika, whose performance he also frequently disparaged.

I think that @JRRRJ's statistics show, as he said, that their junior years were very statistically comparable. The most notable difference is that Aaliyah played about 30% more minutes, probably because she was so rarely injured. I expect that their senior years will also be comparable.

If that is true, then we can say that UConn's power forward in 2023-24 will be good enough to win a National Championship. I think we can all agree that UConn's point guard in the upcoming season will be good enough to win an NC. So all we really need to do is to find a Stewie equivalent. No problem, right?

 

[#12in21]

My answer to the OP, No. Aaliyah doesn't remind me of Morgan.

 

[Rowdy831]

Aaliyah has a body type that I don't remember any player for UCONN having in the past. She is big and strong but she also is very quick and has a very good instinct for where the ball will be coming off the rim. Going into last year I would say she might not be at the same level as a couple others before her but right now I think she could become the best inside player UCONN has every had.

How does she get to that level? I think her one weakness last year was when officials took her out of her game. She would still try to play extremely physical and a couple times it put her on the bench when she was really needed on the floor. If she gets that aspect of the game in check I think she will be impossible to stop on offense and her defense has been really good already.