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Message: [QUOTE="JoePgh, post: 4284194, member: 1131"] I sense a certain amount of shifting of the goalposts in responses such as this, not with you specifically but with the general direction of this discussion. This thread started because a lot of Boneyarders were and still are saying that UConn does not have anyone in its front court with the physical size, strength, quickness, and appetite for physical play that is needed to beat SC. (Apparently it has enough to beat everyone else, including Stanford. Everyone seems to forget that in the semifinal game against Stanford, UConn won the rebounding battle against the "tallest team in the country" by 46-37, and tied in offensive rebounds. In that particular game, against some pretty physical rebounders, Aaliyah Edwards personally had 8 rebounds including 4 offensive rebounds.) When it was pointed out that Aaliyah is the same size as Morgan Tuck (who apparently provided adequate physical play and enough rebounds in 2015 and 2016), and is in fact a bit taller and quicker than Morgan and has undamaged knees, people either say that she isn't big enough since Boston is 6-5, or that times have changed since 2016 (which I greatly doubt). Or they just ignore Aaliyah entirely when they make these sweeping generalizations. Now you shift the argument to a different ground, by arguing about AE's mental mistakes. Does this mean that you are conceding that AE has all the requisite physical skills to deliver what UConn needs in the front court? If your point is that AE has the physical tools that are needed and simply needs development to minimize mental mistakes, then I agree with you. Because that means that it's quite unlikely that UConn will find anyone in the transfer portal who will deliver what UConn needs in the front court better than Aaliyah will. Beyond that, your comments about mental mistakes and missed layups apply mostly to the first part of the season, as do your comments about "regression". After about February, she was playing at least as well as she did at any point in her freshman year, and that level of play was very good. I would contend that she made major improvements in the area of reducing her foul-proneness, and also in developing and using her mid-range jump shot. I would say that AE is Answer #1 to the need for more physical play and rebounding among UConn's big players, and most likely Brady and Patterson are Answers #2 and #3. I don't see Amari or Dorka being top-flight rebounders against teams with strong front courts; I agree with those who say that they will be more like Liv than like Morgan Tuck or Stef Dolson. [/QUOTE]

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