Don’t despair…

[HuskyNan]

Found this fun Twitter account today

 

[JordyG]

Never doubted.

 

[Boreifs]

Aalijah is there; great sign.

 

[HuskyNan]

Aalijah is there; great sign.

I think that was after the Creighton game

 

[01Neaggrad02]

I think that was after the Creighton game

Wait, wasn't Creighton the one where Amari was stuck in Buffalo in all the snow and not at the game?

 

[Centerstream]

Wait, wasn't Creighton the one where Amari was stuck in Buffalo in all the snow and not at the game?

You are correct. And Aubrey missed it due to COVID protocol. But it is still a cool GIF no matter when and where it was created.

 

[GoUconn7961]

I think all the adversity they’ve faced will only help them in March.

 

[Bald Husky]

No offence to Ayanna, but if only one of those four players are ready to play, I hope it is either Azzi, Aaliyah, or Caroline. Unless Ayanna breaks from the way she has been playing, adding her only allows us to play the game, and not contributing to our success. Sorry Ayanna, I love you too, but we need you to help us win, and sitting on the bench with fouls, or missing bunnies at the rim does not help us.
Expecting many thumbs down, but at this point in our season I'm just being truthful.

 

[Next 12]

I don't despair. I am frustrated wth all that has happened to the Uconn team. I believe they still will win the Big East and then the NC. I have never posted differently, But come on, Give the team a break. Enough is enough. GO HUSKIES!!!

 

[Aluminny69]

UConn women's basketball's Morgan Valley burned sage throughout the team's whole practice facility.
On the spiritual & healing measures UConn has turned to to combat its bad injury luck this season:
"Honestly we tried like literally everything we had"
Maggie Vanoni

 

[Ozimoto]

Ah, but have they brought in a shaman?

 

[BRS24]

No offence to Ayanna, but if only one of those four players are ready to play, I hope it is either Azzi, Aaliyah, or Caroline. Unless Ayanna breaks from the way she has been playing, adding her only allows us to play the game, and not contributing to our success. Sorry Ayanna, I love you too, but we need you to help us win, and sitting on the bench with fouls, or missing bunnies at the rim does not help us.
Expecting many thumbs down, but at this point in our season I'm just being truthful.

Thinking of Husky Nan's (and many others) comments that freshmen are rarely expected to be major contributors, IMHO this isn't truth, it's an opinion. In my opinion, AP is doing fine. Would I like to see a bit more from her? Sure, but perhaps the coaches are not asking for many minutes, just do a few little things to help the team, give someone a rest, etc. Not everyone is or is expected to be a Paige, Maya, DT, Stewie. A player's growth within the expectations set forth is the goal. I'll take incremental growth (and sometimes status quo) over the expectations of them going 0-60 in a few games.

 

[Bald Husky]

Thinking of Husky Nan's (and many others) comments that freshmen are rarely expected to be major contributors, IMHO this isn't truth, it's an opinion. In my opinion, AP is doing fine. Would I like to see a bit more from her? Sure, but perhaps the coaches are not asking for many minutes, just do a few little things to help the team, give someone a rest, etc. Not everyone is or is expected to be a Paige, Maya, DT, Stewie. A player's growth within the expectations set forth is the goal. I'll take incremental growth (and sometimes status quo) over the expectations of them going 0-60 in a few games.

Of course it's an opinion, that's what this Board is about, but it is also the truth. All I said was that if we get one player back to make our team whole, I was hoping that it was a player that has been contributing. Yes, Ayanna is a freshman and is still finding her role with this team, and I expect good things for her in the future, but that has nothing to do with the "opinion" that I posted. Go Huskies.

 

[oldhusky]

Thinking of Husky Nan's (and many others) comments that freshmen are rarely expected to be major contributors, IMHO this isn't truth, it's an opinion. In my opinion, AP is doing fine. Would I like to see a bit more from her? Sure, but perhaps the coaches are not asking for many minutes, just do a few little things to help the team, give someone a rest, etc. Not everyone is or is expected to be a Paige, Maya, DT, Stewie. A player's growth within the expectations set forth is the goal. I'll take incremental growth (and sometimes status quo) over the expectations of them going 0-60 in a few games.

I think we all have certain expectations for incoming freshmen. Based on what we see in videos, descriptions of the player's game, and some statistics, we form an opinion. I usually then form a ballpark of what I think their PER might be in their first year, recognizing that it is expected to improve in subsequent years, particularly freshmen to sophomore.

In Ayanna's case I expected her PER to be around 20 her first year (15 is average), which would make her a significantly better than average substitute from day one. Most recruits at her ranking are positive contributors right away, at least off the bench. Yes they make mistakes and will get better, but are usually enough above average in enough traits that they are a positive impact right away.

Ayanna appeared to be very unrefined offensively to me, so I wasn't necessarily expecting a great deal there, but given her obvious athletic gifts, I did think she would be a great rebounder and shot blocker from the get go, and a great one on one defender who would need to learn team defense, but would be special there very soon.

Thus far her PER has been a little over 13, which frankly is not even in the ballpark of my expectations for whatever reason. Not being able to finish around the basket does not surprise me much, because she often shoots jump shots at point blank range. In HS she could do that, simply go over smaller players. At this level she needs to shield the ball from defenders more, develop more moves, and show some deception and patience. Everything seems rushed now and overly reliant on her physical superiority.

Being rushed and overly aggressive has been killing her on defense as well. Her biggest statistical negative is not the interior finishing, but rather her rate of fouling which last time I looked on Her Hoops Stats was in the 2nd percentile of all Division 1 players, meaning she fouls more than 98% of the players in the data base. Moving that closer to average would pull her overall rating up dramatically.

I also find the rebounding and shot blocking to be disappointing so far. Those numbers are pretty good, but given her athletic ability I thought she would be truly elite there, and so far it has been good but far from great. The ability and the effort are clearly there, as is the potential upside, but she has a long way to go to reach what at least I was expecting from her by this point in the season.

At this point she is the player I most would like to see a breakout game from to regain her confidence and get her back on track. I think her offseason will be particularly important as well for next year, working on refining her finishing around the hoop against players her size that she just can't overpower like she did in HS. The potential is still there.

 

[Charliebball]

Ice Brady was the freshman that I believed would make a big difference going into this season as her offensive game was already college ready...........sadly we'll have to wait until next year to see her impressive skills..........Ayanna was always going to be a work in progress but despite her early struggles, I think her fairly sizeable playing time this season will bring great benefits as she will have plenty of time in the off-season to work on her now apparent weaknesses.........knowing how hard a worker she is, I expect to see major improvements in all aspects of her game next season.....

 

[BobbyJ]

I think we all have certain expectations for incoming freshmen. Based on what we see in videos, descriptions of the player's game, and some statistics, we form an opinion. I usually then form a ballpark of what I think their PER might be in their first year, recognizing that it is expected to improve in subsequent years, particularly freshmen to sophomore.

In Ayanna's case I expected her PER to be around 20 her first year (15 is average), which would make her a significantly better than average substitute from day one. Most recruits at her ranking are positive contributors right away, at least off the bench. Yes they make mistakes and will get better, but are usually enough above average in enough traits that they are a positive impact right away.

Ayanna appeared to be very unrefined offensively to me, so I wasn't necessarily expecting a great deal there, but given her obvious athletic gifts, I did think she would be a great rebounder and shot blocker from the get go, and a great one on one defender who would need to learn team defense, but would be special there very soon.

Thus far her PER has been a little over 13, which frankly is not even in the ballpark of my expectations for whatever reason. Not being able to finish around the basket does not surprise me much, because she often shoots jump shots at point blank range. In HS she could do that, simply go over smaller players. At this level she needs to shield the ball from defenders more, develop more moves, and show some deception and patience. Everything seems rushed now and overly reliant on her physical superiority.

Being rushed and overly aggressive has been killing her on defense as well. Her biggest statistical negative is not the interior finishing, but rather her rate of fouling which last time I looked on Her Hoops Stats was in the 2nd percentile of all Division 1 players, meaning she fouls more than 98% of the players in the data base. Moving that closer to average would pull her overall rating up dramatically.

I also find the rebounding and shot blocking to be disappointing so far. Those numbers are pretty good, but given her athletic ability I thought she would be truly elite there, and so far it has been good but far from great. The ability and the effort are clearly there, as is the potential upside, but she has a long way to go to reach what at least I was expecting from her by this point in the season.

At this point she is the player I most would like to see a breakout game from to regain her confidence and get her back on track. I think her offseason will be particularly important as well for next year, working on refining her finishing around the hoop against players her size that she just can't overpower like she did in HS. The potential is still there.

Regarding my bolded sections, I agree very much. As the poster kid for what can be done in one offseason to improve all aspects of your game for that particular position, Edwards should take AP home to Canada with her for a couple of weeks this spring to teach and drill her on exactly what she did. A lot of it is footwork and decision making at a fast pace to slow the game down for her. Then send her back to Indiana to put in the time. AP could become a completely different player by late summer/fall using the same blueprint and her 6-7 dad for test purposes.