EDD drops 41 on Hofstra

[Icebear]

If one knows TJI one knows immediately that it was indeed sarcasm. Sadly there are some folks around that sound enough like it that others might think it was true.

 

[Phil]

I wouldn't be surprised if the committee found it intriguing to make Delaware a 4 in RI. Meets their location goals and intriguing story line goals as well (the intriguing story line goals are officially denied)

 

[rington]

How many people on this site live in Delaware? I'm amazed at how much attention Delaware gets on this board.

 

[ChicagoGG]

If one knows TJI one knows immediately that it was indeed sarcasm. Staidly there are some folks around that sound enough like it that others might think it was true.

Thank you, Icebear...we newbies do not know folks well enough to recognize their sarcasm immediately....as you note, there are some that sound like that AND mean it. Appreciate the clarification!

 

[alexrgct]

OK, I allowed myself to get dragged into one EDD debate, and I don't want to do it again. BUt I will say the following, as both sides here are a bit extreme:

• EDD's absence cost UConn little or nothing during what would have been her first two seasons in Storrs. It probably did cost UConn last year and this one. There's no way of knowing for sure, but it seems a reasonable assumption.
• Strictly from a basketball perspective (and not even as a UConn fan), I would have loved to see what EDD could have become with UConn's coaching if she could have adjusted to being further away from home and her sister. With all due respect to Delaware's coaches, I have to imagine that, as good as she's become at UD, she'd be even better at UConn, albeit with less spectacular numbers.
• The choice of what college to attend is our first adult decision. Whether it's made when you're 16 or 18, it's still the first decision that's fundamentally yours and that you'll have to live with. As such, you are subject to being praised/questioned/criticized as an adult for the decision you make and how you go about it.
• Saying that she would have been miserable if she had stayed at UConn is being incredibly presumptuous. No one, including EDD herself, has any way of knowing that. All she can know is whether she's happy with the end result of the decision she did make. It seems like she is, so good for her.
• Ultimately, all of our respective talents are ours to do as we choose. I believe EDD allowed homesickness and her sister's situation to hold her back, at least in the short term. However, even though I don't like it, I do respect we all have the right to live our lives as we see fit.
• I understand and respect why some people feel an affinity to her. She is ultimately a good kid, strikingly pretty, a great basketball player, and someone we were all looking forward to seeing play at UConn. I understand and respect why some people hold a grudge. She went about making her decision in a manner that carried a steep opportunity cost to UConn, a cost that we're feeling now, and again, we were all looking forward to seeing her play at UConn. And ultimately, people have the right to have an opinion. I wish that threads started about her didn't devolve into some people chastising those who started them for giving a crap, which then results in a backlash implying that the only correct response to EDD is total acceptance. It's not a black and white issue. However, one doesn't always get what one wishes for.

 

[easttexastrash]

Without EDD last year and this year, I think it is a reminder to UCONN fans how it feels not to know that you have the best team in the country, like virtually every other team feels every year. UCONN may very well be the best team when it is all said and done this year...who knows. But good lord, just because you didn't win a championship for one year, maybe two, is no reason to hate someone for eternity, and some on this board truly seem to hate EDD.

UCONN has a very good chance at winning it this year and an even higher chance of winning next year. Everyone who is a UCONN fan is going to get the pleasure of a national championship in the very near future. Just be happy that EDD's sister didn't live in Knoxville, South Bend, Palo Alto or Waco.

 

[HuskyFan1125]

I too dont like the negativity surrounding EDD.

I am a fan of WCBB, and think she is a terrific young lady and a superlative basketball player. As long as she is happy she should be able to play basketball wherever her heart leads her.

With that said, I would ask my fellow Boneyarder's to ponder this question??

Say that EDD did stick it out at UCONN, yes we probably would have won the NC last year.

However, would Maya Moore have ended her career at UCONN as the all time leading scorer? Would Tina Charles held the spot for the time she did? Would Tina Charles had finished as the all time leading rebounder??

EDD would have gotten some of the scoring/rebounding that went to each of these fine UCONN players. It's not all about the numbers. I recognize that, but all things, no matter how we want them, play out the way they do for a reason.

I am quite happy with how our UCONN women have played over the course of the past 3+ years EDD would have been here. It's nice to think what would have been, but its special to remember what was!!!



GO UCONN!!!!!!

 

[FairView]

I too am happy with the UConn women and the amazing things they accomplished.

Regarding the Maya and Tina individual accomplishments ... individual accomplishments and individual record setting are the antithesis of UConn basketball. It's about the team, so I don't understand those comments.

I could maybe sympathize with EDD if she came to UConn, stuck it out for the summer or a semester and then made her decision. The fact that she stayed for two days and then headed out of town tells me that she knew she made the wrong decision long before she came here and she wasted our time and the opportunity for UConn to recruit others. Either that or she is a quitter, and I don't think you get as good as she is by being a quitter. It's not only what she did, but the way she did it that stokes the fire of my negative feelings about her.

She knew her sister's condition before she gave her word to UConn that she would play basketball here. Nothing changed. UConn didn't move farther away from Delaware. Her sister's condition didn't get worse.

Her age? I don't buy that either. I made commitments at age 17 and I kept them, regardless of how I felt about keeping them or how hard it was. That's what character is about.

 

[DaddyChoc]

How many people on this site live in Delaware? I'm amazed at how much attention Delaware gets on this board.

now you see how I (and Nan) feel about Tennessee threads.

 

[ghostmutt]

Regarding the Maya and Tina individual accomplishments ... individual accomplishments and individual record setting are the antithesis of UConn basketball. It's about the team, so I don't understand those comments.
.

Individual honors like AA and NPOY aren't the goal at UConn, but stockpiling them the way UConn does adds much to the "aura" of the program, so they are important. I think HuskyFan's point is a valid one, and better yet, a new one--new points being infrequent in EDD threads.

Maya was such an overachiever that she would have shone no matter what the circumstance. But Tina was a late bloomer. She wasn't universally acknowledged to be the best at her position (let alone an NPOY frontrunner) until her breakout performance in the FF her junior year. The team might not have needed her heroics with EDD on the roster; maybe Tina never would have pushed herself as she did. Asjha's progress slowed somewhat by being part of a "triplets" scenario. Prior to her senior year, I recall Nan saying aptly of Asjha: "She has a chance to be the best that never was at UConn." You might have said the same thing of Tina had the 2009 FF not happened as it did.

Also, as hard as it is to imagine given the generally great chemistry on Geno's teams, it is possible that there might not have been enough ball to go around on a team with EDD and Maya and Tina and Renee. We assume the maestro preaching unselfishness would make it work, but not necessarily. Plenty of star-laden teams fall short of the title, or start promisingly but then "fade," so to speak ('06 Maryland).

What's weird about these EDD discussions is how people equate criticizing her with not appreciating the sport. You can take Charde's name in vain, who practiced and played for four years under tense circumstances, and remain a good UConn fan who appreciates the sport. But criticizing someone who stayed for two days means you don't appreciate? She made the best decision for her; I can't knock her. It must have been weird being the anointed one from age fourteen on. She probably did hate basketball when she said it.

But EDD staying in Delaware didn't really help WCBB unless you believe Delaware will remain competitive nationally after she graduates. If that didn't happen after Jackie Stiles led SMS to a miracle FF run, is it more likely to happen in Delaware? It's great for Blue Hens fans. What would have been great for WCBB is if she'd gone to a team with fan support and some championship pieces in place (Duke, Baylor, Notre Dame, etc.) and kickstarted a dynasty. That would have hurt us obviously, but that's what grows the game. She didn't have those kind of teams on her short list, as I recall. She also went to a team that has no brand recognition to the casual sports fan, which doesn't exactly help the game, because casual fans will sometimes stop channel-surfing if they spy a Taurasi or a Parker on the TV, and EDD apparently has that talent. (I don't know. I've never seen her play on TV. And I watch lots of women's hoops.) It's fun to imagine her leading Delaware on a Larry Bird/Indiana State-type NCAA run and ushering in the new era of parity in WCBB, but that's not realistic based on what the rest of the field is this season.

These are not considerations of a 17-year old, though. She can take her talents to Delaware, Storrs, South Beach, or where the hell ever she can be most happy. But it is food for thought for people who care about WCBB and its growth.

 

[Biff]

Welcome back "Mutt"

 

[Icebear]

Yes, good to see you, GM.

 

[msf22b]

Ghostutt
May be hard to find UDel on TV but easy on a computer, dial up the college website and find a link to free home games, streamed.

 

[UConn990411]

I too dont like the negativity surrounding EDD.

Eh. I don't have the same feelings as those people, but on some level I can understand it.

Personally, I was always taught to give things a chance before deciding it's not for me, so it's hard to fathom that EDD knew, after one day of summer classes, that UConn wasn't for her. Maybe she did, but when you consider that she went back to basketball a year later...well, it makes you wonder a little.

With that said, I don't feel any ill will toward a 17-year-old's decision not to attend UConn. I basically look at her the same as any top recruit UConn missed out on - I want to see her be good (the more elite players in wcbb, the better), but I don't root for her or her team.

 

[CL82]

Funny how being happy in life can renew your enthusiasm and passion.

Funny how not playing against elite teams can boost your scoring numbers.

 

[RadyLady]

I am unable to comprehend the amount of negative energy that she still sets off in some UConn fans (hopefully a minority) nearly five years after the events that are at issue. She obviously didn't hurt UConn at all -- 90 consecutive wins and 2 NC's immediately after the incident with her. And she made a decision that she had a right to make, for reasons that (in my opinion) should be very understandable.

I hope she succeeds and excels in her remaining college career, and goes on to an outstanding WNBA career if that is in her life plans. Maybe she will play for the Connecticut Sun someday.

I beg to differ, she most certainly hurt them on the recruiting front. Knowing that EDD committed may have turned away other talent AND - EDD filled a slot that became empty and left a hole for Geno to fill with existing talent.

This is just to counter the bolded statement. Folks make decisions, and I bear EDD no ill will and wish her well, and follow her career. But I strongly believe that you cannot argue that UConn was not hurt by her abrupt exit.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Funny how not playing against elite teams can boost your scoring numbers.

Thats true, but I don't see any evidence that factors into anything. She played well against the national competition she faced last summer, apparently.

She scores a lot because she can, and because her team needs her to. It won't lead to one penny more of basketball earnings if she goes on to play professionally (I assume she would have been fairly prolific - if not quite as much - regardless). If she doesn't, it won't matter either.

 

[ghostmutt]

Hello! I always read the BY, except in the off-season because I can't deal with the recruiting angst. I like the new board format. This is the part of the year where the board becomes a loved/hated distraction preventing me from leading a productive life and having a clean house.

However, the Morgan Tuck love on display here intrigues me enough that I might actually attend a girls' high school basketball game for the first time ever. I live in the city and take classes in a North suburb (Central Suburban League territory), so I hear Jewell Loyd's name invoked often in "best player" discussions. Gotta check out Morgan and Bolingbrook and form my own opinion.

 

[dtbtbtb]

EDD had the full right to do what she thought is best for her. That does not mean that I have to like it (as if she cares what i think ) and I find it a waist of talent to not pley on the biggest stage as possible and get better by playing with, for and against the best. EDD is without a doubt a rare talent who could be a L. Jackson so it's sad more than anything else that she chose to leave after 2 days and not give this a real chance. I do think that if EDD would have made her decision not to be in UConn a year before, April S. and C. Lee would have played in UConn.

 

[CL82]

Thats true, but I don't see any evidence that factors into anything. She played well against the national competition she faced last summer, apparently.

She scores a lot because she can, and because her team needs her to. It won't lead to one penny more of basketball earnings if she goes on to play professionally (I assume she would have been fairly prolific - if not quite as much - regardless). If she doesn't, it won't matter either.

She a good player, there's no doubt about that, but being a big fish in small pond doesn't let us, or her, know how good she can be. Great players temper themselves against great competition day in and day out. EDD choose not to do that... and she certainly gets to do that. It's a shame, though, when viewed through a fan's narrow vantage point. We're denied the opportunty to see those contests, and the process of her becoming the absolute best college player she can be. As a fan..eh, I guess I wish she toughed it out a bit longer before deciding to throw in the towel. As a person, she made the choice that she felt was best for her. I don't begrudge her that.

 

[easttexastrash]

For most players, basketball is what takes them to their new adventure in life and they love the game for that. In EDD's case, basketball is what took her away from what she loved in life at that time, and thus she probably equated basketball with unhappiness. I'm sure that at the time that she resented basketball and what was expected of her.

If she did know months before that she didn't want to go to UCONN, does she not get some credit for at least showing up and even giving it two days? She could have easily had her parents call Geno and tell him that she had changed her mind. But I have a feeling that her parents had sacrificed a lot to get her to that point and she just didn't want to tell them. Can you imagine how it must have felt to know that you were letting down so many people and would be the talk of all of women's basketball.

Yes, some of us made choices at the same age that were probably tough. Did any of us have to make a choice that was going to result in us still being hated and discussed 5 years later? Don't be naive when you compare your 17 year old choices to EDD's. I doubt that anyone on this board can relate to her circumstances. And this discussion about her doing what is best for women's basketball is a bunch of bullshit. She was 17, do you really think that a girl of that age is thinking in terms of doing what is right for the game? That is a big pile of horse manure. She didn't owe one thing to the women's game. To compare your circumstances to EDD's is awfully grandiose.

Sheryl Swoopes left Texas after a similarly brief stent and went to Texas Tech and TT did pretty well because of it. But let's face it, any player in the NE that has any talent probably wants to go to UCONN. Delaware is enjoying their moment with what may be one of the top two players in the nation. They are getting a brief experience of how it feels to go to a game with the great pride of getting to watch a top talent like UCONN and Tennessee have done for a couple of decades.

 

[easttexastrash]

I beg to differ, she most certainly hurt them on the recruiting front. Knowing that EDD committed may have turned away other talent AND - EDD filled a slot that became empty and left a hole for Geno to fill with existing talent.

This is just to counter the bolded statement. Folks make decisions, and I bear EDD no ill will and wish her well, and follow her career. But I strongly believe that you cannot argue that UConn was not hurt by her abrupt exit.

UCONN was temporarily hurt by EDD's decision. Maybe once Stewart gets to campus all of this talk will diminish.

I have seen BG criticized on this board for not playing for team USA earlier in her career. Her reasoning was that she did not feel that she was ready. She had the sense to know that she didn't feel ready and made the decision that was right for her, yet she still go criticized. These young players seem to be in no-win situations at times.

I remember reading an article on Holdsclaw when she was playing in the WNBA and struggling with depression, although nobody knew it at the time. A fan who was displeased with her performance approached her and made some derogatory remarks and she told the fan "you don't know me." Unless you know the person it is hard to develop an educated opinion of their situation.

 

[Bestiarius]

I feel that EDD's not attending UCONN was a good thing for WCBB. Yes, it would be nice for us UCONN fans if if the consecutive win streak was __ and counting, and the extra NCs would be great too. But isn't having Baylor, ND and UCONN all capable of beating each other good for the sport? Isn't the challenge of figuring out how to neutralize Griner a worthy endeavor, and if we succeed, wouldn't that be much more satisfying than a 30 point win for another NC?

Frankly, I'm enjoying what Delaware is doing this year and am interested in seeing how this will play out. How often does one get a chance to see arguably the best women's CBB player play for other than an elite team to see how far she can carry them.

I see no need to criticize or defend EDD's decision. I haven't walked a mile in her moccasins, although I wish I had because I'd be a mile away, and have her shoes which would fetch a pretty penny on Ebay!

 

[RadyLady]

UCONN was temporarily hurt by EDD's decision. Maybe once Stewart gets to campus all of this talk will diminish.

And you are right about that, we have Stewart starting in the fal of 2012 EDD backed out of UConn when?

I have seen BG criticized on this board for not playing for team USA earlier in her career. Her reasoning was that she did not feel that she was ready. She had the sense to know that she didn't feel ready and made the decision that was right for her, yet she still go criticized. These young players seem to be in no-win situations at times.

Apple and organges....EDD committed to UConn, thus closing up the opportunity for someone else. BG elected to not to go out for USA early on. Big difference. She didn't make the team and then change her mind.

I remember reading an article on Holdsclaw when she was playing in the WNBA and struggling with depression, although nobody knew it at the time. A fan who was displeased with her performance approached her and made some derogatory remarks and she told the fan "you don't know me." Unless you know the person it is hard to develop an educated opinion of their situation.

The point I am making (again) is that I bear no ill will towards EDD. But I strongly believe that saying that UConn was not hurt by her sudden exit is simply not true.

 

[Icebear]

If nothing else with EDD I believe UConn wins last year and this year's NCs maybe while being undefeated. Griner even at 6'8" would have had to deal with two 6'5" players both with good footwork and an amazing high/low, inside/outside combination. Yes, not having EDD hurt the Huskies from that perspective and from the impact of the loss of time to recruit to replace her, something not really possible.

All that said she did absolutely the right thing for herself and in her relationship with Lizzie. As EDD said in the SI article you must realize her only real means of communicating with her sister is by touch. Even with EDD's long arms that was to far a reach from UConn.