Edwards Next Pheesa?

[eebmg]

I think Aubrey's main issue was that she never really got on top of the offensive schemes and positioning. I think it is safe to say that she she should be much ,more comfortable and familiar and will show off her offensive skills.

 

[donalddoowop]

That's amazing, she is a very good player, but a 4 game stretch is not a very big sample size. The fact still remains that according to her stats Griffin was NOT a great 3 point shooter in high school and she made all of 1 3pt shot so far in college.

How many did she take? How many times does someone have to say that she stated she was told to focus on defense, rebounding, and driving to the basket? It has been stated here a number of times.

 

[topogigio]

Aaliyah should be another great one...BUT, do not forget Anna, for I feel that she will bloom even further this year. She should be WNBA material. I hope she stays for the full 4 years. Anna could surprise many around the country, but not me. Geno has an unreal mix of kids.
All his doing and he should continue to be praised. The UConn women's games should give homebound Americans a boost during this horrible pandemic.

Gotta’ agree, Anna will be most impressive this season. She was quite remarkable as a frosh, and has invaluable professional experience!

 

[LCConnFan]

[ edit bad link]

republicanamerican

 

[soxfan23]

How many did she take? How many times does someone have to say that she stated she was told to focus on defense, rebounding, and driving to the basket? It has been stated here a number of times.

She was 1 of 10! She was told to play to her strengths, obviously 3pt shooting is not one of her strengths, which is my point!

 

[Alydar]

The games I saw last year Aubrey couldn't hit a shot from 8 feet that well.

Early in the season the announcers reported during in-game commentary that Geno had told Griffin that she had the green light to drive rebound and shoot 3's. That she didn't try or make many doesn't change the fact that Geno/CD thought her shot was good enough to use.

 

[Jingo]

She was 1 of 10! She was told to play to her strengths, obviously 3pt shooting is not one of her strengths, which is my point!

Wasn't Ania 0 for America until she became the best trey-maker on the club?

 

[Carnac]

Except the Seton Hall game. If we can get that Aubrey to show up for every game then we're good!

I don’t know about everyone else, but THATS the Aubrey Griffin I’m looking for and hoping to see in every game this season. I respect everyone’s thoughts and concerns expressed here about Aubrey’s past.

This season, we’re looking forward to 19 year old Aubrey who is a sophomore, has a full season of experience under her belt, and will enter the season knowing the plays, and knowing what she’s doing. She will enter the season knowing what to expect. What she did or didn’t do in the past will not help/hurt us this year. She’s older wiser, and has some new teammates. This is a different team. Geno’s expectations for her this season will be different.

Her focus and attention should be locked on to what’s in front of her. She can’t do anything about the results of last year. She can impact the results and success the team can have THIS season. Geno has said she’s 100 times better than she was last year. That’s good enough for me.

He has seen her, we haven’t. We either take him at his word or we don’t. She knows what she’s doing now, and is more aggressive. That spells trouble for their opponents. She’ll also be allowed to shoot more this season. She was not asked or expected to score last year. She was always on the floor with 4 other players that could.

Today, all we can go on is her play from last year, and Geno’s observations so far this season. Let’s revisit this at the Christmas break and analyze her performance in games played up to that point.

 

[soxfan23]

Wasn't Ania 0 for America until she became the best trey-maker on the club?

What does that have do with anything? It makes absolutely ZERO sense equating Makurat's struggles over her first half dozen games to Griffen's struggles over an ENTIRE season! Griffen had plenty of opportunities to prove she was a solid 3 pt shooter, and she didn't do it!

 

[cbraarj]

She shot airballs from inside the paint!

 

[cbraarj]

One game out of 32.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I saw Aubrey in a tourney at Paul VI in Fairfax, VA. Ossining eventually lost a high-scoring game against a very good team from Maryland. Aubrey hit multiple threes and scored about 38. In a 5-minute stretch, she had jumpers, layups, steals, blocks, and rebounds, looking very much like Maya Moore.

 

[Jingo]

I saw Aubrey in a tourney at Paul VI in Fairfax, VA. Ossining eventually lost a high-scoring game against a very good team from Maryland. Aubrey hit multiple threes and scored about 38. In a 5-minute stretch, she had jumpers, layups, steals, blocks, and rebounds, looking very much like Maya Moore.

Now that's what i m talkin' about!

 

[Deuce]

Now that's what i m talkin' about!

Leading scorer this year?

 

[Jingo]

Leading scorer this year?

She's capable!

 

[Carnac]

Leading scorer this year?

Way too early to tell. We don’t know who Geno’s starting 5 will be that should get a lion’s share of the minutes. One or two players may emerge at the start of the season that will be “go to” shooters. Plays will be run for them. Aubrey could be one, or not. There are several candidates at this time. We’ll know after 5-6 games.

 

[RoadWarrior]

As with most threads on the Boneyard, this one quickly transitioned from is "Edwards the Next Pheesa?" to what kind of sophomore leap will Aubrey make. While I am as interested in the answer to that question as anyone, I would like to attempt to steer the thread back to the original topic.

When Napheesa was a Freshman, she showed glimpses of the future. We saw what would later become her patented up and under move and the ability to handle the basketball. Besides having Stewart, Tuck and Williams ahead her on the depth chart, her primary challenge was adapting to the mental aspect of the college game, particularly at UCONN. I am very interested in how Edwards handles this transition. I think that with the advent of many more reps in her Freshman year, as Geno referenced, both her transition and impact may be far greater than Napheesa. That's not to imply that her college career will be better but to suggest that her initial entry and importance to the this team may be greater. Finally, I suspect that Edwards exposure to older players and higher-level international competition than Napheesa at a comparable age will translate to more confidence as well.

As former self-appointed President of the Napheesa Collier fan club and current self-appointed President of the Aaliyah Edwards fan club, I can't wait for the season to begin!

 

[hjoerring]

That's amazing, she is a very good player, but a 4 game stretch is not a very big sample size. The fact still remains that according to her stats Griffin was NOT a great 3 point shooter in high school and she made all of 1 3pt shot so far in college.

I seriously doubt that she was tasted with shooting 3s, and shooting from where ever; the team had others for such purposes. Also, why would a player of her caliber be shooting 3s in HS? when she can reek havoc by doing other things. Was Pheesa a 3pt shooter at Uconn-- I think she took some her senior year but, her shooting 3s would not have helped the team??

 

[Steelerone]

Her development would go even more quickly if Piath can be an effective sub at the five, thus giving her virtually all her time at the four (sharing with Aubrey, perhaps).
Going one step further, could this actually be the year where we see a 10-person rotation? Nika and Mir are getting plenty of love from their teammates.

Right with you on that, Jordy. It looks like the days of watching two or three players run onto the court with a minute and a half left in the game are over. Hopefully (by all appearances) when we see the subs coming in this year we will be seeing a minimal drop off in talent.

 

[oldhusky]

Regarding Aubrey and many others, fitting into a system that puts so much emphasis on efficient scoring, with many other good options, sometimes creates a player that is thinking too much, and not reacting instinctively. For many in high school, they were the offense, and had pretty much a green light to score however they could.

Here Geno is not looking so much for a volume scorer with mediocre percentages. That player might have been able to get a low 40's two point shot on demand in high school, but that shot is discouraged here, as would be say a 30% three point shot. They become hesitant and have to relearn what a good shot in this system is. In time they become more comfortable with those decisions, and may add ways to score that they didn't use in high school.

In Aubrey's case I don't know what the upside is, but despite her lack of traditional shooting last year, the athletic ability alone made her a good scorer (not shooter) in our system. Just with offensive rebounds, fast breaks, and slashes to the hoop her volume and efficiency were actually pretty good.

Gabby didn't have many offensive weapons but she and Geno found a way to make her effective there. Napheesa might have been borderline on her three point shot, where on many teams the coach might say fire away, but on a team looking for 50% plus 2pt shots, and 35% plus three pointers, she might not have been good enough from there for Uconn standards.

The good news is Aubrey is not a weak offensive player now, although some think of her that way because of a lack of perimeter game thus far. I am reminded that in the Bulls second three peat, once a shot left a Bull's player's hand the best offensive player on the floor was not Jordon or Pippin, but in fact Dennis Rodman.

Aubrey is a good garbage type scorer now, who appears to have enough different ways to score, that if those develop to Uconn efficiency standards (a pretty high bar), maybe she could be an elite scorer. Team wise, however, there are plenty of other good scoring options, so that would be a tremendous blessing if it happens, but she should get significant minutes for the rest of her Uconn career even if it doesn't.

 

[DEpup]

I've said this before. I think Edwards is the next version of the UConn PF archetype that also is Napheesa. She isn't Pheesa but she is in the mold of Pheesa, Tuck, Cash, Tamika, and even Lobo to name a few. Over all these years when you have the same lineage of folks recruiting into this system than you are going to see patterns in the players too. They are all unique individuals but they fit within the same bell curve imo.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Edwards reminds me of Ashja Jones in appearance but more important in her "game"!
Aaliyuah and Asjha are 6'2" or 6'3". A great athletic solid body that can control play 15' to 18'!
Hopefully Aaliyah can improve and become a great competitor that Ashja was!

 

[soxfan23]

The good news is Aubrey is not a weak offensive player now, although some think of her that way because of a lack of perimeter game thus far. I am reminded that in the Bulls second three peat, once a shot left a Bull's player's hand the best offensive player on the floor was not Jordon or Pippin, but in fact Dennis Rodman.

Aubrey is a good garbage type scorer now, who appears to have enough different ways to score, that if those develop to Uconn efficiency standards (a pretty high bar), maybe she could be an elite scorer. Team wise, however, there are plenty of other good scoring options, so that would be a tremendous blessing if it happens, but she should get significant minutes for the rest of her Uconn career even if it doesn't.

NOBODY ever said that, this all started as a debate over whether Griffin is better suited to play the 4 or the 3. Jingo claimed she was a 3, I just said she doesn't shoot the ball well enough to be a 3 and her game is best suited at the 4. Everything you wrote here basically echoes what I was saying,

 

[ConnecticutBB]

IMO...shooting 2’s or 3’s... as long as every shoot goes in UCONN will always has a great chance of winning each game...

 

[JonathanXIV]

Leading scorer this year?

You mean, again, don't you?

 

[Jingo]

As with most threads on the Boneyard, this one quickly transitioned from is "Edwards the Next Pheesa?" to what kind of sophomore leap will Aubrey make. While I am as interested in the answer to that question as anyone, I would like to attempt to steer the thread back to the original topic.

When Napheesa was a Freshman, she showed glimpses of the future. We saw what would later become her patented up and under move and the ability to handle the basketball. Besides having Stewart, Tuck and Williams ahead her on the depth chart, her primary challenge was adapting to the mental aspect of the college game, particularly at UCONN. I am very interested in how Edwards handles this transition. I think that with the advent of many more reps in her Freshman year, as Geno referenced, both her transition and impact may be far greater than Napheesa. That's not to imply that her college career will be better but to suggest that her initial entry and importance to the this team may be greater. Finally, I suspect that Edwards exposure to older players and higher-level international competition than Napheesa at a comparable age will translate to more confidence as well.

As former self-appointed President of the Napheesa Collier fan club and current self-appointed President of the Aaliyah Edwards fan club, I can't wait for the season to begin!

Being the only true "4", IMO, AE should get ample opportunity to 'strut her stuff' .. if she can hit the jumper from the elbow, she'll be off-the-charts, eh?

 

[Alydar]

So when did Edwards go from being a wing to being a "true" 4? I thought that was settled 2 months ago when a couple posters declared absolutely that she didn't have power forward skills?

 

[j66kicker]

Being the only true "4", IMO, AE should get ample opportunity to 'strut her stuff' .. if she can hit the jumper from the elbow, she'll be off-the-charts, eh?
View attachment 60010

IMO ONO is a “true 4”, which has been a problem when we play an elite team with a “true 5”.

 

[DEpup]

So when did Edwards go from being a wing to being a "true" 4? I thought that was settled 2 months ago when a couple posters declared absolutely that she didn't have power forward skills?

Well Geno answered that question for us when he labeled her a F in the roster and at practice she is with CD, Liv, and Piath...sounds like the boss made the decision for us all...

 

[Jingo]

Edwards reminds me of Ashja Jones in appearance but more important in her "game"!
Aaliyuah and Asjha are 6'2" or 6'3". A great athletic solid body that can control play 15' to 18'!
Hopefully Aaliyah can improve and become a great competitor that Ashja was!

Improve? .. we're not sure where she's "at" yet .. don't you agree?