ESPN Names Their All Americans

[Icebear]

Are you saying that Jefferson is a better guard than Bird, Taurasi, Montgomery? Hartley? All of those guards has been asked to do more for UConn than Jefferson has been asked to do this year. All of those guards were go to players for UConn at one point or another. Jefferson isn't even the go-to guard on her own team.

Statistically, she is accomplishing something no UCONN guard has ever accomplished.

 

[ndmb]

.

Are you saying that Jefferson is a better guard than Bird, Taurasi, Montgomery? Hartley? All of those guards has been asked to do more for UConn than Jefferson has been asked to do this year. All of those guards were go to players for UConn at one point or another. Jefferson isn't even the go-to guard on her own team.

What are you talking about? No, she's not currently better than any of the above, but that's because she's not better at just about every facet of the game except for shooting than any of those players.


Better defender? Yes
More willing distributor? Um, She is the 5th best option on her team to score. She better be. Schimmel is her team's #1 option.
Being the number one option on the team does not mean that you need to jack up shot after shot like Schimmel does. If Schimmel wasn't on the same team as Antonita Slaughter, Sara Hammond, Asia Taylor, and Bria Smith, we could talk. If Schimmel was shooting even 45%, we could talk. But she is on an offensively talented team and she's shooting 39% from the field. When your number one option is shooting 4 percentage points worse than the next worst shooter amongst the top 7 scoring threats AND 8 percentage points worse than the rest of the team as a whole, it means that something's wrong with the offense. In this case, one of those things that's wrong with the offense is that, despite being surrounded by a team that is offensively capable, she's not setting up her teammates.

Quicker? Yes, but a lot people are quicker than Schimmel (or Taurasi for that matter)

Better ball handler? Not sure
Well, I'm sure. Moriah is a fantastic ball handler and Schimmel is a decent ball-handler. If you're looking for evidence, think about the fact that Moriah gets to the rim as well as any guard we've had here (which is not merely a function of athleticism, think of Maya whose very impressive ability to get to the rim lagged behind her even more impressive athleticism) and the fact that Schimmel is averaging almost 40% more turnovers per minute while passing less (that's not in the box score, but an eye-test thing).

Better finisher around the rim? How many of her shots are lay-ups? Just so we're clear, when we're talking about finishing around the rim, we're talking primarily about lay-ups. It's not like many of Schimmel's 17 points per game are coming from post moves (although she does have that ability over smaller guards). How many of them are actually contested? A TON. It's great that she shoots better than Oguwimke now from 2. Oguwimke has three players around her at all times. Chiney Oguwmike. Natasha Howard. Natalie Achonwa. Izzy Harrison. Aleighsha Welch. Jennifer Hamson. Jillian Alleyne. Elizabeth Williams. Alyssa Thomas. You know what they all have in common? They're high profile, talented post players who are ranked in the top 50 in overall shooting percentage who all have a lower two-point shooting percentage than our 5'7" guard who, in the words of Geno, looks like she escaped from the 8th grade. That should tell you all you need to know about Moriah's shooting ability. FWIW, on that list, Welch, Hamson, Alleyne, Williams, and Thomas are all behind Moriah in overall shooting percentage.

Better passer? I would be a great passer too if my targets were the NPOY, a former #1 HS player, the best center in college, and a 2nd team AA guard Just look at the two of them play. Moriah's more creative, more accurate, and more prolific in her passing. She's also a better penetrator, which makes her more effective at kicking it out to teammates. Putting it into statistical perspective, Sue Bird is the best point guard in the history of the game. In her senior year, she was distributing to Taurasi, Jones, Williams, and Cash. That year, which won her NPOY, she averaged 1 more assist per 40 minutes than Moriah. I.E., the gap in assists per minute between Schimmel and Jefferson is over twice the gap between Jefferson and Sue Bird as a senior. And, Moriah did it with a much better A/TO than Bird had (3.07 to 2.48).

Less TO prone? Probably, but once again, see her targets, and see what she is asked to do on offense versus Schimmel.
Other than catching ability (which is only responsible for a small percentage of turnovers), who you're passing to doesn't really have that much of an impact on how many turnovers you have. By the way, who's defending you does, and Moriah's played against much tougher competition than Schimmel has.

I don't think Jefferson is untalented. In fact, I don't necessarily think in the long run that she may be a better player than Schimmel. She is great at what she does--QB a set of the best individual offensive players in the game. But if UConn finds itself in a tight game, I bet you Geno sets up a play for at least 3 different players before he goes to Jefferson. In that situation, if Schimmel was playing for UConn, Moriah would probably have the ball in her hands at some point and Schimmel would probably be sitting on the bench.

 

[stwainfan]

http://www.nbcsports.com/2014-associated-press-all-sec-womens-team
Ap SEC player of the year Simmons.

 

[HuskyFan1125]

http://www.nbcsports.com/2014-associated-press-all-sec-womens-team Ap SEC player of the year Simmons.

I would have voted for Harrison

 

[ndmb]

Yep, that's pretty much a travesty. The AP must have some sort of politic or agenda on this one, that I can't figure out. USC's Tiffany Mitchell won the coach's SEC POTY, and was the only unanimous selection by the AP to the All-SEC 1st team. But Simmons wins the AP's POTY??

Between the two, Simmons had the better per-game scoring average (16.2 vs 15.2 ppg) and the better free-throw average (.810% vs .788%), and that's it.

Mitchell had the:

Better rebounding average: (5.5 vs 2.7 rpg)
Better assist average: (3.5 vs 2.3 apg)
Better steals average: (1.9 vs 1.2 spg)
Better blocked shot average: (0.3 vs 0.06 bpg)
Better total FG %: (.508% vs .422%)
Better 3-pt FG %: (.515% vs .359%)
Better turnover/assist ratio: (1.2 vs 0.9)

And even fouled less (56 total fouls, 0 foul-outs vs 61 fouls, 1 foul-out) despite playing more minutes (960 - 31.0 mpg vs 898 - 28.1 mpg).

And generally played the more consistent production throughout the season. AND led her team to her program's first-ever SEC Regular Season Championship, which typically earns higher regard by the AP than winning the SEC tournament. But Simmons wins the AP POTY over Mitchell?

Only explanation I can see was the AP felt USC was hoarding all the awards this season, but they never had such issues with UT teams doing the same in the past....

I agree completely.

 

[stwainfan]

How much did the fact that Mitchell only scoring 11 at Tennessee affect the award?

 

[bballnut90]

Yep, that's pretty much a travesty. The AP must have some sort of politic or agenda on this one, that I can't figure out. USC's Tiffany Mitchell won the coach's SEC POTY, and was the only unanimous selection by the AP to the All-SEC 1st team. But Simmons wins the AP's POTY??

Between the two, Simmons had the better per-game scoring average (16.2 vs 15.2 ppg) and the better free-throw average (.810% vs .788%), and that's it.

Mitchell had the:

Better rebounding average: (5.5 vs 2.7 rpg)
Better assist average: (3.5 vs 2.3 apg)
Better steals average: (1.9 vs 1.2 spg)
Better blocked shot average: (0.3 vs 0.06 bpg)
Better total FG %: (.508% vs .422%)
Better 3-pt FG %: (.515% vs .359%)
Better turnover/assist ratio: (1.2 vs 0.9)

And even fouled less (56 total fouls, 0 foul-outs vs 61 fouls, 1 foul-out) despite playing more minutes (960 - 31.0 mpg vs 898 - 28.1 mpg).

And generally played the more consistent production throughout the season. AND led her team to her program's first-ever SEC Regular Season Championship, which typically earns higher regard by the AP than winning the SEC tournament. But Simmons wins the AP POTY over Mitchell?

Only explanation I can see was the AP felt USC was hoarding all the awards this season, but they never had such issues with UT teams doing the same in the past....

Mitchell should have won the award. If anyone from Tennessee should have received consideration, it was Harrison. Not Simmons.

 

[dtbtbtb]

Mitchell should have won the award. If anyone from Tennessee should have received consideration, it was Harrison. Not Simmons.

Agree! while Simmons did play much better towards the end of the season, Harrison was the best TN player!

 

[Bestiarius]

http://www.nbcsports.com/2014-associated-press-all-sec-womens-team
Ap SEC player of the year Simmons.

Quite a commentary on how weak the SEC is this year.