ESPN re-ranks the Class of 2017... Megan and Evina fall just a bit... | Page 3 | The Boneyard

ESPN re-ranks the Class of 2017... Megan and Evina fall just a bit...

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JonathanXIV said:
I don’t think anyone believes that Pheesha was the 6th best senior last year.
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Well for one thing, Jackie Young wasn't a senior last year, so draft order doesn't even correspond to senior class order. But yeah, insofar as the top two POY candidates (Ionescu and Gustafson) weren't even among the top draft picks (and one wasn't even in it), these are pretty apples to oranges comparisons all the way around.

Also, seriously, who cares if Onyenwere is one or two spots above or below Walker and Westbrook? I think the major takeaway is that she was far less heralded out of high school but has had at least as much, and arguably more, impact and growth in college as either of them. Insofar as the point of these re-rankings is to think about who has impressed more than anticipated, Onyenwere is among those who have most impressed relative to expectations. And I think it's hard to argue that Walker and Westbrook have left less impression on the college game - keyword SO FAR - relative to what we were expecting, esp. vis-a-vis Onyenwere, Sabally, Carter, etc.

But the good news? We get two more years to watch almost all of these players grow and develop. (A few will likely leave early for the WNBA draft.) Walker seems to be making a big leap as a junior. Excellent, I say! The more top players, the better, whether or not they were all as heralded as high school recruits.
 
Teacherdeb said:
How many points did she just score against the National team? A few, yes? A gunner for sure, but she can score.
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Actually, Carter was a fairly efficient scorer against the National team. She scored 34 pts on 10/21 shooting, 5/10 from 3-pt, 9/9 FT for 54% of A&M’s 63 pts. That last item points out a potential issue for A&M. If an opposing team can reasonably contain Carter or she has a bad shooting night, can her teammates pick up the slack?
 
Megan is finally looking like “Megatron.” There were a lot of folks saying she didn’t look like an All-American or they were questioning why she was ranked #1 in her class for the past two years. We have to remember that she’s playing for the toughest coach in all of women’s basketball and she was playing behind All-Americans both years. Other players had to come in and be the go-to player or had the opportunity to lead the team. She’s finally not playing like she’s scared or timid and she’s got her swagger back. Now I’m waiting on the fade-aways and the midrange game that came so easily to her in high school. I’ve posted this before, but here’s the video to remind you again. She’s just getting started. 6'1 Megan Walker Attempts Dunk IN GAME: #1 Girl in the Nation
 
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biobioprof said:
She blocked shots by Napheesa and Nneka last night.
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She had the sick block against Sylvia at the beginning of the game. Then shortly after she drove at her and scored, and Sylvia tried to block her right back.

Carter has the swagger and confidence that few players have.
 
Reypl21 said:
Are you more impressed with one of Walker's stat lines in her exhibition games, or Carter's stat line for her USA exhibition game?
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I don't get impressed by anybody only watching one game!
 
soxfan23 said:
I don't get impressed by anybody only watching one game!
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With all due respect, Chennedy Carter set the scoring record for a collegiate student-athlete against the US National Team, with her 34 points.

The previous record had stood for 23 years.

And, as @oldude, @JonathanXIV , and others have noted above, Carter's performance was not just demonstrative of just how good a scorer she was, but also that she could do so with such efficiency against truly elite competition. Her PPS (points per shot) mark against Team USA was 1.619. To put that in perspective, 2018-19 NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo finished sixth in the NBA in the PPS statistic for last season, at 1.60 (I used 2018-19 NBA statistics for PPS, as I could not find the 2019 WNBA PPS rankings).
 
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I’m not really big on making assumptions based off of exhibition games against Division II schools.

A lot of players looked really, really good in their exhibitions so far.
 
wha
soxfan23 said:
She sure can score, but that is ALL she can she do.
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She averaged nearly 3.5 APG playing off the ball last year, so she can set her teammates up as well!
 
I think it's easy for UConn fans tend to dislike volume shooters since their teams rarely have a single player dominate the ball. Arike, Kelsey Mitchell, Chennedy have all received a little flack on this board about being too focused on shooting the ball and not enough on efficiency. I get it. However, I've said in the case of Mitchell and Chennedy that OSU and A&M don't win if they don't shoot the ball. Carter played very well in the tournament last year and it sounds as though she had a good game against the national team. A&M will need to have another player or two step up for them to be in the company with other top teams but Carter is a terrific player.
 
MSSportsGuy said:
I think it's easy for UConn fans tend to dislike volume shooters since their teams rarely have a single player dominate the ball. Arike, Kelsey Mitchell, Chennedy have all received a little flack on this board about being too focused on shooting the ball and not enough on efficiency. I get it. However, I've said in the case of Mitchell and Chennedy that OSU and A&M don't win if they don't shoot the ball. Carter played very well in the tournament last year and it sounds as though she had a good game against the national team. A&M will need to have another player or two step up for them to be in the company with other top teams but Carter is a terrific player.
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Probably add Plum to this list?
 
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MSSportsGuy said:
I think it's easy for UConn fans tend to dislike volume shooters since their teams rarely have a single player dominate the ball. Arike, Kelsey Mitchell, Chennedy have all received a little flack on this board about being too focused on shooting the ball and not enough on efficiency. I get it. However, I've said in the case of Mitchell and Chennedy that OSU and A&M don't win if they don't shoot the ball. Carter played very well in the tournament last year and it sounds as though she had a good game against the national team. A&M will need to have another player or two step up for them to be in the company with other top teams but Carter is a terrific player.
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Mmm, that's by design. UConn players are taught to look for the best shot. So it's less an issue of shot volume than shot quality, thus the focus on efficiency.
 
Reypl21 said:
The disrespect that everyone seems to be giving Onyenwere. She's easily better than Walker and Westbrook.
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...at THIS point in their respective careers. Megan will have a better Junior year than Onyenwere on a team that will achieve more. Onyenwere was awesome in last year's NCAAT as I saw twice in person. Now let's see how she does as the focus of every teams defense. She is still a top 5 talent in this class but is also coached (or not coached) by Cori Close. :rolleyes:
 
DefenseBB said:
...at THIS point in their respective careers. Megan will have a better Junior year than Onyenwere on a team that will achieve more. Onyenwere was awesome in last year's NCAAT as I saw twice in person. Now let's see how she does as the focus of every teams defense. She is still a top 5 talent in this class but is also coached (or not coached) by Cori Close. :rolleyes:
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She was the focus of every team’s defense last year as well. Did pretty well. Would love to see her shooting it at a higher clip this season from the field.
 
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DefenseBB said:
...at THIS point in their respective careers. Megan will have a better Junior year than Onyenwere on a team that will achieve more. Onyenwere was awesome in last year's NCAAT as I saw twice in person. Now let's see how she does as the focus of every teams defense. She is still a top 5 talent in this class but is also coached (or not coached) by Cori Close. :rolleyes:
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Onyenwere has 3-9, 4 rebs, 1 ast, 3 pfs and 8 pts total against Loyola yesterday. At this moment I don't see she is easily better than Walker and Westbrook.
 
A few observations:
  1. Just a reminder this is a UConn board and we tend to like our players more than others. I’m stunned that you’re stunned that this is so. Objectivity (your view of objectivity) isn’t a requirement here.
  2. Don’t lecture us on our perceived lack of objectivity. See #1 above, then check the board rules which are in a thread tacked to the top of the board
  3. Remember why the General Basketball board was set up - see #1 above.
 
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