Evelyn adebayo | The Boneyard

Evelyn adebayo

Status
Not open for further replies.
JordyG said:
Cameos...and one of the saddest faces in Connecticut.
Expand ...

So I’m not the only one who’s viewed her aspect that way. Geno observes body language on the bench, and if he views hers the same was as you and I do, it won’t get her any more minutes.

I hope she’s able to turn her year around.
 
I’ve only seen her in one game at garbage time. It take a long time to learn UConn’s offensive scheme and maybe she’s having great difficulty. In any event I’m very disappointed that she hasn’t developed. There was so much hype surrounding her transfer. I thought she was suppose to be a tough rebounder and could spell Liv when she needed a break or got into soul trouble.
 
.-.
Huskie02 said:
I’ve only seen her in one game at garbage time. It take a long time to learn UConn’s offensive scheme and maybe she’s having great difficulty. In any event I’m very disappointed that she hasn’t developed. There was so much hype surrounding her transfer. I thought she was suppose to be a tough rebounder and could spell Liv when she needed a break or got into soul trouble.
Expand ...
If she is having trouble picking up the system then fine dont play her. However if you recruited her, she is healthy, and as a grad student she has been a D1 starter two things. 1 of course she is frustrated and if she feels she isnt given a real chance to show what she can do it would be hard not to look a little upset. She is not a freshman who knows they have to wait there turn, she believes she was brought in to give instant depth. 2 since she only has one year and we lack post depth Geno needs to really see what she brings, and how she works with her teamates in real game time. I know Geno has all these rules about attitude, effort, and understanding, but part of his job is to make kids able to perform at this level. He knew he has a very tiny timeline to get contributions from transfers and especialy grad students. Hopefully this year wasn't a waste of time for both of them.
 
asuwish said:
If she is having trouble picking up the system then fine dont play her. However if you recruited her, she is healthy, and as a grad student she has been a D1 starter two things. 1 of course she is frustrated and if she feels she isnt given a real chance to show what she can do it would be hard not to look a little upset. She is not a freshman who knows they have to wait there turn, she believes she was brought in to give instant depth. 2 since she only has one year and we lack post depth Geno needs to really see what she brings, and how she works with her teamates in real game time. I know Geno has all these rules about attitude, effort, and understanding, but part of his job is to make kids able to perform at this level. He knew he has a very tiny timeline to get contributions from transfers and especialy grad students. Hopefully this year wasn't a waste of time for both of them.
Expand ...
Hate to say it but with nearly one third of the season under their belt, it seems like a waste of time for both of them. I feel sorry for the kid.
 
asuwish said:
If she is having trouble picking up the system then fine dont play her. However if you recruited her, she is healthy, and as a grad student she has been a D1 starter two things. 1 of course she is frustrated and if she feels she isnt given a real chance to show what she can do it would be hard not to look a little upset. She is not a freshman who knows they have to wait there turn, she believes she was brought in to give instant depth. 2 since she only has one year and we lack post depth Geno needs to really see what she brings, and how she works with her teamates in real game time. I know Geno has all these rules about attitude, effort, and understanding, but part of his job is to make kids able to perform at this level. He knew he has a very tiny timeline to get contributions from transfers and especialy grad students. HopefullyI this year wasn't a waste of time for both of them.
Expand ...
She was a starter at Murray State which an order of magnitude lower than the competition she is facing at UCONN. Not all recruits work out. If she could help this team she would be playing regardless of her class.
Prior to Murray State Evelyn played two years at Gardner-Webb University where she averaged 4.0PPG and 3.6RPG. Just think how far down the rotation Evelyn would be if Batouly were healthy.
 
While I continue to hope that Evelyn can provide meaningful minutes at UConn, it’s worth noting that she does not have a long and successful basketball background. London, England is hardly a basketball hotbed. As previously stated, in her two years at Gardner-Webb Evelyn did not have much of an impact.

After sitting out a year to transfer to Murray St, she had a breakthrough year last season for the Racers. Evelyn was the best player on a bad team. She took 20+ shots per game and found lots of ways to score with her somewhat unorthodox style.

At UConn Evelyn was never going to be a “go to” scorer, so she had to find other ways to contribute, and that’s the problem. From somewhat limited observation, it appears that Evelyn never developed the fundamentals necessary to be a solid role player at the highest level of WBB. Her footwork on defense is a problem. Knowing where to go and what to do in UConn’s motion offense is a problem.

I’m sure the staff continues to work with Evelyn to shore up these areas of deficiency, but there’s only so much that you can improve a player’s fundamentals in one season. As I said, I continue to hope that Evelyn finds a role to contribute for the Huskies because UConn can most definitely use another frontcourt player.
 
.-.
When she has gotten into the game, I can she why he doesn’t play her. First, she looks completely out of shape. Second, she looks confused and unsure of herself or what to do as far as what is expected of her. Now I will say this, when I’ve watched her play, she reminds me of some of the girls who have transferred like Mikayla or Breanna in that I can see the natural basketball instincts. She seems like she is naturally a good rebounder and can help us if Geno would just say F-it and play her. If she solely can focus on rebounding, then she should play. I personally think she plays eventually because we will need her but she also has to change some things and figure out her role.
 
The only thing that bothers me is why recruit her in the first place? I totally get that sometimes kids don't work out, but if she visited UCONN prior to committing and watched a practice, or played with the team or participated in anything, did she get absolutely no feel for how much harder it is?

Also, in spite of the fact that she was not "UCONN ready", how hard can it be to tell a kid "do what you do well - play good position defense, rebound, and set screens". Perhaps if UCONN had more blowout games we'd see more of her.

I suspect either she had inflated expectations, the staff did, or something in between. I don't think they recruited her to ride the pine for the entire season. It's probably no surprise she's behind Kyla on the depth chart, but she's getting almost no minutes in games. I wonder if she'd have decided to come knowing now how it seems to be working out.
 
EricLA said:
The only thing that bothers me is why recruit her in the first place? I totally get that sometimes kids don't work out, but if she visited UCONN prior to committing and watched a practice, or played with the team or participated in anything, did she get absolutely no feel for how much harder it is?

Also, in spite of the fact that she was not "UCONN ready", how hard can it be to tell a kid "do what you do well - play good position defense, rebound, and set screens". Perhaps if UCONN had more blowout games we'd see more of her.

I suspect either she had inflated expectations, the staff did, or something in between. I don't think they recruited her to ride the pine for the entire season. It's probably no surprise she's behind Kyla on the depth chart, but she's getting almost no minutes in games. I wonder if she'd have decided to come knowing now how it seems to be working out.
Expand ...
Of course Evelyn did not visit UConn until after the season was over, so she never had the opportunity to watch practice. By all indications, she got herself in much better shape during the off-season. I really believe it just comes down to some weak fundamentals. As I indicated in my prior post, I am still hopeful she can be a contributor this season.
 
I blame the coaching staff. Why did they not see all the weaknesses the Boneyard sees? Some of the Boneyarders should have evaluated her before she committed to UConn.:D
 
EricLA said:
The only thing that bothers me is why recruit her in the first place? I totally get that sometimes kids don't work out, but if she visited UCONN prior to committing and watched a practice, or played with the team or participated in anything, did she get absolutely no feel for how much harder it is?

Also, in spite of the fact that she was not "UCONN ready", how hard can it be to tell a kid "do what you do well - play good position defense, rebound, and set screens". Perhaps if UCONN had more blowout games we'd see more of her.

I suspect either she had inflated expectations, the staff did, or something in between. I don't think they recruited her to ride the pine for the entire season. It's probably no surprise she's behind Kyla on the depth chart, but she's getting almost no minutes in games. I wonder if she'd have decided to come knowing now how it seems to be working out.
Expand ...

I think when recruits acknowledge that UConn is a different level and that you will be pushed harder than you ever had etc., they view this as physical challenges and I am sure many feel they can simply work their arses off to get to that level. However, the real issue is the mental game and how you must expand your mind to think more in concepts than specific plays. I remember an interview with Napheesa where she said the freshman year, her head was just exploding with new concepts and an almost alien basketball dictionary in her head that took along time to absorb and get comfortable with. Of course, if you have ridiculous physical talents , you can muscle your way through some of that and will not feel like you dont belong (Aubrey for example)

In such an environment, if you fall behind, it is hard to make up especially when your teammates are more proficient.

And it is really very difficult to know ahead of time, which recruits can deal with this mental layer and not be crushed by it.
 
The situations involving both Evelyn A and Natalie Butler show the lack of depth in WCBB. Both starred for "mid-major" programs but could not break through and play a significant role at UConn. Unlike in MCBB, where mid-major stars often contribute right away at a P5 program, the women do not. Why? Because there is such a huge gap in talent between the mid-majors and the elite programs in WCBB><
 
.-.
Bobcat said:
The situations involving both Evelyn A and Natalie Butler show the lack of depth in WCBB. Both starred for "mid-major" programs but could not break through and play a significant role at UConn.
Expand ...


Bit of a difference between the two. Butler did not come from a mid-major. Rather, she came over from a good conference, ie. the Big East, where she was very good as a freshman. She was Big East Freshman of the Year and All-Big East Second Team. Third in the nation in rebounding playing in a good conference.
 
I didn't read the rest of thread but I have questions about the Evelyn saga that of course can not be answered. Still worth considering.

1. What appealed to Geno about Evelyn's play that made him recruit her?
2. What is Evelyn doing or not doing that is keeping Geno from taking advantage of those perceived strengths?
3. How can she be on the UConn team and not be in shape? I would think the practices would almost guarantee required conditioning.
4. Kyla admitted that she finally got time when she stopped trying to do the things that she can't. Why can't Evelyn do that?
5. Is she showing enough progress in practice to warrant minutes in AAC play?

I know speculation and being critical are not acceptable on this board. Geno would probably answer all of these with a wry smile. I just can't believe he missed this bad or was that desperate for bodies.
 
Last edited:
I think the only school harder to grad transfer into than Stanford (because there are almost no grad programs at Stanford that aren't ultra-competitive) is UConn - and this is because Geno has a very particular system and it's really hard to integrate quickly, which is what a grad transfer needs to be able to do to get much playing time. Azure had a full year before she started playing, and even she left after a year.

There's a reason why Geno has rarely done this, and it's 100% because of some recruiting misses, transfers, and injuries to bigs. He needed an extra bench player who could play some minutes at the 4 or 5 in the event of an injury to a starter.

Now, provided Evelyn knew this, and knew that she'd be riding the bench of a potential championship team, then I see no reason for the sour looks. She's getting excellent coaching from the best WCBB coach of all time, pro or collegiate. She gets to make friends with some future WNBA superstars. And she gets to start a grad degree for free.

And Geno is way too much of a straight shooter for me to think he promised her the moon, the stars, and a guaranteed starter spot.

So, maybe it's just because I was raised to be grateful for my blessings, but I really don't get why she should be unhappy with this arrangement.
 
meyers7 said:
If nothing else, Adebayo gets to work on?/finish? her Masters work and UCONN gets a practice player. Win-win. If she gets to a place where she can contribute in games, all the better.
Expand ...
If her nonverbal looks are any indication, Evelyn wanted more from her enrollment at UConn than a Masters degree.
 
We need someone to do the physical, "dirty work" on the boards and around the rim. Thats what this team is "missing", imo, and will become evident when we play Baylor, South Carolina, and Oregon. Not a glamorous role but valuable to the team. And, also takes a lot of hard work. Maybe that's something she doesnt want to do or cant do.
 
.-.
BostonBay said:
We need someone to do the physical, "dirty work" on the boards and around the rim. Thats what this team is "missing", imo, and will become evident when we play Baylor, South Carolina, and Oregon. Not a glamorous role but valuable to the team. And, also takes a lot of hard work. Maybe that's something she doesnt want to do or cant do.
Expand ...

You can't be asked to do the 'dirty work' but not be (UConn) competent in the rest of your game. The answer is to get your frontline players to improve incrementally on how well they do the dirty work.
 
Huskie02 said:
I’ve only seen her in one game at garbage time. It take a long time to learn UConn’s offensive scheme and maybe she’s having great difficulty. In any event I’m very disappointed that she hasn’t developed. There was so much hype surrounding her transfer. I thought she was suppose to be a tough rebounder and could spell Liv when she needed a break or got into soul trouble.
Expand ...
C'mon folks. She is here out of desperation. UCONN needed a "body" and she was a good player in her league. But there is no one from Murray State who is going to step into this UCONN line-up and shine. She likely does not have the skill set, or the conditioning, to break into this line-up. Other than in mop-up time when we lead by 40. It is what it is.
 
Longtime fan said:
C'mon folks. She is here out of desperation. UCONN needed a "body" and she was a good player in her league. But there is no one from Murray State who is going to step into this UCONN line-up and shine. She likely does not have the skill set, or the conditioning, to break into this line-up. Other than in mop-up time when we lead by 40. It is what it is.
Expand ...

This argument, often asserted, gives little credit to the staff. Who is "desperate" for someone to come in to preserve a 40 point lead in mop up time. Her recruitment was a calculated risk born of recruiting failures and whether she will step in and perform in time of need remains to be seen.
 
Last edited:
oldude said:
Of course Evelyn did not visit UConn until after the season was over, so she never had the opportunity to watch practice. By all indications, she got herself in much better shape during the off-season. I really believe it just comes down to some weak fundamentals. As I indicated in my prior post, I am still hopeful she can be a contributor this season.
Expand ...
Perhaps its fundamentals, perhaps its poor practice habits but in any case, she is playing less than walk ons in previous years. That being said, I am more concerned with providing our starters rest and protection from injuries in blow out wins. As we all know from many years of watching Geno, this is a bigger issue than one player.
 
.-.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,520
Messages
4,580,288
Members
10,489
Latest member
smAAAll


Top Bottom