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It's kinda my hobby horse, I know, but I end up rewatching much of the season over the summer -- thank you @MJL243 -- to get clues about next season. The Maryland game came up on my YouTube feed and I watched it again this afternoon even though I'd already watched it 4 or 5 times. Anyway, I highly recommend watching it if you want to get a sense of the sort of high energy game Geno's Huskies can generate. The second quarter is particularly thrilling, since at about 3 minutes in Paige gets tangled up with Shyanne Sellers, a great player in her own right. An intentional foul is called on Paige, and from that moment on she takes over the game, scoring 14 points in the quarter and finishing with 24 pts on 10-15 shooting, 5 rebounds 2 blocks and 6 steals. Aaliyah scored 12 pts with 3 steals, Aubrey added 9 pts 13 rebounds and 4 blocks. And KK, in the first of her major games, played 28 minutes scored 12 on 5-6 shooting with 5 assists and 5 steals.
What this game suggests to me is that if Geno can get them to play with this sort of edge next season, Paige & Co will be incredible. A fuller roster, and one stacked with talent from top to bottom, will be wonderful to watch if they can consistently play in this mode. Paige and Azzi and Ash all know how to play at this level of intensity. And I suspect that KK and Kaitlyn will be willing to push pace to match them, and Morgan will too, if she can find her D1 comfort level early enough. And if Sarah and Jana and Ice are ready to mix it up inside and outside, the rest of D1 better look out.
Paige is the heart of this team, maybe more than any player since Maya, and as she goes the rest will follow. If she plays with heart and energy, KK Ash Azzi and KK already know this drill, and I hope Ice and Q picked up some sense of it too. As I said, I think Morgan is used to playing with this sort of energy, so she should pick it up quickly. What an incredible running team we look to have even before Aubrey and Ayanna return. This is the season Geno will become the all-time winningest coach in D1 basketball history, and he's got the tools to create a masterpiece with this group just to underline this accomplishment. I'm looking forward to seeing Geno's greatest team ever!
A few more game notes:
What this game suggests to me is that if Geno can get them to play with this sort of edge next season, Paige & Co will be incredible. A fuller roster, and one stacked with talent from top to bottom, will be wonderful to watch if they can consistently play in this mode. Paige and Azzi and Ash all know how to play at this level of intensity. And I suspect that KK and Kaitlyn will be willing to push pace to match them, and Morgan will too, if she can find her D1 comfort level early enough. And if Sarah and Jana and Ice are ready to mix it up inside and outside, the rest of D1 better look out.
Paige is the heart of this team, maybe more than any player since Maya, and as she goes the rest will follow. If she plays with heart and energy, KK Ash Azzi and KK already know this drill, and I hope Ice and Q picked up some sense of it too. As I said, I think Morgan is used to playing with this sort of energy, so she should pick it up quickly. What an incredible running team we look to have even before Aubrey and Ayanna return. This is the season Geno will become the all-time winningest coach in D1 basketball history, and he's got the tools to create a masterpiece with this group just to underline this accomplishment. I'm looking forward to seeing Geno's greatest team ever!
A few more game notes:
- This was only the 3rd game of the season
- Azzi's injury was announced just before this game.
- Aaliyah and Ice had a few good moments of interior passing, big-to-big. I have a feeling we'll see a lot more of this next season between Ice Jana Sarah Ayanna Aubrey and Caroline. There's a lot of ball-savvy in that group.
- There seemed to be some hard feelings on the Maryland side. I don't know if Shyanne and Paige get along, though it would be sad if they don't, since game knows game as they say. Masonius Kubek Alexander and Brown-Turner seemed to have a chip on their shoulders about something coming into this game.
- UConn had just lost to NC St and may have looked vulnerable to an upset, and the sudden loss of Azzi would have suggested the same idea. The Terps seemed determined to play what I can only describe as "bully ball," and once Paige got pissed and took over the game, the rest of the team was inspired and practically ran Maryland off the court.