Final pre-season poll: Vote for your starting 5 | Page 3 | The Boneyard
.

Final pre-season poll: Vote for your starting 5

Pick 5 for your starters on day 1

  • Fudd

  • Ducharme

  • Williams

  • Brady

  • Patterson

  • Arnold

  • Shade

  • El-Alfy

  • Ziebell

  • Strong

  • Heckel

  • Fisher

  • Malou-Mamel

  • Quinones


Results are only viewable after voting.
Exactly. Big difference to me. I have Azzi, KK, Caroline, Sarah and Ice for Monday. I have Azzi, KK, Sarah, Jana, and Caroline against Louisville.
As posted previously, who starts are first game is so variable based on many factors such as injuries and who picks up the system better. I am more interested in who starts at the end of the year.
 
When watching the latest availability interviews I was surprised how tall Blanca looked. She certainly is not just 6'1"
Z, I agree Blanca is not 6'1". Good grief, she is almost a full head taller than Geno.

I, too, was trying to gauge the players' heights vis-a-vis each other. Using the background pictures to each side as a marker, and assuming the camera angle only changes slightly (if at all), IMO it looked like Blanca's shoulders were an inch(?) or so higher than Caroline's, and Serah's shoulders seemed to be twice that distance above Blanca's.
 
My starting 5 for the season opener, not the scrimmage. This could change based upon health.
KK- PG
Azzi- Shooting guard
Caroline- Small forward
Sarah- Power forward
Jana- Center
 
IMO Geno will want to prioritize establishing a well honed inside game from the get go by starting the team's strongest inside players.
No matter how good the back court is on paper, sometimes their shots just won't fall due to the law of averages.
And Geno's not one to expect his back court to score 3's at will.
I think he'll want to go big to start off the season to take some of the pressure off the back court players from abolsutely needing to hit from the three.
Over reliance on the 3 can make the UConn offense seem one dimensional & defeatable.
Having the best inside players as starters is a necessity to have the best scoring options available from the beginnijng of each and every game.
Having the option to score points on the inside can open up more scoring opportunities for the backcourt by relieving defensive pressure & by garnering more respect for UConn's front court by the opponent's defense.
There will plenty of more ways to score when the back court isn't being overly pressured to make 3's.
And our new front court players seem to be plently athletic enough to run the floor with more speed than last year's squad.
 
My starting 5 for the season opener, not the scrimmage. This could change based upon health.
KK- PG
Azzi- Shooting guard
Caroline- Small forward
Sarah- Power forward
Jana- Center
Just based upon the current health of Jana, I think Ice gets the nod for the opener. The rest of the team I agree with completely.
 
Just based upon the current health of Jana, I think Ice gets the nod for the opener. The rest of the team I agree with completely.
I forgot which media session Coach G was giving but he mentioned Jana/calf and Ash/hammy. Hopefully those are minor and nothing too serious. Coach did mention the improve play of Ice during the practice sessions and her growth over summer workouts. I keep hoping for Ice to have that breakout season. This could be the one.
 
Ashlynn being a excellent threat from deep is only part of what she brings to the table. She's also a good defender and a three level threat, though mostly she scores from outside or at the basket. But more than all of that she has a high basketball IQ and understands what Geno wants on the floor. I think that is overlooked by a lot of posters. My sense is this will be a huge year for her. Not necessarily as a breakout scorer or a primary scoring threat on a team that is so rich with people who can occupy that role. Don't get me wrong, she'll score her points, but I view her, especially in the early season, as being critical to the cohesiveness of the team. I'm hesitant to use the phrase "glue player", because often that's applied to players who are not an offensive threat, but I do think she's well positioned to make everyone better. Her outside shooting threat opens up the floor for others. She is an adept passer who understands the flow of the offense and she is a very solid defender. Taken collectively, she'll be a tough player to take off the floor.

Of course that's just supposition, and I look forward to watching the team actually play some games to see how everyone's role shakes out. This is an incredibly talented team. It will be very interesting to see how the coaching staff utilizes that talent.
If you go back and watch all our big games. Shade made numerous big plays; steals. offensive rebounds, tipped passes, key 3's,etc.. She is a winner in every sense of the word.
 
As the question was who will start on game one, i went with:
KK
Azzi
CD
Sarah
Ice

By mid-season i believe the starting 5 will be:
KK
Azzi
Blanca
Sarah
Serah

Reason being that Blanca and Serah need to get acclaimed ot the UConn system but when they do, they will represent an upgrade to CD and Ice in athletic ability and defense while not sacrificing offense.

The bigger challenge for Geno will be who are the rest of the regular rotation (players 6 to 10). I don't see how he'll be able to give regular minutes to more than 10 players which means some really good players will get very few minutes.
Clearly it is a better situation than when UConn had only 6-8 total available players.
 
I forgot which media session Coach G was giving but he mentioned Jana/calf and Ash/hammy. Hopefully those are minor and nothing too serious. Coach did mention the improve play of Ice during the practice sessions and her growth over summer workouts. I keep hoping for Ice to have that breakout season. This could be the one.
That would make us unstoppable because a break out year for Ice would mean shooting, driving, rebounding and scoring. It would also mean a strong substitution at the 4 for Sarah when needed and even more options for a high-low offense.
 
If healthy Azzi Sara Serah KK Shade. Jana Chelli and Shade are recovering from injuries. If Shade cant start I think Ice takes her place. They all know the system and have chemistry to go along with their experience playing for Geno and playing together.
 
I expect Caroline will be in the starting line-up from day 1 to season's end unless health changes this. How many minutes she plays will most likely be determined based upon her contributions and how she feels. Of course Azzi & Strong will join her as will KK (at least in the beginning of the season). I would still prefer KK coming off the bench for immediate impact (especially defensively) when & where needed. So at some point I expect Kayleigh to start. It's hard for me to believe that Serah Williams doesn't start as well.
 

Online statistics

Members online
186
Guests online
4,515
Total visitors
4,701

Forum statistics

Threads
164,623
Messages
4,404,069
Members
10,217
Latest member
Hawkeye84


.
..
Top Bottom