Fort Hays State Postgame Thread | The Boneyard

Fort Hays State Postgame Thread

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oldude

oldude

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When I watch UConn WBB's annual preseason game, I don’t concern myself that much with the final score, missed shots or overall team execution. Geno runs all kinds of lineup combinations in and out throughout the game, and sometimes it's not pretty. But I do look for 3 things:
  • Fitness level – The Andrea Hudy effect: who has gotten leaner and stronger since last season? Ice leads the list, and that is important, since she will play a lot of minutes early in the season until Jana figures things out and Aubrey & Ayanna are healthy. It’s also clear that Sarah is fitter and moving much better than just last year in HS. Paige and Q have added muscle to their lean bodies and Ashlynn is a beast.
  • The rotation – Who starts? Who comes in off the bench, in what order and for whom? Difficult to figure out too much here, since 6 players, including 4 players, who all started for the Huskies once upon a time, are rehabbing their way back into the lineup. Starting Kaitlyn and Sarah may mean something, although KK dealing with a turned ankle and Azzi rehabbing may have more to do with Caitlyn starting. I do believe that Sarah will start Game 1, with Aubrey potentially on deck once she’s healthy. Geno loves to run his halfcourt offense through a high-post player who can dish and shoot it. Sarah may be that player this season.
  • Have any players added something new to their game – More range from outside? Ability to attack and finish at the basket? Etc.? Paige looked better than ever, particularly in the 1st half!!! :eek: I don’t know if this is new or not. But I was somewhat impressed with Sarah’s ability to defend on the perimeter, something she really didn’t have to do much in HS.
Some odds and ends:
  • Evidently, no one needs to encourage Allie to shoot the ball. Obviously, she's been hanging out with Q....;)
  • Post offense and defense by both Ice & Jana needs to get a lot better, and it will.
  • UConn’s 1st really big game is not until 12/12 at ND, with a tune-up vs BU and what could be a tough battle vs SFL prior. The Huskies have some work to do between now and then.
 
It went about how I expected. My prognostication was within a few points for both teams. Should be a fun team to watch.
 
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I only watched the 1st half and a bit of the 2nd, but I felt like we really started to get it together after Q1. This team has a lot of new pieces, there are going to be some growing pains. But I think we are going to be very good once everything starts clicking.

Paige was fantastic though, no notes. The way she’s able to score on difficult looks seems almost effortless at times.
 
the guards being ahead of the bigs is the story. Our best lineup right now is probably a 4 or even 5 guard lineup. That’s a concern. The season hasn’t even started yet. But it is a concern.

I kind of had North Carolina circled as a relatively easy game. And I want to uncircle it now. It could be a challenge. Especially Gakdeng.
 
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What I want to know is did any of our bigs try to initiate a post move down low? The last few years, we have not had any bigs who try to initiate post moves. It is like they were afraid. ONO was afraid of Boston and would never try them, only against weaker competition. AE did try and was successful with them. Did Jana or Strong or Ice try to initiate?
 
SLY63 said:
Somewhat disappointing that we had no one aggressively post up against smaller players.
Expand ...
There were about 4-5 botched post entry passes, all of which were due to post players not pinning their defenders on their backs when receiving the entry passes. Jamelle has some work to do in order to clean that up.
 
Took over a quarter for the video to play, so I missed that one. Overall, an opportunity to play someone not on your team, or practice guys, and get the rooks their feet wet. Biggest takes; Shade looked more aggressive on offense, Chang is a keeper. El Afy is what they were missing in the middle, Allie will be an outside threat (did love the lefty teardrop, though).
 
Great showing from:

Paige-85% from the floor is wild

Chen-Scrappy as always. Good to see a 3 pointer coming along. She’s good at pressuring the opponent by always looking for the steal.

Ash- That midrange was so fast I blinked my eyes and it was already being rebounded. Much more aggressive too, going to need that on the perimeter. She's going to be a basketball terrorist to other teams come a month or two.

Good showing

Sarah-Does not play like a nervous freshman. Will be a rebounding machine come a month or two. Few bad TOs but overall positive impact.

Q- She’s earned some PT after this one. A few rough passes, but that drive to the lane was fast and her 3 looks nice.

Okay showing:

Ice- Decent passing, but she needs to set herself in position in the paint. If she gets pushed to the 3, the offense is stagnant. Post players really need to define themselves in their role, not much of that was done today.

Jana- Nerves 100%. Some of those fouls were weird (75% were late whistles).

Allie- Freshman nerves, but that girl does not lose confidence. It’ll be fun to see if the Ash-Allie chemistry starts clicking more throughout the season.


Overall issues right now is just chemistry and decision making but those improve together. Our defense has a solid foundation though, Sarah is a much better defender than I thought. Was hoping for more post play, but again, chemistry on the entry pass.

Guard play will be huge for the first few games until Jana/Ice/Sarah get more comfortable posting up. But so far, Ash, Paige, and Chen look ready to ball. Q and Allie coming along.
 
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Paige looks great. I can see Jana moving well in the post and Sarah has strength and good movement in her game. Chen played well with Paige, and when KK is not on the floor, she will be. Happy, happy, happy with Shade...opponents will fear her long shot.
 
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Exhibition games bring you the good, the bad and the ugly. We saw all of it.

Paige and Ash are ready to go. Sarah Strong is legit player on both offense and defense. Kaitlyn Chen will fit in nicely. Allie Ziebell could get serious minutes as the season wears on.

Ice and Jana have work to do and I am not surprised. Jana is going to be really good. It will take time. Ice will get there. It's only her second year of playing college ball. Q showed some hustle out there.

We still have walking wounded.

Team chemistry still has to evolve. A lot of new players to blend in.
 
Not a complaint...4 of the 5 starters scored double digits with Ice being held scoreless. She will improve on that.

The other double digit scorers kept scoring with Paige on the bench in the 4th quarter. Good sign.
Q picked up her game after making a couple bad passes early on. Good for her.
Shade was steady through out the game.
 
After sitting in darkness for 24 minutes, UConn+ saw the light, which is to say that the game suddenly appeared. I dropped my prayer beads and had a look.
I saw that Paige is still a recovering power forward. She seemed to get every rebound. And she was the old Buckets, one of the prettiest performers on a bb court. Poetry in motion . . .
There's really nothing to say about games such as these. Whose boy UConn takes to the sacrificial alter each year is not spared--nor should be. But everyone on us looked fine.
My heart still aches that Azzi hasn't gotten to be Azzi, but she simply cannot stay whole. It's all of our loss. She was a thing of beauty.
Let the games begin.
 
HoopsGuy09 said:
Has coaching fallen off? Is it recruiting misses—we’re getting the highly ranked but not right ones? How is SC fielding teams where kids are not having developmental bumps?
Expand ...
wow. do you hear yourself
 
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oldude said:
When I watch UConn WBB's annual preseason game, I don’t concern myself that much with the final score, missed shots or overall team execution. Geno runs all kinds of lineup combinations in and out throughout the game, and sometimes it's not pretty. But I do look for 3 things:
  • Fitness level – The Andrea Hudy effect: who has gotten leaner and stronger since last season? Ice leads the list, and that is important, since she will play a lot of minutes early in the season until Jana figures things out and Aubrey & Ayanna are healthy. It’s also clear that Sarah is fitter and moving much better than just last year in HS. Paige and Q have added muscle to their lean bodies and Ashlynn is a beast.
  • The rotation – Who starts? Who comes in off the bench, in what order and for whom? Difficult to figure out too much here, since 6 players, including 4 players, who all started for the Huskies once upon a time, are rehabbing their way back into the lineup. Starting Kaitlyn and Sarah may mean something, although KK dealing with a turned ankle and Azzi rehabbing may have more to do with Caitlyn starting. I do believe that Sarah will start Game 1, with Aubrey potentially on deck once she’s healthy. Geno loves to run his halfcourt offense through a high-post player who can dish and shoot it. Sarah may be that player this season.
  • Have any players added something new to their game – More range from outside? Ability to attack and finish at the basket? Etc.? Paige looked better than ever, particularly in the 1st half!!! :eek: I don’t know if this is new or not. But I was somewhat impressed with Sarah’s ability to defend on the perimeter, something she really didn’t have to do much in HS.
Some odds and ends:
  • Evidently, no one needs to encourage Allie to shoot the ball. Obviously, she's been hanging out with Q....;)
  • Post offense and defense by both Ice & Jana needs to get a lot better, and it will.
  • UConn’s 1st really big game is not until 12/12 at ND, with a tune-up vs BU and what could be a tough battle vs SFL prior. The Huskies have some work to do between now and then.
Expand ...
Didn't see the extra muscle on Q. I was hoping to because she needs that to be able to stand the rigors of playing in the paint. That said, she looked very good in the second half.
 
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Amazing to finally kick off the new season. 6 of 14 players out injured, feels like the last few years. The team will look increasingly better as the roster returns and the chemistry builds.

This is Paige’s team. She looks primed for first team AA and potentially NPOY. No surprises there, but she looked even better?!

Was surprised to see us not shoot a free throw until very late in the game. And I thought there were too many 3s taken vs attacking the basket.

It’s clear our guard play is our strength, our interior game looked pretty weak. Ice physically looked better, but her play didn’t appear any better. Strong will be a major factor all season. Jana looked a bit lost.

Lots of potential for improvement. And I think having just Azzi and KK back will make a massive difference.
 
My thoughts.

1. Yet again uconn+ can't get their feed together to start a game. Can they just start earlier with some interviews so they can get the technical difficulties handled before the game actually starts?
2. Paige was on point and glad to see she has kept those down low skills she had to learn last year.
3. Q and Chen were nice surprises and Shade is nothing but consistent.
4. The front court is a hot mess. Strong showing nerves, Ice acting like the same old confused out of position Ice, and Jana getting out of her cage as expected.
5. I guess they are saving KK for Thursday.
 
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