Zorro
Nuestro Zorro Amigo
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 17,920
- Reaction Score
- 15,759
A lot of BYs have already started fretting about next season. This post from 2002-3 season by the late and very much lamented Olde Coache might be interesting to the fretful.
The post is among the many fascinating things over at Phil's (aka Philster) all-things-UConn site, which contains dozens of interesting and nostalgic posts from prior seasons, as well as such tidbits as Biff's wonderful set of covers for Boneyard Magazine, JS's great doggerel, pics and media stuff from the past, as well as lists of other sites, analyses, and notable quotes, and lots of other great stuff. For those of you who are relatively new Husky fans, this was the season after Sue, Swin, Ashja and Tamika graduated, and DT was left to mother hen a bunch of frosh and sophomores including Jess Moore, Ann Strother, Barb Turner, Ashley Battle, Maria Conlon, Wilnett Crockett and the Valley Sisters. The season turned out ok.
Huskies team chemistry problems // Catalysts needed.
Olde Coach
Maria Conlon: "It is not just basketball stuff. It is team chemistry stuff. . . . with our team last year, there was just this urgency. . . . There is not that urgency right now. . . . It starts at practice with the energy level that we are missing."
(See Jim Fuller's column today in the Bristol Press for more of Maria's thoughts about the Huskies' lack of consistent effort.)
What is going on here?
I have seen NO signs (on the court, on the bench, or in coaches' and players' comments) of "chemistry problems" as regards conflicts between players/players or players/coaches. Maria's choice of words -- "urgency" and "energy level" point very directly to the problems that have caused the inconsistent play that is driving Geno nuts, and Diana and Maria too.
What is the cure? Go back to chemistry class and ask what is required to cause a lot of activity when you put different elements/materials together and want to "energize" their interaction? The answer: A CATALYST -- "a substance that causes or speeds up a chemical reaction."
And that is exactly what UConn needs -- some one or more players who will significantly energize the whole group. In the Oklahoma game, Maria "got ticked" in the 2nd half and quickly raised her level of play and the teams'. She (plus AS, DT & NW) likewise energized UConn in the 2nd half at Holy Cross. Clearly, the Huskies need someone to energize the entire team every day in practice and for 40 minutes of every game. Something is missing this year that has been abundant on previous teams going back to 1995 (my years of awareness).
How did UConn get to this stage where some catalysts are so urgently needed? Well, we lost Swin and Sue for starters. Swin was the energizer bunny for four years. Sue hated to lose, and played every minute of practice to assure she never would lose (well, four games in four years). Both Sue and Swin went at 110% every minute of every practice beginning with the first day. I was at the first practice last year -- and could not believe the intensity of those two. Plus, Asjha and Tamika were having personal wars during every rebound drill much less every scrimmage -- fighting each other for rebounds, and of course fighting Swin for them. Their intensity was of a kind deeply seated in close friendship and three years of inter-personal competition.
At that first practice last year, there were four experienced senior leaders, plus Diana, and only two freshman who were destined to be end-of-benchers -- AV and Stacey. Geno didn't spend time teaching the freshman. He just said "You guys watch intently. You'll figure things out quickly."
This year. . . no seniors. One returning starter. No one with leadership experience. And four freshman who are all expected to be in the eight man rotation -- that is half of your core team that knows diddly on day one and doesn't have TASS to watch and learn from. Stacey Marron has said that her most important job this year is helping the freshman. I think the world of Stacey, but she's no substitute for Sue, Swin, Asjha and Nika. Both coaches and players are living now on a whole different planet from a year ago.
Freshman have to ask directions to half the buildings on campus where their classes are scheduled to meet. And when they pull on a UConn Uniform, we expect them to play leadership roles on a team at the very top echelon of Division I Basketball? That is a tall order. It is one thing for an outstanding freshman player like Ann or Nicole to join a team like UConn had last year, and to fit in and be productive. But this year's team provided little to fit into. Diana is a force, of course, but is playing her first leadership role and is doing so as a Junior. She has been terrific. JMo, AB and MC have been bench players with zero leadership responsibilities heretofore, and playing in the very large shadows of TASS. The rest of the UConn veterans are still trying to figure out who will lead their own small group in clean-up minutes. How can they be asked to be the primary catalysts for the eight primary players?
In short, we are much younger, less experienced, and lacking in any kind of proven leadership than we are wanting to admit. Even Geno, it seems to me, has lost perspective on how "young" his team is. (In some ways, of course, he knows better than anyone how young they are. He just can't figure out what to do about it.) We have all become such optimists around the UConn women's basketball team and program that we are unprepared to see the full burdens of our present inexperience. I am guilty too. Until I started to work on this post, I have been thinking "Hey, we can do this. This is UConn. The freshmen have great talent. No sweat!"
Well, what we are finding out is that there is lots of sweat. There has been lots of sweat and will be lots more. Here's some perspective on catalysts:
2002: TASS plus DT.
2001: TASS plus Shea and Svet.
2000: TASS plus Shea and Svet and Schuey and Bam-Bam
1999: Shea and Svet and Amy Duran and Schuey and Bam-Bam
1998-1995: Rizzotti and Wolters and Lobo and Sales
In all of these classes there are players who were catalysts both by personality and experience.
On this year's team, Diana is the only "personality catalyst." Jess and Maria and AB are soft spoken by nature. AB plays like a dynamo, but has always let her legs do the talking not her mouth. There are no get in your face brash leaders here like Swin and Tamika and Shea and Bam-Bam and Jenn etc.
So Geno not only has to teach this year's team how to play Division I basketball; he has to teach them how to be catalyst personalities. That is a hard enough task with 3rd year students like Jess and Maria and AB, much less with freshman. Those with a clear memory, may note that Schuey was thrown out of practice three times her freshman year for lack of effort; and she played at half throttle for most of her career at UConn. Paige Sauer was a disappointment more nights than I want to recall.
A lot of coaches have asked one freshman, or at most two, to make major basketball contributions to their teams. I can't remember the last time a coach had to ask a freshmen class of four to assume catalyst leadership and personality roles on a team at UConn's level. THAT IS A BIG ASK. But it is exactly what everyone is looking for the freshman to do.
Geno, and all the rest of us fans, are struggling now to understand just how big an ask it is. I can make a good case that Geno ought to be damn pleased at this stage of the season to be getting twenty good minutes of offense every night and thirty good minutes of defense. This does not meet UConn's standards of the last decade; but it may be all we can get from them in their first six games.
I think what we have seen so far is a team that is playing like the Miami Hurricanes football team -- they do what they have to to win. I think the motivation for our kids in the 2nd halves has been more pride than habit of effort or leadership. When their back is against the wall, they will fight to defend the uniforms they wear and the legacy they have inherited and revere. But they have not yet learned how to play every minute with the focus of Sue and Swin and Shea and Jenn. They are still getting to know one another. How can they lead one another? It does take time. And for sweet young girls like Ann and Nicole and Will and Barbara it takes some restructuring of personality genes. All are competitors who love to win and hate to lose; but none of them (except in part Barbara) have demonstrative personalities. And Barbara didn't practice much with her team early on.
So -- in summary -- I think our "chemistry problems" are mostly caused by a shortage of catalysts. I think it will help everyone if they understand this is the problem, not something more sinister or harder to fix. No one is to blame. Our 12 players are what they are, and who they are. To achieve their shared goals as a basketball team, they are going to have to figure out ways to become catalysts for one another and their team. If they can define this as their goal and focus on it, they will be most likely to develop the urgency and energy levels they need. The alternative is to be frustrated and flailing because they know something is broke, but they don't know exactly what it is or how to fix it.
My hope for today is 35 minutes of good defense and 30 minutes of good offense.
Go Huskies!
The post is among the many fascinating things over at Phil's (aka Philster) all-things-UConn site, which contains dozens of interesting and nostalgic posts from prior seasons, as well as such tidbits as Biff's wonderful set of covers for Boneyard Magazine, JS's great doggerel, pics and media stuff from the past, as well as lists of other sites, analyses, and notable quotes, and lots of other great stuff. For those of you who are relatively new Husky fans, this was the season after Sue, Swin, Ashja and Tamika graduated, and DT was left to mother hen a bunch of frosh and sophomores including Jess Moore, Ann Strother, Barb Turner, Ashley Battle, Maria Conlon, Wilnett Crockett and the Valley Sisters. The season turned out ok.
Huskies team chemistry problems // Catalysts needed.
Olde Coach
Maria Conlon: "It is not just basketball stuff. It is team chemistry stuff. . . . with our team last year, there was just this urgency. . . . There is not that urgency right now. . . . It starts at practice with the energy level that we are missing."
(See Jim Fuller's column today in the Bristol Press for more of Maria's thoughts about the Huskies' lack of consistent effort.)
What is going on here?
I have seen NO signs (on the court, on the bench, or in coaches' and players' comments) of "chemistry problems" as regards conflicts between players/players or players/coaches. Maria's choice of words -- "urgency" and "energy level" point very directly to the problems that have caused the inconsistent play that is driving Geno nuts, and Diana and Maria too.
What is the cure? Go back to chemistry class and ask what is required to cause a lot of activity when you put different elements/materials together and want to "energize" their interaction? The answer: A CATALYST -- "a substance that causes or speeds up a chemical reaction."
And that is exactly what UConn needs -- some one or more players who will significantly energize the whole group. In the Oklahoma game, Maria "got ticked" in the 2nd half and quickly raised her level of play and the teams'. She (plus AS, DT & NW) likewise energized UConn in the 2nd half at Holy Cross. Clearly, the Huskies need someone to energize the entire team every day in practice and for 40 minutes of every game. Something is missing this year that has been abundant on previous teams going back to 1995 (my years of awareness).
How did UConn get to this stage where some catalysts are so urgently needed? Well, we lost Swin and Sue for starters. Swin was the energizer bunny for four years. Sue hated to lose, and played every minute of practice to assure she never would lose (well, four games in four years). Both Sue and Swin went at 110% every minute of every practice beginning with the first day. I was at the first practice last year -- and could not believe the intensity of those two. Plus, Asjha and Tamika were having personal wars during every rebound drill much less every scrimmage -- fighting each other for rebounds, and of course fighting Swin for them. Their intensity was of a kind deeply seated in close friendship and three years of inter-personal competition.
At that first practice last year, there were four experienced senior leaders, plus Diana, and only two freshman who were destined to be end-of-benchers -- AV and Stacey. Geno didn't spend time teaching the freshman. He just said "You guys watch intently. You'll figure things out quickly."
This year. . . no seniors. One returning starter. No one with leadership experience. And four freshman who are all expected to be in the eight man rotation -- that is half of your core team that knows diddly on day one and doesn't have TASS to watch and learn from. Stacey Marron has said that her most important job this year is helping the freshman. I think the world of Stacey, but she's no substitute for Sue, Swin, Asjha and Nika. Both coaches and players are living now on a whole different planet from a year ago.
Freshman have to ask directions to half the buildings on campus where their classes are scheduled to meet. And when they pull on a UConn Uniform, we expect them to play leadership roles on a team at the very top echelon of Division I Basketball? That is a tall order. It is one thing for an outstanding freshman player like Ann or Nicole to join a team like UConn had last year, and to fit in and be productive. But this year's team provided little to fit into. Diana is a force, of course, but is playing her first leadership role and is doing so as a Junior. She has been terrific. JMo, AB and MC have been bench players with zero leadership responsibilities heretofore, and playing in the very large shadows of TASS. The rest of the UConn veterans are still trying to figure out who will lead their own small group in clean-up minutes. How can they be asked to be the primary catalysts for the eight primary players?
In short, we are much younger, less experienced, and lacking in any kind of proven leadership than we are wanting to admit. Even Geno, it seems to me, has lost perspective on how "young" his team is. (In some ways, of course, he knows better than anyone how young they are. He just can't figure out what to do about it.) We have all become such optimists around the UConn women's basketball team and program that we are unprepared to see the full burdens of our present inexperience. I am guilty too. Until I started to work on this post, I have been thinking "Hey, we can do this. This is UConn. The freshmen have great talent. No sweat!"
Well, what we are finding out is that there is lots of sweat. There has been lots of sweat and will be lots more. Here's some perspective on catalysts:
2002: TASS plus DT.
2001: TASS plus Shea and Svet.
2000: TASS plus Shea and Svet and Schuey and Bam-Bam
1999: Shea and Svet and Amy Duran and Schuey and Bam-Bam
1998-1995: Rizzotti and Wolters and Lobo and Sales
In all of these classes there are players who were catalysts both by personality and experience.
On this year's team, Diana is the only "personality catalyst." Jess and Maria and AB are soft spoken by nature. AB plays like a dynamo, but has always let her legs do the talking not her mouth. There are no get in your face brash leaders here like Swin and Tamika and Shea and Bam-Bam and Jenn etc.
So Geno not only has to teach this year's team how to play Division I basketball; he has to teach them how to be catalyst personalities. That is a hard enough task with 3rd year students like Jess and Maria and AB, much less with freshman. Those with a clear memory, may note that Schuey was thrown out of practice three times her freshman year for lack of effort; and she played at half throttle for most of her career at UConn. Paige Sauer was a disappointment more nights than I want to recall.
A lot of coaches have asked one freshman, or at most two, to make major basketball contributions to their teams. I can't remember the last time a coach had to ask a freshmen class of four to assume catalyst leadership and personality roles on a team at UConn's level. THAT IS A BIG ASK. But it is exactly what everyone is looking for the freshman to do.
Geno, and all the rest of us fans, are struggling now to understand just how big an ask it is. I can make a good case that Geno ought to be damn pleased at this stage of the season to be getting twenty good minutes of offense every night and thirty good minutes of defense. This does not meet UConn's standards of the last decade; but it may be all we can get from them in their first six games.
I think what we have seen so far is a team that is playing like the Miami Hurricanes football team -- they do what they have to to win. I think the motivation for our kids in the 2nd halves has been more pride than habit of effort or leadership. When their back is against the wall, they will fight to defend the uniforms they wear and the legacy they have inherited and revere. But they have not yet learned how to play every minute with the focus of Sue and Swin and Shea and Jenn. They are still getting to know one another. How can they lead one another? It does take time. And for sweet young girls like Ann and Nicole and Will and Barbara it takes some restructuring of personality genes. All are competitors who love to win and hate to lose; but none of them (except in part Barbara) have demonstrative personalities. And Barbara didn't practice much with her team early on.
So -- in summary -- I think our "chemistry problems" are mostly caused by a shortage of catalysts. I think it will help everyone if they understand this is the problem, not something more sinister or harder to fix. No one is to blame. Our 12 players are what they are, and who they are. To achieve their shared goals as a basketball team, they are going to have to figure out ways to become catalysts for one another and their team. If they can define this as their goal and focus on it, they will be most likely to develop the urgency and energy levels they need. The alternative is to be frustrated and flailing because they know something is broke, but they don't know exactly what it is or how to fix it.
My hope for today is 35 minutes of good defense and 30 minutes of good offense.
Go Huskies!
Last edited by a moderator: