Gabby NPOY ?

[DishNSwish]

I don't think Gabby even wins Conference POY, Lou does.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Now correlate Gabby's ppg to winning margin. It would seem she scores more in the closer games. Perhaps she should score less so UConn can win by more.

This focus on ppg when it comes to NPOY is nonsense. Who thinks Odyssey Sims was better than Stewie?

Now contemplate who you think the opposing coaches in those "closer games" were forcused on stopping when the game began and figure out how at the end of those games, the advantage to score goes to the most athletic player because you need to press and make stops. How many late game points has Gabby scored, as a result of that type effort. Numbers can be distorted, in a number of ways and though I know in this South Carolina game, Gabby was awesome from start to finish, I feel that in a couple of the other "close games" she got easy buckets late due to the focus on KLS and Napheesa that padded her score sheet. Gabby is great but as I said earlier, there is a big question on this board whether she's the best player on THIS TEAM. Her game is wonderfully well rounded because of her athleticism and her high energy levels and the improvement in her skills but how often is Gabby THE FOCUS of the opposing teams when they play the Huskies?

 

[Buzzyboy]

I don't think Gabby even wins Conference POY, Lou does.

Good point as to who you might pick on just this team. Would you march in the streets if KLS was Conference POY? If Napheesa was? If Gabby was? I would say NO! All three have played marvelously and Kia has been pretty darned good, as well, though not THAT GOOD!

 

[Buzzyboy]

Buzzyboy, I have seen Kelsey Plum play. She is an elite talent. However, when you have a 5'11" post player who outperforms not one but two Twin Towers in every facet of the game, and who has on occasion been called on to cover the other teams best guard, then you have the NPOY. Gabby does it all in every category. Kelsey is no match for Gabby on the defensive end. She doesn't have that skill level. Before you mention offensive skill, remember Gabby leads UConn in assists. She also knows how to set a screen.

As I said, voters see highlights and stats and get a sense of the supporting cast on some of these teams. At first glance, who do you think has a better supporting cast and who do you think has a bigger responsibility (Role) to their team's success? Plum does and I don't think it's even close, do you? If you took Gabby and Plum and switched them, how much success would they have on their new teams? Gabby would be absolutely the focus of everyone they played and be doubled up, all the time. If you don't think it's easier to be successful playing on the Huskies, with the starting lineup Gabby plays with, than we obviously see things much differently.

 

[Los24]

Wrong.

Not sure this.
If you put Gabby in Washington and Kelsey in UConn, do you think Gabby can score much more points than Kelsey? Answer is definitely yes. But Kelsey cannot get as many rebs, asts and blocks as Gabby.

Geno's system will not let a single player scoring 30 or 40+ points. Basketball is a team work, not a single person's show.

Please folks, let's give other players credit and get out of the UConn bubble. Gabby scores over 20 for first time and now we say her offense is as good as one of the most dangerous scorers of ALL_TIME??? First team AA yes, NDPOY yes, overall POY I would say in conversation. Ability to score like Plum (or Lou) not close. Coach left her in to get triple double, if he left Lou in a couple of those games she would have 40+. Gabby is great, exciting, etc... But let's leave her some part of her game to improve on.

 

[Los24]

Buzzyboy, I have seen Kelsey Plum play. She is an elite talent. However, when you have a 5'11" post player who outperforms not one but two Twin Towers in every facet of the game, and who has on occasion been called on to cover the other teams best guard, then you have the NPOY. Gabby does it all in every category. Kelsey is no match for Gabby on the defensive end. She doesn't have that skill level. Before you mention offensive skill, remember Gabby leads UConn in assists. She also knows how to set a screen.

Okay folks, Gabby is not guarding the bigs one on one for the most part. It's team defense. On our offense it's easier to get assists with the talent the ball is thrown to as well. How can Lou get an assist to Gabby if she passes her the ball on a 18 ft jumper? Also Lou's game allows her to shoot\score more because she can. Lastly, scoring does count especially if it's by over 15pts a game. Its hard to score a lot of points even if you obviously take more shoots. Gabby's best two games of her career are 19 and 26. That said, this last game really stood out on how impactful she is... I was in awe at times. I also would not argue if she did win POY, but I also don't act like others are not deserving.

 

[Huskie78]

I will preface this by saying Gabby is my favorite player in the history of basketball.
Been that for over 2 years. Hell, when I think about it, she may be my favorite athlete of ALL TIME! I bid a substantial amount trying to get her jersey yesterday. Didn't happen.

That said, here we go.
First, I LOVE the passion of the BY for this team! Trying to figure out who is the best on the team is a great conundrum to have.
I would, of course, be lying if I said I didn't want Gabby to win NPOY.
I truly believe Plum will win it. Is she deserving? Absolutely.

Second, who is the most valuable Husky?
Answer: GabPheesaLoUConn
That covers everyone, right?

I do love reading all the posts in this thread.
Man, we are so blessed as fans to have a team this GREAT!

Conversations I hear at work... "my (blank) is the greatest team in football", etc..
I wait for a pause and say: "Get back to me when they win 100 straight."

Lastly, I'll just leave you all a little something to carry on the discussion:

 

[Kaizen]

Wrong.

Please folks, let's give other players credit and get out of the UConn bubble. Gabby scores over 20 for first time and now we say her offense is as good as one of the most dangerous scorers of ALL_TIME??? First team AA yes, NDPOY yes, overall POY I would say in conversation. Ability to score like Plum (or Lou) not close. Coach left her in to get triple double, if he left Lou in a couple of those games she would have 40+. Gabby is great, exciting, etc.. But let's leave her some part of her game to improve on.

I never said Gabby's offense is better than Plum.
I said if switch Gabby to Washington and Plum to UConn, Gabby will score more points than Plum.

Please read the complete post first.

 

[Go/huskies]

I'm a little disgusted that Gabby is good enough for praises from the coaches, and the media but, when we the fans do it were told to chill out or that we're basically hyping her up. From the opening tip last year posters here said she wouldn't start, but she did had a decent 1st game, yes she was moved to the bench due to team needs, but never the less she proved some of you all wrong. Same thing this year, people had her coming off the bench for Nat because of her lack of size, and once again she proved people here wrong. As I've said before other then being versatile scorers, what makes Lou and Pheesa so much better then Gabby? Gabby had a career high in points and both shot attempts Monday night, taking 19 shots. Shes willing to do whatever the team needs, but if she was taking a majority of the shot attempts no telling what her numbers might be.

 

[chrissaran]

ericsandiego, how about Gabby's explosion on the boards, on shut-down D, on assists, on steals, and on grit. You just want to look at offensive numbers. As everyone know, UConn's D is what fuels their teams. It wasn't UConn's offense that won Monday's game, it was the defense. Gabby was the fuel that fed the fire that burned SC down.

 

[Geew1992]

Shouldn't NPOY be based on all around performance? Not just how many points someone can score?

 

[chrissaran]

ricky, Lou was not in what game and they pulled it off? She's played in all UConn's games.

 

[mntncougar]

I would just love to see a showdown between UCONN and Washington in the tournament. Unfortunately I don't think it can happen. I don't pretend to know a thing about brackets but I doubt that the two could meet before the final four. And I think it's unlikely that Washington will get that far.

 

[HoopsFan21]

If you had to choose between Plum and Gabby for your team, who do you pick? I'm going with The Gabulous One!

 

[mdakota]

While I agree that Gabby should be in consideration, unfortunately we don't get to vote. I do see her making an all american team though... Look at Morgan two years ago, she didn't make all american, though she clearly deserved it.

 

[Kaizen]

If you had to choose between Plum and Gabby for your team, who do you pick? I'm going with The Gabulous One!

Me too.

 

[mntncougar]

This discussion seems to have gotten a little skewed. Earlier in the season we were all talking about the "core four", acknowledging that it was the way they all played together that made them great. And later, when Saniya showed she now belongs in the conversation too it was the "fab five".
I really doubt that the perception of this this team by most BY'ers has really changed very much from that view; of a number or exceptional individuals who have united to "form a more perfect union."
The difference is that we are now talking about individual awards, and except for championships there are no team awards to give this group. So the merits of each must be examined individually, but that does not/should not take away from the value of the other players.
I think that Gabby's unique overall talent has become more and more visible for a while now, and we have all recognized that. It's just that this game made her star shine brighter and impossible to overlook. It does not diminish the others in any way, but if, in the end, only one can be selected, she now has a great start at making her case.

 

[Los24]

I never said Gabby's offense is better than Plum.
I said if switch Gabby to Washington and Plum to UConn, Gabby will score more points than Plum.

Please read the complete post first.

Play on words. She would not score more than Plum, but if that is what you think based on one game over 20 in a career vs someone that could end up first all-time (avg 30) than by all means. Lou is avg 20+ still after a few bad games while Gabby is at 13.

 

[rugbymate]

Putting aside the NPOY discussion , IMO an interesting topic is how Gabby stacks up head to head against the consensus AA's at her position namely Turner, Coates, Wilson and Jones. So here it is....WINS :Gabby 4 AA's O, PPG: Gabby 20.3 AA's 15.5 REBOUNDS: Gabby 11.7 AA's 11.3 (not bad for giving away an average of 5 inches) FG%: Gabby 49% AA's 54%( not bad when playing against trees) Assists: Gabby 5.0 AA's 2.3
STEALS: Gabby 3.0 AA's .8 BLOCKS : Gabby 2.1 AA's 1.8

You kind of get the picture that Gabby has outperformed the deemed AA bigs in aggregate in vitally every statistical category in head to head competition. AA voters : please take notice and put Ms Williams on your first team ballot

 

[nwhoopfan]

Hello Husky fans. Long time lurker, first time poster. Just couldn't sit it out on this thread. UConn is yet again a fantastic team with a bunch of very good players this year. I feel like many of you are too casually dismissing Kelsey Plum. I have a feeling you haven't seen her play at all this year. She has been truly phenomenal. She is much more than "just a scorer." She's currently averaging 5 assists and 5 rebounds (that's a healthy number for a 5-8 PG) per game, just under 2 steals, and is .006% on her FT away from being at the magical 50/40/90 line, which is quite an accomplishment. While she does score a lot she is very efficient and is not a ball hog, as the assist numbers indicate. I've often seen her go out of her way to try to involve teammates. Every team they've played all season has made stopping her priority #1, and nobody has come close to accomplishing it. Her season LOW is 22 pts. Only a handful of players across the country AVERAGE that many points, and that's her low mark. She really hasn't had a bad game all season. Think about that for a bit. What she's doing is remarkable, if you've seen it you can't help but be impressed by her. To me she is the runaway national POY, it's not even close. Gabby has been a good player throughout the season w/ a couple exceptional games. As several posters noted it's quite debatable if Williams is even UConn's POY, you can't discount what both Samuelson and Collier have done.

I'm Pacific NW born and raised, live in Seattle and have attended several UW games as well as watching most of them on Pac 12 Network, so I guess I'll have to admit I'm a bit of a homer. It's worth noting that your own Sue Bird is a big fan of Plum and has been attending some of the UW games. Sue has done a bit of mentoring w/ Kelsey, helping her prepare to take the next step in her basketball career. It's kind of a cool story I think.


Totally OT, but I had the privilege of seeing live an absolutely loaded UConn team totally dismantle UW back in the early 2000's, the very first game after Hec Ed was renovated. Coming off a Championship returning players such as Abrasimova, Ralph, Bird, Cash, Jones and Williams and adding a freshmen kid from California named Taurasi who turned out OK. I think it was D's first game of her college career. She came off the bench but I could tell right away she had a ton of potential.

 

[Kaizen]

Putting aside the NPOY discussion , IMO an interesting topic is how Gabby stacks up head to head against the consensus AA's at her position namely Turner, Coates, Wilson and Jones. So here it is...WINS :Gabby 4 AA's O, PPG: Gabby 20.3 AA's 15.5 REBOUNDS: Gabby 11.7 AA's 11.3 (not bad for giving away an average of 5 inches) FG%: Gabby 49% AA's 54%( not bad when playing against trees) Assists: Gabby 5.0 AA's 2.3
STEALS: Gabby 3.0 AA's .8 BLOCKS : Gabby 2.1 AA's 1.8

You kind of get the picture that Gabby has outperformed the deemed AA bigs in aggregate in vitally every statistical category in head to head competition. AA voters : please take notice and put Ms Williams on your first team ballot

Great comparison. Am surprised Gabby's rebounds is better than other AAs.

 

[oldude]

Hello Husky fans. Long time lurker, first time poster. Just couldn't sit it out on this thread. UConn is yet again a fantastic team with a bunch of very good players this year. I feel like many of you are too casually dismissing Kelsey Plum. I have a feeling you haven't seen her play at all this year. She has been truly phenomenal. She is much more than "just a scorer." She's currently averaging 5 assists and 5 rebounds (that's a healthy number for a 5-8 PG) per game, just under 2 steals, and is .006% on her FT away from being at the magical 50/40/90 line, which is quite an accomplishment. While she does score a lot she is very efficient and is not a ball hog, as the assist numbers indicate. I've often seen her go out of her way to try to involve teammates. Every team they've played all season has made stopping her priority #1, and nobody has come close to accomplishing it. Her season LOW is 22 pts. Only a handful of players across the country AVERAGE that many points, and that's her low mark. She really hasn't had a bad game all season. Think about that for a bit. What she's doing is remarkable, if you've seen it you can't help but be impressed by her. To me she is the runaway national POY, it's not even close. Gabby has been a good player throughout the season w/ a couple exceptional games. As several posters noted it's quite debatable if Williams is even UConn's POY, you can't discount what both Samuelson and Collier have done.

I'm Pacific NW born and raised, live in Seattle and have attended several UW games as well as watching most of them on Pac 12 Network, so I guess I'll have to admit I'm a bit of a homer. It's worth noting that your own Sue Bird is a big fan of Plum and has been attending some of the UW games. Sue has done a bit of mentoring w/ Kelsey, helping her prepare to take the next step in her basketball career. It's kind of a cool story I think.


Totally OT, but I had the privilege of seeing live an absolutely loaded UConn team totally dismantle UW back in the early 2000's, the very first game after Hec Ed was renovated. Coming off a Championship returning players such as Abrasimova, Ralph, Bird, Cash, Jones and Williams and adding a freshmen kid from California named Taurasi who turned out OK. I think it was D's first game of her college career. She came off the bench but I could tell right away she had a ton of potential.

Welcome to the BY. Appreciate your insights, but would point out that most people on this board have praised Plum and in fact believe that she is the likely NPOY.

I have seen her play several times on the Pac12 network and she's terrific. If you watch every UConn game as many on the BY do, you will also see that Gabby is also a terrific basketball player who can do things on the court that no other WBB player can do, or has ever done.

IMO Plum will win most NPOY awards, but Gabby is right behind her and may earn 1 or 2 herself.

 

[ochoopsfan]

Hello Husky fans. Long time lurker, first time poster. Just couldn't sit it out on this thread. UConn is yet again a fantastic team with a bunch of very good players this year. I feel like many of you are too casually dismissing Kelsey Plum. I have a feeling you haven't seen her play at all this year. She has been truly phenomenal. She is much more than "just a scorer." She's currently averaging 5 assists and 5 rebounds (that's a healthy number for a 5-8 PG) per game, just under 2 steals, and is .006% on her FT away from being at the magical 50/40/90 line, which is quite an accomplishment. While she does score a lot she is very efficient and is not a ball hog, as the assist numbers indicate. I've often seen her go out of her way to try to involve teammates.

Welcome to the BY NWhoopfan.
I have been to both Seattle, love the city, and Spokane to see the Zags. Both are great basketball towns.
I agree with all you posted on Plum.
The part I hilighted in red about her not being a ball hog, I agree.
Except, I thought in the Stanford game, the game where the Cardinal came back from down 18, had Plum been more of a ball hog, just in that game, I think the Huskies win. It seemed she was trying too hard to get the ball to Osahor and Collier, especially in the 2nd half that the fumbles by both, turning the ball over, may have cost them the game.
I had also mentioned in an earlier post that after an amazing game by a player, things need to be put into perspective before saying the player is POY.
Welcome again and Washington Huskies and UConn Huskies are distant cousins.

Just curious are there other Husky teams out there?

 

[EricLA]

ericsandiego, how about Gabby's explosion on the boards, on shut-down D, on assists, on steals, and on grit. You just want to look at offensive numbers. As everyone know, UConn's D is what fuels their teams. It wasn't UConn's offense that won Monday's game, it was the defense. Gabby was the fuel that fed the fire that burned SC down.

I don't now how many different ways I need to say it - I FEEL GABBY SHOULD BE AN AA. In my mind she should be 2nd team AA. That's my opinion. But I totally agree with you - she is a great player who does a TON of things for the team when on the court.

However, I do not believe that VOTERS who actually have a say (I do not) would vote for her as an AA if the voting were held today. They give a TON of weight to reputation, cachet, who's a "name" brand, and most importantly to PPG. At 13 PPG, Gabby falls way short. In fact, someone posted Gabby's stats compared to Osahor - Chantel has more PPG by 2.5, RPB (almost double), and slightly less APG than Gabby, but I don't hear people on her going on and on about her.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Thanks for the warm BY welcome. I certainly don't mean to take anything away from Williams, it is remarkable what she does as a 5-11 post player. I think maybe most impressive of all is her playmaking. For a non primary ballhandler to rack up that many assists is rarely seen.

I was at the Stanford game (and recorded it and watched it again later), totally agree Plum needed to be more selfish that game. It was an anomaly, but her teammates just could not make the ball go in the bucket. I'd have to double check but I think the other starters were a combined 2-25 from the field and the entire team other than Plum was 6-37. You just don't see that kind of futility. Stanford had a good game plan and was playing tough D, but they weren't that good. Just an ice cold shooting night.

As far as other Huskies, Northeastern and Northern Illinois are both Huskies.

Osahor is a treat to watch as well. Such a unique player. UW is gonna be VERY different next year w/out their dynamic duo.