That's ridiculous! Russell had some of the best players of the era around him, year after year. The only time Wilt played on a really good Philly team, they clobbered the Celtics and are considered one of the great all-time teams.
What are you talking about? He had all the size he needed in Natalie Butler (15 min/game), who was wasted at Uconn. In and out of Geno's dog house her entire time there. Would have lead team in rebounding if given playing time. Azura Stevens was also wasted at 20 min a game the next year. Why is a top draft choice sitting on the bench? Only in Geno world.
The one and done jump shots were made by the appropriate player under the circumstances. In some of those games, the Huskies have looked lost in those moments. One and done tournaments meant to spring upsets? What should they do, make them the best of three or five? Don't forget, despite all the rhetoric, there are only a half dozen teams in a given year who have a chance to win it all.Yes -- just don't take it literal. He isn't God. But if you tone it down a notch in terms of context and consider he is "Phil Jackson" and "Red Auerbach"-- if those guys "walked on water" then so has Geno.
As for the bold-- please define "the last few years" vs how many years has she been competing vs UCONN? Unfortunately we can''t go back-and-forth much more. After this post - you can have last word. The mods won't want a lot of back-and-forth so have at it.
You take Muffett I'll easily take Geno. His 36-1 team from 3 years ago in which his team had no business going 36-1 was nothing short of amazing. Transforming Gabby to being such a "NATIONAL" beast as an inside forward and winning so much and being so dominant for such a small team was amazing. IMO you put way too much emphasis on a last second jump shots in one-and-done tournament specifically designed to try to get upsets.
The fact that you are trying t take away in any manner success form Geno because he has gotten DT, Maya and Stewart is just preposterous.
The campus of UCONN is not as flashy as other campus such as ND. The conference UCONN is currently in stinks. Yet how many more excuses will you and others keep providing if UCONN gets Fudd? Geno promotes a style of play which gets these type of players. You might mistakenly isolate this by calling it "recruiting only." But style of play is more that recruiting too as i gave the Maya Moore example previously. Some coaches would have had her play sf. When Geno/UCONN got DT she thought of UCONN as "Showtime." That's part of coaching. Yet you seem to want to minimize style of play. That's part of coaching. That's teh same style Stewart sees etc.
A final point. There was a poster on here whom I think got a few "likes" identified the 36-1 team from years ago as "less than stellar." Can you imagine what that poster along with others who agreed would have been thinking as a ND fan in the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 seasons in which his team got upset in the S16 and E8 even though they were a favorite / and a number 1 seed? How was Mufftet's in game coaching then?
So yeah -- in context- if you win 11 championships you can claim you have walked on water.
At their best, Geno's teams run the offense like the 60's Celtics: a thing of beauty. Layups are still the best shot so Geno runs when given the chance, just like any great coach would run. The Lakers of the 80's were a one-off collection of players with unique but complementary skills. Definitely fun to watch. Bird would have fit right in with the Lakers. Instead, he fit in with some absolutely great talent in Boston playing a brand of basketball that had a semblance of the 60's teams. Magic would have fit in with the Celtics too.
Led the nation in rebounding after leaving Uconn and scored 15 pts/game. Averaged 13.9 ppg and 13.4 rpg as Freshman at Georgetown. So I ask you, what the hell are you talking about like she is some Kyla Irvin. Only a fool would believe she was not used properly. I guess that would be you!
I usually agree with most everything that you say but I think that using National championships to determine who might be a generational player is totally idiotic. If that person is a fantastic player and playing on a mediocre or worse team and was playing at the same time that Breanna and company were winning four consecutive titles but made that team so competitive that they narrowly lost those four national championship games, you would somehow diminish her and degrade her impact or lesson her abilities because she was playing against another extraordinary player who had a much, much, much better supporting cast???? That is about as lame as anything I've ever heard. To insinuate that loses you an enormous amount of credibility with anyone who has any common sense. If Breanna was playing on a scrub team, there would have been NO possibility of her winning four championships and close to zero chance of her winning any at all. She had an amazing team with enormous depth. She herself was embarrassed that she was awarded the Final Four MVP over Moriah Jefferson one year. I think Vegas would have given odds so high against four championships that they would have been off the charts. I think you'd have gotten wonderful odds that she would even get to a championship game if her teammates were mediocre players, at best.
I agree. This is people protecting the status of the Uconn greats at the expense of these other great players. Put Wilt (instead of Russell) on the Celtics or Ted Williams (instead of Joe D) on the Yankees and the results would have been the same. Now when you have someone like Griner surrounded by a pretty darn good cast, winning just once, that player is not 'generational' in my mind.
While I truly enjoy engaging in a spirited disagreement with one of the many knowledgeable posters here on the BY, when you call someone "totally idiotic" your argument loses its credibility. Unfortunately, I recognize that our society has increasingly replaced respectful disagreement with name-calling and divisive rhetoric. It is my sincere hope that here on the BY, we can disagree without being disagreeable.
Brittany did not and still does not have the 'fire', the will to win the others do. The talent yes. Also, she was on a heck of a team with Odyssey Sims that lost an early game in the tournament that should never have happened. Still, to me its more about the grit and determination. She appears to be a laid back person who may enjoy her life more than those who live and die by the W's. But I don't know that.
I think you're spot on. Griner has been laid back like that ever since she arrived in Phoenix, and needs Taurasi to get her fired up. (But she will go Barnastle every now and then if Glory Johnson throws scissors at her or Kristine Anigwe gets in her face a little too much for her liking.)
Uhm.....there was this kid named Stewart.......
Well, it depends what you mean by up and down. Stewie started out great, scoring 20+ in 3 of her first 4 games while filling up the stat sheet. Over her first 10 games she scored more points than any other player in UConn history. That includes DT & Maya.
I do have to agree that my choice of words was totally unwarranted. I do apologize for that, sincerely.
