Geno’s Coaching Last Year Totally Ruined Megan Walker

[JoePgh]

• He didn’t let her play through her mistakes; in fact, he pulled her from games after her first mistake.
• After the early part of the season, he wouldn’t give her any minutes in competitive games, especially in the post-season.
• He publicly criticized her effort.
• He kept Megan and Mikayla on the bench for an entire game after some sort of infraction about which we never heard the details.
• After the Tulsa game, he said that the play of the bench (which mainly seemed to mean her) was the worst he had seen in 33 years.

Many people here said or implied that she ought to transfer, and others probably wouldn’t come to UConn, because of the shabby way that he was treating the #1 recruit in the country. Many others said that she was a bust as a recruit, and that she would never amount to anything for her entire UConn career.

So, what can you expect? This year, she has been completely unproductive. You could see it by her performance tonight against Tulane.

Right?

The same thing will probably happen to Christyn Williams. Did you see the way Geno yelled at her tonight, and then humiliated her by taking her out of the game in favor of (gasp!) Molly Bent? The way he is coaching her, he will ruin whatever contribution she might otherwise have made in her remaining UConn career.

And while we’re on the subject, what about the aforementioned Ms. Bent? He has acknowledged that she has worked harder than anyone, even Kia and Gabby, ever since she arrived on campus. But for two years, he stubbornly refused to give her any non-garbage-time minutes. She must have been totally demoralized by that treatment. She may have (once) had some potential to contribute, but you can see every day now that she will never realize that potential at UConn.

Geno needs to completely change his coaching style if he expects to get any productivity from today’s generation of recruits.

 

[CMC'72]

I’ll have wht you’re having.

 

[oldude]

I love sarcasm

 

[Sifaka]

I'm so glad I failed Logic 101. Otherwise I would have trouble understanding—on a lovely winter's eve when Megan played so very well—that she was so thoroughly debased and rendered useless by her coach. 2 + 2= 7

See. I failed math as well. Is 34/10 a failing grade? Expiring minds want to know.

 

[caramel]

Let's see, Geno ruined Megan last year, and tonight she played 37 minutes and scored 37 points. Maybe he should ruin the whole team.

 

[NewCorn]

I'm so glad I failed Logic 101. Otherwise I would have trouble understanding—on a lovely winter's eve when Megan played so very well—that she was so thoroughly debased and rendered useless by her coach. 2 + 2= 7

See. I failed math as well. Is 34/10 a failing grade? Expiring minds want to know.

View attachment 38358

Your logic is fine, but everyone knows 2+2 = 22.

 

[Monte]

"After the early part of the season, he wouldn't give her any minutes in competitive games, especially in the post season."-------Maybe, that's why they didn't win the National Championship.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

The way he embarrassed his starters in the last game. He has clearly lost the locker room and Megan will probably leave for ND next year. He doesn't know how to reach these kids.

 

[Striper69]

Told ya Megan would come around...

 

[DaddyChoc]

lort.... I hope she doesnt have another bad game in a UConn uniform

 

[Sonny44]

I've never been able to figure Megan out. But last night Geno made it clear, lack of effort.

 

[huskeynut]

Vacation time from insanity.

 

[veryolddog]

Wow! Wow! Wow!

I really enjoyed last nights game very much. Megan scored as many points as Tulane. Had a fantastic night, led the team from the abyss, and just the most wonderful smile on her face in the fourth quarter after scoring another three. I hope all of you folks saw the same game and saw that smile and were just as pleased as I am.

I am looking forward to watching the next game against Temple. I hope that you do to.

 

[Charliebball]

MW as certainly shown flashes of her abilities before only to sink back to being a pretty average UConn player..........................the big question is can she replicate the effort (I don't mean the points) consistently...........................with her skill set she should be a 15/7/3 player every single game..............

 

[earl the pearl]

I was surprised how thoroughly he chewed out Williams on the bench. It looked like he was miked-up...any connection?

 

[CTrefugee]

Told ya Megan would come around...

I was happy for her, but we still need to see her perform against a top team with bigs.

 

[Stinger92860]

I was surprised how thoroughly he chewed out Williams on the bench. It looked like he was miked-up...any connection?

And then he put her right back in.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Meghan's intensity gene finally awoke. May it never take a long nap again. Her game stats should send a shudder down the backs of a few top coaches. Yeah, I know offering a serious observation in this thread breaks the flow of whatever this is. Maybe I'll come up with something after another java.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

He's Italian. Italian!!! What do you expect?

Williams came to be the best player she possibly could. And that's what Geno is helping her do, just as he helped generations of All-Americans before her.

Keep in mind that after that brow-beating, he put her right back in.

They're going to be fine.

 

[my2cents]

I was one of those who was not happy with the way MW was treated last year, because her negative treatment was so public and speculative. We never knew the reasons for the benchings, and we were never told. Lots of people speculated that she was lazy. I could never wrap my head around that. How could a player work her way up to be the number 1 recruit in the entire US without a great work ethic, made no sense,
Geno says that he never can give confidence to a player, that doesnt have it, so maybe the opposite is true. He can take confidence away from a player who already has it.
Now this year he has no choice but to play MW and we can see what she is capable of doing. We could have seen more of last year, might have helped in the ND semi finals.

 

[Bama fan]

• He didn’t let her play through her mistakes; in fact, he pulled her from games after her first mistake.
• After the early part of the season, he wouldn’t give her any minutes in competitive games, especially in the post-season.
• He publicly criticized her effort.
• He kept Megan and Mikayla on the bench for an entire game after some sort of infraction about which we never heard the details.
• After the Tulsa game, he said that the play of the bench (which mainly seemed to mean her) was the worst he had seen in 33 years.

Many people here said or implied that she ought to transfer, and others probably wouldn’t come to UConn, because of the shabby way that he was treating the #1 recruit in the country. Many others said that she was a bust as a recruit, and that she would never amount to anything for her entire UConn career.

So, what can you expect? This year, she has been completely unproductive. You could see it by her performance tonight against Tulane.

Right?

The same thing will probably happen to Christyn Williams. Did you see the way Geno yelled at her tonight, and then humiliated her by taking her out of the game in favor of (gasp!) Molly Bent? The way he is coaching her, he will ruin whatever contribution she might otherwise have made in her remaining UConn career.

And while we’re on the subject, what about the aforementioned Ms. Bent? He has acknowledged that she has worked harder than anyone, even Kia and Gabby, ever since she arrived on campus. But for two years, he stubbornly refused to give her any non-garbage-time minutes. She must have been totally demoralized by that treatment. She may have (once) had some potential to contribute, but you can see every day now that she will never realize that potential at UConn.

Geno needs to completely change his coaching style if he expects to get any productivity from today’s generation of recruits.

Boy the replies to this will be all over the place.

 

[Sifaka]

Boy the replies to this will be all over the place.

Just depends on which side of the Möbius strip one inhabits. {/Chortle}

 

[Bama fan]

Just depends on which side of the Möbius strip one inhabits. {/Chortle}

Like the Moebius ( I spelled it that way because I do not remember how to do it mit einem umlat) strip, I too am unorientable!

 

[eebmg]

I was one of those who was not happy with the way MW was treated last year, because her negative treatment was so public and speculative. We never knew the reasons for the benchings, and we were never told. Lots of people speculated that she was lazy. I could never wrap my head around that. How could a player work her way up to be the number 1 recruit in the entire US without a great work ethic, made no sense,
Geno says that he never can give confidence to a player, that doesnt have it, so maybe the opposite is true. He can take confidence away from a player who already has it.
Now this year he has no choice but to play MW and we can see what she is capable of doing. We could have seen more of last year, might have helped in the ND semi finals.

1) I do not recall any one pushing that she was lazy etc. Just that she did not understand as is common with freshman that everything is dramatically harder from HS to UConn and she is just not ready to go intio the deep end. Even when she had a decent game,. it was isolated.

2) Geno is very clear about this idea of confidence. Great HS players can have confidence but it is usually false confidence based on a idealized HS/AAU environment. You have to earn your way to get real confidence. Being pushed so hard her freshman year forced her first into the weight room during the summer (to her credit) and that physical change finally led to a natural and stable progression her sophomore year. Real confidence is overcoming real obstacles and playing time is the ultimate motivator.

3) I am sure Geno wishes he could control CW's minutes more when her play does not match her potential but he is handcuffed since their is no real alternative over extended minutes so his only alternative is to use vocal tirades. Not for the squeamish but legends need to be forged.

 

[HuskyNan]

It’s sarcasm (or satire), people. Chill