Geno Looking for Youth Movement

[Wbbfan1]

https://www.sny.tv/uconn/news/auriemma-huskies-looking-for-some-youth-movement/164431278

 

[JavaMan]

From the article:

Freshmen Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson want to do many of the things their senior classmates with the University of Connecticut women's basketball team have done before them.

What happened at Friday's practice at the Werth Champions Center was something they would have liked to avoid.

Collier and Samuelson along with sophomores Courtney Ekmark and Natalie Butler took the floor for a defensive drill against the Huskies' practice players. The four were out there for five minutes. Then it was 10, 15 minutes. Finally after close to 20 minutes, UConn coach Geno Auriemma had seen enough.

"They generally take forever to get something right," Auriemma said. "My other guys needed a breather and they needed to get it right. It served both purposes."

There was another message. While the top-ranked Huskies have three of the best players in the country in Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson, and Morgan Tuck, they can't win a fourth consecutive national championship on their own.

UConn will continue that drive Sunday when it takes on Temple in an American Athletic Conference game before a sellout crowd at McGonigle Hall in Philadelphia.

"Coach is doing it because we are going to need them," Tuck said. "Down the road and when we get into our tougher games, we're going to need everyone on our bench. He's doing it to light a fire under them and I think it will work. It always works. He does it to every group. We had it when we were freshmen. You take it as a challenge.

 

[Zorro]

Interesting article, and total BS. Morgan knows and Geno knows and we all know that there is absolutely nothing that Butler, Chong or Eckmark could do between now and the dance that is going to get their butts off the bench in anything from sweet sixteen on. Collier, maybe, but prolly not. That just ain't the way Geno runs his tournament games. Never was, never will be. As Cubs fans are fond of saying, "wait til next year".

 

[RockyMTblue2]

One of the benefits of the AAC is the ability to expose freshmen to some extended play. 'Course, Geno and their team mates say they are no longer freshman, so it is time to step up and claim their places in the pecking order. Potential big pay off for the coming year, too. Hopefully more energy and consistency is on the way.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Interesting article, and total BS. Morgan knows and Geno knows and we all know that there is absolutely nothing that Butler, Chong or Eckmark could do between now and the dance that is going to get their butts off the bench in anything from sweet sixteen on. Collier, maybe, but prolly not. That just ain't the way Geno runs his tournament games. Never was, never will be. As Cubs fans are fond of saying, "wait til next year".

You old jaded 3 legged South American raccoon!

 

[cohenzone]

Of that group, Ekmark looks like the one most likely not to play. The others might well see time Sweet 16 and beyond depending on opponent and score.

I'm writing from a plane taxiing into frozen JFK after a week in south Florida. Boo boo.

 

[Zorro]

78f here.

 

[Vowelguy]

Interesting article, and total BS. Morgan knows and Geno knows and we all know that there is absolutely nothing that Butler, Chong or Eckmark could do between now and the dance that is going to get their butts off the bench in anything from sweet sixteen on. Collier, maybe, but prolly not. That just ain't the way Geno runs his tournament games. Never was, never will be. As Cubs fans are fond of saying, "wait til next year".

Except that foul trouble and injuries do happen.

Collier will definitely play.

If a team plays zone or Uconns offense is not clicking, I can see Chong getting some minutes.

 

[Vowelguy]

From the article:

What happened at Friday's practice at the Werth Champions Center was something they would have liked to avoid.

Collier and Samuelson along with sophomores Courtney Ekmark and Natalie Butler took the floor for a defensive drill against the Huskies' practice players. The four were out there for five minutes. Then it was 10, 15 minutes. Finally after close to 20 minutes, UConn coach Geno Auriemma had seen enough.

"They generally take forever to get something right," Auriemma said. "k.

I thought Uconns bench was a top 25 team?

 

[msf22b]

78f here.

Mid-50's at Tahoe and 24 feet of snow
Oh well, a little may have melted
Still, perfect spring skiing.
How's your lovely Fuego doing?

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Moriah was very up and down as a freshmen but improved enough late in the year to earn more PT in the tourney and could've been named MOP of the regionals. She's a bigger talent than some of the UConn bench but, still, there is time to improve.

 

[caramel]

I think that coach is honing the younger players into readiness for what will be coming in the near future.After all,he has done the same thing,basically,to every set of freshman and new people for years,about this time.
Lou is starting to gain the confidence she needs,and Collier is being fine tuned for a little more control and finish,and both should be ready.Stewart had her struggles her freshman year,but the master had her primed and ready by tournament time,and he will have these two ready,too.
As far as Butler goes,it takes time to readjust to playing after sitting out over a year,and once she fully gets her wind,I think she will be a valuable force by tournament time.
Lastly,we have seen some hint of improvement from Chong and Courtney,and at least in the early rounds,I think we will see them in the games.I think Courtney will be a pleasant surprise next year.She is a worker,and hard work pays off.
It seems,with the younger players,at least one by tournament time,every year,the light bulb goes on,and we see a different mindset and better play.
My money is on Collier,to step up the most.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Lou and Napheesa are two of the most talented players on the roster. All they need are time and reps. They will be very good soon. We'll totally forget about this over the next 3 years. Remember Stewie's game against Baylor with 0 points? She's improved since them. Remember Stewie and Morgan getting benched in midseason last year? They got a lot more focused. Hopefully, Lou and Napheesa can play like sophomores in March and April.

 

[JoePgh]

Interesting article, and total BS. ... That just ain't the way Geno runs his tournament games. Never was, never will be. As Cubs fans are fond of saying, "wait til next year".

I don't know whether that statement was meant to be rhetorical or not, but as a factual statement about UConn's Final Four history, it falls a bit short. The most obvious exception is 2000, when three bench players (Kennitra Johnson, Tamika Williams, and Asjha Jones) all got at least 18 minutes in the National SemiFinal against Penn State, and those three got 14, 23, and 22 minutes in the Final against Tennessee. In 2001, when UConn lost to Notre Dame in the National SemiFInal, Johnson and Williams got 20+ minutes coming off the bench, and Maria Conlon got 9 minutes. In 2002, a team rather similar to 2016, Jessica Moore and Conlon got double-digit minutes in the SemiFinal, and Moore got 11 minutes in the contested Final against Oklahoma.

By the way, my source for this data is the 2004-05 Media Guide, which has box scores of NCAA and Big East tournament games going back for over a decade prior to that.

I suspect that you also remember that Nykesha Sales and Carla Berube played significant minutes off the bench in the 1995 tournament, or that Bria Hartley was a bench player on the 2013 championship team (behind Caroline Doty).

If younger players are good enough to earn minutes in contested tournament games, they will play. Geno has no fixed rule that juniors and senior starters have to play all or nearly all the minutes in "big" tournament games.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

or that Bria Hartley was a bench player on the 2013 championship team (behind Caroline Doty).

Hartley started 28 games that year. She did come off the bench during some tourney games but that was a reward to Doty as a senior. Hartley was often in the game quickly and played many more minutes than Doty.

 

[HardHatGuy#2]

Interesting article, and total BS. Morgan knows and Geno knows and we all know that there is absolutely nothing that Butler, Chong or Eckmark could do between now and the dance that is going to get their butts off the bench in anything from sweet sixteen on. Collier, maybe, but prolly not. That just ain't the way Geno runs his tournament games. Never was, never will be. As Cubs fans are fond of saying, "wait til next year".

I disagree. I look back and see Kaili McLaren, who was anything BUT a starter, playing significant minutes in a National Championship game. Not digging on Meat, who I think may have had the best court vision of any player we have put on the court (yes, better than Bird, rivaling Taurasi), just one point with many others to back it up, if you watch the games.

It may have become his style recently, but it has not been his style forever. He has known and taken advantage of the value of a solid bench to bail you out of foul trouble (see 1995), injuries (see any season involving Doty), or player frustration (Maya several times in big games, albeit rarely for more than a minute or two to gain perspective).

 

[Zorro]

The SC game was much less important than the tournament games are going to be. How much time did Geno give Butler, Chong, Eckmark and Collier in that one? If he wanted them toughened up for prime time---

 

[Icebear]

I thought Uconns bench was a top 25 team?

They are but the team is playing to be #1 when the season closes.

 

[bags27]

It's always so interesting to see how Geno sends messages to his team through the press. At an earlier Geno Show (maybe this year?), he effectively said that the secret is to criticize the play, not the player. He keeps his criticisms general, even when he names names. He attributes their shortcomings to lack of focus or intensity; he frequently attributes it to being a freshman; or else he pokes fun at them in such a way that he is really poking fun of himself. But he tries (not always successfully!) to avoid implying anything essential about their characters. And more and more, he's learned to heap praise in greater amounts than criticism. Maybe that's why he's beginning to worry that he's not as tough as he used to be.

 

[Zorro]

All true. Nevertheless, only the core 6 are likely to see much floor time at the dance (bar outrageous foul problems which aren't likely. (Again, possible exception of Collier.)