JoePgh
Cranky pants and wise acre
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2011
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As far as I can tell, no one on the Boneyard has mentioned Geno's comments about Aubrey towards the end of his Houston postgame press conference. I found them surprising and telling.
His basic comment was that he wished Aubrey had the mentality of a talented male basketball player coming to college for his "one and done" year. He said that guy's attitude would be, "I'm going to shoot all the time and score 25 so they will draft me in the top 10 at the end of the year." Instead of that, he said Aubrey's attitude was all about being concerned to fit in with her teammates and do what the offense called for. She tries so hard to play within the offense and be mindful of her teammates that her play becomes tentative.
There's a little psychological gamesmanship here, especially in the context of the similar message that he delivered to Anna, in that case using a Polish NBA player as the comparison. He wants both of them to play more confidently and less tentatively. He made it sound as if he didn't care whether they thought of their teammates or played within the offense.
Of course, he doesn't really mean that, and I think they know it. He even backed off slightly from his comments about Aubrey, saying later that he would like her to play like a one-and-done male player "in some ways, not all". And they can both be sure that they would have hell to pay if they really did play selfishly. What he wants is for them to be SOMEWHAT more selfish and less team-oriented, not completely, i.e., to find the right balance rather than being overbalanced toward systematic team play.
I once had a boss like that -- he told me not to be tentative or defensive, but if I non-tentatively did something that he disagreed with, he let me know about it in no uncertain terms, asking how I could do such a dumb thing. I found it very hard to deal with that, and I'm guessing that Anna and Aubrey have the same difficulty.
His last comment about Aubrey was that if she could overcome her tentativeness in the next month or two, it would make the team 100% better. "That's how good she is." It's not like he doesn't recognize her talent.
His basic comment was that he wished Aubrey had the mentality of a talented male basketball player coming to college for his "one and done" year. He said that guy's attitude would be, "I'm going to shoot all the time and score 25 so they will draft me in the top 10 at the end of the year." Instead of that, he said Aubrey's attitude was all about being concerned to fit in with her teammates and do what the offense called for. She tries so hard to play within the offense and be mindful of her teammates that her play becomes tentative.
There's a little psychological gamesmanship here, especially in the context of the similar message that he delivered to Anna, in that case using a Polish NBA player as the comparison. He wants both of them to play more confidently and less tentatively. He made it sound as if he didn't care whether they thought of their teammates or played within the offense.
Of course, he doesn't really mean that, and I think they know it. He even backed off slightly from his comments about Aubrey, saying later that he would like her to play like a one-and-done male player "in some ways, not all". And they can both be sure that they would have hell to pay if they really did play selfishly. What he wants is for them to be SOMEWHAT more selfish and less team-oriented, not completely, i.e., to find the right balance rather than being overbalanced toward systematic team play.
I once had a boss like that -- he told me not to be tentative or defensive, but if I non-tentatively did something that he disagreed with, he let me know about it in no uncertain terms, asking how I could do such a dumb thing. I found it very hard to deal with that, and I'm guessing that Anna and Aubrey have the same difficulty.
His last comment about Aubrey was that if she could overcome her tentativeness in the next month or two, it would make the team 100% better. "That's how good she is." It's not like he doesn't recognize her talent.
