Geno on the Lowe Post Podcast

[HoopsFan21]

Let's see if he still says that in April.

Haven't most of that team's records been replaced by recent teams? And in an environment of better competition.

 

[Gus Mahler]

And even more crazy - 6 Olympians? Dee, Sue, Swin, Ashja, and then did Schuey play for Canada and Sveta play for Russia? Just an incredible amount of talent on that team...

I didn't know about Schuey. I had always heard five, the four plus Sveta. More someone can clarify.

 

[Gus Mahler]

And even more crazy - 6 Olympians? Dee, Sue, Swin, Ashja, and then did Schuey play for Canada and Sveta play for Russia? Just an incredible amount of talent on that team...

Wikipedia says she played USA Basketball, winning a gold medal at the Jones Cup after her Junior year.

 

[EricLA]

I didn't know about Schuey. I had always heard five, the four plus Sveta. More someone can clarify.

I just looked it up - I don't think Schuey was ever an Olympian - i saw nothing about her playing for the Canadian National TEam...

 

[Biff]

I just looked it up - I don't think Schuey was ever an Olympian - i saw nothing about her playing for the Canadian National TEam...

Shuey was/is an American Citizen. She lived in Canada for a period but was not a Canadian citizen.

 

[sarals24]

Wow, what a great listen. Zach Lowe is a true fan, that's so great to hear. He's a great writer for Grantland and very respected. Need more like him!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Thanks for the research, Miami. If Shea had been healthy, she would have been a 1st round pick with certainty.

 

[Gus Mahler]

I went and watched that UConn Texas final four game they were talking about. Some vintage DT moments.

I just finished it. Had not seen it before. That pass by DT to Crockett at the 3:42 mark! One hand off the dribble, thirty feet. Sweetness.

 

[2Husky]

I just finished it. Had not seen it before. That pass by DT to Crockett at the 3:42 mark! One hand off the dribble, thirty feet. Sweetness.

She had that, and some crazy off balance contested shots in the lane, that dagger 3 from NBA range at the top of the key.....and then she missed some free throws to try to seal the win, she really did it all.

 

[Gus Mahler]

Yes it was the 2000-2001 team - adding DT, Maria Conlon, Ashley Battle, and Jessica Moore, to the 2000 championship team. Had all the 2002 stars, plus Sveta and Shea (who both ended up injured - Sveta - achilles, Shea yet another knee.) It also had Kennitra Johnson (17+ minutes a game - transferred after the year), Kelly Schumacher (record NC game blocks the previous year), and Big Rig Christine Rigby, and Ashley Battle who also was injured in the first part of the year and ended as a red shirt. The team was so loaded in talent that it had the only healthy red shirt player in team history I believe in Jessica Moore.
So ... first round draft picks in WNBA:
#1 Sue (2002)
#1 Diana (2004)
#2 Swin (2002)
#4 Ajsha (2002)
#6 Tamika (2002)
#7 Sveta (2001 - injured)
#14 Kelly Schumacher (2001 - 16 team first round)
#24 Jessica Moore (second round and a healthy red-shirt in 2001)
#25 Ashley Battle (second round after injury red shirt after start of 2001 season)
#40 Shea Ralph (2001 third round - injured)

So seven first round selections, 2* second rounders, and 1** third rounder

* a total of only 5 games played by Battle and 0 by Jessica Moore in 2001
** if she had not been injured in the NCAA tournament for the third time in college Shea probably is a first round pick

Thanks for laying this out, UC.

I wonder if, a few years hence, people will look at the current team as a great assemblage of talent. I could see six All-Americans (Stewie, MoJeff, Tuck, Kia, KLS, NC), seven 1st-rounders (add Butler), and two or three others who could conceivably be drafted. We know Kia's going to be an Olympian. Probably Stewie and MoJeff eventually. I could see KLS and NC someday being Olympians. Who knows about Tuck? If it weren't for 2001, the possibilities for this group would stagger the imagination.

 

[Gus Mahler]

She had that, and some crazy off balance contested shots in the lane, that dagger 3 from NBA range at the top of the key.....and then she missed some free throws to try to seal the win, she really did it all.

That dagger three was great. No fear!

 

[sarals24]

Zach Lowe is from CT, apparently. Found this anecdote in an old Grantland article about All-Star Weekend:

I grew up in Connecticut, where we have zero high-profile professional sports teams. I’m just barely old enough that I’d already picked a Big East team by the time the UConn men’s basketball team became something like a national power, and I felt funny jumping on the UConn bandwagon when that happened. But I had paid zero attention to women’s basketball before Rebecca Lobo, Jennifer Rizzotti, and their teammates went undefeated and won the 1995 national title. I had no pre-existing loyalties, and these women were awesome. I was all-in and have been since.

The only players around whom I’m star-struck are the UConn women legends, in part because I still see them from the perspective of a fan, and not as a reporter/analyst. I could barely talk to either Lobo or Rizzotti when I met them in previous years. So when the great Swin Cash walked into the Houston bar where I was having a cocktail Thursday night and lounged on a couch 10 feet behind my bar stool, I reached “teen fanboy” levels of nervousness. Cash was with Ruth Riley, an old UConn nemesis, and a woman I didn’t recognize. Hall of Famer Bob Lanier and an NBA executive had walked in with them, and they sat at the bar next to us; all five had come from a day of NBA Cares events. I asked the league exec how inappropriate it would be if I introduced myself to Swin. Her response: “Pretty inappropriate.” I must have looked very sad, because the exec immediately changed course and said she would walk over and ask Swin if she might indulge the awkward gentleman at the bar for a few minutes of painful conversation. A couple of minutes later, I got the news: Swin was in.

And then I chickened out. Ten minutes passed, then 20, then half an hour. I glanced over at Swin and back at my friend approximately 55 times, hoping she might break the ice and invite me over. No dice. Then Swin’s meal came, and you don’t interrupt an athlete during a meal. My group was planning to leave at halftime of Heat-Thunder, and halftime was approaching. This was a crisis. We finally got up to leave, and I knew this was my only chance. I veered in Swin’s direction, and before I took even a half-step toward her, she had already put her plate down, turned in my direction and offered up a smile and a hand-shake. It was a grin that simultaneously said, “Nice to meet you!” and “I’m in full self-defense mode, ready with a smile and a stiff-arm, in case you’re a crazy person.”

I have no clue what I said. It almost certainly resembled those classic “Chris Farley Show” sketches from Saturday Night Live. I called her “great” at least twice, and I know I tried to include Riley in the conversation, that Swin called me “sweet,” and that I was sweating. And then it was over. I don’t even know how I got out of it. Another UConn woman, another terrible conversation she would never remember.

Two days later, as I was going down a staircase after bolting a bad All-Star Saturday party, I noticed Swin and her friends climbing up the same stairs toward me. Did I dare assume she might have some vague memory of me, and be game for a fist-bump or at least a happy “hello”? I summoned up some courage and just shouted and smiled as we approached each other: “Swin Cash!” Her immediate response: “UConn!” followed by a big hug.

Swin Cash: You’re awesome. Thanks for indulging me.
— Zach Lowe

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I just finished it. Had not seen it before. That pass by DT to Crockett at the 3:42 mark! One hand off the dribble, thirty feet. Sweetness.

I watched it again today. It was a bullet that no one saw coming.

 

[meyers7]

I generally love Geno's honesty, but you never ever call your fans "g-d stupid". Very very poor choice of words. I personally have no issue with the loss, nor the blowouts, or how he runs and motivates the team. But to call "some UCONN fans so g-d stupid" is just g-d awful.

So if he says that "some" UConn fans are stupid, that must mean that he reads this board and maybe some others too. Otherwise he would have no opinion.

I think anyone who reads this board would have to agree with him.

 

[alexrgct]

I'll toot my own horn: I posted about the Golden State Warriors and compared them to UConn, and Geno made it clear he really likes how that team plays and fits into his vision of how basketball, especially offense, should be run.

 

[ballhawk]

Loved the podcast. I agree 2002 was the best team, the 2001 team had the best talent but in terms of eventual first round draft picks one needs to look at the 2014 team. Kelly Faris. Bria, Dolson, KML, and Kiah all drafted first round and Stewie, Moriah and Morgan who will be drafted in the first round. My guess is that no college team has ever had 8 first round picks. The 2014 team is often overlooked and they lost 4 games during the season but by the time the playoffs began Bria had overcome her injury, Stewie had become Stewie and they beat Louisville in the finals by over 30 points.

 

[alexrgct]

Loved the podcast. I agree 2002 was the best team, the 2001 team had the best talent but in terms of eventual first round draft picks one needs to look at the 2014 team. Kelly Faris. Bria, Dolson, KML, and Kiah all drafted first round and Stewie, Moriah and Morgan who will be drafted in the first round. My guess is that no college team has ever had 8 first round picks. The 2014 team is often overlooked and they lost 4 games during the season but by the time the playoffs began Bria had overcome her injury, Stewie had become Stewie and they beat Louisville in the finals by over 30 points.

this post appears to refer to the 2013 team rather than 2014. I agree that an argument for best UConn team ever can be made for 2014.

 

[ballhawk]

My mistake.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I think anyone who reads this board would have to agree with him.

Not the posters, just the readers aka "the lurkers".

 

[j66kicker]

Voepel generally supportive of Geno's Lowe interview comments ("stupid fans", etc.), but thinks he can appear "paranoid and whiny when he focuses too much on the haters in the peanut gallery" (see video)...

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-b...huskies-does-not-fans-say-team-no-competition

 

[mhshuskies]

Link to the Texas semi that Lowe referred to: http://uconnhuskygames.com/2002-2003-womens-basketball-game-replays/

 

[johnnyc]

I generally love Geno's honesty, but you never ever call your fans "g-d stupid". Very very poor choice of words. I personally have no issue with the loss, nor the blowouts, or how he runs and motivates the team. But to call "some UCONN fans so g-d stupid" is just g-d awful.

Maybe he confused the Tenn visitors on the BY as UConn fans. They say some pretty stupid things from time to time.

 

[Orangutan]

Regarding the "stupid" comments...if you're not stupid, you're not part of the group he's talking about. So why get angry? There are many UConn fans. In any sufficiently large group, you are bound to have some dim bulbs.

Also, why is this just going around today? UConnCat noticed these comments Monday. But it took the Voepel's of the world until today to note it. I guess we're ahead of the curve around here.

 

[UConnCat]

Regarding the "stupid" comments...if you're not stupid, you're not part of the group he's talking about. So why get angry? There are many UConn fans. In any sufficiently large group, you are bound to have some dim bulbs.

Also, why is this just going around today? UConnCat noticed these comments Monday. But it took the Voepel's of the world until today to note it. I guess we're ahead of the curve around here.

Interesting. The initial reaction to the interview on twitter was really positive. Regular listeners of Lowe loved it. Then ESPN got in to the act. ESPN's story focused on the most controversial thing Geno said (about dumb fans) but which really represents such a small part of an otherwise interesting interview. ESPN's initial story actually made Geno's quote worse by substituting a more inflammatory expletive than the one he actually used. ESPN has since corrected its story. Then, ESPN invited Voepel to reply and she took to twitter with a bunch of inane tweets that show she didn't bother to listen to the interview which is disappointing.

 

[EricLA]

The problem, for better or worse, is that teams who don't like, or recruit against, Geno and UCONN will use this as fodder for their anti-UCONN agenda. Geno needs to be smarter than that if he doesn't want issues like this discussed. Just like years back when he left the profanity laced message on Kia Vaughn's home answering machine when she was being recruited - he needs to remember that he's not working or living in a vacuum. Stuff like that gets lots of "air time" for anyone who recruits against him, or fans who don't like him.

People will take what he says and if there's something controversial, or what not, they will jump on it and it will become news worthy. I do think he's gotten much better about that. I listened to about 15 minutes of the interview and at one point early on, Geno was about to swear but he stopped himself and used a different word. The interviewer said something like "Oh, go ahead and swear. It's totally allowed on my show".

Honestly colorful language doesn't bother me a bit. I have a sailor mouth at times. But I'm not the head coach of the most successful basketball program of all time.