Geno post game presser

[OneTrickPony]

Crystal:

Danger...the voice of experience in everything but losing big.

 

[asuwish]

The struggle that this team is facing against bigger and more physical teams and the lack of depth has to fall on Geno and the coaching staff's shoulders for the bad recruiting from 3+ years ago, and the slow development of the only interior player, Liv. This is the same as what happened to the Patriots this year. A lot of the blame there falls on Bill Bellichick's shoulder who did a lousy job in putting together the skill's positions for the NE offense. You can't win without the horses, Geno has pretty said that many times in the past.

It seems funny that we talk about bad recruiting classes. Yes Dangerfield is a class of only 1 true starter, but she was ranked #3. Walker and Williams were ranked # 1, and both were supposed to be game changers. They are both good but not Maya, and Moriah good. At some point you dont make the final 4. Think though if a 6 ft Westbrook was playing this year. We would still be undersized but more athletic. So, this year we are a sweet 16 elite 8 team, I think elite 8 then next year probably 9 deep in the rotation. If Geno figures out how to mesh them top 4 again.

 

[Watchdog]

I would have preferred if he had answered the question about the Fowles photo with a simple "I sure hope so" or "that's a good question" as opposed to "nah I don't think so.... go ask her"..............what motivates one person may not work for another, it's the coach's job to figure out what works best for the individual.........

Hard to imagine you seem to be implying Geno just shoots from the hip and hasn't already figured out what motivates individual players before he says something publicly.

Maybe some of us have given him too much credit for always pushing the right buttons with Diana, Tina, Svetlana and so many others, but one interview he gave while Diana was sitting next to him seems to give some perspective. Diana was asked something about the game and she hesitated and before she could speak Geno jumped in with, "you'll have to excuse Diana, she's a little choked up right now because she tied her career high in offensive rebounds tonight with zero." Message sent publicly and it was just the way he needed to do it to get the point across with Diana. Maybe, just maybe, he has it figured out how to get the message through to Olivia.

 

[tower1]

What exactly does he need to change?

What's beaten him is size mostly. In KLS and NC frosh year they lost a big. She transferred or quit early. SO he had a big coming.

He goes 36-1 -loses on a last 2nd shot in OVT. Next year he gets two big players and goes 36-1 again and loses on a last 2nd shot. So he had a big 2 years ago. After that, nne of his transfer bigs bails out as a surprise, and the other has been constantly hurt. What exactly passed him by when his bets big leaves him and teh other he counted on is hurt again?

So after going 2 years 36-1 and last year getting to the final four in which he needed bigs but one kid hurt, one kid bailed out, and one elite recruit probably shocked him, and he has been in a rotten conference, what is the perennial final four team needing to change? Telling their players don't leave or get hurt? Poor UCONN only getting to final fours - what "great" rebuild is needed for poor UCONN?

Yes Geno is blundering about! (sarcasm) A reminder ot some. Two years of going 36-1 and losing in the final four is hardly "the rebuild years." Few years implies more than 1. If you are talking two years ago - well you shouldn't be.

Go back to your glass bubble. Uconn has had 2 or 3 years of poor recruiting. Yes they have lost their top recruits at last minute in those years but they have under recruited too, look at our bench. But we have also lost a few freshman players that were pretty good because of playing time. Geno has been playing favorite players instead of those freshman that are better players. ( Allot of the fanatics are going to go crazy over this). Recruits aren't falling on our laps anymore we must go and recruit harder their are allot more good coaches out their now. I think these girls miss coach Mosley too. (not sure about her spelling)

 

[Charliebball]

Hard to imagine you seem to be implying Geno just shoots from the hip and hasn't already figured out what motivates individual players before he says something publicly.

Maybe some of us have given him too much credit for always pushing the right buttons with Diana, Tina, Svetlana and so many others, but one interview he gave while Diana was sitting next to him seems to give some perspective. Diana was asked something about the game and she hesitated and before she could speak Geno jumped in with, "you'll have to excuse Diana, she's a little choked up right now because she tied her career high in offensive rebounds tonight with zero." Message sent publicly and it was just the way he needed to do it to get the point across with Diana. Maybe, just maybe, he has it figured out how to get the message through to Olivia.

I'd like to think there are other less hurtful ways to motivate a player in public, it maybe an effect method......................time will tell, regardless that doesn't mean I have to agree with it...................

 

[Huskygamble19]

I rtemeber a few years ago Geno saying"We need more competition in women's basketball for the sport to grow"....Well..Here we are. there are many teams as good as UCONN that have been able to draft better and thus we have a lesser team than others. Geno's words were never more prophetic as they are now. I don't blame Geno for how this team is playing and I don't blame him for losing recruits we used to get with ease. There are just more options for the best players now and Geno is finding that out right now. Next year is a good recruiting class along with the following year. I am pretty satisfied with this group actually overcoming the loss of NC and KLS. We thought they would be much lower in the standings, but have exceeded my expectations. We are just so spoiled.

 

[DefenseBB]

So let me see if I understand this-We are 19-2 with those losses being to the top 2 teams coming into the year with 1 Senior, 1 Junior as our top returning players, plus 2 promising sophomores and we are ready to admit failure? I despise revisionist history so please everyone go to Wikipedia and look at the Bird/DT years, the Maya years and Stewie's freshman year to see close games, losses and struggles. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Will this team make a final four? Who knows for sure but we are certainly in the mix.

Points of clarity for some-De'Janae Boykin was 6'2, not especially a post player who also has not shined particularly well at Penn State or WVU and would not have solved our "big" issue.
Moriah is not a generational player like Maya. If she was/is so good, she would be on the National team who needs a backup point guard. She had the great benefit of playing with Breanna Stewart.
It's GENO not Gino (please @willtalk you're too good and knowledgeable of a fan to make such a gaff).
Recruiting the last 6 years-

• Chong was a single recruit due to no room on the roster,
• Boykin was never a fit at UConn, playing time was not the reason she transferred.
• We lost out on Cox as our focus with Crystal Dangerfield. No one else was being considered as I recall. We had Azura at the point as well so maybe we needed to overrecruit but that's not Geno's/CD's style.
• Meg's class had an immature AEH, a nice kid but slow Lexi who was at best an above average 3 pt shooter and a shot challenged Mikayla. None would have really helped us as we currently are configured. To say different is not logical.
• We lost Charlie Collier after having her. That one hurt.
• So did losing Boston and Amihere.
• Next year we have Edwards and Piath coming in. Edwards is clearly a strong and talented big coming off the bench player. Piath will be a work in progress but if she works hard, who knows.

Can Liv make the Junior jump that Meg did? Can Christyn find her shooting touch and driving "savoir faire" the rest of this season or over the summer? Can Aubrey get comfortable with our offense and a mid-range jumper?
Those are the fare questions to ask that will make us Elite and clear cut to contend. That said, we can still contend this year, just gotta believe...

Other than that "Serenity Now, serenity now"

 

[willtalk]

Some time back there were some threads on when Geno was going to retire. I for one thought he was considering calling it quits. As it turned out he did not. The dynasty Geno built was mostly based on the system he runs. The best coaches develop systems. John Wooden developed a system that created a dynasty. Geno, as were many other coaches, used the principles outlined in Woodens book to establish the foundation for his program. Wooden when gave his reasons for quitting at his career peak, stated that he did not think he could coach the new generation of players entering college. He probably could have adapted to the different types of players but chose not too.

I feel that is what Geno was also considering. Basically, because the number of players willing to buy into his system was diminishing. They still exist, but the numbers and other available options to them have certainly reduced the type of player that thrived in Geno's system. It hits the Uconn program most in the post position because that is the position where the available pool is the weakest.

Geno has chosen to continue to coach under these new conditions. He will do fine because he is and has always been an excellent coach. However, the conditions no longer exist for him to reestablish the type of dynasty that once was Uconn. The type of players that thrived in that system has been considerably thinned out. While Geno is at Uconn, they will continue to compete for National Championships, but not at the same level they did in the past. No program ever will again.

Next season will bring a new influx of players that should have positive results with respect to the program being able to compete with the top programs in the country. This season that was not true. The roster wasn't either talented or deep enough. Was it possible to compete--- yeas but everything would have to fall into place. In other words, having a whole lot of luck would be the deciding factor. In fact, it requires a lot of luck even for the best team in the country to make it through with all the competition in today's WCBB world.

For most of this season, some fans on this site maintained highly inflated and unrealistic expectations, both of the team and the players on the team. Was it possible that those expectations might reach fruition? Yes! but no more than the hopes that many fans of other programs had for their teams and players. The difference is that for most other programs they were considered hopes, but for a large number of Uconn fans they were expectations. Uconn fans were spoiled to the degree that it began to morph into a sense of entitlement.

Maintaining realistic expectations holds doubly true for players. Why burden them with expectations that have yet to manifest. It just creates disappointment. What would be wrong with waiting to see how players develop rather than creating expectations before the fact. Not doing so ends up with us directing criticism at players for not mirroring the expectations we created for them. They fail to give us what we want by not fulfilling the expectations we created for them. Purely selfish motivations. Cut the players some slack. You know that in Geno's system they are all working hard and doing the best they can. If not Geno will make sure they do. How much easier would it be to just enjoy the ride and be grateful for whatever they happen to accomplish this season?

Some posters do attempt to balance off the expectations with realistic ( from their perspective ) evaluations of players. This is not necessarily criticism of the players, but rather a criticism of what they see as inflated expectations. Those that have those inflated expectations often attempt to gain the moral high ground by painting it as an attack on the player rather than a criticism of their own beliefs.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Coach Graves:

 

[hoopsfan22]

By the way what a brutal stretch of schedule Oregon is in. Three road games in five days with the final game being in Gampel, then back home to play #12 Arizona Friday, then Arizona State Sunday, then UCLA. Good lord. Our Friday Night game is against Memphis then we have the South Carolina game a few days later, then a bunch of teams no one has ever heard of the rest of the way.

 

[hoopsfan22]

 

[cbraarj]

I'd like to think there are other less hurtful ways to motivate a player in public, it maybe an effect method......................time will tell, regardless that doesn't mean I have to agree with it...................

It is the way he has coached since he arrived. Players today are spoiled and coddled because of over bearing parents for one! Two they whine about playing time. So I need to transfer! They knew what they were getting into when they signed their loi!

 

[Charliebball]

It is the way he has coached since he arrived. Players today are spoiled and coddled because of over bearing parents for one! Two they whine about playing time. So I need to transfer! They knew what they were getting into when they signed their loi!

no denying that..............Geno's wit just seems much more enjoyable to witness after a win then after an embarrassing loss..........

 

[cbraarj]

no denying that..............Geno's wit just seems much more enjoyable to witness after a win then after an embarrassing loss..........

He's human too and it has been awhile since they received a beating like that.