Geno runs an excellent half court offense

[4UConn]

The men's is indeed different than the women's game. Geno Auriemma is a Hall of Fame basketball coach. Me thinks he could adjust very well to the men's game, particularly if he recruited players committed to practice, practice, practice. There's no doubt in my mind that Gino could compete well with the elite programs in the men's game.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Second, the passing lanes are wide open because the bodies are smaller and the players are less athletic. That sort of passing is an Ivy League gimmick in the men's game. Believe me, every team wants to pass the ball well. It's a little more difficult with a bunch of 6'7" 220 pound athletic freaks getting in the way.

Boom. I don't get why people don't recognize this.

 

[Walker11]

It's pretty nice when you get to pick 3 out of the best 10 players every year.

Not taking away anything from Geno but he wins most of his games before they start.

That's not to say he's not a good coach.

But I have a couple comments. First of all, most women's team don't execute like the Huskies do. Ever watch a bad women's game? Yikes. Second, the passing lanes are wide open because the bodies are smaller and the players are less athletic. That sort of passing is an Ivy League gimmick in the men's game. Believe me, every team wants to pass the ball well. It's a little more difficult with a bunch of 6'7" 220 pound athletic freaks getting in the way.

I'm not saying that those facts makes women's basketball "better" or "worse" than men's basketball -- if you prefer the women's game, then wear your CPT tote bag with pride.

But I do wonder how many people who prefer the women's team would still feel that way if the team hadn't won 95% of its games and 7 titles over the last 15 years or whatever.

I feel a little douchey nit picking your post because you make very good points but I think you are slightly overrating Geno's recruiting ability. I had previously made this same mistaken assumption and someone corrected me. Sure, he recruits very well but his classes are usually stacked with top 40ish players, with a few top 5 girls sprinkled in. I was surprised to see that there were actually a few teams that recruited better than UCONN women. (This only is taking the last5-6 or so years into account. I think the early 2000 teams were loaded with all elite players)

Which I guess makes it scary for womens basketball considering that they have # 1 and # 2 next year, to go with # 1 from last year.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Which I guess makes it scary for womens basketball considering that they have # 1 and # 2 next year, to go with # 1 from last year.

So then what exactly was your point??

 

[Walker11]

So then what exactly was your point??

This is what I disagreed with. "It's pretty nice when you get to pick 3 out of the best 10 players every year."

People attribute the phenomenal success of the program to the fact that they simply have all the best players, but they haven't even been one of the top 2 recruiting schools the past 10 years or so. A normal class for them will have one top 5 player, another top 20 and another top 40. This is not even a Kentucky like class. Very good recruiting, but certainly not the only reason they win - Geno is simply that good. Which is why I said that their uptick in recruiting this year is scary.

Nice try with the snark but I think my post actually made sense.

 

[nomar]

Fair enough Walker.

I don't know if I'm overrating or underrating him then. Calhoun's a great recruiter because he gets the Ben Gordons and Jeremy Lambs and Emeka Okafors who played like top-1o recruits even when they weren't top-50 recruits when he went after them.

 

[blackbird]

I was agreeing with that point quite honestly and just saying what anyone does/did in the womens game, including Pat, cannot be compared to the mens game ever. So much easier it's not funny. And having the #1 seeds in the FF and all win fairly easily tells you all you need to know about the game!

John Wooden coached in the exact same situation as Geno did. Check out how many All American's he used to get. He coached in a much more depleted time period too.

I think Geno's the best basketball coach in the country. Yes, what he teaches with the women wouldn't work as well with men. But he'd change it and come up with variations of it. You can run a good passing offense with men as well.

 

[Walker11]

Fair enough Walker.

I don't know if I'm overrating or underrating him then. Calhoun's a great recruiter because he gets the Ben Gordons and Jeremy Lambs and Emeka Okafors who played like top-1o recruits even when they weren't top-50 recruits when he went after them.

Good point. What makes a good recruiter? A coach who identifies an under the radar Jeremy Lamb or a coach who lands a 5* Ater Majok. In most people's minds, landing the top 15 Majok would be considered great recruiting while landing the # 75 Lamb is simply solid.

I have never even seen a Uconn women's game in entirety. I made a similar comment to yours on this board and someone pointed me to a list of the UCONN women's recruits and I was very surprised with how mediocre they were. Mediocre is obviously only relative to expectations considering that they were still a top 5 recruiting team.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

21 assists for 23 baskets. Not as unwatchable as some would have you think.

It's not that they're unwatchable, it's that the games (because of their competition) are unwatchable. The final four is usually fun to watch.

 

[UConn990411]

Boom. I don't get why people don't recognize this.

I think most people do realize this. But I think they also watch the way UConn plays - how great they are defensively and how well they execute offensively - and realize that Geno knows how to teach the game of basketball.

Whether or not he could get enough talent to a men's program makes it impossible to say how he'd do in the men's game, but if he could, I feel pretty confident saying he'd be able to win some games.

 

[nomar]

Good point. What makes a good recruiter? A coach who identifies an under the radar Jeremy Lamb or a coach who lands a 5* Ater Majok. In most people's minds, landing the top 15 Majok would be considered great recruiting while landing the # 75 Lamb is simply solid.

I have never even seen a Uconn women's game in entirety. I made a similar comment to yours on this board and someone pointed me to a list of the UCONN women's recruits and I was very surprised with how mediocre they were. Mediocre is obviously only relative to expectations considering that they were still a top 5 recruiting team.

I think I've watched most of their championship games. And I'll watch a regular season game maybe once every two seasons? It's not hard for me to watch UConn destroy another team. (It's hard for me to not have some weird internal superiority over women's fans in thinking that they would lose their ducking minds if the team went through the type of stuff we've gone through over the past few seasons. Anything less than 35 wins a title is a disappointment in their jaded eyes.)

But in any event, I generally have a sense for who's on the team. Geno regularly gets whoever he wants. They often turn out as expected (Lobo, Ralph, Abrosimova, Bird, Taurasi, Charles). Sometimes they don't (Strother). This season doesn't represent the typical Auriemma team of McDonald's AAs. When they hadthat team of Bird, Cash, Jones, and Williams, I mean, it was just ridiculous. That was like UCLA of the late 60s.

Now that Tennessee is on the way down, which is happening for a horrible reason, I expect Auriemma to get right back on the horse recruiting-wise.

 

[HuskyNan]

But in any event, I generally have a sense for who's on the team. Geno regularly gets whoever he wants. They often turn out as expected (Lobo, Ralph, Abrosimova, Bird, Taurasi, Charles). Sometimes they don't (Strother). This season doesn't represent the typical Auriemma team of McDonald's AAs. When they hadthat team of Bird, Cash, Jones, and Williams, I mean, it was just ridiculous. That was like UCLA of the late 60s.

He does get who he wants now, but it wasn't always that way. That's why he has only one player, Kelly Faris, that's a true junior.

Lobo, Ralph, Taurasi and Charles were all No. 1 coming out of high school (so were Tamika Williams and Maya Moore) but Abrosimova was a 17 year old Russian kid that couldn't speak English and that no one had heard of. A European friend of Geno's sent him a tape of Svet and he offered her a scholly without her ever visiting the campus. Sue Bird was ranked #19 and for girls in 1999, that's a pretty good but not elite player. Back then, there was a huge drop off after the Top 10-15 ranked girls.

 

[blackbird]

I think there still are. There's differences between men and women in recruiting, and to be honest, I'm not sure what's harder.

Yes, Geno's known as the best coach, so he tends to get the best players. However, in order to really get a "star" player, it's going to have to come from..usually the top 5, in recruiting.

Meanwhile, someone like Ben Gordon or Emeka Okafor were certainly not #5 or better, in their class. The talent field is a lot deeper. So you can get that great impact player out of the top 10. (Yes, there are some rare instances where it's deeper for the women, like Sue for instance, but usually it's not.)

So, maybe now it's easier for a person like Geno to get those great players. But it's REALLY tough to recruit in the women's game if you're trying to build a program.

 

[mauconnfan]

Fair point but Geno is not building anymore and the best want to go play for him. Having said that he built a program gurls want to come play for.