I know who pointed out DeBerry's missed assignments. It was not necessary to say who it was. About this other stuff you mentioned, it does not seem to hurt other teams. Can't have it both ways? Then don't talk about players being tired in the fourth quarter and playing poorly.
This is year 5 of the pause. What is the point of great depth if you don't use it? All I'm saying is that if Azzi, Nika and Aubrey become healthy and we stick to a tight 7 man rotation we ain't winning. The game is too fast, too physical, too all year round, and whoever is rested for the 4th quarter, with all other things being equal, is going to win.
Good point but playing the bench more often could have had a positive impact on the starters who logged more minutes than necessary during a very long season culminating with the big tournament which is really taxing..........
Bravo, Bravo!!
Please stop saying he has won 11 titles. We know he is that great. But, look at the last 4-5 years, don't you see a danger sign he was losing that magnificent power? In those recent losing years' FF, don't you think we should at least won 1 title or at least get a couple of Final appearance ? My humble reason to that always point to one thing ; FATIQUE FACTOR ! We were rely on 6-7 players against 10 or more players. We didn't have Paige at those years. Even if Paige was there, is that the way that we want to win a championship ?
We are not talking about who is qualified(your word good enough) besides those 7 or 8 rotation, we are talking about how to limit player or players having to play 40 minutes. I don't care if she is Paige. If they are not good enough, why did you recruit?
I was going to post something similar, but you beat me to it. Not a criticism of Geno and I know right now UConn does not have a normal bench, but hopefully that will begin to get fixed in the near future. When that happens I'm of the opinion that at least a few bench players should get ~10 mpg not necessarily because they earned those minutes in practice, but to keep the players who did earn minutes in top form. Obviously there's a balancing problem here. You can't dig a deep hole for yourself playing too many bench minutes, but you can't have your best players gassed in 4Q because they played 38 to 40 minutes. This balancing act is coaching.
Spot on.
Hard to change when the results of the present are positive. I think Geno has deliberately tried to establish a hard core game players group. He apparently wants that group to become so familiar with each other playing as a unit becomes automatic. That coaching style has been successful. However, in physical games where the opposing team is also very good and also has relief players with game playing experience the small unit philosophy has weaknesses mainly fatigue late in the game. The unit coaching style worked better before the WBB players market grew to todays level. There are more really good women basketball recruits available and more WBB teams with elite potential. Depth has become a real factor in the performance of todays WBB teams. Depth is more than recruiting, those highly rated players the team recruited MUS BE DEVELOPED VIA ACTUAL GAME TIME.
Agreed. Geno acts like there is nothing he can do about it because he doesn't have any backup guards. The options aren't very good but there are options. Aaliyah could be playing 25-30 minutes exclusively at SF, in essence being the backup for Evina, Christyn and Caroline with Geno having to carefully time his substitutions.
I didn't.
I'm with you and @Javafan and @donalddoowop. I too want fresh players in the 4 quarters of games and rested players come tournament time. What coach doesn't? What I strongly disagree with is your proposed method of achieving this. If a UCONN player is good enough to positively impact the game they will find their way onto the floor. @Javafan the answer to your question as to why recruit these players to have them sit is: not all recruits pan out as expected & it is damn hard to make the rotation at UCONN. First three games of the season Geno played 8, 9, 9 players and still there were at least 3 different threads stating that Geno is struggling with substitutions. Geno is not struggling with substitutions, the bench players are struggling trying to positively impact the game.
Espinoza-Hunter certainly did, and is.
AEH was most definitely a part of Geno's rotation prior to her departure after 7 games. Her departure from UCONN had nothing to do with lack of playing time. UCONN desperately needed a 3rd guard to be in the rotation behind Kia (team leader in MPG) and Crystal. AEH was that 3rd guard until her departure and would have continued to be into the next two seasons as well.
I think there's a middle ground............Dawn uses a good part of her bench during the game, usually bringing in one or two at a time and the rest later in the game................as far as I'm concerned force feeding a freshman that has the ability and the mental fortitude to handle it is the way to go..........I remember one of Ducharme's earliest appearances where she could barely dribble the basketball yet she managed to play through the nerves in her next few appearances to become a very important starter ..........no way that happens as quickly with the fourth quarter two minute to go experience....
GREAT 2 paragraphs ! !
...." .... the small unit philosophy has weaknesses mainly fatigue late in the game. .." - - GREAT POINT !
I’d be interested in the odds to win difference between 28-7 teams vs 33-2 teams. I’m not an oddsmaker but my guess is the difference would be quite substantial! As in, 27-8 teams are a lot less likely to win than 33-2 teams! After all, there is a reason one team lost six more games!
Was Svetlana close to category 3 as a freshman?
Fatigue late in games has been the major factor in winning and losing games since Dr. Naismith hung that first peach basket.
That's brilliant. Even more brilliant might be the thought that the team that is playing the best at the end of the season prevails. Momentum, injuries to "better" team, players returning to "lesser team". Many factors. Best team season long doesn't always win. TB Bucs last year? Eli's Giants over NE? Huskies 2021-22 when cavalry arrives.................
Again, the question is not "Geno is struggling with substitutions", the question is Geno is STINGY with substitution. When he doesn't have confidence with the sub he just sub in, he doesn't have the patience to cultivate that sub, and furthermore he doesn't have the faith in the key players that he sub out to surge back in case of falling behind with the energy she regain after the well rest. ? ! As to at what point he should sub back in the key player(s), its the job of the coach.
Ah....maybe a team in the situation UCONN finds itself in now?
The main weakness is when two or three fifths of your highly ranked starters turn out to be non alphas and/or you don’t have that super dominant super alpha either! The truth is, virtually all of our NC teams had a super alpha ( Dee, Maya, Stewie) and other alpha players as well who, in the immortal words of Josie Wales, got “plumb nasty” when things weren’t going well.
