Geno's Post-Game Comments About Stewie and Morgan

[Striper69]

Some random thoughts:

1. No one ever mentions that Kiah Stokes was also benched for that game. Why not? What did she do wrong? Geno stated that the move was not premeditated, but I'm not so sure. He pretty much knew he was going to win that game, even playing the last five players on his bench. Intended of not, the UConn bigs ( Stewart, Tuck, Stokes) were well rested for their USC showdown two days later.

2. I remember a game against Providence in 2003 or 2004, where Geno benched his starters, including DT. Supposedly to send a message, but again, I'm not convinced. And if winning is not important to him, why does he only do it in games he is sure to win? I would love to see what happens if one of these games got close, or UConn fell behind late in the game. That would be the acid test.

3. Breanna looked driven in last night's game against Houston (? I can't even remember who the opponent was, all the AAC tems look the same to me ( cannon fodder)). I mean, driving to the basket, rebounding, blocking shots. She really displayed why she is the best player in the country. The only thing missing in her game right now is her 3 point shot. I'm sure Loyd from ND will get a lot of consideration for POY, and Loyd is a great player, but Stewart is clearly the better player, and will be playing for the National Champion.

I think he just rested his main Bigs and wanted to be sure Kiah would be available (look what happened to Isabelle).

 

[Striper69]

Kara Wolters said he did it to her before big games. Meg Culmo felt like he did it and when she had asked him at one time though he denied it - she said she didn't believe him. IMO he did it with Charde. He does this from time to time - imo he's not lying when he denies it - he just looks at it differently. I believe he figures "I'm the coach and I don't like how they are playing and in preparation of doing things right for the next game, I'm going to bench them as I see fit."

That's probably in some manner how he looks at it. IMO I'm with Kara and Meg (and Sue when she says he has a formula.). He knows the big game is coming up and in preparation of that big game - he uses this reasoning to bench his big time players when he feels the game is important. Some year's the OOC games aren't as important because his conference - a team in there was tough. But nowadays until UCONN can build up the AAC these OOC games are huge. This is what Geno thinks of the big games like his comments below of the USC game unlike what we heard when primarily but not limited to the old Big East of RU or ND being tough -

On the scale of tonight’s game on the national stage:
“I tell kids all of the time when we are recruiting players this is what they want. This is the game that they want to play in, a game like this. I guess this was a slow night in the sports world because I guess this was the biggest thing on television tonight. The point of coming to Connecticut is to play in these games. Whether its January, February, March, April, it doesn’t matter, these are the games you come to Connecticut for, these are the games we practice for, games like today.”

He refers above to recruiting. He also refers to what the kids want and he also refers to January and February (i.e. - it's not JUST the title game that matters. Other OOC games matter too.). Just because the title game means much more doesn't mean the reg. season game isn't real big. I don't think he knew he was going to pull them to start the game but but but I think his coaching vision of how he wants the game to be played is so ingrained - that if he isn't satisfied - he feels he has the right to pull anyone at any time. Which he does. And in some cases he'll do before a big game in preparation for the big game.

As is his wont.

 

[hoophuskee]

As is his wont.

Yep. But his terminology will be about his effort/satisfaction pretending as if the next team isn't a big game. The thing is he would have been satisfied if a big game wasn't coming up and wouldn't have benched them. His terminology why he would bench is "global" it can be done for most games. He chooses sometimes to strategically employ this benching option but he'll still hide behind "I'm not satisfied and it has nothing to do with the big game coming up."

 

[ThisJustIn]

Some random thoughts:

1. No one ever mentions that Kiah Stokes was also benched for that game. Why not? What did she do wrong? Geno stated that the move was not premeditated, but I'm not so sure. He pretty much knew he was going to win that game, even playing the last five players on his bench. Intended of not, the UConn bigs ( Stewart, Tuck, Stokes) were well rested for their USC showdown two days later.

2. I remember a game against Providence in 2003 or 2004, where Geno benched his starters, including DT. Supposedly to send a message, but again, I'm not convinced. And if winning is not important to him, why does he only do it in games he is sure to win? I would love to see what happens if one of these games got close, or UConn fell behind late in the game. That would be the acid test.

3. Breanna looked driven in last night's game against Houston (? I can't even remember who the opponent was, all the AAC tems look the same to me ( cannon fodder)). I mean, driving to the basket, rebounding, blocking shots. She really displayed why she is the best player in the country. The only thing missing in her game right now is her 3 point shot. I'm sure Loyd from ND will get a lot of consideration for POY, and Loyd is a great player, but Stewart is clearly the better player, and will be playing for the National Champion.

Re #3 clearly you don't recall the Rutgers game during the Diana era.

Also, if he has to do it in a "big" game he's misread his team throughout the season...

 

[Shenandoah]

Shenandoah: agreed. I thought about it again and agree with you. Perspective is always important, in everything.

And, yes. I DO agree with you about football being compared to war. It really ticks me off when coaches and announcers do it. I served during Vietnam, my Father in WW2, and now my son is in his 4th combat tour, and I'm sure he'd rather be running pass patterns!

 

[jsloanjr]

Why would anyone have a negative tingto stay about Gno or hs program?......Not happy change the channel and watch the SEC or the ACC games............Now, they are hard to watch.......

ND is plaing at GT tonight............Try.watch that game for more than 5 minutes............

 

[meyers7]

That is an old one!

I'm old.

 

[CocoHusky]

Why would anyone have a negative ting to stay about Geno or his program?.Not happy change the channel and watch the SEC or the ACC games..Now, they are hard to watch..

ND is plaing at GT tonight..Try.watch that game for more than 5 minutes..

Because Geno is a human being just like the rest of us-occasionally makes a mistake. The response to every question about Geno cannot possibly be “Well he has won 9 national Championships” or turn the channel as you are suggesting. How boring would that make the Boneyard? I’m also not changing the channel as long as the Husky are playing but I will occasionally question something Geno did or said.