HAlf time 41-34 Terps. Very good game offensively which has me pleasantly surprised. Austin is a real nice palyer and Fraser is having nice game as well. What this game I should showing me I see how good a post player coach CD is with what she’s done with Morgan, Gabby, Nat, Pheesa and now ONO, all of these bigs struggle with a second move-no up a unders, no banks off glass, no give and gos. That’s not say these players are not good, I just really appreciate what I have been watching at UConn.
Per your insights and comments, I thought you might find these two comments from a recent Baltimore Sun story on Austin of interest.
'She's only scratched the surface': Touted Maryland freshman Shakira Austin living up to expectations
First, Coach Frese on Austin:
"Frese said she is eager to continue working with Austin for the next three years.
“She’s only scratched the surface,” Frese said. “The defensive tools and passing she brought in, but there’s a whole other level for her from the offensive end, how she runs the floor. She’s so long and so athletic that it’s exciting to think that she has a chance in her senior year to be one of the first names called in the WNBA [draft]. So it’s just putting your head down and going to work because there’s a lot of work that’s got to take place between her freshman year and the time she graduates.”
Also, a quote from Penn State Coach Coquese Washington that acknowledges freshman are, well, freshman and experience is a growth tool in its own right:
“When their post [players] are playing that well, it gets to be pick-your-poison,” Washington told the Montgomery County Sentinel. “And we have young posts inside while Kaila Charles and Brianna Fraser are very seasoned post players, and it makes it easy for Shakira Austin to play alongside players like Kaila and Fraser, who have been here and are very experienced.”
