Graham Hays - Five Observations on Tournament.

[Wbbfan1]

http://espn.go.com/ncw/notebook/_/page/notebook_quickdish150322/five-observations-day-3

 

[Sonny44]

Takes a UCONN win for granted.

 

[Huskies Rule]

Not interested in what Hays has to say. He's the espn-w guy who rationalized that Stewie is not the best player in America because, 1) her stats in fewer "signature games" are not as good as Loyd's and, 2) Stewie has more AA's supporting her. PHOOEY !! And his "one-time, Oscar-winning performance" analogy- more phooey. As a die-hard, borderline irrational, completely prejudiced and biased UConn fan, I can objectively say that Stewie is absolutely the best player in WCBB. Period.

 

[jcoton56]

I don't know why Charlie (or someone in his position) can't demand top knotch officiating for women's basketball. The men's officiating is far from ideal, but it is utter dreck on the women's side. Use Title 9 if needed.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

Takes a UCONN win for granted.

It was mostly observations from Day Three of the NCAA Tournament. UConn did not play on day three. And the UConn game is certainly not the most interesting matchup, if one is thinking about an upset or a close game.

Not interested in what Hays has to say. He's the espn-w guy who rationalized that Stewie is not the best player in America because, 1) her stats in fewer "signature games" are not as good as Loyd's and, 2) Stewie has more AA's supporting her. PHOOEY !! And his "one-time, Oscar-winning performance" analogy- more phooey. As a die-hard, borderline irrational, completely prejudiced and biased UConn fan, I can objectively say that Stewie is absolutely the best player in WCBB. Period.

With all due respect, she is the best player in WCBB. But does that alone make her POY.

ESPN named ten players to its All-American team - Stewart, KML, and Jefferson. She has more All-Americans supporting her, two of the other nine best players in the country (and that is not even counting Morgan Tuck). Loyd carries a much bigger burden and was more valuable to her team and more integral to Notre Dame's success. I have no issue if someone views Loyd as more valuable to her team this year than Stewart and the most valuable player in the country as a result.

It is not an award for the best player, but the most valuable one. I believe there is an argument to be made that Moriah Jefferson was UConn's most valuable player this year, as she had to development from a fifth scoring option to a fourth/third option, had to greatly expand her shooting range and to be a consistent threat from outside (which she did), has the responsibility of defending the other team's best backcourt player, and must be the primary facilitator and playmaker while mentoring a freshman ballhandler/point guard (instead of playing alongside a veteran playmaker in Hartley).

Stewart is certainly a deserving MVP candidate. But so is Loyd, in my humble opinion. And Stewart is still the best (and most versatile) player in college basketball.

 

[Huskies Rule]

It was mostly observations from Day Three of the NCAA Tournament. UConn did not play on day three. And the UConn game is certainly not the most interesting matchup, if one is thinking about an upset or a close game.



With all due respect, she is the best player in WCBB. But does that alone make her POY.

ESPN named ten players to its All-American team - Stewart, KML, and Jefferson. She has more All-Americans supporting her, two of the other nine best players in the country (and that is not even counting Morgan Tuck). Loyd carries a much bigger burden and was more valuable to her team and more integral to Notre Dame's success. I have no issue if someone views Loyd as more valuable to her team this year than Stewart and the most valuable player in the country as a result.

It is not an award for the best player, but the most valuable one. I believe there is an argument to be made that Moriah Jefferson was UConn's most valuable player this year, as she had to development from a fifth scoring option to a fourth/third option, had to greatly expand her shooting range and to be a consistent threat from outside (which she did), has the responsibility of defending the other team's best backcourt player, and must be the primary facilitator and playmaker while mentoring a freshman ballhandler/point guard (instead of playing alongside a veteran playmaker in Hartley).

Stewart is certainly a deserving MVP candidate. But so is Loyd, in my humble opinion. And Stewart is still the best (and most versatile) player in college basketball.

* Excellent points, my crazed Dookie. However, following your reasoning, we are both completely wrong, there is but one, indisputable Most Valuable Player (and it isn't even close) and that is............... Amanda Zahui B. Yikes!!

 

[meyers7]

With all due respect, she is the best player in WCBB. But does that alone make her POY.

ESPN named ten players to its All-American team - Stewart, KML, and Jefferson. She has more All-Americans supporting her, two of the other nine best players in the country (and that is not even counting Morgan Tuck). Loyd carries a much bigger burden and was more valuable to her team and more integral to Notre Dame's success. I have no issue if someone views Loyd as more valuable to her team this year than Stewart and the most valuable player in the country as a result.

It is not an award for the best player, but the most valuable one. I believe there is an argument to be made that Moriah Jefferson was UConn's most valuable player this year, as she had to development from a fifth scoring option to a fourth/third option, had to greatly expand her shooting range and to be a consistent threat from outside (which she did), has the responsibility of defending the other team's best backcourt player, and must be the primary facilitator and playmaker while mentoring a freshman ballhandler/point guard (instead of playing alongside a veteran playmaker in Hartley).

Stewart is certainly a deserving MVP candidate. But so is Loyd, in my humble opinion. And Stewart is still the best (and most versatile) player in college basketball.

I don't know that to be true. I don't think it's a MVP award. It's not called an MVP award. It's called Player of the Year. For me, that means best player in WBB that year. Not which player is the most valuable to their team that year. Heck there are probably a lot of players more valuable to their team than Stewart and Loyd. Both have some pretty good teammates.

 

[CocoHusky]

It was mostly observations from Day Three of the NCAA Tournament. UConn did not play on day three. And the UConn game is certainly not the most interesting matchup, if one is thinking about an upset or a close game.



With all due respect, she is the best player in WCBB. But does that alone make her POY.

ESPN named ten players to its All-American team - Stewart, KML, and Jefferson. She has more All-Americans supporting her, two of the other nine best players in the country (and that is not even counting Morgan Tuck). Loyd carries a much bigger burden and was more valuable to her team and more integral to Notre Dame's success. I have no issue if someone views Loyd as more valuable to her team this year than Stewart and the most valuable player in the country as a result.

It is not an award for the best player, but the most valuable one. I believe there is an argument to be made that Moriah Jefferson was UConn's most valuable player this year, as she had to development from a fifth scoring option to a fourth/third option, had to greatly expand her shooting range and to be a consistent threat from outside (which she did), has the responsibility of defending the other team's best backcourt player, and must be the primary facilitator and playmaker while mentoring a freshman ballhandler/point guard (instead of playing alongside a veteran playmaker in Hartley).

Stewart is certainly a deserving MVP candidate. But so is Loyd, in my humble opinion. And Stewart is still the best (and most versatile) player in college basketball.

CamrnCrz1974,
Excellent points I'm not sure I disagree strongly with any of your points. So I would like to simply. If you had the two players switch places, UCONN gets Jewell and ND gets Stewie, rest of the rosters and coaching stays the same. Assuming productivity of all other players stays the same, which would be the better team in your opinion?

 

[AndyCT]

Not interested in what Hays has to say. He's the espn-w guy who rationalized that Stewie is not the best player in America because, 1) her stats in fewer "signature games" are not as good as Loyd's and, 2) Stewie has more AA's supporting her. PHOOEY !! And his "one-time, Oscar-winning performance" analogy- more phooey. As a die-hard, borderline irrational, completely prejudiced and biased UConn fan, I can objectively say that Stewie is absolutely the best player in WCBB. Period.

Really?

Because mid-season, UConn alum Rebecca Lobo also said that Jewell was the best player in the country (though she seemed to back off of that during the AAC championship game). We talked about it here on the Boneyard. So I guess you’re “Not interested in what ‘Lobo’ has to say” anymore either?

Jewell Loyd is a legitimate MVP. As is Breanna. All the points that Graham made about Jewell were legitimate, as were the counterpoints that Charlie Creme made about Breanna (and are we now all Charlie Creme fans?). This is ESPN and they do this "Point-Counterpoint" thing all the time - someone had to write the Loyd position and this time it was Graham, whether of not he felt that way (I suspect, for other reasons that he did). But in any case, Graham has been a very pro-UConn writer through the years – probably more so than any of the other ESPN regulars; remember, he’s the one that coined the phrase “basketball Swiss-Army knife”.

Jewell is a very talented player and one that most of us would love to have at Connecticut. But at Notre Dame she’s in a different situation and has had to do things for her team this year that Breanna has not; when the call has come, she has answered and for that reason has been a more visible player. And let’s all be honest – Breanna has had something of an uneven season, not nearly as much as her freshman year when Jewell was the Freshmen of the Year, but not always stellar. There are certainly enough threads here on the Boneyard if you go back 15 or 20 pages about Breanna's 3-point shooting slump (real or imagined), mid season funk etc.

Besides, in the end, it isn’t like this was some real award like the Wade trophy – it is an unimportant subjective award from a cable TV station that happened to go the other player. But in two weeks, when Breanna is holding her third NCAA Tournament MOP trophy we’ll be looking back at this ESPN award as a lovely parting/consolation gift for another great player that's also had a great season...

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

CamrnCrz1974,
Excellent points I'm not sure I disagree strongly with any of your points. So I would like to simply. If you had the two players switch places, UCONN gets Jewell and ND gets Stewie, rest of the rosters and coaching stays the same. Assuming productivity of all other players stays the same, which would be the better team in your opinion?

UConn would still be the better team. Jefferson, Loyd, KML, Tuck, and Stokes vs. Allen, Mabrey, Cable, Stewart, and one of Reimer/Turner.

 

[PalPa]

CamrnCrz1974,
Excellent points I'm not sure I disagree strongly with any of your points. So I would like to simply. If you had the two players switch places, UCONN gets Jewell and ND gets Stewie, rest of the rosters and coaching stays the same. Assuming productivity of all other players stays the same, which would be the better team in your opinion?

I would become a ND fan. I don't like JL.