Hannah Hidalgo | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Hannah Hidalgo

hoopsnloops32 said:
That 2004 team was undersized and guard heavy with just Jessica Moore as the anchor in the middle and a super star guard. . Pretty similar to the current construct with Aaliyah as the undersized anchor and Paige as the star guard. People underestimate the talent on that team imo because it didn’t materialize in the WNBA but it’s comparable.

Not saying we have any chance of winning a national championship this year as I would be thrilled with an elite eight performance but they play quite similarly to those teams. The offense and defense especially are very pre-2013 UConn imo.

2019 team is nothing like this one to the point where the comparison is baffling. It was well balanced across all positions but lacked star power, specifically in the guard position. Collier is an amazing player but she’s not a guard and she’s not generational talent like Paige imo.
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I'll say my last statement of proposing we agree to disagree. This thread was created intended to just point out how stellar Hidalgo has been this year but we're getting quite sidetracked.
 
BigTenGuy said:
Watkins has 12 conference games to play. If she returns to something closer to earlier season form against weaker competition, perhaps she could be in the conversation, but if she keeps on the dismal conference-play path that she is on, I just don't see it. To me, even when you look at the current numbers, Watkins seems like a clear 4th to Clark, Bueckers, and Hidalgo, and there should only be room for 3 of them, at most, on the AP and USBWA 5-player AA teams.

View attachment 95499

Edit: Watkins' numbers are also a far cry from Clark's rookie season, when Clark struggled to make 1st-Team AA, making USBWA, but landing on the AP 2nd Team.

View attachment 95500
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I agree with you that Watkins numbers have slipped since USC started playing better teams in conference play whereas Hildago's have maintained. Hannah is clearly the better player now and the Game score stat of 29.0 to Juju's 25.3. Paige's game score average has been increasing as she gains her "sea legs" and the team gets used to playing with her. Her current score is 24.8 but I would think within the next 2 weeks she will pass Watkins.

What goopsandpoops34 seems to miss is Geno's gravitas when talking about "great players" that I think the AP and WBCA both know how great Paige is regardless of numbers. They put Aaliyah Boston on the 1st AA despite her numbers being a notch below other contenders (and rightly so) that I am not in the least bit worried about that accolade. My biggest worry is about our teams rebounding improvement and play strong enough to make a legitimate run in the NCAAT.
 
hoopsnloops32 said:
I can't imagine the #1 undefeated team in the country won't have a first team AA. And Cardosa seems like the best bet, but I do see your argument.

I'm not sure what Paige has done up to this point to deserve AA. Barely top 10 team, lost all their big games and putting up good by not eye popping stats. She has a lot of work to do to make first team AA imo.
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I'm not sure what you are smoking or have been viewing, but to state what Paige has done so far doesn't merit AA status is ludicrous. For a reminder, she's returning after missing an entire season and a large portion of the prior. If shooting 56% overall and 48% from 3-pt land, averaging 20 ppg while only taking an average of 12 shots a game are not metrics that validate AA status, then please explain what does Paige need to do.

For starters, Paige passes the eye test. As Geno has stated, she could score 35 a game if she wanted to. However, her game is geared to how can I get the team to best perform and what is required to make that happen. Ask any coach in WCBB or in the WNBA, and they would jump at the opportunity to have her in their lineup. Her numbers from the beginning of the season to now have been on an upward trajectory, which I believe will continue. She's that good.

I'll go on record now that she will be first-team AA.
 
Surly1 said:
I'm not sure what you are smoking or have been viewing, but to state what Paige has done so far doesn't merit AA status is ludicrous. For a reminder, she's returning after missing an entire season and a large portion of the prior. If shooting 56% overall and 48% from 3-pt land, averaging 20 ppg while only taking an average of 12 shots a game are not metrics that validate AA status, then please explain what does Paige need to do.

For starters, Paige passes the eye test. As Geno has stated, she could score 35 a game if she wanted to. However, her game is geared to how can I get the team to best perform and what is required to make that happen. Ask any coach in WCBB or in the WNBA, and they would jump at the opportunity to have her in their lineup. Her numbers from the beginning of the season to now have been on an upward trajectory, which I believe will continue. She's that good.

I'll go on record now that she will be first-team AA.
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Not sure why missing time in previous season should matter. Paige is on a borderline top 10 team with three losses and is barely scoring 20 PPG. To me, that's not a first team AA resume.

Now if UConn continues to win OR she starts to put together more impressive individual performances like the Seton Hall game, I'll reconsider. But right now she is only first team AA based on reputation imo, not results.
 
hoopsnloops32 said:
Not sure why missing time in previous season should matter. Paige is on a borderline top 10 team with three losses and is barely scoring 20 PPG. To me, that's not a first team AA resume.

Now if UConn continues to win OR she starts to put together more impressive individual performances like the Seton Hall game, I'll reconsider. But right now she is only first team AA based on reputation imo, not results.
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no borderline to it. She is the leader of a top Ten team with ONLY three losses against the toughest schedule in the game. And yes, I think leadership is a factor.

If she leads her team to victory over Hidalgo's team, I don't think we can say her (past) has anything to do with current reputation. So, let's put it off a week.
 
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hoopsnloops32 said:
Not sure why missing time in previous season should matter. Paige is on a borderline top 10 team with three losses and is barely scoring 20 PPG. To me, that's not a first team AA resume.

Now if UConn continues to win OR she starts to put together more impressive individual performances like the Seton Hall game, I'll reconsider. But right now she is only first team AA based on reputation imo, not results.
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She was named player of the year with pretty similar stats. The only noticeable differences is her drop in assists from 5.7 to 3.8. Otherwise she’s increased her bpg from .4 to 1.1 and decreased turnovers from 2.5 to 1.4. FG% is up from 52.4 to 56.5. UCONN is not a borderline top 10 team, they are a top 10 team.
 
Heytherego said:
She was named player of the year with pretty similar stats. The only noticeable differences is her drop in assists from 5.7 to 3.8. Otherwise she’s increased her bpg from .4 to 1.1 and decreased turnovers from 2.5 to 1.4. FG% is up from 52.4 to 56.5. UCONN is not a borderline top 10 team, they are a top 10 team.
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They are currently 8. Thats borderline to me. A loss this week they fall out of the top 10, and will be closer to 15.
Paige got those stats while on a team ranked #1 in the country with only 1 or 2 losses I believe at the end of the regular season. Very different situation than this year where they had 3 losses before Christmas.
 
hoopsnloops32 said:
Not sure why missing time in previous season should matter. Paige is on a borderline top 10 team with three losses and is barely scoring 20 PPG. To me, that's not a first team AA resume.

Now if UConn continues to win OR she starts to put together more impressive individual performances like the Seton Hall game, I'll reconsider. But right now she is only first team AA based on reputation imo, not results.
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There are a number of UConn first team AA who have scoring averages less than twenty points a game. Look at the resumes of other first team AA.
 
donalddoowop said:
There are a number of UConn first team AA who have scoring averages less than twenty points a game. Look at the resumes of other first team AA.
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Great they were probably on a better team than this one. Possibly undefeated national championship team. This ain’t that.
 
bballnut90 said:
Just thought she deserved her own thread. Her per game averages are insane:
24.8 points
6.8 rebounds
5.8 assists
5.7 steals


With shooting splits of 49.5% FG, 36.6% 3pt, 78% FT.

She's putting up really good numbers against strong opponents too, she's not just piling stats on mediocre teams. Her season reminds me of Caitlin Clark's as a freshman where she was piling on stats for a team that was in the 15-25 range so she didn't get a ton of publicity, but more people should be talking about Hidalgo now considering how ridiculous it is she could finish the year averaging 25/5/5/5.
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Having a fabulous freshman campaign. Just fabulous. One might almost forget Miles is missing. Almost. The two of them are going to be an extraordinary backcourt next year.
 
WLT1717 said:
Having a fabulous freshman campaign. Just fabulous. One might almost forget Miles is missing. Almost. The two of them are going to be an extraordinary backcourt next year.
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I do feel like women’s college basketball was robbed of what would have been an insane year due to all these injuries. Notre Dame, LSU, UConn, UCLA, Utah, and Texas all lost starters for the season (at least one) that would have had brought them each to a different of play. Other top teams have also lost star players for varying amounts of time as well like Kansas St, Stanford, and Virginia Tech recently. Really just a shame.

Hildago and Miles in the backcourt would have been INSANE this year. Really a shame.
 
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hoopsnloops32 said:
Great they were probably on a better team than this one. Possibly undefeated national championship team. This ain’t that.
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Not true for some of them. UConn players rarely average over twenty points.
 
DefenseBB said:
I agree with you that Watkins numbers have slipped since USC started playing better teams in conference play whereas Hildago's have maintained. Hannah is clearly the better player now and the Game score stat of 29.0 to Juju's 25.3.
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Notre Dame has not exactly played a murderer’s row schedule so far this season.
 
Bone Dog said:
I'm sorry, @hoopsnloops32, but you have me reeling now. Is it a story contest or a stats-driven Vulcan-worthy assessment?
  • If it's a story contest and PR stories matter most, no one has a better one than Paige: superstar recovering from devastating injury carries injury depleted team to the top of D1.
  • If it's stats-driven, then her stats are excellent, especially her record against the best teams -- and that primarily means the teams that beat UConn. In those games, her stats are super impressive: 31 pts against UCLA and 27 against NC St.
  • If it's just about media fodder, we all know she's not really a power forward -- let's get real here -- but the media loves to bring up her blocks and her post up plays.
I'll go whichever direction you like, but not both at once. We can't dismiss her stats because she's not really a power forward, and we can't dismiss the story because UConn has something left to prove. Personally -- and you don't have to agree with me on this one -- I think Paige has the best media-fodder narrative and the best stats. I have no idea which way the various selection committees will go, so I'm just guessing here. I think we all are.

What we absolutely agree on is that the ND and SC games will be important for all sorts of things including determining who gets to be an AA. But I have confidence in Paige.
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Continuing on your point in the last sentence the Uconn/Notre Dame game could be a big factor in both Paige's and Hanna's rank and reputation, probably more so for Hannah. I personally think both that Paige is an AA lock and that Hannah is the real deal and a big time star.

The Uconn game, however, is a major league test for Hildago. Not just because of the level of the competition, but because of the guards Uconn can assign to guard her. Between the two time big east defensive player of the year in Nika, and a super quick defender like KK, and even possibly some of the time Paige, Uconn has better weapons to defend her than almost anybody.

I don't know how that will turn out, but if Hildago has great success against those defenders her status as a big time star will be cemented, and the remaining doubters will fade away. As for AA I think three seniors are a lock, Bueckers, Clark and Brink. JuJu probably is too. Then it could be another big like Lee, Cardosa etc or a smaller player like Hildago IMO.

Lee may have put up the best overall numbers, Hildago may have been the most impressive, and Cardosa is the best player on the best team. You could make a good case for any of them and also have 2/5th's of the second team among those players.
 
oldhusky said:
Continuing on your point in the last sentence the Uconn/Notre Dame game could be a big factor in both Paige's and Hanna's rank and reputation, probably more so for Hannah. I personally think both that Paige is an AA lock and that Hannah is the real deal and a big time star.

The Uconn game, however, is a major league test for Hildago. Not just because of the level of the competition, but because of the guards Uconn can assign to guard her. Between the two time big east defensive player of the year in Nika, and a super quick defender like KK, and even possibly some of the time Paige, Uconn has better weapons to defend her than almost anybody.

I don't know how that will turn out, but if Hildago has great success against those defenders her status as a big time star will be cemented, and the remaining doubters will fade away. As for AA I think three seniors are a lock, Bueckers, Clark and Brink. JuJu probably is too. Then it could be another big like Lee, Cardosa etc or a smaller player like Hildago IMO.

Lee may have put up the best overall numbers, Hildago may have been the most impressive, and Cardosa is the best player on the best team. You could make a good case for any of them and also have 2/5th's of the second team among those players.
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I've also posted that both coaches will use "quantity (of guards) to develop quality" of defense. Like you say, Geno could (should?) rotate guards on Hidalgo to give her different looks and wear her down. Muhl is a tenacious defender and KK Arnold -- who will be juiced to go against a fellow frosh -- has intent and speed. Maybe Paige for a bit, but I'm not sure you'd want to wear out your most important offensive player chasing an energizer bunny.

In the same manner, expect Coach Ivey to mix it up on Ms. Bueckers. If it's man-to-man, I think KK Bransford will be inserted early. Or, Ivey just might throw caution to the wind and have Sonia Citron cover her. Since this is Notre Dame, you can also expect them to fall into a zone, whether it's 2-3 or match-up, which can be a tad more flexible against outside shooting.
 
donalddoowop said:
Not over JuJu.
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All due respect, any of the metrics have Hannah clearly better than Juju at this point in the season. What are you basing your view on or is it simply your opinion?
 
Dillon77 said:
I've also posted that both coaches will use "quantity (of guards) to develop quality" of defense. Like you say, Geno could (should?) rotate guards on Hidalgo to give her different looks and wear her down. Muhl is a tenacious defender and KK Arnold -- who will be juiced to go against a fellow frosh -- has intent and speed. Maybe Paige for a bit, but I'm not sure you'd want to wear out your most important offensive player chasing an energizer bunny.

In the same manner, expect Coach Ivey to mix it up on Ms. Bueckers. If it's man-to-man, I think KK Bransford will be inserted early. Or, Ivey just might throw caution to the wind and have Sonia Citron cover her. Since this is Notre Dame, you can also expect them to fall into a zone, whether it's 2-3 or match-up, which can be a tad more flexible against outside shooting.
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I am torn selling my tickets at $300 per seat or going to the game but I will say, Hannah will still do Hannah things regardless of who UConn puts on her, the bigger issue for ND is how to get balance in their offense. I do think Citron can be shut down and as noted numerous times, your post play is lacking for scoring. UConn needs to limit the turnovers, which is a Hildago specialty.

From a PR perspective, this game can elevate Hannah to 1st team AA status as despite her stats saying she is, the media still is biased so let them see her in a national spotlight game. Same kind of goes for Aaliyah who is on the outside of the WBCA 10 member squad at the moment (Pili, Brink, Reese, Kitley, Lee and Cardoso as forwards).
 
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bballnut90 said:
Anyone doubting Hidalgo won’t be after that performance. No chance there are 5 players having a better season than she is so far.
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I wasn't planning on going to the ND game when they play in Durham in a few weeks, but I may put it on my calendar so I can see her in person. I'll still be rooting for Duke of course
 
When/if Miles comes back, ND would have best backcourt in the country, probably by far. And would be as good as any team except maybe SC
 
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Vowelguy said:
When/if Miles comes back, ND would have best backcourt in the country, probably by far. And would be as good as any team except maybe SC
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Not this year, but next year for sure!
 
Reypl21 said:
Not this year, but next year for sure!
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Yeah...apparently Gus/White said Miles advised them she won't be playing this year.

But next year, she'll join HH and Citron in a three guard offense that will be...well, golden
 
Dillon77 said:
Yeah...apparently Gus/White said Miles advised them she won't be playing this year.

But next year, she'll join HH and Citron in a three guard offense that will be...well, golden
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And Westbeld will be back. She played great tonight.
 
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