I am very shocked to hear Dawn Staley make the statement "now that UConn's big 3 are gone I think it leaves all of us with a little bit more hope than we have had over the last past four years". Dawn has been coaching long enough to know, you have to coach your team to be better. Dawn has also been around Geno enough to imitate how he coaches his team, so instead of expecting Geno to lower his standard, I would expect Dawn Staley to try to raise her standard, so that South Carolina could be like UConn.
I love what Tonya Cardoza said "It doesn't matter what he has, he is going to find a way to be the very best". "I think everyday he is going to practice using it as motivation". Tonya Cardoza, a former assistant coach of Geno's isn't complaining nor is she celebrating the loss of Stewie; Mo and Morgan. She is trying to build Temple to the level of UConn.
I love what Geno Auriemma had to say about the team "You know what is really neat is all four of them, they all celebrate each other's successes". "When one of them does something that the other three have been working on, the other three go crazy because they know how much time and effort has gone into that". Geno has observed Kia; Gabby; Lou and Napheesa chemistry together, and he is praising them and building on it at the same time.
I really admire what these ladies are doing. They could give into the negativity, but they are using the negative comments as motivation. They are playing the game with passion and determination. This team trust each other, and have each other's back. A lot of teams could learn from UConn.
In defense of Dawn and the other coaches who have expressed similar sentiment - Breanna, Moriah, and Morgan was a truly exceptional class and the team they came into, and the players that followed were pretty high quality as well. People forget of course that Baylor seemed like the 'inevitable' team in their freshman year until Louisville took them out, and ND was on a roll as well. And their was at least some question on how they would deal with losing Stef and Bria their junior year and Kiah their senior year.
But that freshman team had the following WNBA draft picks:
2013 - Kelly Faris - 1/11
2014 - Stef 1/6, and Bria 1/7
2015 - KML 1/3 and Kiah 1/11
2016 - Breanna 1/1, Moriah 1/2, and Morgan 1/3
Eight first rounders on a single team - 1, 2, 3, 3, 6, 7, 11, 11
And in the following years it is likely that Gabby, Kia, Lou, and Napheesa will also be first round picks in the WNBA draft.
Being realistic about the quality of the Uconn team in retrospect is not unreasonable, and I am sure Dawn and Muffet and Kim never let that realism slip into the practices during the run. As Geno said about his years as an underdog - the days before the game you have a brilliant plan that if you do this and this and this you can win. When you are the favorite you spend your nights thinking about 'if they do this and this and this, we will lose.' Optimism of the underdog, anxiety of the favorite.
