Has Paige hit the wall?

[browns]

The last 5 games Paige is 30/77 for .390%..even more alarming is her 3 point shooting which is 8/33 for .242%..granted she was shooting an immortal % as far as 3's go but this is a huge drop..Has she hit the infamous "wall"? Even if she has the rest of her game is still great and makes multiple defenders cover her which opens things up for her teammates..hope the "stroke" comes back for Monday and the "dance" in a couple of weeks

 

[Gurleyman]

Probably to a degree. We’ve had a lot of busy stretches of three games in five days to squeeze in games we lost due to covid breaks. There’s a long break between the BET and the NCAA so any physical fatigue will be alleviated, and then it becomes more about confidence and defenses she sees.

What’s been interesting in the recent sluggish stretch is that she has typically started well and then had bad second halves with comfortable leads (Marquette being an exception since they were in striking distance), dating back to Xavier with the ankle roll when she was 3-3 and then finished 4-11. So “the wall” could be an issue there with losing her legs as the game goes on. Yesterday was the opposite, where she started slow and then had a solid second half at 5-7, which leads me to be a little hopeful that she’s shaking off her issues. But we’ll see. We are even more vulnerable to junk defenses if Nika is out or ineffective (faceguarding, box and ones, etc.) so she won’t have it easy.

 

[connboy77]

No, no, and no again. Have any of you watched other parts of her game? She is doing other things just as well as she has done from day one. She may be missing some shots she normally makes, but everyone has dry spells like that not just freshmen!

 

[Centerstream]

No!!!!

 

[UcMiami]

I don't think it is a wall - I think it is just a law of averages on her shooting. Jump shooters aren't supposed to hit 55% especially from 3 for a season, so a week or two of poorer shooting was bound to happen. We've seen it from KML, Jefferson, KLS, Maya, DT, Sue, etc. And, teams have been really focused on her defensively the last couple of weeks daring other players to score for Uconn while never helping off of Paige.

There was a period there where I thought Paige and Geno were a little off in communicating and where Paige was second guessing when to shoot. Not seeing that hesitation lately.

 

[bluedevil]

The time between the tournaments will do her good wall or no wall

 

[Gurleyman]

No, no, and no again. Have any of you watched other parts of her game? She is doing other things just as well as she has done from day one. She may be missing some shots she normally makes, but everyone has dry spells like that not just freshmen!

it isn’t like she’s not contributing, but her J has been noticeably off lately. Most of her FGs in this stretch have been layups. But we’ve been comfortably ahead, so no big deal.

The good thing to think about moving forward is that she looked really gassed late against SC. They made her work hard cutting just to get the ball the whole game, so in the fourth quarter she was less involved for few minutes (and she was probably tired against Ark after missing a week of practice). But when we needed it, she locked in through the fatigue and tired legs and hit her shots. Hopefully, that will shine through again if we are in that situation.

 

[phil sampieri]

I was waiting for some of these comments. Just watch how many times she is double or triple guarded and how many 3 pointers she has to take to beat the clock. Relax and let her play

 

[LarryLegend]

after the season it will probably come out that her ankle problem is a lot worse than is being let on. I believe when she was in high school she had a fairly serious ankle injury as well. Another tough cookie

 

[BostonBay]

The team has not looked this good (over the past several games) all year, thanks to the "sacrifices" of Paige. Her assist numbers are up & she is setting up her teammates to succeed. Her FG% is down slightly because she is taking more difficult shots - 3's at the end of the shot clock, for example. She can play 1-on-1 ball & be shooting a lot more layups & short jumpers, but that wont help the team build its confidence.

 

[blackbird]

I don’t think it’s the Freshman wall, as much as it was that she’s played a lot of minutes on an injury that still hasn’t fully healed, and her shots are short because of it. Then I think it got in her head some. She was even a step slow on defense against Marquette.

I think after Nika got hurt, the adrenaline kicked in and she just started playing. Hopefully that gets her out of her head too.

 

[da60]

Paige is a human being...Jordan and Lebron are human beings....Common....it physically hurts me when she misses a shot....So much more to her game...she is basically 75% of the on the court UConn game......She is always there to do the big and little things that are necessary to run the machine...There is no way that she has lost her shot...it will appear. We should only hope that she stays healthy....could be the best freshman EVER! What great ever had a mindset to do for the team before his or her self??? Special, special, special...I can see her doing even more now that Nika is injured...she is so bright and such a delight! Go girls!

 

[hoopingcrane]

The last 5 games Paige is 30/77 for .390%..even more alarming is her 3 point shooting which is 8/33 for .242%..granted she was shooting an immortal % as far as 3's go but this is a huge drop..Has she hit the infamous "wall"? Even if she has the rest of her game is still great and makes multiple defenders cover her which opens things up for her teammates..hope the "stroke" comes back for Monday and the "dance" in a couple of weeks

6-10 today, 9 assists.

 

[Gurleyman]

6-10 today, 9 assists.

Had a good efficient day but didn’t shoot many jumpers. She was 4-6 around the rim (don’t know how that spin move didn’t drop for her) and 2-4 on jumpers (1-2 mid range, 1-2 threes). Hit a quick trigger 3 in the fourth which was a good sign. That’s been out of her arsenal for a little while.

First time I’ve personally seen her dribble off her own leg for a turnover, though - hopefully she hasn’t hit a dribbling wall.

 

[Ouremblem]

Paige is fine. To me Nika was the big concern, and she looked just fine, too. We’re spoiled with Paige.