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Message: [QUOTE="ballerfan, post: 4407844, member: 11596"] I think Azzi will go down as one of the greatest ever to play for UConn. But as Geno said, she going to have to play a lot better this year. She is known for her great 3p shooting (though Paige’s 3p percentage as a freshman, 46.7, was higher than Azzi’s last year, 43), but she really needs to be more like a Sue Bird 3p shooter. And she is going to have to do that with a lot more defensive pressure. Unlike last year, teams are not going to let her stand alone at the line waiting for the ball. Without Paige, teams know she is the best player on the floor. Azzi needs to find her own shots, and she has to get better at defense. It’s really hard to know how good of a PG Azzi will be, as she was hindered last year with a foot injury. In some ways Nika is a better PG than Azzi (some people will strongly disagree with that statement, but Nika’s ball handling, passing, and aggressiveness can, though not always, be impressive). Azzi is often timid and not a natural leader (per Geno). Now that she is fully healthy (I think she is), I hope to see her display better court vision, better passing, and a better capacity to run the offense. I truly believe she has the talent to do so and the ability to be this year’s best PG. Again some people will strongly disagree with this, but if Nika makes notable progress in shooting, she could be the team’s best PG (obviously not including Paige). Even so, she won’t be as good of a player as Azzi. I don’t know how things are going at practice, so everything I just said might be irrelevant. My last thought is that whoever plays PG is a lot less important than Azzi making a sophomore jump. If she can replace Paige in some important ways (midrange and driving to the basket, for example, pushing her FG percent from last year’s 45 to Paige’s 54), then UConn can be a final four team. If not, well, other players are going to have to have an incredible season. [/QUOTE]

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