Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Bone Dog, post: 4857264, member: 12088"] Because I’m often left with a lot of free time in the summer — the life of a college prof in the sunset years — I’ve watched a lot of replays and thought about this team compared to the great UConn teams of the past. Here’s what I see: They were all explosive and dominated more than the Paige-led teams have done. The Stewie teams may have been the best for ball movement, especially the last two seasons. And the Gabby-led teams were like this too. They were like lightning in transition. The Lobo-Rizotti teams were also quick, but grit may have been their hallmark. Same for the Sue-Swin teams. They just didn’t take no for an answer. I think the team motto “Just tape it up and go” really reflected this. Diana’s teams were great mainly because of Diana. Same for Maya. In this respect they felt like Paige’s first two teams. They had really good athletes, sent players on to the W. But Diana or Maya or Paige stood head and shoulders above the team. Paige’s freshman year team had athletes as goood as any other team, maybe better. But take Paige out of the equation and they floundered. Aari McDonald was able to do exactly this in the final four and they had no other answers. The sophomore year team looked to be even more loaded with athletes until the injury bug hit. Even so, a hobbled Paige was able to return in March and lead them to the NC game. That was a heroic effort and not just against NC St. In hindsight, she probably should have taken longer for rehab and not returned until the following fall. Just in terms of character alone, that NC run Paige engineered was as great as anything any Husky has ever done. The next season, the team was great even without Paige, super dynamic, with the ferocity that “the next woman up” — Nika — brought to them. Aaliyah Dorka and Lou had career seasons. But without Paige or Azzi or Caroline healthy in the end they were fatally flawed by a too thin backcourt. It’s a shame, because that roster, even without Paige, if the rest had been healthy would have torched the rest of the tournament field, including LSU SC Iowa Va Tech tOSU, had they been healthy. That’s the magnitude of of what they lost to injury. And this season, the losses to injury are equally devastating. This time it’s the frontcourt that’s taken the brunt of it, though losing Azzi and Caroline again is mind numbing. We’ve gone from a clear #1 seed and #1 or 2 ranking to barely scraping into the top-10. We’re all hoping just to get a #2 seed now. But Paige is playing better than ever, and she may not have knocked all the rust off even now. And she’s teaching the next generation what greatness is right before our eyes. It’s hard to overstate how incredible this experience must be for Ash and KK in particular. How far can Paige’s magic carry the team this season? Elite Eight looks very possible. Final four may be a long shot unless the seeding is favorable and a couple breaks go their way — and this isn’t a year when fate seems disposed to favor UConn. But however far they go, it will be primarily due to Paige and her magic. None of us will be comfortable putting Paige on Mt Rushmore for anything less than an NC. But we really ought to honor her achievements, stunted as they have been so far by a cruel and malign destiny. She absolutely belongs in the same stratosphere as Diana and Maya and Sue. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach