Husky Practice

[Going4Natty]

Time to give the "she has to score more" a rest.

The issue with Nika is not that she score 'more'. But that she score situationally. She must score to punish the defense for sagging off of her. She must not allow them the privilege of doubling Azzi or Carolyn or playing a zone.

 

[Bills Fan]

The issue with Nika is not that she score 'more'. But that she score situationally. She must score to punish the defense for sagging off of her. She must not allow them the privilege of doubling Azzi or Carolyn or playing a zone.

And of course that killed us last year as we only made it to the Championship game. And as that was all happening, Geno continued to rely on her at the Point. We have plenty of scorers (, DJ CD, Lou, AE and probably Ice), but we don't have anyone else that does everything else needed to win games.

 

[Carnac]

Griffin has been practicing and lifting at full speed for 2 months, so don't be concerned. To those that doubt Patterson 's playing time, your in for a rude awakening.

Music to my ears.

 

[Bone Dog]

And of course that killed us last year as we only made it to the Championship game. And as that was all happening, Geno continued to rely on her at the Point. We have plenty of scorers (Azzi Fudd, DJ CD, Lou, AE and probably Ice), but we don't have anyone else that does everything else needed to win games.

It’s surprising that we have to say this. But by the time we were in the tournament clawing our way back to the NC game, we had Paige and Nika was not a contributor at the end of close games. Why? Because having her on the floor in the final quarter meant we were playing 4 on 5 on offense.

Now that we don’t have Paige, we want to be able to rely more on Nika in those crucial moments. But this means she has to make the same transition MoJeff made in her junior year and become a half court scoring threat. I think she can do it.

This isn’t rocket surgery. We can pretend Nika doesn’t need to develop offensive skills and thereby consign her to a bit part in the important games. Or we can root for her to become a more complete player the team can depend on at the end of games. It’s not defending her to talk as though she’s not capable of developing.

 

[Mdoggie]

I doubt Patterson's playing time, particularly early. IMHO her development will follow a similar, but quicker, path as Aubrey. Athletically superior but weak fundamentally. If I am wrong, my awakening will be anything but rude. It will be extremely joyous.

Dunks is all we wanna see. Pages of comments say so.

 

[Mdoggie]

The issue with Nika is not that she score 'more'. But that she score situationally. She must score to punish the defense for sagging off of her. She must not allow them the privilege of doubling Azzi or Carolyn or playing a zone.

All she has to do is throw lobs to Patterson for the dunks!

 

[donalddoowop]

It’s surprising that we have to say this. But by the time we were in the tournament clawing our way back to the NC game, we had Paige and Nika was not a contributor at the end of close games. Why? Because having her on the floor in the final quarter meant we were playing 4 on 5 on offense.

Now that we don’t have Paige, we want to be able to rely more on Nika in those crucial moments. But this means she has to make the same transition MoJeff made in her junior year and become a half court scoring threat. I think she can do it.

This isn’t rocket surgery. We can pretend Nika doesn’t need to develop offensive skills and thereby consign her to a bit part in the important games. Or we can root for her to become a more complete player the team can depend on at the end of games. It’s not defending her to talk as though she’s not capable of developing.

What is rocket surgery? How many top 10 teams can you name that has five scorers on the floor at all times? UConn won two NC with Jefferson not being a scoring threat. Five scorers on the floor at all times are not always needed for a team to be a title contender, imo.

 

[Bone Dog]

What is rocket surgery? How many top 10 teams can you name that has five scorers on the floor at all times? UConn won two NC with Jefferson not being a scoring threat. Five scorers on the floor at all times are not always needed for a team to be a title contender, imo.

The phrase “It’s not rocket surgery” is an old joke. I’m surprised with all us oldsters here it would need explaining.

As for needing 5 scorers on the floor, this is clearly disingenuous. No one said we need 5 scorers on the scale of Azzi or Caroline on the floor at all times. But you better believe we need all 5 players on the floor in the closing minutes of a game at the end of March to be a credible threat to score. This is why Geno specifically didn’t use Nika in those situations except as an offense-defense platoon. Maybe you think that’s an optimal situation for us to win an NC. I don’t.

 

[GEAinAustin]

She also is not on the floor against ranked teams in the closing minutes.

 

[#12in21]

It’s surprising that we have to say this. But by the time we were in the tournament clawing our way back to the NC game, we had Paige and Nika was not a contributor at the end of close games. Why? Because having her on the floor in the final quarter meant we were playing 4 on 5 on offense.

Now that we don’t have Paige, we want to be able to rely more on Nika in those crucial moments. But this means she has to make the same transition MoJeff made in her junior year and become a half court scoring threat. I think she can do it.

This isn’t rocket surgery. We can pretend Nika doesn’t need to develop offensive skills and thereby consign her to a bit part in the important games. Or we can root for her to become a more complete player the team can depend on at the end of games. It’s not defending her to talk as though she’s not capable of developing.

 

[Stymie]

The phrase “It’s not rocket surgery” is an old joke. I’m surprised with all us oldsters here it would need explaining.

As for needing 5 scorers on the floor, this is clearly disingenuous. No one said we need 5 scorers on the scale of Azzi or Caroline on the floor at all times. But you better believe we need all 5 players on the floor in the closing minutes of a game at the end of March to be a credible threat to score. This is why Geno specifically didn’t use Nika in those situations except as an offense-defense platoon. Maybe you think that’s an optimal situation for us to win an NC. I don’t.

Actually, didn’t want to knit pick.
It’s “not brain surgery” or it’s “not rocket science” are the choices

 

[#12in21]

As I have said on several occasions, Nika herself said after last season ended that she has had a change of perspective. She gets it that she has to be more of an offensive presence to prevent the defense playing off of her. That’s what she is focising on. I for one believe her and think she will be just that.

People seem to forget that in a presser freshnan year Paige credited Nika with facilitating alot of her offense with screens and anticipating her movement. Why people don’t think that will happen with Azzi at two and Nika at point is beyond me. Geno chose to put Nika at point and Paige at two their freshman season, most likely for that very reason, why many posters don’t seem to get that that is the right choice this season is also beyond me. I get it Nika has to make sure defenses stay on her, she does too! So how about we consider that reality and that she is the best option at point, facilitating a very potent offense that IMO has more diverse options than we hsve seen in a number of years and spearheading a defense that with the return of Aubrey and the incoming freshmen can be again more intense than recent years. Nika is an important piece of this years potential sucess, the kid’s a gamer and team first ( no offebse to the poster with the same handle, well maybe alittle). I’m looking forward to the posts from those that have essentially discounted her value to the teams success this season, when she demonstrates her significance within a really great squad!

 

[Zarathustra]

Actually, didn’t want to knit pick.
It’s “not brain surgery” or it’s “not rocket science” are the choices

My thoughts exactly. Watch those " mixed metaphors"!!

 

[AmeriConn]

Actually, didn’t want to knit pick.
It’s “not brain surgery” or it’s “not rocket science” are the choices

I would like to add “not brain science”.

 

[Mdoggie]

I would like to add “not brain science”.

And I wanna add “rocket surgery”

 

[Notyetready]

Stymie said:
Actually, didn’t want to knit pick.
It’s “not brain surgery” or it’s “not rocket science” are the choices


Actually....
It's been in the Urban Dictionary since 2010 and there is a t-shirt industry built up around it. From the Urban Dictionary:.
"Rocket Surgery

• A mixed metaphor describing a non-existent, yet implicitly high level of qualification. The greatness of this term is in its subtle ability to call someone stupid twice in one euphemism. The irony may go over someone's head and they would call out that this field of study doesn't exist.

A: Come on, it's not rocket surgery."

.... just sayin'

 

[Alydar]

I doubt Patterson's playing time, particularly early. IMHO her development will follow a similar, but quicker, path as Aubrey. Athletically superior but weak fundamentally. If I am wrong, my awakening will be anything but rude. It will be extremely joyous.

She no doubt needs work but her fundamentals are reported to be great. Here's a video. Ignore the dunking and listen to the coach describe how she has been trained. (about :20 into the video)

 

[Alydar]

The phrase “It’s not rocket surgery” is an old joke. I’m surprised with all us oldsters here it would need explaining.

As for needing 5 scorers on the floor, this is clearly disingenuous. No one said we need 5 scorers on the scale of Azzi or Caroline on the floor at all times. But you better believe we need all 5 players on the floor in the closing minutes of a game at the end of March to be a credible threat to score. This is why Geno specifically didn’t use Nika in those situations except as an offense-defense platoon. Maybe you think that’s an optimal situation for us to win an NC. I don’t.

Geno didn't use her because he had better options. Muhl is who she is and she is not a great scorer, she's a facilitator and a defender. That is as hard to quantify as the way the team responds to her energy when she is in the game. She likely won't ever be the MOP in a FF but she won't be the reason we lose either.

 

[Bone Dog]

Geno didn't use her because he had better options. Muhl is who she is and she is not a great scorer, she's a facilitator and a defender. That is as hard to quantify as the way the team responds to her energy when she is in the game. She likely won't ever be the MOP in a FF but she won't be the reason we lose either.

Yup. She won't be the reason we lose a FF (I shudder even to type that phrase) and she won't be the reason we win one either... because she won't be on the floor in the 4th quarter. Unless she develops better offensive skills. It hurts the team that she can't be on the floor at the end, and I hope she develops the skills we need so she can be. Her D is too important to have to sit her down at those moments, but the cost to our offense is too high as well.

She's said she wants to develop these skills -- finishing at the rim, a dribble stop jump shot -- and I bet Paige is helping her. I'm hoping she can do it.

 

[Bone Dog]

Stymie said:
Actually, didn’t want to knit pick.
It’s “not brain surgery” or it’s “not rocket science” are the choices


Actually....
It's been in the Urban Dictionary since 2010 and there is a t-shirt industry built up around it. From the Urban Dictionary:.
"Rocket Surgery

• A mixed metaphor describing a non-existent, yet implicitly high level of qualification. The greatness of this term is in its subtle ability to call someone stupid twice in one euphemism. The irony may go over someone's head and they would call out that this field of study doesn't exist.

A: Come on, it's not rocket surgery."

.... just sayin'

I'd emphasize the self-effacing quality of it. The person who makes this joke is poking fun at themselves -- their pretension to know something fancy is undermined by mixing the terms. That's what I had in mind.

Now thank you all very much for explaining (i.e. ruining) a joke.

 

[GEAinAustin]

Alydar, my sentiments exactly regarding Muhl. I also stand on my prediction that Patterson will be in the top 5, by seasons end in minutes played .

 

[Zarathustra]

She no doubt needs work but her fundamentals are reported to be great. Here's a video. Ignore the dunking and listen to the coach describe how she has been trained. (about :20 into the video)

" Three times a week.... for two years" Sounds like a recipe for success!
A great video... I always thought that Yanna was very good... now I see she
she will (IMO) follow in the Gabby Williams ( among others ) footsteps.
Go Yanna, GO HUSKIES. Quite the team!

 

[Alydar]

I know how important it is for a player to score to be a real force for a team.

Didi Richards never scored much.

Her career stats at Baylor:

games - 129 (98 starts)
pts/game- 6.7 ( made zero 3's in 4 years)
rb's/game - 4.1 (meh)
as/game - 4.4 (meh)

Not very impressive. And yet in a huge NCAA E8 game, she played 30 min, scored but 4 pts and yet her team was out-scored by their opponent by about 20 when she was on the bench for 10 min.

How is that possible that her team scored so much with a non-scorer on the floor and so little with that non-scorer on the bench? I mean she only had 2 boards and 2 assists in that game?

 

[Cuango]

And of course that killed us last year as we only made it to the Championship game. And as that was all happening, Geno continued to rely on her at the Point. We have plenty of scorers (Azzi Fudd, DJ CD, Lou, AE and probably Ice), but we don't have anyone else that does everything else needed to win games.

Nika must improve her scoring and (perhaps more important) her free throw shooting in order for us to be the best we can be! Just because we still win against the vast majority of our opponents does not mean that her deficits in those areas will not hurt us against the top teams! Once again, no one is suggesting that she is not an asset, or that she has to score like Paige! She simply needs to be a legitimate threat so that someone must guard her!

 

[Carnac]

She no doubt needs work but her fundamentals are reported to be great. Here's a video. Ignore the dunking and listen to the coach describe how she has been trained. (about :20 into the video)

Glad to see/hear that Ayanna has been working out hard 3X a week for 2 years. You can't tell me THAT kind of continuous "structured" training with a trainer is not going to pay dividends. As Paige quickly became worth the price of admission her freshman year, so too will Ayanna along with Azzi who already is.

During their "heyday", I wanted to see Michael Jordan and Dr. J live when they came to L.A. to play the Lakers. Tickets for those games were ALWAYS hard to get. The BIG ticket brokers always bought as many as they could get when those tickets went on sale. Not many were left for the walk up buyers at the box office. I was never disappointed when I was able to get a ticket. They WERE always worth the price of admission.

 

[DEpup]

Geno didn't use her because he had better options. Muhl is who she is and she is not a great scorer, she's a facilitator and a defender. That is as hard to quantify as the way the team responds to her energy when she is in the game. She likely won't ever be the MOP in a FF but she won't be the reason we lose either.

She just has to score when she is open and be able to get to the rim on occasion. That will limit the double teams on Fudd and Ducharme which is all we need scoring wise from her.

 

[Bone Dog]

I know how important it is for a player to score to be a real force for a team.

Didi Richards never scored much.

Her career stats at Baylor:

games - 129 (98 starts)
pts/game- 6.7 ( made zero 3's in 4 years)
rb's/game - 4.1 (meh)
as/game - 4.4 (meh)

Not very impressive. And yet in a huge NCAA E8 game, she played 30 min, scored but 4 pts and yet her team was out-scored by their opponent by about 20 when she was on the bench for 10 min.

How is that possible that her team scored so much with a non-scorer on the floor and so little with that non-scorer on the bench? I mean she only had 2 boards and 2 assists in that game?

Apples and oranges. Didi could finish at the rim and she had a midrange jump shot off the dribble, two things Nika currently lacks. What they share is great energy and their teams relied on this. So, yes, Baylor was a good team that didn’t win an NC with Didi playing those minutes and only scoring 6.7/g. I think we expect more than that from Nika and the Huskies.

And just to head off the naysayers who think Nika is just fine the way she is — in other words, that she’s unable to improve — I believe she can be more than she has been, and is doing everything she can to make herself a better offensive player. I don’t want to see her on the bench in the 4th quarter in March. I want to see her energy on the floor at those moments, disrupting opponents and putting us over the top. Let’s not cheat Nika of this opportunity.

 

[Alydar]

Apples and oranges. Didi could finish at the rim and she had a midrange jump shot off the dribble, two things Nika currently lacks. What they share is great energy and their teams relied on this. So, yes, Baylor was a good team that didn’t win an NC with Didi. I think we expect more than that from Nika and the Huskies.

And just to head off the naysayers who think Nika is just fine the way she is — in other words, that she’s unable to improve — I believe she can be more than she has been, and is doing everything she can to make herself a better offensive player. I don’t want to see her on the bench in the 4th quarter in March. I want to see her energy on the floor at those moments, disrupting opponents and putting us over the top. Let’s not cheat Nika of this opportunity.

How can you say that? She averaged 2.7 baskets a game in her 1st 2 years? Would those who worry about Muhl be happy with Didi Richards' 3rd year numbers?
I'm trying to show that scoring isn't the only way a player can be a starter and a star. I've read endless comments that unless she can score 12-20 pts a game Muhl is a liability on the floor. Richards is a recent example of why that is simply not true. She wasn't a prolific rebounder nor did she have great assist numbers. Her stats were bad except for her shooting % and that was probably because most of her shots were layups.
I was watching a replay of the NCSt game last night and when Muhl entered the game she had a steal, an offensive rebound and a basket in the first minute or 2. It was a huge emotional lift for the team. She does things in bunches and psychologically that is huge. Richards was an outstanding defender in her last 2 years. Muhl has 2 more years to get that good. Muhl is a defender first. That's what she's good at. She can still get better too. My advise to her would be to work on all phases of your game but focus on what you are naturally good at. My opinion is that great shooters are born like that. If you are a great defender and that's where your talent lies, become an all-time great defender.

 

[Bone Dog]

How can you say that? She averaged 2.7 baskets a game in her 1st 2 years? Would those who worry about Muhl be happy with Didi Richards' 3rd year numbers?
I'm trying to show that scoring isn't the only way a player can be a starter and a star. I've read endless comments that unless she can score 12-20 pts a game Muhl is a liability on the floor. Richards is a recent example of why that is simply not true. She wasn't a prolific rebounder nor did she have great assist numbers. Her stats were bad except for her shooting % and that was probably because most of her shots were layups.
I was watching a replay of the NCSt game last night and when Muhl entered the game she had a steal, an offensive rebound and a basket in the first minute or 2. It was a huge emotional lift for the team. She does things in bunches and psychologically that is huge. Richards was an outstanding defender in her last 2 years. Muhl has 2 more years to get that good. Muhl is a defender first. That's what she's good at. She can still get better too. My advise to her would be to work on all phases of your game but focus on what you are naturally good at. My opinion is that great shooters are born like that. If you are a great defender and that's where your talent lies, become an all-time great defender.

No one’s saying Nika doesn’t do some awesome things. We just need her to do even more awesome things. And that doesn’t mean she has to become a great shooter. She just needs to become a shooter. It’s too tedious to go through this all again. I have no idea who thinks she needs to score 20. Don’t blame me for that thought. I don’t even have a specific number. I just want her to score off the dribble enough to be the threat a pg needs to be.

Your comparison to Didi really highlights the challenge for Nika. Let’s not look only at the Elite Eight game two years ago where Paige torched them. That was a season when I didn’t think they had a chance at an NC, not only because Didi’s production had tailed off from two years earlier, though that had something to do with it. But in their title run, she was much more of a scorer. Just look at the box scores and you’ll see it clear as day. They were a more well rounded team and Didi was a more well rounded player. The notion that UConn won’t be a better team with a more well rounded Nika is about as reasonable as saying the Baylor team that lost to UConn was better than the one that won the NC.

 

[Alydar]

No one’s saying Nika doesn’t do some awesome things. We just need her to do even more awesome things. And that doesn’t mean she has to become a great shooter. She just needs to become a shooter. It’s too tedious to go through this all again. I have no idea who thinks she needs to score 20. Don’t blame me for that thought. I don’t even have a specific number. I just want her to score off the dribble enough to be the threat a pg needs to be.

Your comparison to Didi really highlights the challenge for Nika. Let’s not look only at the Elite Eight game two years ago where Paige torched them. That was a season when I didn’t think they had a chance at an NC, not only because Didi’s production had tailed off from two years earlier, though that had something to do with it. But in their title run, she was much more of a scorer. Just look at the box scores and you’ll see it clear as day. They were a more well rounded team and Didi was a more well rounded player. The notion that UConn won’t be a better team with a more well rounded Nika is about as reasonable as saying the Baylor team that lost to UConn was better than the one that won the NC.

My comment were pointed at anyone in particular, just a response to the constant stream of scoring scoring scoring.
If Muhl was expected to take 12 shots a game she would need to be a better shooter but she isn't, she won't and she doesn't have to in order to be a key part of a title run.