"I Can't Manufacture Any Kind Of Solution"

[RockyMTblue2]

Geno wants to clear up any mis-perception on anyone's part!

“People have this perception that coaches love a short bench,” Auriemma said. “I don’t know any coach that wants to go into any game feeling like they don’t have a lot of options. I can’t manufacture any kind of solution. ... Our younger players have to get better.

“You could say all you want about the reasons. I am patient up to a point and my patience has about run out. At this point this is the way it is going to be for the rest of the season. If these guys want to change that, they have an opportunity every day to come here and change that.”

Lack of depth an issue facing No. 1 UConn

 

[HoopsFan21]

Poor Geno! Seems mad about the freshmen not being able to get it.

 

[Huskee11]

Last paragraph of Fuller's article says Lou still having swelling issues with eye, and that playing time shouldn't be impacted if it subsides. I assume the converse is also true.

From my perspective at least, that is called burying the lead.

 

[JustinesGuy]

Geno should only be mad at himself. He recruited them.

 

[CocoHusky]

After reading this article, count me among the worried. Not in a freaking out kind of way but concerned that Geno seems much more entrenched and worried because we are dealing with the majority of the team (7 players vs 6), an entire Freshmen class and the majority of the Sophomore class. UCONN has certainly had individual players struggle as Freshmen but an entire class and the vast majority of your underclassmen could bring into play some uncomfortable group dynamics. The group dynamics I am talking about is when 1 player happens to "figure it out", it suddenly makes it easier for another player to figure it out and so on....

If that first player never figures it out (& I certainly hope they do and think they will) the struggles are compounded. What has me most worried though is there is very little struggle among the UCONN upperclassmen to which the underclassmen can relate. Crystal struggles ended in her 2nd game at UCONN when she showed her worth. Kia Nurse has been a starter at UCONN since her second game. KLS was a Freshmen starter in the FF. Napheesa Collier started games as a Freshmen before KLS. Gabby had established her worth by the time conference play came around in her freshman year and played in the championship game as a freshman.

“I feel like when the season started we really struggled as a second group going in because nobody really knew what everybody was good at and we are all trying to create on our own.”


I feel you Mikayla! It might feel like it, but you are not in this alone. You ALL got this!

 

[Mdoggie]

Geno should only be mad at himself. He recruited them.

Did he say he was mad?

 

[GoUconn7961]

I sorely miss the freshman swagger of DT - or even the over confidence of Abrosimova - the aggressiveness of Shea Ralph.
They all seem very timid to me. It's not like they didn't know what playing for Geno would be like. It's not a mystery since he's been in the limelight for years now.

 

[Biff]

After reading this article, count me among the worried. Not in a freaking out kind of way but concerned that Geno seems much more entrenched and worried because we are dealing with the majority of the team (7 players vs 6), an entire Freshmen class and the majority of the Sophomore class. UCONN has certainly had individual players struggle as Freshmen but an entire class and the vast majority of your underclassmen could bring into play some uncomfortable group dynamics. The group dynamics I am talking about is when 1 player happens to "figure it out", it suddenly makes it easier for another player to figure it out and so on....

If that first player never figures it out (& I certainly hope they do and think they will) the struggles are compounded. What has me most worried though is there is very little struggle among the UCONN upperclassmen to which the underclassmen can relate. Crystal struggles ended in her 2nd game at UCONN when she showed her worth. Kia Nurse has been a starter at UCONN since her second game. KLS was a Freshmen starter in the FF. Napheesa Collier started games as a Freshmen before KLS. Gabby had established her worth by the time conference play came around in her freshman year and played in the championship game as a freshman.

“I feel like when the season started we really struggled as a second group going in because nobody really knew what everybody was good at and we are all trying to create on our own.”


I feel you Mikayla! It might feel like it, but you are not in this alone. You ALL got this!

Although I believe Geno is concerned about bench development, these statements/quotes are the type of catalyst Geno seems to use all the time to get his message across. And I think that it's messages not message. He's telling the bench "I'm not kidding. Start doing it the way I want or you will sit there." And I think he's telling the upperclassmen that "Take some leadership. Figure out how to get these guys where they need to be".

People may not like how he gets his message out, how he uses the media to prod, how he is unrelenting sometimes to the point of extreme stubbornness. But, I don't see this as new. We've seem many versions of this before. Drives me nuts. Makes me nervous. But it's what he does.

 

[JustinesGuy]

Did he say he was mad?

He is very frustrated clearly and seems to be concerned. I've heard him say a few times, how did u get scholarships here?! Again he recruited them.

 

[Mdoggie]

He is very frustrated clearly and seems to be concerned. I've heard him say a few times, how did u get scholarships here?! Again he recruited them.

But he never sad "mad"

 

[HopJim]

He is very frustrated clearly and seems to be concerned. I've heard him say a few times, how did u get scholarships here?! Again he recruited them.

And he has coached them and not used them in games.

 

[JustinesGuy]

But he never sad "mad"

Yeah I know. I did.

I personally don't know why Irwin doesnt play more. She performs pretty well in games. That would make 2 of 3 sophomores that are contributing.

 

[Mdoggie]

Yeah I know. I did.

I personally don't know why Irwin doesnt play more. She performs pretty well in games. That would make 2 of 3 sophomores that are contributing.

Agreed. Even if it just to give others a breather. They have to play not being afraid to make a mistake. When you play afraid that's when mistakes are made. If that makes sense. Lol

 

[Boreifs]

Yeah I know. I did.

I personally don't know why Irwin doesnt play more. She performs pretty well in games. That would make 2 of 3 sophomores that are contributing.

She doesn’t play more because she plays behind Gabbie, Pheesa and Z. He needs guards and wings, as in Walker, Combs, Gordon and Bent.

 

[JustinesGuy]

Agreed. Even if it just to give others a breather. They have to play not being afraid to make a mistake. When you play afraid that's when mistakes are made. If that makes sense. Lol

I 100% agree with you. I was actually just telling my dad the same thing today. Good call.

 

[JustinesGuy]

She doesn’t play more because she plays behind Gabbie, Pheesa and Z. He needs guards and wings, as in Walker, Combs, Gordon and Bent.

Yes a bit of a log jam. I feel bad, Irwin can play. I imagine Walker and Coombs have best chance to crack the lineup from your list? Right?

 

[Twolf]

And he has coached them and not used them in games.

Every D-1 woman’s basketball program has 15 scholarships, while the men’s D-1 programs have 13. Every coach in America is not playing some of their scholarshiped players who they coach each day. Coaches play the players they trust, and that trust is built up from watching them 2 hours every day live, and watching what they put on film. This staff has had firm standards for several decades about what players must do to earn meaningful minutes in games, and I’m just guessing that won’t change.

All the team gets the same coaching each day, some get it & buy in, while others struggle with what the coaches are demanding, and realizing that it has to be that way on a daily basis. The two factors that young players have the most trouble adjusting to at the D-1 level are the speed of the game, and how physical the game is. Raw talent helps, but it won’t get you on the court @ UConn until you meet the criteria the staff has set and enforced for many, many years. It’s worked pretty well up to this point.

 

[hoophuskee]

Yeah I know. I did.

I personally don't know why Irwin doesnt play more. She performs pretty well in games. That would make 2 of 3 sophomores that are contributing.

Because she is not athletic enough. She needs more experience. She has committed 16 fouls in 104 minutes. That is every 6-7 minutes she commits a foul. And it's not like she is going against the best. And because of her being just a soph and her lack of quickness/a athleticism she'll probably put/ risk putting some of the Super 6 in foul trouble vs some of the better teams because of Kyla either directly or indirectly not being athletic enough or experienced enough.

As I said before. This is all noise. As Biff says Geno does this every year. Don't look every minute at the stock you bought yesterday.

 

[mhshuskies]

Here is the thing, Geno is striving for perfection. Other teams will have players come off the bench that do not perform as well as the starters and how many NC have ANY of them won in the past 10+ years? The announcers kept commenting about the deep bench of Texas, yet how much did they contribute? Our bench consisted of Z and she had 16 points, also commentators and posters both mentioned Texas looked like the tired team compared to UCONN. I am sure Geno would love to have 8 or more players to plug in and not miss a beat, but I don’t think any other team is able to do that. They sub in with a limited expectation or a sub for a player that may not be to the standard of the starters. Can you think of any players that came off the bench for any other team that could have measured up to Genos standards for significant playing time in crucial moments?

 

[JustinesGuy]

Because she is not athletic enough. She needs more experience. She has committed 16 fouls in 104 minutes. That is every 6-7 minutes she commits a foul. And it's not like she is going against the best. And because of her being just a soph and her lack of quickness/a athleticism she'll probably put/ risk putting some of the Super 6 in foul trouble vs some of the better teams because of Kyla either directly or indirectly not being athletic enough or experienced enough.

As I said before. This is all noise. As Biff says Geno does this every year. Don't look every minute at the stock you bought yesterday.

Let's say your right, then Geno is doing this Girl a disservice. If he recruits a girl that is so unathlethic that she can't see the court in her first two years why bring her here to ride the pine. The girl can get minutes at another program and maybe develop faster. I'm agree with another poster that position log jam can be the bigger culprit. I find Kyla to be a leader, knows the system, confident, rebound and can make jumper. Girl is going to be good I'm telling u. I guess this is the cost of coming to CT. She will have to wait her turn until some of the six man rotation graduates.

 

[mbr33ct]

Geno should only be mad at himself. He recruited them.

I like the way you think. I take a different perspective on this.

I'ts like going to purchase anything (ie. car, big ticket appliance, big screen TV, anything really...etc) and find once I get it home does not work as advertised, should I be mad at myself for buying it?

 

[hoophuskee]

Let's say your right, then Geno is doing this Girl a disservice. If he recruits a girl that is so unathlethic that she can't see the court in her first two years why bring her here to ride the pine. The girl can get minutes at another program and maybe develop faster. I'm agree with another poster that position log jam can be the bigger culprit. I find Kyla to be a leader, knows the system, confident, rebound and can make jumper. Girl is going to be good I'm telling u. I guess this is the cost of coming to CT. She will have to wait her turn until some of the six man rotation graduates.

How is he doing her disservice? You mean it's only about "minutes?" And that's what Geno promised her? In addition you don't think she knew coming in that she was going against other h/s all-americans that she probably wouldn't break into the rotation in her 1st two years? And how often have we heard that a kid according to the coach when they first coach her is "more athletic than we thought?" Or "is more skilled than we thought?" Geno has to see them in practice. If some are "worse than you thought" when you recruited them then there are also some that are "better than you thought" too. And has Geno done a disservice to Molly Bent too?

And are we arguing the same thing? You asked why Irwin isn't playing more. I'm not arguing what she is "going to be." I'm arguing what she is right now. You spoke of playing right now. As for athleticism, Kaila McLaren wasn't athletic but she got minutes. Heck there was a stretch of time Geno had her ahead of Tina Charles. And in Doty's senior year she got minutes even though her athleticism was gone. I don't think we are arguing the same thing. I specifically addressed your question as to why she isn't playing at this moment. Just as DOty and McLaren weren't athletic - they got more minutes - so can kyla in big games down the road.

I was wondering if you could answer a couple of questions for me? You just said that Kyla is going to be good. She only got 7.8 minutes last year. Yet what you're saying is that she is going to be good (I am not arguing with you on this as to what she will become). So she has improved enough to make you believe the non h/s all-american is going to be good even though she played just under 8 minutes. So a freshman can improve playing under 8 minutes and still turn out to be good, right? And reading from your posts you don't seem ot think the freshmen are that good otherwise you wouldn't be so concerned about the future as much as you have said previously. So-- are you saying you believe Kyla will be a better player than all of the freshmen? Two of the freshmen? One of the freshmen? If you think Kyla is going to be good, in order to be concerned about the future, are you saying you saw from the start of Kyla's career and even maintain right now that Kyla is going to be better than the freshmen in the future? I don;t understand prior points of your concern for the future especially since only 7.8 minutes lats year you already see that Kyla is going to be good.

 

[eebmg]

I think Geno had really been taken back by this turn of events. I can't recall a freshman class which had so much potential having so many difficulties finding any useful minutes on the bench. He is not used to it. The last 2 classes performed to (or above) expectations early on. I think Geno viewed Molly and Kyla as general bench players with great attitudes that can be called upon for useful minutes and are really 4 year projects while Crystal as a freshman showed enough to see that her potential would be realized once a few consistency issues were worked out. The class of Naphessa and Lou were clearly ready to make impacts over time and contributed as much as was needed (which was not that much).

I just think Geno can't figure out how to reach this new group and the AEH situation can't help his mindset.

 

[JoePgh]

You could go all the way back to the 2004-05 freshman class of Mel Thomas, Kalana Greene, Charde Houston, and Ketia Swanier. All of those players ended up (by their senior years) making important contributions, although none of them were superstars and two of them never cracked the regular starting lineup. That class never won an NC and only made the Final Four as seniors with the help of Maya, Renee, and Tina. If KG had not had an ACL in what would have been her senior year, they might (??) have won an NC that year.

But as freshmen, they were all hopeless, and UConn lost 8 games that year. They lost in the Sweet 16 to Stanford.

I think Megan Walker has shown more this year than any of those players as freshmen, but the others have not. So without more from her and hopefully one other player (including Kyla and Molly), UConn will have a difficult time winning this year. But I would still say that they will be the favorites. Other teams have their shortcomings also.

 

[SVCBeercats]

Geno should only be mad at himself. He recruited them.

Is it the chicken (coach) or the egg (freshmen)?