Ice and Jana....what am I missing?

[donalddoowop]

I would hope so, but I was responding to a poster who wanted bigs to stay down in the post.

My post was not a reflection against you. I agree with you. Geno has wanted that for many years.

 

[Bone Dog]

The use of statistics is based on the assumption that the future will resemble the past, which is mostly true. They are also a partial view, but if chosen carefully, as with Efficiency, they can be a good indicator. The tricky bit is capturing the progress or learning curve players usually make at this age. can’t do that without an additional probability component. It would be interesting to try to write such a formula for WCBB. It’d be something akin to what Bill James attempted. Like it or not, that‘s what reliance on stats means. They reveal a truth, but not an expansive one.

 

[uconnfan68]

Good problem to have. Keep in mind that when Jana comes into the game it is often to play against the oppositions sub. Not to demean Jana, who will be a top 5 in WCBB. Give her time to shake off a long injury time off. The girl has serious potential and upside. Don't think so, name any teams 2nd 5 that you would want over Jana.

I’d just like to see her jump.

 

[UConn990411]

geno doesn't agree. good enough for me, sorry.

i think geno sees value in ice that you don't.

BTW, jana contributes mucho as a sub off the bench. what's the problem?

I think it’s time we stop blindly agreeing with every decision he makes.

Geno is obviously The Goat and he’s still one of the best coaches in the game. But UConn also hasn’t won a championship in a decade, and their poor post play / lack of player development for post players is a big reason why.

Not saying myself or any of us know even close to what Geno does, but it’s fair to ask questions when our eyes tell us something different than what Geno is seeing (especially when the data backs up El Alfy being the more impactful player).

 

[Rowdy831]

After 8 games, I think a clear pattern is emerging. Ice continues to start each game and plays 30% more minutes than Jana. Yet, I would posit that Jana is more impactful in games. I can't speak to any differences in practices but in actual games, here is what I refer to: Jana leads Ice in total rebounds 46 to 33, Jana has twice as many steals, and Jana leads in points 58 to 49. At the same time, Jana has less fouls 14 to 19, and less turnovers 9 to 12.

Thanks to the great analysis supplied by JRRRJ, we can also compare Ice and Jana on a "per 40 minutes" basis. When we do, the far greater positive contribution of Jana is even more clear: Jana out rebounds Ice 14.15 to 7.81, she gets 2 and a half times as many steals and out scores Ice by 17.85 to 11.6.

The only area where Ice greatly bests Jana is in assists but I think that is explained by being less aggressive when she gets the ball under the basket. When Jana gets such possessions, her mindset is to score, while Ice simply scores less and will often look to outlet the ball rather than taking it to the hoop.

My point is I hope clear, Jana simply contributes more to our winning than Ice and the actual in game statistics make that clear. With a quarter of the season in the books, I think we need to recognize her greater contribution and give her the majority of minutes rather than playing a back up role.

My thoughts center around Jana's conditioning and returning from a pretty tough injury. She looks tentitive in her movements and doesn't appear to be playing at her top speed. I don't see her in practice so it is a guess but I do like the contributions she brings when she is on the floor.

I am hoping at some point they play both of them with Azzi, Paige and Sarah. Sarah is impossible to guard for almost any defender. If they are quick enough they most likely aren['t strong enough and she can post them up. If they are big in the post you can take them outside. To me they are giving up a huge advantage when they play Sarah with three guards.

 

[Rowdy831]

I guess i understand why these questions come up, but i think there is a bit of very premature conclusions. Jana is just where Ice was last year. She missed all of last year and it wasn’t just any year, it was to have been her first year, so she has nothing to fall back on. We all know that bigs often take longer to get up to speed.let alone missing year one. Ice is coming through her learning curve pretty well. Hopefully Jana is too. There are signs. .

Great point, but is Ice where she should be? She is not playing as aggressively as I expected her to after how she played in the tournament last year.

 

[cohenzone]

Great point, but is Ice where she should be? She is not playing as aggressively as I expected her to after how she played in the tournament last year.

I don’t know where Ice “should“ be. She is definitely more comfortable than she was last year. To my eye she seems out of place in the middle. Seems more like a power forward. Not that tall, at least vs better competition, not a great leaper, a decent jump shooter and passer. The post position among higher level teams is overall taller and quicker than ever. To me, if she and Jana can defend and rebound and add at least 8-10 points, that helps. Last night, Jana had one play where she grabbed the ball and reflexively brought it down to her waist where she was surrounded and stripped. Hopefully she can be cured of that.