Impressions From the West Chester Exhibition Game

[JoePgh]

Having watched the West Chester exhibition game in person, here are my biggest impressions (aka tentative conclusions):

1. I saw absolutely nothing to indicate that either Morgan or Gabby are playing with any significant physical limitations, or after-effects of their injuries. Morgan looked rusty (why else would she have 4 fouls against this opposition?), but not physically limited in any way. She got several contested rebounds and made one very improbable contested layup. Gabby (slightly to my surprise) played on the wing and did not handle the ball much. Her points came on layups (several fast breaks) and free throws. She was a ball hawk and grabbed several rebounds / loose balls in traffic. She did not try to penetrate very much and took only one jump shot that I can remember, but she posted up a lot (which worked well against the height-limited opposition).
2. Kia Nurse still looks to me like a replay of Kelly Faris, which is high praise and very promising for UConn. She is at least as smart and alert, no better or worse as a jump shooter, and maybe only 90% as good as Kelly in general athletic skills. I don't think she is quite as fast or quick, nor can she jump as high. But she will get lots of minutes and be very productive.
3. Kiah Stokes is playing the low block almost exclusively (judging by this game). She did have a couple of plays where she started at the high post and cut to the basket while taking a pass. But mainly she posted up low facing either Stewie or KML, and when the defense went out to cover them, they hit her with passes on which she typically scored. She wasn't doing any of the passing or screening that Stef did -- that seems to be Stewie's role at this point. And on defense, while today wasn't much of a test, I think it will be very difficult even for good posts (EW at Duke or the South Carolina bigs) to get scoring opportunities against her.
4. Moriah looked absolutely great in this game -- again, the opposition didn't provide much of a test. She was in passing lanes and also in the paint for defensive rebounds. At the beginning of the second half, she was in the middle of 3 or 4 consecutive steals that were converted for fast-break points.
5. KML and Stewie looked about as excellent as you would expect -- no surprises from them. KML was very strong on the boards, and Stewie (who appeared to be the focus of the defense) seemed to be taking pride in her passing and assists. She understands the offense as well as Stef did.
6. The only slight disappointment to me was that Saniya didn't seem to live up to Geno's press releases about her this week. She was solid, and got some steals and fast breaks in the early going. But she missed all of her jump shots and was fairly invisible after the first 10 minutes.

Overall, there was much to be pleased with and little to be discouraged about.

 

[Bgillon]

Having watched the West Chester exhibition game in person, here are my biggest impressions (aka tentative conclusions):

1. I saw absolutely nothing to indicate that either Morgan or Gabby are playing with any significant physical limitations, or after-effects of their injuries. Morgan looked rusty (why else would she have 4 fouls against this opposition?), but not physically limited in any way. She got several contested rebounds and made one very improbable contested layup. Gabby (slightly to my surprise) played on the wing and did not handle the ball much. Her points came on layups (several fast breaks) and free throws. She was a ball hawk and grabbed several rebounds / loose balls in traffic. She did not try to penetrate very much and took only one jump shot that I can remember, but she posted up a lot (which worked well against the height-limited opposition).
2. Kia Nurse still looks to me like a replay of Kelly Faris, which is high praise and very promising for UConn. She is at least as smart and alert, no better or worse as a jump shooter, and maybe only 90% as good as Kelly in general athletic skills. I don't think she is quite as fast or quick, nor can she jump as high. But she will get lots of minutes and be very productive.
3. Kiah Stokes is playing the low block almost exclusively (judging by this game). She did have a couple of plays where she started at the high post and cut to the basket while taking a pass. But mainly she posted up low facing either Stewie or KML, and when the defense went out to cover them, they hit her with passes on which she typically scored. She wasn't doing any of the passing or screening that Stef did -- that seems to be Stewie's role at this point. And on defense, while today wasn't much of a test, I think it will be very difficult even for good posts (EW at Duke or the South Carolina bigs) to get scoring opportunities against her.
4. Moriah looked absolutely great in this game -- again, the opposition didn't provide much of a test. She was in passing lanes and also in the paint for defensive rebounds. At the beginning of the second half, she was in the middle of 3 or 4 consecutive steals that were converted for fast-break points.
5. KML and Stewie looked about as excellent as you would expect -- no surprises from them. KML was very strong on the boards, and Stewie (who appeared to be the focus of the defense) seemed to be taking pride in her passing and assists. She understands the offense as well as Stef did.
6. The only slight disappointment to me was that Saniya didn't seem to live up to Geno's press releases about her this week. She was solid, and got some steals and fast breaks in the early going. But she missed all of her jump shots and was fairly invisible after the first 10 minutes.

Overall, there was much to be pleased with and little to be discouraged about.

After reading about the game, my prediction about Nurse being partnered with MoJett as starters after a few games looks very likely!