JoePgh
Cranky pants and wise acre
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I have seen very little of UCLA's game play this year, but the statistics that you have gathered suggest to me that Kiki Rice's role on the UCLA team was more similar to Christyn Williams's role with UConn last year than to Nika's role this year. Having only 111 assists for an entire season (less than 3 per game?) does not suggest that Kiki had a role as a true point guard.Nika is a defense oriented PG as opposed to a PG that knows how to be a scorer.
Here's a comparison of Nika to UCLA freshman PG Kiki Rice.
Player - Nika - Kiki
Games-36----36
Avg.
Mins---36.6 --27.9
FGM----84----148
3PT-----37----13
FT-------51---153
PTS-----256--430
PPG
Avg,-----7.1--11.6
RB's-----145--161
PF's------84---85
Ass'ts---284--111
TO's-----127---61
Steals-----50---45
Blocks------5---20
What's evident from these stats is that Kiki knows how to draw fouls and get to the foul line to score points.
Kiki scored an average of 4.5 more points per game while playing 8.7 less minutes per game.
Kiki is only a freshman PG and already knew how to score more points than Nika who is a junior. with 3 years of PG experience.
Plus Kiki committed less than 1/2 the number of TO's.
2022-23 Women's Basketball Cumulative Statistics - University of Connecticut Athletics
The official 2022-23 Women's Basketball cumulative statistics for the University of Connecticut Huskiesuconnhuskies.com
2022-23 Women's Basketball Cumulative Statistics
The official 2022-23 Women's Basketball cumulative statistics for the UCLA Bruinsuclabruins.com
It should be noted that Nika's A/TO ratio was 2.23, while Kiki's was 1.81, based on your statistics.
It's true that Nika didn't draw a lot of fouls, reflecting the fact that driving to the basket was not a big part of her game. That is definitely an area of potential growth for her next year. She started to do it late in the season, but there is a lot more that she could do in that area.
If Geno could trade Nika for Kiki, should he do it? He said he wouldn't trade Nika for any college guard, and I think he had in mind her intangible contributions to the team when he said that.
If Cori Close could make that trade, would/should she trade Kiki for Nika? Again I think the answer is probably No. Each player fulfills a vital role for her team, but it's not the same role.