In Kia Nurse We should Trust?

[wallman]

Geez, give the kid break. She was on the floor as the coach wanted her on the floor, I am guessing that she had full confidence in her, just as Geno had too. She had a bad shooting game and some forced mistakes that could possibly happen to any young kid playing in her first Olympics. I think you are in good hands with her, KLS and Williams.

 

[RunItUp!]

I saw Big Papi strike out recently. Does that mean we can't expect to see him hit another homerun?

if it takes him too long to hit a homerun then the manager would have sat him down - for sure -just like the Canadian mgr should have then they could have a better chance of winning the game. Her out-of-control plays affects the team greatly, bad for moral, and she is still charging like a bull into others with no good results

 

[Orangutan]

If only she had the best coach in the sport to make sure she stays on the right track...oh wait, she does.

 

[RunItUp!]

Thanks Bags---I appreciate the "like " on the other comment. No doubt Crystal (Xtal) will need a mentor with lots of experience and Kia has that to give. Xtal may be a starter sooner than later, this being an "off" year, maybe Geno will give her the opportunity to lead--with help.

oh what specific advice could Kia give that she will not get from CD, or GA or the other coaches?

 

[RunItUp!]

If only she had the best coach in the sport to make sure she stays on the right track...oh wait, she does.

you can have the best direction and instructions but if you don't apply them then what good is it?

 

[Orangutan]

you can have the best direction and instructions but if you don't apply them then what good is it?

It's no good. But she won't play much if she doesn't listen to the coaches.

 

[RunItUp!]

Nobody that posts on these boards will decide what Kia's role is with the Uconn Team.. That is for Geno, and Geno alone, to decide... I trust him more than you... so your plea for everyone to wake up will fall on deaf ears.

what you write is very true, but it is good to get it off my chest, and hope that what I have written comes to fruition, but hoping that we still win 5 straight NC

 

[RunItUp!]

You may remember that Kia was under the gun last year when it appeared her game had slipped from her first go-round. She eventually righted herself and was instrumental in UConn's NC push. At the time when critics were buzzing, I wrote that every game the Huskies lost while Kia started was her fault. Ditto.

No, the truth is that the Huskies won DESPITE Kia's inadequacies.

 

[RunItUp!]

Coach---this "troll" is beneath you. You are usually accepting of opinions. And these are just opinions. Obviously, Geno shall have the final say and dependent upon his needs and player availability. All Canadian team members are not pros I know a couple are college players.
Kia is one kid that has had lots of international play with the Canadian national team and the Olympic team--she is no novice as novices go. Geno had one of his first looks at her in Mexico with the Ca National Team . As far as "rising" Geno tells his Juniors and Senior--he expects them to know the system and to receive little or no coaching which time he spends with Frosh and Sophs--in terms of Geno she has risen.

No insult intended--you just surprised me with the comment!! Throw the Troll away and the comment is Standard Bags.

Sorry to read your disrespectful comment about me being a troll and that I am beneath someone. God created all the same, man - the created -classifies each other. Learn to see the good in others.

 

[reno tony]

oh what specific advice could Kia give that she will not get from CD, or GA or the other coaches?

Are you saying a player couldn't get some advice from another player that she might not get from a coach. Maybe how to deal with the coaches, classes, schedules, work outs, practices, academic and athletic stresses, and probably more that I don't know. A point of view from a peer can be better at times than from a coach.

 

[RunItUp!]

No offense, but is there a category for stupid posts?! This one is Hall of Fame material....

Why is that in your HUMBLE opinion? Please enlighten us with your BRILLIANCE?

 

[Kibitzer]

No, the truth is that the Huskies won DESPITE Kia's inadequacies.

Andy Warhol was quoted as suggesting that everyone is entitled to 15 minutes of fame.

Your time's up.

 

[RunItUp!]

Oh, what points are ill-informed?

 

[RunItUp!]

Andy Warhol was quoted as suggesting that everyone is entitled to 15 minutes of fame.

Your time's up.

Sorry but you are ill-informed about my time.

 

[RunItUp!]

If only she had the best coach in the sport to make sure she stays on the right track...oh wait, she does.

but if she does not perform where will that get her - the pine

 

[RunItUp!]

A 2 year uconn starter and Canadian national team starter is not going to be the floor leader this season because who is going to have that role instead?

I don't see Kia as an all American next year but she is the best option available. And UConn will have multiple challenges - the team will not live or die solely on her performance.

You are right, she is not the best option because she has not learned in all of her past experiences how to run the floor, control herself or the clock, and she got beat a few times when she turned her head and her opponent drove to the hoop in convincing manner. So who could be the leaders? How about the two not playing this year, sitting it out, but bringing it to the starters in practice and setting the tune throughout the season? For you naysayers, this thought should not be overlooked!!!

 

[chrissaran]

RunItUp, certainly there is room for improvement, but how do throw a two-year starter under the bus when in her two years UConn is undefeated with Kia as a starter. It was the move to Morgan and Kia that turned UConn's season around two years ago. No, I don't think she'll be the starter at point guard. Crystal will be the starter, and that will give her the experience she needs to be ready at tournament time. Starting five: Katie Lou, Gabby, Kia, Natalie and Crystal. Napheesa first off the bench, followed by Kyla and Molly. Nobody knows if Saniya will be healthy. Not sure how an IT Band can keep you out of so many games. Yes, I have had a tight IT Band. It's supposed to be somewhat tight. Never would have kept me from playing.

 

[rugbymate]

I'm still betting on Kia to play point until Crystal becomes a starter; then Kia slides over to the 2 position again, and, as others have said, mentors Crystal.

Let's remember something very, very important: Geno trusts her completely on defense. She's got fantastic defensive intensity.

spot on

 

[johnnyc]

You are right, she is not the best option because she has not learned in all of her past experiences how to run the floor, control herself or the clock, and she got beat a few times when she turned her head and her opponent drove to the hoop in convincing manner. So who could be the leaders? How about the two not playing this year, sitting it out, but bringing it to the starters in practice and setting the tune throughout the season? For you naysayers, this thought should not be overlooked!!!

I agree about her being out of control too much. She acknowledged as much herself I believe and described it as looking for the foul instead of thinking shot first. But the key thing is that she does recognize what she has to work on so I think it's only fair to recognize her best attribute which is being a hard worker and know that she is addressing these things.

 

[RogueDave]

I'm a bit disappointed in some of the comments on Kia...Have folks lost sight of the fact she has been going in hyperdrive on the basketball court for at least 2+ years straight!

She has every right to be exhausted mentally and physically. Do you need her to apologize to you for not living up to your ideal?

As most here would agree the work it takes to be successful at the level she has achieved and strives to improve on for such a young woman is staggering, and she has done it!

Add the weight and future success of the Canadian team placed on her shoulders.

Having to work as hard as she did to be an effective contributor on a UCONN team featuring the top 3 players in the country the past 2 years.

Give pause and again reflect on what these young women are doing on and off the court during and after the season.

Then make a more balanced prognostication about her contributions for the team in the coming season.

Please let your appreciation for the total body of those efforts also be reflected in your comments.

 

[Lynx23]

I admit I would have liked to have seen more consistency in Kia's play in the Olympics but I also recognize that she is not required to live up to my standards. Maybe there's another way to look at this hypothetically. Who on the UCONN's WCBB team, this year or last, would have done a better job of leading the Canadian National Team through three victories in the Olympics? Stewie? Maybe. Moriah or Morgan? Not likely. Anyone else? No way. Kia was not yet a Junior, leading seasoned pros against seasoned pros. This wasn't the Pan Am games, which created unreasonable expectations. I don't know how good Kia can be this year but we'll soon find out. She was certainly humbled against France and I was disappointed for her, but perhaps this experience will be a valuable learning tool. Let's hope so because I suspect, as she goes, so will UCONN WCBB this upcoming year.

 

[jdubct]

Give Kia a break. I wonder how a pre-junior year guard such as Moriah Jefferson would do as a starting guard in the olympics. That's a tough task, being the youngest player on the team, having to start. Probably play well in some games and not so well in others.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Shouldn't we infer that Kia was not 100% for some or all of last season? Or did that sports hernia just happen this past spring? She didn't have as good a year as I thought she would, maybe she was playing with some discomfort all year? (what we non-doctors call pain)

Gus Mahler- - - Gus you beat me to it. Kia Nurse was hurting all last season with the sports hernia. And she had the repair surgery right after the FF so she could come back in time for the Olympics and to prepare for UCONN's 2016-2017 season. Even though her play this past season was down from her freshman year it was amazing that she played as well as she did under what must have been major pain and/or discomfort!
I trust in Geno & staff and Kia's competitive nature to bring her back to her usual talented, aggressive style of play!

 

[bags27]

I honestly don't know why this discussion gets play. Kia is a magnificent defender and extremely steady with ball movement and ball distribution. She is an intense and excellent athlete and takes coaching very well. She brings great intangibles to the game: she's a terrific teammate, has tons of elan, and is a total competitor. Yes, her shooting is erratic: sometimes very hot (scored 25 in one Olympic game; looked very bad in the loss), but that's a mental thing and perhaps correctable.

More importantly, focusing on a player in isolation is a fool's errand. It's got to be a team concept, a total ecology. Most players have some significant deficit. A coach has to balance deficits with the compensatory strengths of other teammates. The past two years, with the core "big 3" so dominant and with either KML or KLS as the bomber, Kia's role was relatively minor. Over the next two years, with new or at least newer players integrating, her role will be enlarged: it will be to provide mature leadership and a steadying influence. It will be to demonstrate to younger players that it's okay to make mistakes, so long as you work to correct them; that there is a way to play "smart" basketball. UConn has the luxury of putting the best team on the court, rather than necessarily the "best" five players. Whatever one thinks of Kia as an individual player (and I do believe she is the best 2-guard on the team), Kia is essential for the team.

 

[meyers7]

So who could be the leaders? How about the two not playing this year, sitting it out, but bringing it to the starters in practice and setting the tune throughout the season? For you naysayers, this thought should not be overlooked!!!

Wait, now some of the things you've posted are pretty dumb, HOWEVER, this just might take the cake.

So you think players who've never played for Geno before, never played at UCONN before, will not be on the floor this year, should be the leaders???

 

[Waquoit]

Learn to see the good in others.

I learned that years ago. But in some cases I need a stronger prescription.

 

[Bigpetunia]

Sorry to read your disrespectful comment about me being a troll and that I am beneath someone. God created all the same, man - the created -classifies each other. Learn to see the good in others.

Right you are (syntax notwithstanding!)!!! Everyone, EVERYONE is entitled to his or her opinion, even if the opinion in question has little or no merit. Guess even the Supreme Being falls short of the mark occasionally. Yes, the player whose skills you indict occasionally plays out of control on offense. But UConn's ongoing dominance is rooted, as it always is, in the fact that its opponents consistently struggle to break the 50 point barrier. No one on the team regularly contributes more to that reality than Kia Nurse. Thanks for suggesting that we ignorant fans "wake up." Me, I'm going back to sleep.

 

[Jimbo]

Andy Warhol was quoted as suggesting that everyone is entitled to 15 minutes of fame.

Your time's up.

Disagree slightly in this instance, Kib…only because those 15 minutes surely expired at least six months ago with RunItUp!'s posting of that bizarre "Are Modern Athletes True Christians?" thread on this board. (I don't have the stomach to link to it here, but it's still available in the Cesspool for anyone interested in being flabbergasted.)

As for Kia, I think she has been nothing short of tremendous in her first two years at UConn in a complementary role as a "glue"-type player. I doubt that many fans expected upon her arrival that she would become as important to the '15 and '16 title teams as she proved to be. Whether that translates into stardom, now that her role will expand in the Big 3's absence, remains to be seen. But I'm not betting against her ability to carry a team on her back when necessary, because she proved in the Pan Am games that she's capable of doing just that. And even if she struggled at times during the Olympics, I think it's safe to say that the toughest competition she'll face while wearing a Husky uniform will look a lot more like the USA Pan Am team than the French senior national team.

 

[BroadwayVa]

A 2 year uconn starter and Canadian national team starter is not going to be the floor leader this season because who is going to have that role instead?

I don't see Kia as an all American next year but she is the best option available. And UConn will have multiple challenges - the team will not live or die solely on her performance.

I believe you hit the certainty of this year--Kia alone will not be whether Geno gets to the final four or even the Sweet16--that's an off year--the talent of the opponents and Geno's ability to motivate may be the determining factors.

 

[Alydar]

Funny but I remember a couple of threads about Nurse 2 years ago on other boards. The focus of the discussions then was a video taken after her junior year of HS in which she played in a scrimmage which was intended as a promo video for another player looking for a D1 scholarship. Some posters noted that she "wasn't much" and relegated her to the end of the UConn bench. Her HS stats were discounted due to their being attained against pathetic "Canadian" competition When it was suggested that just being the starting guard for a national team while other Canadian college graduates were riding the pine gave her status, the response was that the Canadian team sucked generally. All the naysayers disappeared early in her freshman year.

IMO what Nurse brings to the court is fearlessness and aggressiveness. When she sees a lane to the hoop she doesn't hesitate, she goes. And the idea that she drives out of control doesn't jive with her 1.5 fouls per game last season. UConn is very fortunate to have a 5'11" physical guard who is strong enough to finish drives and who also has the quick first step start them. And she won't have to drive on Torrens or Fowles or Griner.

Nurse has had priceless experience denied other college players, playing against the best in the world. She will go from that to playing in the NCAA. Nurse is taking what in horse racing is called a significant drop in the class of opponent she will be facing. Barring injury,Nurse is going to emerge as one of the top guards in college this year. Whether she plays more at the 1 or 2 depends on how others play but I'm pretty confident she will lead the team.