Is there any reason that KLS and Napheesa Would NOT be voted First-Team All-Americans?

[Kaizen]

My team takes all three. That's who's going to lead us to possibly our fifth straight and twelfth overall National Championship. They will become the seamless three come tournament time. Gabby, Lou and Pheesa will lead the way.

And Kia.
Kia makes the team in good balance and in good defense.

 

[CocoHusky]

There are no good reasons.
Among the bad reason:
1) Lack of pre-season publicity. These same writers/ voters put out a pre-season AA team they like to be proven right and it is almost impossible to prove them wrong.
2) UCONN fatigue. This is still supposed to be the year UCONN got GOT!

 

[BobbyJ]

Take off your orange-colored glasses, Russell isn't even the best post player in the SEC. As long as Wilson and Coates are still at South Carolina, Russell won't get an AA mention. She plays on a team with way too many selfish players that can't enter the ball into the post and frankly don't want to.

Agreed. And All Americans don't jog back on defense.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

The trouble with these pronouncements that we have 2 first-team AAs is that the posters haven't seen all hundred-plus DI teams. Okay, there are some D1 teams that they wouldn't have to see, but some fairly unlikely teams have been known to have some pretty outstanding players. It's easy but not fair to watch 1 team and their 8 opponents and feel one can make statements that two players from those teams are the best of the best, especially this early in the season. I understand the enthusiasm for Williams and Collier and Samuelson -- I thought Gabby's play last night was one for the ages, frankly -- but until we've seen more of the pool of candidates, it is, I suggest, far too early to make pronouncements about first-team AAs.

But UConn has played five of the top 17 teams so far, including three of the top seven. And vanquished all of them. So how many more teams does UConn have to play- and defeat- before the kids on the UConn team who beat all of those other top-ranked teams get recognition for All American? I'd say two more: Ohio State and Maryland. Perhaps add in South Florida.

But if UConn, after a dozen games, has knocked off every other top team in the country, then why would anyone need to wait until March to make the determination? The other teams are likely to get knocked out a few times in their conferences. But not UConn in the American Athletic. This is the meat of UConn's season, and perhaps the strongest schedule any top team will play.

Call it for Phees and KLS!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Lou is much more than just a designated outside shooter, she has greatly improved her mid-range game(she's automatic coming off the foul line curl) she is rebounding more, provides ball-handling and play-making and her defense while still not great has improved leaps and bounds over last season. Couple that with the fact that she's THE player on Connecticut's team that opposing teams game-plan for I believe she's headed for a great year.

I was trying to be brief and not to slight Lou, who I love. I think Pheesa and Gabby are better rebounders and defenders, but Geno will push Lou in those regards. It's too early, but I think Lou, Pheesa, and Gabby have real shots. KML was a 2x AA and would have been 3x if not for the elbow injury. I see Lou partly as K's heir apparent.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Again, it's still early, but who are the strong NPOY candidates?

I see Wilson, Mitchell, Plum, and Pheesa. Who else?

BTW, 19 ppg at UConn is the number for Maya, Tina, and Stewie in their NPOY seasons. Pheesa and Lou are there right now.

 

[DefenseBB]

UConn order is Samuelson, Collier and then Williams. Opposing teams are not focusing their strategy at "stopping" Gabby. They start at Lou and Pheese and then Kia. I am not saying Gabby is not great (she is) but her shooting and point usually result from fast breaks or rebounds. Defensively she's the best I have seen on the season. And Tenn is correct Russell has played very well for a very underachieving team. Plum has been Plum. The rest is now up for debate. My last comment is please refrain from Kelsey "the gunner" Mitchell. Until she learns to play defense or pass to make her teammates better I am not a fan.

 

[tkaes]

I can't justify keeping them off. These two have led the team while slicing through five of the best teams in the nation, and going, so far, undefeated.

And I'd say that Nurse would have to be second-team All American.

Gabby, perhaps second team as well.

How do you keep KLS and Phees down?

There may be a number of players around the country who on paper are better than Gabby, but there are not 5 players who play better than her night in and night out even when she may only score 10 or 12.

 

[LadyVols9]

i would respectfully disagree. in terms of the SEC, she is the leading center in points and blocks. and she is essentially tied with Coates in rebounds. in essence, when comparing centers, she is the leader overall with the actual stats. btw, wilson is not a center.

2017 Statistics

Take off your orange-colored glasses, Russell isn't even the best post player in the SEC. As long as Wilson and Coates are still at South Carolina, Russell won't get an AA mention. She plays on a team with way too many selfish players that can't enter the ball into the post and frankly don't want to.

 

[donalddoowop]

We're talking candidates here. But 8-0 with wins over #s 2 and 3 will get you some press. Again we're talkng about candidates here, not electees.

When they beat Baylor, Baylor was #2. They have beaten two #2 teams.

 

[Plebe]

i would respectfully disagree. in terms of the SEC, she is the leading center in points and blocks. and she is essentially tied with Coates in rebounds. in essence, when comparing centers, she is the leader overall with the actual stats. btw, wilson is not a center.

2017 Statistics

It's perhaps a bit unfair, but players from mediocre teams rarely get named AA, unless they are just putting up ungodly numbers (e.g., Banham of Minnesota last year). Russell is having a great season, but she'll be more likely to garner recognition if Tennessee can manage to improve its results.

 

[BobbyJ]

i would respectfully disagree. in terms of the SEC, she is the leading center in points and blocks. and she is essentially tied with Coates in rebounds. in essence, when comparing centers, she is the leader overall with the actual stats. btw, wilson is not a center.

2017 Statistics

Stats are basically for losers. Winners only care about the score. Twenty years from now, at a champions reunion, players and coaches won't be talking about how many points you averaged. They'll remember your blocked shot to end the game and win.

 

[ScarlettB]

But UConn has played five of the top 17 teams so far, including three of the top seven. And vanquished all of them. So how many more teams does UConn have to play- and defeat- before the kids on the UConn team who beat all of those other top-ranked teams get recognition for All American? I'd say two more: Ohio State and Maryland. Perhaps add in South Florida.

But if UConn, after a dozen games, has knocked off every other top team in the country, then why would anyone need to wait until March to make the determination? The other teams are likely to get knocked out a few times in their conferences. But not UConn in the American Athletic. This is the meat of UConn's season, and perhaps the strongest schedule any top team will play.

Call it for Phees and KLS!

I wouldn't call beating FSU by 2 without Romero was exactly vanquishing them. IMO, if Romero played, UConn would have lost that game. It was early in the season and your team wasn't firing on all cylinders yet.

On a 5 player 1st team AA team I think we are going to see A Wilson, K Plum and K Mitchell as locks (barring injury) so there are only 2 open spots and I doubt UConn players will snag both of them. Players like B Turner from ND, S Walker Kimbrough and B Jones from MD, N Davis from Baylor - just to name a few are all potential candidates IMO. Collier, Samuelson and Williams are all good candidates, but not the dominant, can't leave them off players like Stewart and Jefferson were (at least not yet).

 

[iamcbs]

i would respectfully disagree. in terms of the SEC, she is the leading center in points and blocks. and she is essentially tied with Coates in rebounds. in essence, when comparing centers, she is the leader overall with the actual stats. btw, wilson is not a center.

2017 Statistics

The SEC conference season hasn't started yet, so your point about what she's doing now is well taken but the conference season will tell the tale. A'ja Wilson is a post player and when selecting the AA team, since when have they done that by actual position? It's been years. Both Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck and A'ja Wilson were all AA's last year, which one of them played Center?

 

[Kibitzer]

Our exuberant admiration of UConn stars, however justified in our big hearts, seems to me to be a bit premature. They are fabulous (heh heh - convenient rhyme with Gabulous), to be sure, but Hey! We're only eight games in, maybe 30 to go, including biggies in March.

Time out.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I wouldn't call beating FSU by 2 without Romero was exactly vanquishing them. IMO, if Romero played, UConn would have lost that game. It was early in the season and your team wasn't firing on all cylinders yet.

On a 5 player 1st team AA team I think we are going to see A Wilson, K Plum and K Mitchell as locks (barring injury) so there are only 2 open spots and I doubt UConn players will snag both of them. Players like B Turner from ND, S Walker Kimbrough and B Jones from MD, N Davis from Baylor - just to name a few are all potential candidates IMO. Collier, Samuelson and Williams are all good candidates, but not the dominant, can't leave them off players like Stewart and Jefferson were (at least not yet).

The problem is that our kids will have played against virtually all of those during the regular season (not K Plum), and beaten all of them (knock on would for South Carolina and Ohio State). So if these kids go up against all of those kids, and beat all of those kids' teams, how do the UConn kids get left off of All-American status? Seems irrational to me.

 

[UcMiami]

Giving our Vol visitor a pretty hard time!
I think Russell is having a really good year and surprisingly held up very well against the Baylor size which was impressive. She is playing in a system and for a team that desperately needs her to dominate because they struggle from the outside - so the offense is centered on her. I don't think she is quite good enough to carry them.

On the question of who is a center - the modern game has largely done away with the distinction of center vs. power forward - there aren't a lot of Courtney Paris players locked in the low block remaining in the game, so a comparison between Russell and Wilson is completely valid in the way the game is played now.

Is Russell an AA - I would agree that some of that depends on her team. Rare for an AA to come from a 'unsuccessful' team as Plebe pointed out. She has a pedigree that means she will get looked at, but there are enough good post players around the country and on better teams, that I think she will have a hard time making the cut - Honorable mention/Third team - maybe.

 

[UcMiami]

The problem is that our kids will have played against virtually all of those during the regular season (not K Plum), and beaten all of them (knock on would for South Carolina and Ohio State). So if these kids go up against all of those kids, and beat all of those kids' teams, how do the UConn kids get left off of All-American status? Seems irrational to me.

Because AA is an individual award and the game is played by teams. There is a bias towards players on successful teams as their should be, but that bias is finite and not demonstrative.

I agree that if Uconn continues to beat all comers, the big four on Uconn will get special consideration, but the competition for a 5 player team is extremely fierce as is the competition for a ten player team - the Uconn players are emerging from very large shadows and impressing, but they are starting from 'obscurity' which is why Kia and Lou garnered what recognition has come early in the year - they actually glimmered faintly behind the glare of Moriah, Morgan, and Breanna last year. Whether they or the other two can gain enough momentum amongst voters this year is doubtful. As a group of any three, almost impossible - easier for a single one if they don't all end up diluting each other's support. (A bunch of voters will be likely to chose at least one player from a #1 team, but if the player they each choose varies from voter to voter, a more obvious choice from another #1 seed team will out tally each of them.)

 

[ScarlettB]

The problem is that our kids will have played against virtually all of those during the regular season (not K Plum), and beaten all of them (knock on would for South Carolina and Ohio State). So if these kids go up against all of those kids, and beat all of those kids' teams, how do the UConn kids get left off of All-American status? Seems irrational to me.

I understand what you are saying, but AA status isn't based on just head to head. It is based on body of work. Granted, your players will have a great body of work, but so will the others and someone like K Plum or K Mitchell will be leaders in scoring not only on their team, but in the nation. Your team is so balanced - especially this year, that it may hurt your players as individuals. They get the advantage of national exposure, but the "disadvantage" of playing with equally talented teammates.

 

[hoophuskee]

I understand what you are saying, but AA status isn't based on just head to head. It is based on body of work. Granted, your players will have a great body of work, but so will the others and someone like K Plum or K Mitchell will be leaders in scoring not only on their team, but in the nation. Your team is so balanced - especially this year, that it may hurt your players as individuals. They get the advantage of national exposure, but the "disadvantage" of playing with equally talented teammates.

If UCONN's body of work is undefeated, the record will be shattered. That won't be small news. It will be "how did they do it?" And as for this year, the team doesn't have deep bench so their starters will get more minutes. And they will be playing in AAC therefore the stats may be very strong for several.

 

[Bronxjeff]

oh . and she mixes it up pretty good in the low post even spotting a few pounds.

Katie Lou seems much more sturdy to me than many others. She has hit the deck a few times this year, but only with full contact and she has always popped right back up and stayed in the play. Let's remember she had one of her better halfs last season in our final four game and played the whole time on a broken foot.