It's ASJHA! | Page 2 | The Boneyard

It's ASJHA!

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I agree, but when your HOF coach is retiring, four seniors graduating and recruits decommitting... might be too painful to focus on their own team.
 
sarals24 said:
I read the "other" board for kicks and of course, the conspiracy theories abound. There is also talk that Courtney Vandersloot should be groomed to be the next Sue because "at this point in her career, she's better than Sue was" (minus a few NCs and an undefeated seasons, but whatever)

Also, Nneka should be on there because she had as good a senior season as Maya and Maya "most certainly did no have a season in the W that set her apart from other WNBA talent."

Huh. Other than the whole Rookie of the Year thing, and a starter on the championship team, and a member of the gold medal winning World Championship team, they're right. Nothing set her apart.
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For Sue: THREE Lieberman Awards.

For Maya: 4-time consensus AP All-American.
 
TN response actually not as bad as I had expected.... for those LV fans who are upset, we have almost half of the last 13 championships..... and PHS says herself "it is all about the championships"..... UConn deserves the representation it has in this yrs Olympics.
 
I'm very happy for Asjha! This will be a nice cap to her career.

I also think it was a very good pick. She is very experienced, including in Europe. She can defend much bigger players. Her midrange game is about as good as it gets. She's a team player. She's still at the top of her game. She knows Geno's system and her teammates. She was part of the October 2010 team that won the WC. One can argue that certain players--Pondexter, Brunson, Dupree, et al.--were deserving, but no one can legitimately say that Asjha was a bad pick.

I am REALLY looking forward to London!
 
Seems to me that the focus of all American basketball fans should be on hoping that this team does just what Pat reportedly told Geno: "Bring home the gold!"

And anyone who harbors snarky hopes that they fail is just an old poop!
 
Kibitzer said:
Seems to me that the focus of all American basketball fans should be on hoping that this team does just what Pat reportedly told Geno: "Bring home the gold!"

And anyone who harbors snarky hopes that they fail should be forced to leave the country.
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FIFY!
 
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Great news. She will be an animal in the post. Congratulations Asjha!!!
 
But it is a UConn board :) And we have three more months to the Olympics, so I think lots of bragging is in order. We can be patriotic once the Games start.
 
UConnCat said:
Where exactly is this talk? Not close.

In Sue's rookie year she started every game, averaged 6 APG, 14.4 PPG, shot 40% on 3s, selected 1st team All-WNBA and led Seattle to its first ever playoff appearance.

Vandersloot started 26 games, averaged 3.7 APG, 6.5 PPG, shot 27% on 3s, selected to WNBA All-Rookie team and Chicago did not make the playoffs.

I like Vandersloot a lot but she has a long way to go before reaching Sue Bird's accomplishments.
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I think the 'sloot was unfairly hyped. she was invited to the Team USA trials along with players like Appel and a few others who (I think) will never come close to being on the US National teams, never mind leading their respective teams to glory. Players like Harding and Montgomery, while possibly not ever on a US National team, are even better than Sloot at the same time in their development.

In her 1st season for Minny, Harding averaged 11.6 PPG, 4 APG and 3.5 RPG. Montgomery averaged 9, 2 and 2 her first year. and she only started 9 games. played less minutes than Sloot.

My point? i think Courtney had a lot of hoopla surrounding her game after the Zags NCAA run her senior year and she was invited to the trials and what not. Maybe she peaked. but she's not even the 5th or 6th best PG in the league at this point. and great ones are coming thru college as we speak...
 
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Ok, so this is the 2010 World Championship team that dominated under Coach Auriemma, with only 2 changes:

Candace Parker replacing Jayne Appel--major upgrade there (no offense to JA).

Seimone Augustus replacing Candace Dupree--another clear upgrade.

This team is loaded!
 
Congrats to Ashja! And apologies for the whiny behavior of certain other fans. I must admit Dupree would have been my first choice, but Jones is a solid pick too and I don't have a problem with it. All the conspiracy theories are just silly.... :rolleyes:
 
DarthVol said:
Congrats to Ashja! And apologies for the whiny behavior of certain other fans. I must admit Dupree would have been my first choice, but Jones is a solid pick too and I don't have a problem with it. All the conspiracy theories are just silly.... :rolleyes:
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Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings are clearly world-class players. Though UT has "only" 2 players on the team, they are both truly great.
 
MilfordHusky said:
Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings are clearly world-class players. Though UT has "only" 2 players on the team, they are both truly great.
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Thanks, I agree! Again, I don't know why so many LV fans are up in arms over the team selection. The two Lady Vols who clearly deserve to be on the team are there. No other LV alum is even close to deserving IMO.
 
The US would have been more than fine with either Jones, Dupree or Brunson. All are top tier four players. Jones' experience and savvy obviously gave her the edge.

Pondexter is objectively better than at least 4 players on the roster, but as others have pointed out, there were likely other items preventing her selection.
 
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sarals24 said:
Yeah, there is clearly no doubt now that their UConn team was the best ever. Can you imagine another college team where FIVE players from the same team are on the Olympic squad? Griner and Sims may well be one year, and Tina and Maya, but other than that...that's unreal.
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The best UConn team will always be a hotly debatable subject. What is not debatable is that there only four members of that 2002 team on the Olympic squad.
 
VAUConnFan said:
The best UConn team will always be a hotly debatable subject. What is not debatable is that there only four members of that 2002 team on the Olympic squad.
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"only"?
 
bbsamjj said:
The US would have been more than fine with either Jones, Dupree or Brunson. All are top tier four players. Jones' experience and savvy obviously gave her the edge.

Pondexter is objectively better than at least 4 players on the roster, but as others have pointed out, there were likely other items preventing her selection.
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Which 4 is she better than? She's a 2 guard IMO, and she is not better than DT or Augustus. She is probably a better scorer than Seimone, but better as an overall 2 guard? I say no. And it appears the Committee never considered a guard as the 12th player, so comparing Cappie to frontcourt players serves no purpose.
 
The committee may have never considered a guard as its 12th player, and that's fine. But at this point in their careers, Pondexter is a top 10 player (regardless of position) in the world. Moore, Cash, Whalen and Jones are not. This does not mean Moore, Cash, Whalen or Jones don't deserve to be on the Olympic team--the US team does not need the top 12 players in the world to win Olympic gold. But Pondexter remains one of the elite scorers in the world at any position, and she is also an elite passer. Pondexter can also slide to the point guard position easily, as she has done for more than a decade playing USA basketball.
 
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Asjha has always been a killer on the boards...amazing rebounder. I can't wait to see them play. Anyone got a schedule?
 
semper said:
Asjha has always been a killer on the boards...amazing rebounder. I can't wait to see them play. Anyone got a schedule?
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Seattle in mid May and D.C. in mid July. The Olympic pairings have not been set yet, but the dates are late July through about August 11. I have tickets to both semi-finals in London.
 
alexrgct said:
(shudders to see what The Summitt looks like right now)

(doesn't really give a crap)

Congrats Asjha!

Six Huskies going for gold!
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Prior to just now, I have never visited the Summit. I wanted to see their reaction too. Fairly nasty -- accusing GA of secretly pulling all the strings among other items.

Sure you could make good arguments for other players, but I think they are blaming Geno when they should be mad/disappointed at the lack of transparency in the selection process. Maybe C Dupree had a better WNBA season than Asjha, but you can not discount Asjha's recent European success -- which is obviously very relevant. Who knows how much that played into the USABB's thinking? would be interesting to have at least a sense of the committee's thinking.

Having gone there once, now. I doubt I will ever go back.
 
Interesting impression. Statistically Asjha's rebounding has actually always been a relative weak point of her game even dating back to college, and I never thought of Asjha as a killer on the boards.

semper said:
Asjha has always been a killer on the boards...amazing rebounder. I can't wait to see them play. Anyone got a schedule?
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Great news! I figured it would be between Dupree/Ashja/Brunson. Really happy for her especially after those nagging injuries she had to overcome. This is well-deserved and must be such an honor for her.

Go USA
 
A nice piece by Mechelle Voepel on the selection of Asjha and the "Husky-heavy" team. As Mechelle points out, there were bound to be multiple former Huskies on the team regardless of the coach. Why? They're winners.

The six Huskies combined to win six NCAA championships in their college careers (2000-04, 2009-10) and have been part of seven WNBA title teams in Seattle (2004 and 2010), Detroit (2003, 2006), Phoenix (2007, 2009) and Minnesota (2011). Two -- Bird and Taurasi -- will play in their third Olympics, while it will be the second for Cash. All six Huskies were on the gold-winning 2010 World Championship team; Moore was still in college then.

The Committee could've chosen other deserving players, but instead went with someone Geno trusts:

[T]he committee went with the physical strength and well-rounded interior ability of Jones, who like Bird and Cash graduated from UConn in 2002 after a perfect season with the Huskies. Auriemma's trust level with Jones was best displayed in the way he described her last year during the WNBA season, in which she started every game for the Sun and averaged 13.3 points and 6.4 rebounds.

"She's like that easy chair you have in your den," Auriemma said at the time. "It's always there, and you can count on it. She did not miss one practice in four years at Connecticut. There were never any surprises, no drama. It was a tremendous comfort for everybody else."

http://espn.go.com/olympics/basketb...olympics-asjha-jones-added-women-hoops-roster
 
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