I am frequently perplexed by what people mean by athletic on this forum. But I’ll try to figure it out. Somehow folks have got this notion that UConn has mediocre athletes and just has a bunch soft shooters. Perhaps they mean some combination of strength speed and balance, maybe coordination and stamina. Should we also include sharp eyes and strong hands? Leaping ability? Maybe court vision, or should that be excluded? Or do we merely mean players who push and shove and commit hard fouls?
If these are the relevant qualities that make up athleticism, then I think a close look at our roster would reveal that we are stocked with athletes as much as any team in D1.
Does anyone seriously think Ash is not athletic? Or Azzi? Or Sarah? Obviously Paige is super athletic. Ice and Jana, who are as strong as any bigs? KK? Morgan? Should I leave Aubrey Caroline and Ayanna off the list because injuries have eclipsed all or part of their season?
Let’s compare them to a team routinely called athletic: SC. Who exactly are the athletes on SC. Joyce, obviously, and Raven, Feagin, Malaysia, Te’Hina, Bree, Chloe. A quick perusal of this list should make it clear that they are not uniformly more athletic than the Huskies. Would anyone seriously think Chloe is quicker or stronger (ie more athletic) than Sarah Morgan or Aubrey? She’s an excellent scorer and passer, to be sure. But more athletic? Do a similar comparison between Te’Hina or Bree and say Azzi or Ash. In this case the athletic honors would have to got to UConn.
We can go down the two rosters and we’ll find that they are very similar from the point of view of athleticism. Some players on SC are clearly more athletic than the corresponding player on UConn, and some Guskies are clearly more athletic.
I’m not trying to suggest that SC is not a great team. But their greatness is not simply a function of athleticism. It’s also, and maybe mostly a function of their depth of experience playing in Dawn’s system.
