Jana - In Madrid - FIBA Games

[JellyBean]

I just finished watching the full game between Egypt and Chinese Taipei. My view of Jana's current capability is somewhat in the middle of the opinions listed above.

On the negative side, I think that there are clear conditioning issues that need to be addressed. I think they will be addressed, but I don't think we'll see a fully fit Jana until her sophomore year (as was the case with Stef Dolson). Even then, I don't see the athleticism (speed, strength, leaping) that was apparent in Aaliyah Edwards even in her freshman year. At this point, I think Jana's athleticism is inferior to Ayanna Patterson's, and (assuming that reports of Ayanna's improvement are proven out) I would be surprised if Jana gets more minutes than Ayanna in the upcoming season.

On the positive side, I agree that her driving ability and court awareness are superior to any of the current UConn bigs whom we have seen play except Aaliyah (leaving Ice out of the comparison since we really haven't seen her play since high school). I'm not sure about shooting -- I didn't see her take a shot from more than a foot or two from the basket in the entire game against Chinese Taipei. Is it just the foul shooting that causes posters to think that her shooting is currently at a high level?

On the whole, UConn should be happy to have her, but comparisons to Stewie at this point are quite silly in my opinion.

I will have to check out the game here shortly. I do get super excited thinking about the potential of Jana with the program.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Here are some of Jana's stats from the summer of 2022. She averaged 24.7 and 11.5. Her FT shooting was only 57.4%. She has really improved that!

Jana ELALFY at the FIBA U18 African Women's Championship 2022 - FIBA.basketball

The official website of FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, and the governing body of Basketball. FIBA organises the most famous and prestigious international basketball competitions including the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the FIBA World Championship for Women and the FIBA 3x3 World...

www.fiba.basketball

 

[MilfordHusky]

More of Jana's stats from last summer. I misremembered. Her big game against New Zealand was 32 and 26.

Jana ELALFY at the FIBA U17 Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 - FIBA.basketball

The official website of FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, and the governing body of Basketball. FIBA organises the most famous and prestigious international basketball competitions including the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the FIBA World Championship for Women and the FIBA 3x3 World...

www.fiba.basketball

 

[MilfordHusky]

Wasn’t there a recent quote that Jana’s dad, seeing his daughter after her first semester at UConn, was surprised how by how much she’d improved? Dad’s a coach and he would see the improvements clearly

I believe her father said he didn't recognize her as a player or a person. That tells me she made the right decision to attend UConn--and to arrive early.

 

[Majic Hands]

fan vote individual game of the group

Currently Jana is at 10%. The leader is at 37%

 

[FormerCTrez]

I don't get the nitpicking about Jana's game/effort. She's a 17 year old entering her freshman year at UConn and starring on the international stage. I guess some people make comment just so they can seem relevant.

@Cornell Lt, nitpicking is a favorable of some of the Boneyard’s residents. Also, while we wait for the college games to begin, I do appreciate the varied humor of our residents.

 

[FormerCTrez]

@Cornell Lt, nitpicking is a favorable hobby of some of the Boneyard’s residents. Also, while we wait for the college games to begin, I do appreciate the varied humor of our residents.

 

[Carnac]

Jana Elalfy - EGYPT​

Question.............is the correct spelling of Jana's name El Alfy as we have been doing here in the yard, or "ELalfy" as is used in the announcement? The UConn official team roster lists her this way: Jana El Alfy.

Looks like that margin might be up to 11,000 votes. Note: it is my understanding
that the "fan vote" only counts for one vote, I think there are 5 or so official
voters so this margin of victory of "fan vote" (I assume it includes a lot of Husky fans
including myself)
will not win the day... but it may influence the official voters. I think the
next two game will be decisive. Egypt is a rather big underdog to their
next opponent, Australia. PPG Aus 75.8 Egy 64.4 ; FG % Aus 45.9
Egy 37.4, Three point % Aus 42.7 EGY 25.3m free throw % AUS 74.6 %
Egy 73.3, and assists AUS 20.2 Egy 13.6. Both have TOO many Turn
over Egy 23.2 pg and AUS 24. 2. AUS is # 6 in EFFiciengy and Egy #12 but
Egy is # 5 in Double Doubles Guess WHO??=== J. EL AFRY! AUS is # 13 in Double
doubles. .
So... Let's hope Jana has solid numbers/ stats. She will only lose
the PPG stat if she has a very bad game and the Spanish?? player
has two very good games. I think the margin in close to 4 - 5 ppg in
Jana's favor. Go EGYPT, win and help JANA get that award!
THE GAME IS LIVE at 9:30 am ,EST tomorrow morning Saturday 7 / 22/ 2023

I expect Jana to receive a myriad of awards during her time at UConn. Might as well get the ball rolling with THIS award.

 

[Cuango]

Less Geno more asst coaches and trainers. I was impressed with Egypt's coaching. Jana got to her current skill level thru Egypt's program, some polishing but not much, by UConn asst coaches.

Team skills: Being exposed to UConn practices for the second half obviously helps. Though I must say the Egypt team is well coached in team work. Egypt did some really nice things. They worked their plays and didn't focus their offense on Jana. A lot of their passes were ill advised. Too many turnovers. Too many forced shots. With experience this will get better. Egypt has a bright future.

Individual skills: It seems to me the obvious problem for Egypt is just skill levels and situational awareness but this is U19. Jana was head and shoulders above the rest skill wise.

I would give most of the credit to her father and quite a bit more than you seem to think, to UCONN, ie Geno! Of course, the Asst coaches do most of the hands on stuff but all is done under the “Master’s“ guidance! After all, her own father reportedly said she had improved so much that he could barely recognize her as the same player!

 

[Cuango]

I’m so impressed with both Chloe Kitts and Joyce Edwards! Desperately hoping she (Edwards) commits anywhere but SC, LSU, or ND! She and Kitts would be a big problem together! Dawn has the #2 class for 2023 with Kitts and a dynamic PG named Fulwiley being the centerpieces of a four woman class and is in on a number of the top 2024 players, including Edwards! Let’s just say, SC isn’t going away for the foreseeable future!
Is Cardoso eligible to stay for another year? That would be some team with Cardoso, Kitts, Edwards, and Fulwiley! I was thinking they would be down considerably after losing Boston but they still look pretty formidable for this season and if they get Edwards and one - three top recruits for 2024, we are going to be looking at a major bottleneck at the top of women’s college basketbal! LSU, SC, UConn, Notre Dame will all have crazy good rosters with UCLA, Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina hard at their heels! Add in two or three “sleeper” teams that catch lightning in a bottle and the next few years are going to be brutally tough for women’s basketball wannabe champions!

 

[Geew1992]

Jana Elalfy - EGYPT​

Question.............is the correct spelling of Jana's name El Alfy as we have been doing here in the yard, or "ELalfy" as is used in the announcement? The UConn official team roster lists her this way: Jana El Alfy.

I expect Jana to receive a myriad of awards during her time at UConn. Might as well get the ball rolling with THIS award.

Her Instagram is how uconn lists it

 

[oldhusky]

Here are some of Jana's stats from the summer of 2022. She averaged 24.7 and 11.5. Her FT shooting was only 57.4%. She has really improved that!

Jana ELALFY at the FIBA U18 African Women's Championship 2022 - FIBA.basketball

The official website of FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, and the governing body of Basketball. FIBA organises the most famous and prestigious international basketball competitions including the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the FIBA World Championship for Women and the FIBA 3x3 World...

www.fiba.basketball

You beat me to it on the dramatic improvement in FT %. Something else I think we can point out is how different the levels of competition were between these two years. The 2022 numbers were for the Africa tournament. Egypt finished second to Mali in that tournament.

The U-19 tournament this year includes the best teams from all the other regions accross the the world. Now Mali and Egypt are probably among the weaker teams of the 16, instead of the best two from Africa.

My point is Jana's numbers this year may not look dramatically different from her 2022 stats, but considering a huge increase in the level of competition she is facing, it suggests she has made substantial improvement from one year to the next.

 

[Jewels]

I just finished watching the full game between Egypt and Chinese Taipei. My view of Jana's current capability is somewhat in the middle of the opinions listed above.

On the negative side, I think that there are clear conditioning issues that need to be addressed. I think they will be addressed, but I don't think we'll see a fully fit Jana until her sophomore year (as was the case with Stef Dolson). Even then, I don't see the athleticism (speed, strength, leaping) that was apparent in Aaliyah Edwards even in her freshman year. At this point, I think Jana's athleticism is inferior to Ayanna Patterson's, and (assuming that reports of Ayanna's improvement are proven out) I would be surprised if Jana gets more minutes than Ayanna in the upcoming season.

On the positive side, I agree that her driving ability and court awareness are superior to any of the current UConn bigs whom we have seen play except Aaliyah (leaving Ice out of the comparison since we really haven't seen her play since high school). I'm not sure about shooting -- I didn't see her take a shot from more than a foot or two from the basket in the entire game against Chinese Taipei. Is it just the foul shooting that causes posters to think that her shooting is currently at a high level?

On the whole, UConn should be happy to have her, but comparisons to Stewie at this point are quite silly in my opinion.

What are your thoughts when you compare skill levels at age 17 between Stewie and Jana?

 

[DEpup]

Jana Elalfy - EGYPT​

Question.............is the correct spelling of Jana's name El Alfy as we have been doing here in the yard, or "ELalfy" as is used in the announcement? The UConn official team roster lists her this way: Jana El Alfy.

I expect Jana to receive a myriad of awards during her time at UConn. Might as well get the ball rolling with THIS award.

Interestingly her last name translates to the counsel from the elves from Arabic. El is the in arabic. Learn something new from the Google every day.

 

[HuskyNan]

Jana had 12 & 9 today but didn’t have her best day. It took her a while to get going but her shot was off so she wasn’t as effective as in previous days. It wasn’t the defense, either, because as far as I can tell, none of these teams play a lot of defense. In terms of quality, these are more high school-like than college-like, understandable given the age and experience level of the participants

 

[The CDR-Ret]

Her Instagram is how uconn lists it

Her #8 jersey for Egypt in the U19 competition has ALFY stenciled on the back...

That in my mind would make Jana El Alfy the correct presentation of her full name

 

[rvwsleep]

What are your thoughts when you compare skill levels at age 17 between Stewie and Jana?

Good question. There's not that much separating them offensively. I would give Stewie an edge on the offensive end at 17 (Stewie had a pull up jumper off the dribble). Defensively, there's a world of difference. Jana's lateral movement, on the defensive end, has a long way to go to catch up with Stewie. Jana is just not as mobile as Stewie was at 17 (But then, few, if any, bigs are). If Jana doesn't play alot this season, it won't be because of her offensive skills. It will be because how she plays defense.

 

[The CDR-Ret]

Jana had 12 & 9 today but didn’t have her best day. It took her a while to get going but her shot was off so she wasn’t as effective as in previous days. It wasn’t the defense, either, because as far as I can tell, none of these teams play a lot of defense. In terms of quality, these are more high school-like than college-like, understandable given the age and experience level of the participants

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It seemed like the coaches wanted to see what she could do from outside the arc much of the game, but that took her out of the rebounding picture. When she played inside the arc her rebounding got her started.

High post - good; outside the arc waiting for a three - not so good, yet.

She is 17 & very coachable, so she will be fine in the UCONN system.

 

[Zarathustra]

It's Eqypt vs Italy for 11th place on Sunday Morning, 9:30 AM. THE STATS ARE:
PPG Italy 72. 2 Egypt 61.2 FG % Italy 36.3 Egypt 35.6 Three point %
Italy 25.8 Egypt 22.7, Free Throw % Italy 67.2 Egypt 71.2 RB Italy 46 pg # 4
Egypt 44.5 #6 , Blocks Italy 4 Egypt 3.3 pg Assists Italy 16.7 pg #9
Egypt 12.8 # 14 Turn Overs Italy 18.5 pg #9 Eqypt 23.5 # 15 !!!!!!
Fouls Italy 18.2 pg # 15, Egypt 12 .7 (BEST!! of 16 teams ) Efficiency Italy # 11
Egypt # 13 and DOUBLE DOUBLES Italy LAST of 16 teams, Egypt #6
Perhaps equally significant is the PPG battle: Eleona Villa 19 PPG for Italy
vs Jana 23. 7 PPG. Italy also has a free throw shooter at hitting 20 of 24 with
Jana at 40 for 45. Jana has three of the top four highest points per game totals
at 38, 29, and 28. THE CLUES to the game might be turnovers ( bad for Egypt) or
fouls ( bad for Italy), and the possibility of Jana going to the foul line for team points
and to add to her PPG Total. Height is interesting: Italy with two 6'2" players,
and two 6' 1" players, Egypt is 6' 4" (Jana) one 6'2' (SALLMAN) and five
6' 0" players . Go JANA! GO Egypt! Get # 11 in the tournament and #1 in
individual PPG!! Maybe all tournament team for JANA with ? But I expect that is
given to the #1 , #2 and #3 and # 4 team players... Maybe a long shot?? IF
Jana holds on to the PPG top spot and gets up higher on the Free throw %.
USA should beat SPAIN,who beat Canada in a 77 - 70 game, but that is why they play the game!

 

[CajunHusky]

Jana with 8 pts and 11 rebounds before being carted off with a lower leg/ankle injury with 5 minutes left in the second period

 

[Husky fanatic]

Well! Here we go again. Hope it’s only a sprain.

 

[Carnac]

I would give most of the credit to her father and quite a bit more than you seem to think, to UCONN, ie Geno! Of course, the Asst coaches do most of the hands on stuff but all is done under the “Master’s“ guidance! After all, her own father reportedly said she had improved so much that he could barely recognize her as the same player!

Agreed. Her father taught her the basics of basketball. The only competition they had was girls in the area, and as she grew older, FIBA competition. It was her dream to advance to the "next level" and play in the United States for a college or university. Enter UConn. Here she is. Now she must fast-forward her development, and learn how to play at this level with and against ELITE players. The best 18-22 year olds in the country. That journey began 7 months ago when she finished high school early, and enrolled at UConn for the spring semester of the 2022-2023 season.

A journey that will take 4 years to complete before she's ready to move on to the professional ranks, which she said is her goal. If you've been watching the FIBA games, you can see that the competition she's playing against is nowhere near what she'll see at this level.

She could not be in better hands (and care) than with Geno and CD. According to her father, Jana has shown tremendous growth and development in her short time in Storrs. She's already shown she's not afraid of contact in the paint, and will attack the basket on offense. Her free throw shooting percentage during these FIBA games is exemplary.

Jana will grow and develop over the course of the season. It will be interesting to see where she is in her development, and how well she can hold her own against BIG East opponents in league play beginning in six months. She'll be going against Aaliyah Edwards, Amari DeBerry, Ayanna Patterson, and Isuneh "Ice" Brady every day once official team practice begins in mid-October.

That quartet should get her ready for anything she'll see/experience in league and post season play. The future is bright for our
"Jewel of the Nile." I can't wait to see how see does against division one competition in November, and even more so this time next year during FIBA pay. I expect to see tremendous growth in the next 12 months.

 

[DEFCONN1]

Right now my heart is in my throat. I was watching the Egypt/Italy game and as Jana was on the foul line she turned and went down in non contact play, grabbing her lower left ankle. It did not look like a sprain, please pray for her.
.

 

[FormerCTrez]

Jana with 8 pts and 11 rebounds before being carted off with a lower leg/ankle injury with 5 minutes left in the second period

Oh no! Hoping for the best news here.

 

[CajunHusky]

Well! Here we go again. Hope it’s only a sprain.

Jana is now on the sidelines in a wheel chair, calf wrapped and elevated. Comments said achilles but I'm hoping a calf strain. Injury was non-contact. She pushed off her left leg and immediately grabbed for the back of her calf.