Her coach has said in an interview that when she first came to their team, she was not a strong defender but that she had made a determined effort to become a better defensive player and had improved to the point where she now guards the opposing team’s best player!
I don’t really know, obviously, but it does seem to me that defensive ability is about far more than one or two attributes such as foot speed, quickness etc. Clearly, those things help, but they are not imperative in order to be a good defender. Intelligence, anticipation, basketball IQ, film study, positioning can help to make up for other deficiencies as well. Perhaps she is not, and never will be, the best one on one, inside their jersey, stuck like glue defender but that does not have to mean she is not an effective one.
You may well be right that she is more KML than Azzi but I think we will be very happy with what she brings to this team. She is for sure an elite shooter and like Azzi, Paige, KML, KLS, will make the game easier for the rest of the team because of that. Remember, she is still two seasons away from her UConn debut and I would bet she will be better in all aspects of the game by the time she arrives here! I am super high on her and am pretty confident she is going to light it up when she gets here! I believe Geno is going to love her!
