John A.: Paige Sauer and the Nykesha Sales "moment" at Villanova

[pap49cba]

LINK

 

[uconnell]

I find it hard to defend Jeff Jacobs for his "Soupy Sales" comment.

 

[Waquoit]

I find it hard to defend Jeff Jacobs for his "Soupy Sales" comment.

I though that comment was well deserved and spot-on. That moment was the nadir of the program and in his heart of hearts I bet Geno would like a do-over.

 

[meyers7]

I though that comment was well deserved and spot-on. That moment was the nadir of the program and in his heart of hearts I bet Geno would like a do-over.

He's said before, the only regret he had was the uproar that Sales had to deal with. I thought it was a great moment. The only person who had a right to be upset with it was Bascom. And as far as I've ever heard, she was fine with it.

 

[BooRadley]

I though that comment was well deserved and spot-on. That moment was the nadir of the program and in his heart of hearts I bet Geno would like a do-over.

It wasn't a comment, it was a diatribe disguised as a sports article and it was not one of Jacob's better moments.... I'd find it fairly easy to believe that in his private moments that Jacobs would like to get that dark little puddle of snark back into his pen.

What Geno did was a damned decent thing to do and had the side effect of cementing in the mind of Sales and the rest of Geno's players that he recognized their struggles, appreciated their efforts, and that he truly cared for them as people. And that's a bit of goodwill that is priceless.

YOPB

 

[bschwartz]

I am in the minority here likely, but to this day, I don't think it was right even though it was in fact a nice gesture. I just think it was a short cut, and for a team that has perfection and doing things the right way in its DNA, it was not appropriate though well intended. It is moot now with Maya holding on to the record until Breanna is ready to take it.

 

[BooRadley]

I am in the minority here likely, but to this day, I don't think it was right even though it was in fact a nice gesture. I just think it was a short cut, and for a team that has perfection and doing things the right way in its DNA, it was not appropriate though well intended. It is moot now with Maya holding on to the record until Breanna is ready to take it.

Obviously, it comes down to one's perspective and equally obvious is that this is not one of those things in life that has a right or wrong answer.

I see Geno's actions as part & parcel of doing things the right way. Reward effort, support each other and make things right where one can influence outcomes without breaking the rules. Her injury stole those last points from her and her coach, teammates, and opponents rebalanced the ledger for her our of respect for her.

Records are essentially meaningless numbers and my belief is that we should be careful not to imbue them with meaning beyond their actual importance. I played D1 baseball after I came home from the Marines and those few records that I held were never more than a representation of respect by those who decide to keep such stats. They didn't mean much to me... what did mean a lot to me was the respect my team had for me. To my way of thinking, Geno's action was an integral part of building the DNA of perfection in that it was the embodiment of respect from a coach and a team for a player. You can see the effects of this in Paige's comments and in the values threaded through the program today.

If it was done in a backroom out of sight and hidden from scrutiny in order to mislead then I would agree with you, but it was a show in the grandest sense of the word. My recollection is that it was done with the blessing of KB and that it was clearly done in a way that insured that it was reasonable to be understood as a gesture of respect and not a short cut or theft of a record. I don't believe that it tarnished or diminished the record, I think it elevated it by humanizing it.

YOPB

 

[UcMiami]

I am in the minority here likely, but to this day, I don't think it was right even though it was in fact a nice gesture. I just think it was a short cut, and for a team that has perfection and doing things the right way in its DNA, it was not appropriate though well intended. It is moot now with Maya holding on to the record until Breanna is ready to take it.

A short cut to what? If it had any bearing on anything outside of Uconn's record book, I would agree. But I cannot find a single thing it effected other than adding two points to Uconn's offensive output and two points to their defensive effectiveness and the same for Villanova. Neither of those numbers were in the neighborhood of either teams records let alone anything outside of their programs. And it certainly had nothing to do with the results in the game being played. Bascom was fine with it before and after the fact.
I have a harder time looking at something like Paris record for double doubles knowing that she was left in the game well beyond the point of ridiculousness to ensure she maintained it. Or Ripkin's iron man streak where it was maintained at the expense of the team when he was playing injured and exhausted. Those are national records built on the back of shams and they are still standing today.

 

[bschwartz]

A short cut to what? If it had any bearing on anything outside of Uconn's record book, I would agree. But I cannot find a single thing it effected other than adding two points to Uconn's offensive output and two points to their defensive effectiveness and the same for Villanova. Neither of those numbers were in the neighborhood of either teams records let alone anything outside of their programs. And it certainly had nothing to do with the results in the game being played. Bascom was fine with it before and after the fact.

If you enter a marathon and stop running at the 26 mile mark, you don't get to put the 26.2 sticker on the back of your car for finishing a marathon. You didn't finish, Chalk it up to a lesson learned and try again. What is the value of a record if you have only have to get close enough to beat it because of an emotional response. It is a shortcut to a false achievement as if everyone got 1st place ribbons. We all love the pride of Bloomfield, and it was tragic she was injured. Through no fault of her own, she didn't earn the record. The players work incredibly hard to achieve all they do and regardless of what Kerry felt, my opinion is that the little side deal violated the spirit of competition. UcMiami, I value and appreciate your opinion. I just do not share it. Alas, as I said, tis moot anyway. Stewie will own all the records soon enough.

 

[ocoandasoc]

What haunted Geno about Sales sudden career-ending injury just shy of the record was the number of times he had taken her out of games because of UConn’s lopsided point margins. He called Bascom and asked her about it – she gave the green light. He knew what the ramifications might be – he knew he would be criticized. Others (including me) warned him that many sportswriters (including a few that already tended to ridicule the emergence of the women’s program) would deride his decision. But with the opportunity there (his friend Harry Peretta - with Villanova who was the next opponent - would go along with it – many other coaches would not have consented) he thought he was only doing justice to one of the greatest players in the program’s history.

I believe that what he later regretted was not that he had done it or taken the criticism for it, but that Sales got caught in the backlash a bit.

Records are fleeting, and few last forever. But Sales will always remember every aspect of how her college career ended and – right or wrong – what the coach did for her.

 

[lanieer]

I've always felt that Soupy Sales comment was Jeff Jacobs worst moment. I know he had written a column a few years back in which he said that he had apologized to Nykesha . I remember Nykesha's comments about how she woke up after surgery and read those comments and cried. Geno said at the time that he wished Jacobs had ripped him and not her. That comment was not "spot on" it was hurtful and untrue. Obviously with hindsight neither would do that if they had a second chance.

 

[Waquoit]

Doesn't matter what Bascom thought, it was wrong. And what was she going to say? Even if she rightly felt it wasn't fair. The fact is Sales didn't get the record in true competition. A few years later, before others broke the mark I remember Geno saying out loud that it was a shame that UConn fans overlook Kerry Bascom. Geez, maybe if she was still rightly the scoring champ. And finally it wasn't Geno's gift to give. Of course he's the most important person in the program's history, but he is not the program. The program is bigger than just him and it was just plain unsporting what he did. "A shortcut to a false achievement" is a perfect description.

 

[The Don]

Doesn't matter what Bascom thought, it was wrong. And what was she going to say? Even if she rightly felt it wasn't fair. The fact is Sales didn't get the record in true competition. A few years later, before others broke the mark I remember Geno saying out loud that it was a shame that UConn fans overlook Kerry Bascom. Geez, maybe if she was still rightly the scoring champ. And finally it wasn't Geno's gift to give. Of course he's the most important person in the program's history, but he is not the program. The program is bigger than just him and it was just plain unsporting what he did. "A shortcut to a false achievement" is a perfect description.

Regardless of whether it was the right or wrong thing to do, why go after Sales who I suspect felt the TRUSTED adults involved knew what they were doing? Why call her "Soupy Sales"? Why couldn't he just attack Geno and leave it at that? How will Jeff Jacob feel if her daughter was at the receiving end?

 

[UcMiami]

Waquoit - So ... how do you feel about all the manufactured results:
Prince and her 113 point HS game
All the pro players signing there 1 day contracts so they can retire with a certain team.
Call Ripkin costing his team wins to maintain his streak, or playing an inning to keep it alive when he couldn't actually physically perform.
Paris and her string of double doubles
Or to take your example ... the folks that collapse in the final stretch of a marathon and are helped across the line by their friends.
and this year
Stef being reinserted in a blow out so she could get assist #10

Sure those were in 'competition' or technically true, but ...
The record Ripkin broke was for a guy that played every day every inning with no thought about the actual number of games he had strung together.
And as for the rest of baseball - the whole league juiced the ball, reduced the height of the mound, and then started juicing themselves to break batting records.

I thought the Sales 'event' was a very private tribute to a great player that happened to be carried out in public. And again, it was just a Uconn record which was bound to be broken again.
As for Geno's lament - more current Uconn fan's know who Bascom was and is today than would have had the Sales event not happened.