Kia Nurse Named Top-10 candidate for the Nancy Lieberman Award

[JordyG]

Nonetheless once again Jay Bilas during today's Duke/Notre Dame said "Watching UConn, the UConn women play basketball, is a pleasure. They are so ridiculously good and well coached, and South Carolina and Dawn Staley is the same, but that's going to be a great game (Thursday)." Question by announcer, "Who do you like in that one?" Bilas, "I like UConn because I think Gabby Williams is the best all around player in CBB. She does more things on the basketball court than any other single player in CBB. With the exception of Marvin Bagely III.".

One mans opinion.

 

[Twolf]

Nonetheless once again Jay Bilas during today's Duke/Notre Dame said "Watching UConn, the UConn women play basketball is a pleasure. They are so ridiculously good and well coached, and South Carolina and Dawn Staley is the same, but that's going to be a great game (Thursday)." Question by announcer, "Who do you like in that one?" Bilas, "I like UConn because I think Gabby Williams is the best all around player in CBB. She does more things on the basketball court than any other single player in CBB. With the exception of Marvin Bagely III.".

One mans opinion.

Hard to argue with him. I have no clue what Kia’s chances are of winning the award are.
One thing I am quite certain of is that if you wanted to award someone who exhibited all the traits of what a UConn womens basketball player should embody, it would be hard to pass on her. Leadership, enthusiasm, confidence, effort, how she carries herself on and off the floor, and unselfishness, are all traits she excels in. Those kind of players are harder and harder to find in today’s society. Just another man’s opinion.

 

[jaundicedeye]

I’m really not sure that the award is an offensive award either. Unless we go back to the days of 6 on 6 Women’s Basketball, some times referred to as “Basquette”, where 3 players were confined to offense and 3 confined to defense, I’m pretty sure guards are supposed to play both offense and defense.

Just saying...

I remember watching the 3 and 3 format where players could not cross over.
You tell me what you think the judging panel will be looking for. I believe it will overwhelmingly be about offense - points and assists. Has there been a past award winner who was better known for defense than offense?

Just askin'

 

[CBear01]

Let me preface by saying Kia is the @$#! so take a big wiff!

Huge fan of her effort, as everyone should be, and a model of what can be called a "great HUSKY."

But she won't win this award

Bc she really isn't UCONN's PG, Dangerfield is.

I think of the line of "all time greats" in our illustrious history and I see a line of high caliber PGs passing the torch...

Jen to Sue to Diana to Renée to Moriah...

And now it's been passed to Dangerfield, no doubt.

IMHO I really think KIA deserves the National Defensive Player of the Year, hands down. Yes, even over Gabby.

There are too many 1st team AA candidates at the current moment and I think Kia just slips passed them and could land 2nd team. Definitely on that 10 player list.

She will also be honored this year with the Scholar athlete award they present to the nation's best candidate in both athletics and academics. I believe Maya has won this award.

It will be bittersweet for us, and although we would want her to win everything, we already revel in the fact that we have a really, really, really good player in KIA NURSE!

 

[oldude]

I remember watching the 3 and 3 format where players could not cross over.
You tell me what you think the judging panel will be looking for. I believe it will overwhelmingly be about offense - points and assists. Has there been a past award winner who was better known for defense than offense?

Just askin'

Mo

 

[meyers7]

Mo

Mmmm, Jefferson does hold the all time Assist record at UCONN. And has one of the the top five 3 pt shooting percentages.

 

[meyers7]

FYI

Nancy Lieberman (Cline) PT Award
2000 - Sue Bird
2001 - Sue Bird
2002 - Sue Bird
2003 - Diana Taurasi
2004 - Diana Taurasi (at this point they were thinking about renaming it the UCONN PT Guard Award )
2005 - Temeka Johnson
2006 - Ivory Latta
2007 - Lindsay Harding
2008 - Kristi Toliver
2009 - Renee Montgomery
2010 - Andrea Riley (OK St.)
2011 - Courtney Vandersloot
2012 - Skylar Diggins
2013 - Skylar Diggins
2014 - Odessey Sims
2015 - Moriah Jefferson
2016 - Moriah Jefferson
2017 - Kelsey Plum

 

[Blueconn]

Lieberman Award is skitzy from year to year...like international figure skating !
But the winners are uniformly damn fine guards. As we just happen to know.

Kia has unfinished business this year. Watching her work this season is to savor the last months of something special. First Team All America will be richly deserved. Get that #11 on the Wall.

 

[oldude]

Mmmm, Jefferson does hold the all time Assist record at UCONN. And has one of the the top five 3 pt shooting percentages.

True enough, but tell me that Mo didn’t get the Lieberman Award twice, in part because of her tenacious on ball defense.

Since I was primarily extolling Kia’s defensive ability, in the interest of full disclosure, I should also point out that she’s leading the nation in 3-pt shooting.

One last point. If you read the criteria for the Lieberman award, it only stipulates “the best point guard in the nation.” It says nothing about offense or defense.

As others have stated, we can certainly debate whether or not Kia is a pg, although there is no debate on the Canadian National Team.

 

[hoopingcrane]

Let me preface by saying Kia is the @$#! so take a big wiff!

Huge fan of her effort, as everyone should be, and a model of what can be called a "great HUSKY."

But she won't win this award

Bc she really isn't UCONN's PG, Dangerfield is.

I think of the line of "all time greats" in our illustrious history and I see a line of high caliber PGs passing the torch...

Jen to Sue to Diana to Renée to Moriah...

And now it's been passed to Dangerfield, no doubt.

IMHO I really think KIA deserves the National Defensive Player of the Year, hands down. Yes, even over Gabby.

There are too many 1st team AA candidates at the current moment and I think Kia just slips passed them and could land 2nd team. Definitely on that 10 player list.

She will also be honored this year with the Scholar athlete award they present to the nation's best candidate in both athletics and academics. I believe Maya has won this award.

It will be bittersweet for us, and although we would want her to win everything, we already revel in the fact that we have a really, really, really good player in KIA NURSE!

Kia is as much a point guard as Di was.

 

[MilfordHusky]

We won the first 5, but only 3 of the last 13. We’re due!

2-time winners: Diana, Skylar, Moriah

3-time winner: Suzanne Brigit Bird

Schools with multiple Liebermans: ND 2, UConn 8

 

[CBear01]

Kia is as much a point guard as Di was.

Ok, I'll give you that. Kinda hard to argue against it. Diana also had Maria C running the point her senior year for the most part. But Ds junior year...that was entirely her squad man. And she was the true PG. There were lots of instances too her senior year when she played PG.

But yes, I'd have called D a 2 just like we could call Kia a 2.

Great observation

 

[CBear01]

3-time winner: Suzanne Brigit Bird

I still see it posted "Suaznne" now and then and my brain goes thru a brief epileptic moment bc I just have never ever ever known her as "Suzanne" until joining the BY few years back. I even shared a year with Sue at Storrs (where I began my love affair with this team) and never ever once had anyone ever mentioned her full name.

Anywhooo, I had known she was a 3 time winner but I've never seen a game in person before the historic 2002 campaign.....was she really that nasty as a Sophomore? Wasn't that the year she tore her ACL? Idk, my pre-Diana era in Storrs is a bit hazy...enlightenments?

 

[MilfordHusky]

I still see it posted "Suaznne" now and then and my brain goes thru a brief epileptic moment bc I just have never ever ever known her as "Suzanne" until joining the BY few years back. I even shared a year with Sue at Storrs (where I began my love affair with this team) and never ever once had anyone ever mentioned her full name.

Anywhooo, I had known she was a 3 time winner but I've never seen a game in person before the historic 2002 campaign.....was she really that nasty as a Sophomore? Wasn't that the year she tore her ACL? Idk, my pre-Diana era in Storrs is a bit hazy...enlightenments?

I believe that Sue was known as Suzanne by at least some people when coming out of high school.

She was in the high school class of 1998 and tore her ACL after 8 games of her freshman season--late 1998. It was slightly too late to redshirt. Though she couldn't play, she paid close attention to anything and everything Geno said. The following year, he told her the standard PG line, "If anything goes wrong on the court, it's YOUR fault." Sue was up to the task.