Kia to Start over Saniya on Sunday

[Tonyc]

This is a great thread with a lot of great input for both Nurse and Saniya I saw Saniya step up in the Stanford game. It was exactly what I saw when she was in HS. The game against CTK when she was sick with a stomach bug. She wasn't scoring after the first qtr and then the light went on when Ossining was losing and she scored a lot of pts and something like 28 in the 4th qtr. I saw that light go on in the Stanford game.

There are a lot of pros and cons on who to start and who to sit. Starting MoJeff and Nurse doesn't give you a deep outside threat. Saniya does coming off the bench she will. IMO when Saniya comes in, it is my opinion she is coming in to put up points. Im hoping that the Stanford game was her break out game and she will continue to play offense like she did. If she continues to score like the Stanford game, well this will be a fun season. I believe she will and because of her scoring she will be a star. From what Ive read and I haven't seen enough games yet (2) to make a good decision but Geno thinks Nurse plays better defense. Geno has seen a lot in practice and he's the coach and we have to accept his decisions. Hey we've always won with defense and although we didn't play good D against Stanford it was their guards that killed us so we need to make a change at the guard positions. Im thinking too if we still had Banks what that might've accomplished.

My concerns without Saniya in the game we lose scoring from the guard spot. MoJeff and Nurse are not threats as of yet from deep. Not like Saniya . As far as Stanford guards beating and blowing by UConns guards they did. Should we have gone to a zone? Don't know. Should we have had better backup from our bigs? Stanford guards were very quick. You know what... we are going to face some pretty good guards against ND so we have to be ready.

If Nurse can be the true grit of the team and play good D that's what we need, a leader.. Yes we do need a floor General. I hope this doesn't hurt Saniyas confidence because I think her coming off the bench will really open things up underneath. I also think it will light a fire under her to get better defensively. Saniya was a scoring machine in HS and I saw signs of that against Stanford. I hope it continues.

BTW did anyone watch the Stanford loss to Texas and see how Texas played Stanford? That would be interesting to hear. We will have to wait and see what this week brings. We play a short Creighton team then its off to Florida to face Charelston and a couple of pretty good teams. We come back to ND DePaul UCLA and Duke. We need to be ready. Geno is experimenting now to get the right mix. However that ends up at the end of this week we will have a better idea of where we are. If the guards are not scoring expect to see a lot of Saniya. Cha Chong for 3.

 

[hoophuskee]

Who starts is irrelevant. The beauty about freshmen and soph is that they usually get better. Can't win a a title if they both play bad in the same game. Going forward- let's see if Chong can play better defense (regardless how literal you want to take Geno. It's just important to know the coach is saying she struggled defensively. CAn anyone argue with that?) and maybe create a bit more going to the hole on offense. As for Kia let's see if she can stick outside shots and stay out of foul trouble (It was her 1st big game so let's not overreact with her fouls- though she is a frosh and frosh do get picked on by refs. Secondly I can remember two horrfic calls on her. I think another poster said at least another was horrfic. The refs I thought were horrific - but hey--- we still should have won.).

 

[Zorro]

"Too clever by half."

​

What do you expect from a barbarian?

 

[winlots]

all great points win---- but she has a swagger about her. She doesn't panic. She enjoys the physical contact. There is no fear. Cool as a cucumber. You know who Nurse reminds me of, personality- wise, Caroline Doty. She has a grit and cockiness as a freshman that Caroline also had. And I was equally impressed with Chong draining big shots consistently in a close game, in a hostile environment on the road.
These were huge positives to take away from this game. The stupid fouls will stop. The amt of really bad decisions that were made will stop also. Team defense is the big concern for me right now-especially against phenomenal guard play- of which Stanford has 2, and the freshman off the bench was something as well.

GENO: You hit a lot of the nails smack on the head here, from the "swagger" on down. (I'm more sanguine than you on the defense though I can see why you made those comments ; I have a hunch we'll be mighty there.)

 

[RadyLady]

Thursday's practice was open to Gampel season ticket holders, so I was at Gampel for a chunk of it. KML was participating in practice while I was there.

I didn't make it up. What's up John A? The truth and not thing but the truth, forsooth!

 

[RadyLady]

I continue to be amazed by some posters regarding Geno starting Kia because of her defensive ability. He wants to win by having the best defense first. Then add in the offense. You can have an off night shooting but great defense always shows up. Those same posters who are so worried about defending Saniya are the same ones who already made Stokes DPOY, KML an AA, MoJett the best guard in the country, and wondered if UCONN's first loss would be before Samuelson graduated.

This team has yet to define itself and build its team chemistry. Geno is working on the right mix. Meanwhile the BY has to accept that this team is probably not going to go undefeated the rest of the season and that Geno will make decisions that don't take into account the brilliance of some of our posters. Hopefully though UCONN doesn't fire him as he tries to build a winning team.

More importantly, hopefully the Boneyard doesn't fire him as he tried to build a winning team

 

[RadyLady]

Chong responsible for 30 Stanford points, come on Gino you sound like a greenhorn with comments like that. Maybe Uconn needs to try a little man to mad defense.
Nurse is so good defensively, please, fouling out in 20 minutes on the floor is not good defense.
Nurse played for her national team, Oh boy, need I remind you she played in Canada. Real hot bed of basketball that Canada is, I can find more ballers in one playground in The Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens that in the whole darn Dominion.
Chong is finally coming out of the shell that Gino forced her into last year and now he does this. The other night early in the game, she finally used the cross over and drove to the hoop(left handed for the first time in eons) for an easy lap up, which she made, and should have gotten the foul call as well. Finally she started to show her true strength and what does Gino do, take her out and give her that IlDuce stare of his.
Gino needs to let her play on offense, not tie her down not cover up her talents. Gino read Luke 11:33.
On defense she was picked all over in the second half, where was the help. This team has several problems defensively.

It's a beautiful, glass is half full kinda day

and BTW - it's Geno, not Gino

[on edit] with apologies to Chappette - I usually read through the whole thread before I post, and this time I did not. I suppose enforcing spelling errors can be useful and fairly harmless....

 

[meyers7]

Should be noted that a couple of the fouls on Nurse were beyond questionable and another was an offensive foul. The five she received were not really all warranted and they were weren't all on the defensive end.

Very true. At least one, maybe two?? were offensive fouls, charges, which has nothing to do with her "defense". Very good point.

 

[meyers7]

T
And remember Creighton is not a bad team, not bad at all.

What?????

 

[Kibitzer]

IMO this all about scouting defense. If a player is told to do A and they do B over and over then coach will be irritated. Sure Nurse had lapses as did others but IMO Chong was not following the scout plan that was laid out for her.

And this statement was based on what?

 

[WildEagle]

Chappette, thanks for the correction. You are correct on both accounts, yes that was a rant, I need to vent about Gino, Luigi, whatever, somewhere and yes I misspelled GENO but not on purpose.
I use Gino because it is a shortened form of Luigino not Luigeno. I guess Geno is still thought of as Little Louis by his family. In my family we were all Luigi I guess we are all thought of as adults, LOL!!
Just kidding about the adult thing, I will try to remember to use Geno from now on, I guess after 9 NCAA chips he has earned the right to spell his nick name anyway he wants.
Like I said, I needed to rant somewhere, just hate it when coaches play mind games with kids at any level.

 

[tomcat]

Regarding Morgan Tuck, I am clearly missing something. Don't get me wring. I've been a fan since she got to UConn. But I;ve been generally disappointed with what I saw in the two games so far. Sometimes she was just what you'd want. Other times, hands of stone and an inability to follow up on chippies. I hope she's as good as Geno is saying, but I guess I'm just a hopeful skeptic right now.

 

[Zorro]

But WE, part of his job is motivation, and motivation is just another name for mind games. When tournament time comes, he will have whoever is in the rotation then tuned to A above middle C both individually and collectively. Count on it. He is a past-master at the carrot and the stick.

 

[Sonny44]

What almost terrifies me is- our real strength has always been team defense. And they way they/the officials are starting out again with these touch fouls, it may be a death knell for our "dynasty"- I'm serious. The funny thing is, they try to protect the guards with the ball to a fault. and then they let the dominant post players get mauled. It happenned to Griner. It was happenning to Stewie the other night. There is an unconsciousness to officiating sometimes. Because, I understand that they are human also, it is hard to understand. The officials really determine the type of game that will be played, and one team will usually benefit as a result. I am not saying we lost this game because of officiating. This move to improve scoring by the officials, I think will hurt UConn alot in the future- I fear. The sky is not falling- just a casual observation.

That last foul called on Kia was a terrible call.

 

[Sonny44]

Regarding Morgan Tuck, I am clearly missing something. Don't get me wring. I've been a fan since she got to UConn. But I;ve been generally disappointed with what I saw in the two games so far. Sometimes she was just what you'd want. Other times, hands of stone and an inability to follow up on chippies. I hope she's as good as Geno is saying, but I guess I'm just a hopeful skeptic right now.

I didn't think Morgan played that well either 'til OT when she scored 5 quick points. I figure right then, ok Morgan's in charge, we're ok now, then she promptly fouled out. She just needs more game experience since she's missed so much.

 

[RadyLady]

But WE, part of his job is motivation, and motivation is just another name for mind games. When tournament time comes, he will have whoever is in the rotation then tuned to A above middle C both individually and collectively. Count on it. He is a past-master at the carrot and the stick.

Tuned to an A440 - not one frequency higher or lower

 

[watanabe]

Kia is an assertive player. Chong is not. They are both good players, but are works in progress. Clay in the master's hands.
Kia will get more finess and Chong will get more assertive. Both tools have their use. Better to have a good selection of tools than I have. I use a pair of vise grips for everything. Not recommended.

 

[Tonyc]

I keep hearing about he poor calls on Kia. How bout during the 5-6 minute mark in the first half. UConn is building a lead and Stewie blocks a shot and instead of UConn getting the ball Stewie gets a foul plus Stanford gets foul shots. Then Stewie gets a rebound and the Stanford player knocks it out of her hand giving Stanford more points and UConn none. I believe that was an 8 pt turnaround. We still had a chance to win the game. My thoughts are if we weren't called for blind man fouls we would've won as good as Stanford played. Just something to think about. I think our defense was off but being in foul trouble had a lot to do with it. When you your in foul trouble you cant foul so it affects your defense.

 

[watanabe]

Tuned to an A440 - not one frequency higher or lower

A440, which has a frequency of 440 Hz, is the musical note A above middle C and serves as a general tuning standard for musical pitch.
I knew I'd learn something if I hung out long enough!

 

[msf22b]

Tuned to an A440 - not one frequency higher or lower

very OT: I was a fiend for keeping the pitch down…Once almost came to blows (really a nasty row) w Andre Previn at Caramoor
when he wanted the A higher. I said to him…you like? it's because we keep the pitch down.

 

[meyers7]

very OT: I was a fiend for keeping the pitch down…Once almost came to blows (really a nasty row) w Andre Previn at Caramoor
when he wanted the A higher. I said to him…you like? it's because we keep the pitch down.

A440, which has a frequency of 440 Hz, is the musical note A above middle C and serves as a general tuning standard for musical pitch.
I knew I'd learn something if I hung out long enough!

I love a beautiful pitch.

 

[Geno-ista]

That last foul called on Kia was a terrible call.

Kia got called on perfect defense vs Lili Thompson, for her 4th, and I think it was her who got called for the charge when the defender was planted in the circle. KML got hammered on a block that she just made it out of the box and was parked b 4 she got hammered. 3 officials- these types of calls shouldn't be difficult.

 

[rvwsleep]

I love a beautiful pitch.

The Emirates Stadium, home of the Gunners. Watched the Man U game yesterday, my condolences.

 

[Stewie Fan]

I really don't think it matters who starts. When you have as much talent as any top ranked team has it's who is hot and who is not that are in the game at any given time. Someone has to start but that doesn't mean that given game situations that a player coming off of the bench won't see as much or more playing time as the so-called starter. I would say it's early in the season and teams have to see different players playing together to build team chemistry and who should be on the floor in different game situations. Whether your 6th, 7th or 8th coming off of the bench you will see quality minutes.

 

[hjoerring]

To blame Chong for all the defensive liabilities of the team is silly.

Ossining Pride and Geni-ista studied the game and came to different conclusions with regard Saniya's effectiveness on D.
As did Geno

I haven't…too painful, can only comment on what I know and what I can hypothesize.

Remember that only a few short weeks ago, coach praised Saniya to the heavens.
I have a feeling that we're dealing with mind games here; he knows she's mentally tougher than last year
that she's not going to go into a corner and sulk, that she's going to improve her D starting this week

Remember that it was Mo that was benched during the game.
And it was Saniya was not afraid to take the big shots; another problem Geno articulated.
And she doesn't turn the ball over.
o
Interesting conundrum for coach

I sure hope he's playing it right, that he can tear Chong down and build her back up.
i would sure hate for her to disappear into a shell after being so effective and making so much progress at least offensively.

He's also really challenging K
Be interesting to see how it all plays out; we'll know a lot more after Sunday
.
And remember Creighton is not a bad team, not bad at all.

I was thinking along those lines. Remember the "we don't have a post presence(/player)." But Charles was allowed to play rather then sit. From what people are saying here it seems that there have emerged a consensus that Chong that while others may have played

 

[meyers7]

The Emirates Stadium, home of the Gunners. Watched the Man U game yesterday, my condolences.

Yes, I'm in mourning. Not a great season so far.

 

[johnnyc]

I really don't think it matters who starts.

It matters to the coach. That's all that matters.

 

[j66kicker]

It matters to the coach. That's all that matters.

I can't believe it doesn't matter to the players

 

[FairView]

We do pay an awful lot of attention in here to who starts.
A byproduct of this change may be SC becoming that offensive spark off of the bench that has been the hallmark of many UConn teams past: Nykesha, Shea, early DT, etc. That has been a very valuable role in the past and could be a great slot for SC if she can come in at some point between the 1st and 2nd media time outs and bring those points off the bench.

 

[msf22b]

Starts, shmarts.
The important thing is that Saniya has been publicly humiliated (after she scored 20 points).
How she responds is the key.
If you ask me (don't have to), it should…(how about might)…have been handled differently.