Lou Lopez-Senechal, Undertaker or Buried

[SVCBeercats]

Search for this and found nothing in this forum. So .... here it is! What bleak outlook. Lou has to be better than this prediction!

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Lou Lopez-Senechal

• Offense - has the potential to be a three level producer
• Defense - Geno recently went on record and insinuated that Lou had a lot of work to do on the defensive side of the ball. There is very little evidence that she excelled on defense.
• Fit - There are some significant issues with her fit, however. UConn is a team that is renowned for passing and assisting the majority of their baskets. Lou has never averaged two assists a game; plus, she had her worst season last year with only 1.1 assists per game. She has also averaged more turnovers than assists every season. The biggest concern that I have with fit is that she is a transfer. Transfers at UConn have had mixed results.
• Prediction - Still, I see her getting multiple DNP-coach’s decision early in the season and averaging around six minutes a game.

 

[HuskyNan]

This is click bait. No offense to the guy that wrote the post, but he’s just a random guy posting his opinion, as it’s his right to do. But you know what they say about opinions.

Author​

• 
  
  Jeff Tuck
  I am a high school teacher by day and an avid reader/sports watcher/juggler by night.
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[eebmg]

This was Pre Paige Bueckers Injury.

Sure the title is click bait as all titles of anything every written generally is (If you want some one to read it) but I do not see any ulterior motives. Just an honest attempt to figure out what she brings and how she fits

One weakness is that he brings up Geno' joking mention of her limited defense but not all the positive observations Geno has made about her as a confident scorer

Well, I think she has gone up from 6 minutes to 20 minutes.

 

[Zinethar]

An interesting read although a flawed one. My favorite was "she has only played against St. Johns, Indiana, Texas, and Rutgers; in total, she has played four games against these high major schools. She has played against the next tier down: UMass (twice), Seton Hall, Temple, Rhode Island, and FGCU (a strong Mid Major)". Last time I knew St. Johns and Seton Hall were both Big East schools with Seton Hall actually better than St. Johns! He might be right in his assessment but I don't think it holds any more water than other better ones I've seen.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I'm bullish on Lou. I think she's our second best shooter, behind only the great Azzi Fudd. She needs to improve her defense--I think Fairfield played zone--but she can score. I don't see any DNPs in her future. Instead, I see 10 ppg.

 

[CL82]

When I read these point guard posts, it always seems as if people are looking for someone to play the position for the full 40 minutes. Even in the cases where you have an exceptional talent, that’s not a great idea. I think it will look something more like this:
Nika - 25 minutes
Azzi - 10 minutes
Lou - 5 minutes

But even when Nika is out there I fully expect Azzi to be creating offense for her teammates. I am definitely curious to see what it ends up looking like though. you can’t replace Paige but this team has more than enough talent to still be successful.

 

[oldude]

When I read stuff like this, I immediately wonder about the person who writes this drivel. Jeff Tuck was the HS girls basketball coach in Midland, MI for a little less than 2 seasons when he unexpectedly resigned as HC in February, 2022 for “unspecified reasons.”

When asked by the local paper why he would step down mid season, Tuck’s rambling answer referenced God watching over him, etc. Tuck now has more time to devote to his online blog, “MD Sports.”

 

[oldhusky]

I think one of the factors that makes this article seem even more ridiculous is the impact of Paige's injury. Even if his low evaluation of Lou and his concerns were correct, Lou would still be getting major minutes this year, at worst being the main backup for each of the other three guards. That is whether she exceeds or falls short of expectations, we only have 4, she will play a-lot regardless.

Having said that I notice the article was on August 2nd, so this opinion was issued just before he became aware of Paige's injury, so he was probably assuming a 5 guard rotation and Lou being last in that group by a significant margin. Before we got her I looked at her stats pretty comprehensively. Outside of shooting and scoring her stats look pretty average. Her PER (player efficiency rating) was to my recollection 25.9, or better than all our wing players not named Paige. Azzi, Caroline and Christyn for example were low 20's and Evina just under 20 as I recall.

For that stat 15 is average, but of course Lou achieved those stats against much lower competition than she will face at Uconn, and she was clearly the number 1 scoring option on her team, so they tried to get her shots much more than Uconn probably will since we have far more options.

One skill however we can bank on. She is a shooter, arguably second only to Azzi. Her career 3pt% of 39% and FT% over 80 indicate that. A free throw or open 3pointer is the same regardless of the competition. The level of competition comes more into play regarding her ability to create her own shot, which at Fairfield was very good. I expect her to be able to create her own shot here too, but not as often, and probably not quite the same success rate. On the other hand, she will not draw the same defensive attention here compared to Fairfield. She could get more open looks as the defense has spread their attention to other players.

I will be surprised if she is not both an efficient and pretty high volume scorer at Uconn and that is where her main value lies. Regardless, after Paige's injury she will play a great deal, she has to. My concern is more about injuries and our options beyond our four guards than it is with Lou.

 

[MooseJaw]

We will find out what Lou brings to the team before too long. It matters not what Mr. Tuck's opinion is. I did find that he did do some homework on our Gal Lou. Right now, Lou is a very valuable Husky and as all teammates she will excel at some aspects of the game and may not excel at others. My bet is that she will be just fine and be a productive member of the team. I'm glad we have her, even if she has a flaw or two.

 

[tjhusky]

I think she will be an asset to the team for all the positives you have all pointed out.

watching her clips her spin moves make me nervous. If she over uses that at the level of competition we see she could be spinning right into a waiting defender (remember Trajan Langdon from Duke spinning right into a waiting Ricky Moore)

But Lou has more to her game than the spin move. If she can be decent on defense she can be a big help to a team without Paige.

 

[LoboDays]

No one can predict how she will perform. She is a question mark just like the incoming freshmen and Caroline. As a fan, I’m optimistic that they all will excel, Azzi has an All-American season, AE & Dorka dominate the paint, Aubrey win BE defensive player of the year and Nika breaks the team’s 3-point record.

These morning Mimosas are excellent.

 

[Bone Dog]

It's not a bad assessment, once you account for the timing of Paige's injury. He weighs a lot of relevant factors, and comes to not unreasonable conclusions.

What I think he neglected is motivation. Lou is very team-committed. She stuck it out for 4 years at Fairfield even though she had skills that could have found a place at lots of better schools. Only after completing her commitment to Fairfield did she seek a transfer. Also, she has a strong desire to showcase her skills for the next level. This says she's not a time-server, nor a showboat. I'm pretty sure Geno will respect that about her.

But however we assess these qualities, the fact is that we have 4 guards to fill 3 positions. The only way Lou gets less than 10 mins is if Nika doesn't get into foul trouble. My guess is Lou will regularly get 15-20 mins by January. I suspect she'll also average in the 10 pt range.

 

[Jim R]

I think she will be an asset to the team for all the positives you have all pointed out.

watching her clips her spin moves make me nervous. If she over uses that at the level of competition we see she could be spinning right into a waiting defender (remember Trajan Langdon from Duke spinning right into a waiting Ricky Moore)

But Lou has more to her game than the spin move. If she can be decent on defense she can be a big help to a team without Paige.

I’ll take her effort against a very well coached Indiana team last year as my gauge of what to expect. Expect her to be a fan favorite due to her stellar play - but, time will tell.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I'm bullish on Lou. I think she's our second best shooter, behind only the great Azzi Fudd. She needs to improve her defense--I think Fairfield played zone--but she can score. I don't see any DNPs in her future. Instead, I see 10 ppg.

I suspect that there is a tie at 2, and it's Caroline. Last year she showed a freshman trait a good deal of the time of over thinking the game and it threw her off. When she is into the game and not overthinking she is deadly. I'm looking for deadly to show up this fall.

 

[Bone Dog]

If we play Azzi, Caroline, and Lou, we'll have a big lineup, and not a lot of speed. We'll torch people from the perimeter on offense, but may not be able to handle quick guards on D. That will put a limit on how long we can run such a lineup. Of course, if we're playing 4-out with Nika on the floor, too, this is not such a problem.

 

[oldhusky]

No one can predict how she will perform. She is a question mark just like the incoming freshmen and Caroline. As a fan, I’m optimistic that they all will excel, Azzi has an All-American season, AE & Dorka dominate the paint, Aubrey win BE defensive player of the year and Nika breaks the team’s 3-point record.

These morning Mimosas are excellent.

I will have what he's having! Ha!

 

[ConnMotors]

Damn, now we are more doomed. LOL. I'll take our chances with what we have if another player doesn't join us by start of school. Let's play ball....

 

[EdSaid]

Athletes tend to up their play when surrounded by better athletes.

Case in point, 36 year old Matt Carpenter was released by the Texas Rangers AAA team in May. The Yankees took a chance on him and he has hit 15 homers in 47 games for the Bombers.

 

[CocoHusky]

I though the article was fairly balanced especially the paragraph regarding the fit for UCONN where he pretty much highlighted the areas of fit and an area of concern=Lou's low assist numbers. There is one glaring factual error in the article: " Caroline Ducharme and Ayanna Patterson are the only wings on the team. Clearly he has forgotten about Aubrey Griffin.

 

[Performance]

How about instead of speculating we wait and see what she is like? I think she deserves that!!

 

[CocoHusky]

How about instead of speculating we wait and see what she is like? I think she deserves that!!

 

[ed4ourgirls]

I'm not troubled by her assist numbers at Fairfield where she was the go-to scorer and
the focus of their offense. That was the role she was given and that was the role she filled.

 

[oldude]

I'm not troubled by her assist numbers at Fairfield where she was the go-to scorer and
the focus of their offense. That was the role she was given and that was the role she filled.

Just to reinforce your point. In Dorka’s last season at tOSU, she averaged approximately 30 mpg and 1 ast per game. In her first season at UConn her PT declined by 1/3 to approximately 20 mpg while her assists almost doubled to approximately 2 per game. In Geno’s motion offense, everyone is a passer and everyone is a scorer.

 

[CocoHusky]

I'm not troubled by her assist numbers at Fairfield where she was the go-to scorer and
the focus of their offense. That was the role she was given and that was the role she filled.

I think that is precisely a reason to be concerned.
She is not going to be the go to scorer at UCONN and the offensive requires her to hit open teammates=an adjustment she must make in her 5th season of NCAA basketball=not exactly a trivial thing.