Lou & Pheesa in Very Select Company

[RockyMTblue2]

I should not have to read this in a newspaper stat mavens!

"UConn’s Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier join Maya Moore, Kerry Bascom, Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart as the only UConn players with at least 200 points through the first 10 games of the season."

Women’s basketball gameday: No. 1 UConn at Nebraska

 

[Schoup]

Don't think they are going to be hold 20+pt/avg. They are going to have reduced minutes once conf play starts. They will have to be super efficient shooting 70% FG. If my memory is correct the only players to avg 20+/game are Maya Moore, Nykesha Sales and Kerry Bascom and Bascom is the only to do it multiple years.

 

[CajunHusky]

Don't think they are going to be hold 20+pt/avg. They are going to have reduced minutes once conf play starts. They will have to be super efficient shooting 70% FG. If my memory is correct the only players to avg 20+/game are Maya Moore, Nykesha Sales and Kerry Bascom and Bascom is the only to do it multiple years.

naah ... they'll do fine. even if the starting five average 30 min each then Nat and the freshmen have 50 mins to share among them.

I think you will see Gabby and Phee lose minutes to Nat and Kyla; Kia and Saniya will lose minutes to Molly and Crystal (though Saniya is already losing close to 20 minutes to Crystal). Lou will get some breathing spells but not much. I think Lou is emerging as the on-court leader.

 

[UcMiami]

Sorry Rocky - but this was plastered all over the place after the game was completed in blogs and articles. Us mavens just didn't feel the needed to repeat other professionals' words and number crunching!

I always suspected you were not a true Uconn WCBB junkie who reads every word that gets written on our obsession, and now it has been confirmed from your own keyboard!

 

[alexrgct]

If they are close to 20 PPG, they will almost certainly be WBCA honorees, and thus an HoH Wall spot would await them. If UConn retains the #1 ranking, and either or both are flirting with 20 PPG, one of the NPOY awards is not totally out of the question.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Well, I'll accept I'm' guilty as charged of being reading challenged. That was my first, and obviously my last, effort to deal with numbers.

 

[Rayvin56]

It's even more impressive to me since the competition in the first 10 games this year has been tougher than the typical first 10 for UConn. Am I on point with this?

 

[chuck.r]

Don't think they are going to be hold 20+pt/avg. They are going to have reduced minutes once conf play starts. They will have to be super efficient shooting 70% FG. If my memory is correct the only players to avg 20+/game are Maya Moore, Nykesha Sales and Kerry Bascom and Bascom is the only to do it multiple years.

Maya Moore came pretty close to averaging 20pt/game for her career (19.7).

 

[chuck.r]

naah ... they'll do fine. even if the starting five average 30 min each then Nat and the freshmen have 50 mins to share among them.

I think you will see Gabby and Phee lose minutes to Nat and Kyla; Kia and Saniya will lose minutes to Molly and Crystal (though Saniya is already losing close to 20 minutes to Crystal). Lou will get some breathing spells but not much. I think Lou is emerging as the on-court leader.

An interesting observation. I have tended to think its Nurse when she is on the court. Of late, KLS & Collier have been practically on court for the duration, so maybe your assessment is correct. KLS certainly is the more emotional, but I would vote for Collier between the two. NC is as solid and all-purpose on both sides of the ball as anyone playing today - a worthy successor to Morgan Tuck.

 

[sarals24]

It's even more impressive to me since the competition in the first 10 games this year has been tougher than the typical first 10 for UConn. Am I on point with this?

I was thinking the same thing. It's amazing to think their averages might go DOWN when conference play starts because they will get so much more rest. But I'm thinking they could both get 18-20 in 25 minutes of play.

 

[Kaizen]

So far UConn has played 6 ranked teams, and the results are Napheesa and Katie Lou way better than those 6 schools' AA.

 

[UcMiami]

An interesting observation. I have tended to think its Nurse when she is on the court. Of late, KLS & Collier have been practically on court for the duration, so maybe your assessment is correct. KLS certainly is the more emotional, but I would vote for Collier between the two. NC is as solid and all-purpose on both sides of the ball as anyone playing today - a worthy successor to Morgan Tuck.

I think what KLS represents on this team is the 'biggest threat' - she may not score more than Collier or Gabby or Kia in any specific game, but no opponent can afford to lose sight of her on any offensive set. She is the most consistent three point shooter, is proving she can drive and post up and she just demands that kind of defensive awareness. When she is not on the floor the scoring threats are much more inside and the defense and Uconn's offense both compact toward the lane. She has made 45% of Uconn's threes and is leading the team at 47%.

I think the floor leader is probably not Lou - the two juniors seem to be the strongest leaders on the court, Kia and Gabby.

 

[CajunHusky]

An interesting observation. I have tended to think its Nurse when she is on the court. Of late, KLS & Collier have been practically on court for the duration, so maybe your assessment is correct. KLS certainly is the more emotional, but I would vote for Collier between the two. NC is as solid and all-purpose on both sides of the ball as anyone playing today - a worthy successor to Morgan Tuck.

what I have noticed, especially in the Kansas State game is that Lou seems to be calling the plays in the on court huddles, as well as inbound plays; and Lou is quite comfortable with moving players around in offensive sets.

 

[alexrgct]

Katie Lou Conn. never gets old...

 

[DefenseBB]

naah ... they'll do fine. even if the starting five average 30 min each then Nat and the freshmen have 50 mins to share among them.

I think you will see Gabby and Phee lose minutes to Nat and Kyla; Kia and Saniya will lose minutes to Molly and Crystal (though Saniya is already losing close to 20 minutes to Crystal). Lou will get some breathing spells but not much. I think Lou is emerging as the on-court leader.

Your comments got me thinking about Geno and his rotations even in blowouts which most of the past two seasons have been. He usually goes 8 deep for 3 Qtrs and then seems to pull 1 star out, then another early in the 4th. That said, I am not convinced he has seen enough of Kyla for me to think she will see significant minutes. If she even received Courtney minutes from last year I would be surprised. Even though we do have a "big" need for a big, I just don't see it in her game yet. Molly on the other hand seems to be earning some time. Geno seems to want the top 8 to develop their chemistry and stamina above all else so he can truly trust his best at key times. So far it's worked!

 

[UcMiami]

Your comments got me thinking about Geno and his rotations even in blowouts which most of the past two seasons have been. He usually goes 8 deep for 3 Qtrs and then seems to pull 1 star out, then another early in the 4th. That said, I am not convinced he has seen enough of Kyla for me to think she will see significant minutes. If she even received Courtney minutes from last year I would be surprised. Even though we do have a "big" need for a big, I just don't see it in her game yet. Molly on the other hand seems to be earning some time. Geno seems to want the top 8 to develop their chemistry and stamina above all else so he can truly trust his best at key times. So far it's worked!

I think the Nebraska game is going to be the pattern for half or more of the AAC schedule with Molly and Kyla getting 10-15 minutes of game time each. In he more competitive games against the better AAC teams that may get reduced to almost nothing. By year's end I suspect they will each have averaged in the 8-10 minute range across all games. Against a really strong OOC schedule they are at 8.3 and 6.7 minutes currently, against a weaker remaining schedule those numbers should go up significantly.