Mir? Any idea why so little playing time?

[Bald Husky]

The coach seems to be culling the minutes to an 8 person rotation for tournament time. Just trying to build chemistry on the court and you can see it growing in the SJ game. Remember we are freshmen heavy, still need to cut down on travels and playing with three refs vs two in high school. More whistles likely = more calls. Mir is fun to watch, very active and disruptive. Hope she fits into our future plans but this season isn't normal.

It is obvious that Geno has settled on a 7 person rotation, maybe 8 if Anna comes back. It has always been that way with him in the past. I believe he is giving more time to Paith and Saylor for specific reasons. Foul trouble. In the past, UCONN has been in trouble with the 7 player rotation in the big games. These players are getting PT for emergency situations. What if ONO and AE get in foul trouble ( outlandish thought, right )? Geno may need someone else to come in and hold the fort for a period of time. What if we get behind and we need shots to fall. If no one is hitting ( again, outlandish though, right ), he may need someone to come in who knows how to knock them down. Neither one is consistent now, but any playing time now MAY be able to help us down the road.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Can she shoot 3s better than Saylor? If no, then Saylor has more potential to help the team this March.

Who says?

Actually, she is 50% from 3 point range: 1 for 2. So...

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Don't take this the wrong way. We're just disagreeing. You have to recognize sometimes each of us have biases. I prefer ball movement with stronger guard play. Over the years with your posts-- imo - let's face it you prefer low post play. Your posts seem to always have a huge concern of the next big player they are going ot get. Then it means you are always going to ask the same questions regarding players who have higher fg%'s because they score more inside. FG% is not as important for guard play when you compare an inside scorer vs a perimeter guard. Style of play also impt. As well as EFG% and TS%. You're referencing the stat that is bias for post players without context.

The post you made here shows that imo. The individual stats you are referencing can’t take one bit into account ball movement, effectiveness in a passing offense, and running fastbreaks. In half court sets the best option (ofc not the only) is Paige for example. You saw the SC game in which SC contests many of the passes. The passes needed consistently to be thrown toward the outside hand. The 2nd and 3rd pass leading up to the 4th and 5th pass are important in order to free a player. Guards aren't just important because they can shoot 3's. It's clear here that's your bias - you're looking to quote fg% - and not the difference between what a guard does vs an inside scoring forward. You're not even looking at efg% or TS% while comparing a guard vs low post type of forward.

Even if her individual stats are better than Mir's - which they probably are-- it doesn't take into account not only competition but more importantly how the offense runs. Guard play usually lends itself to better ball movement which is super important for this team. They don’t have a dynamic post player but they do have an unreal perimeter player. In the 3 tough games vs SC, Tenn, and Ark. - scoring by the guards was critical.

And-in terms of 2pt fg%-- Mir is behind UCONN's 3 other post type of players- Liv, Edwards, and Griff. And how much of a scoring option were UCONN's "big 3" vs South Carolina, Tenn and Ark? So how much are you expecting from Mir in a more perimeter type of offense? She is going to struggle more than the big 3 (she's not shooting as well as them) and she isn't going to play defense as well as the big 3 either.

Unless you want to play Mir or Griffin at sf? But that's "Baylor Basketball." You've heard before how Geno wants his teams to emulate The old Edmonton Hockey Team led by Gretzky. He wants a fast-paced offense. Not just with fastbreaks but quick moving through passing in half court. And a pass is faster moving than a player can run. Nika can lead fastbreaks and make very good passes in half court sets which leads to opening up the floor and playing at a fast pace. Your questions are more addressed to old-time basketball which Geno doesn't want to play. .For me -I'm thankful for the style Geno wants UCONN to play.

Mir is 5'1", the same height as Cristyn and Paige. How in the world does one compare her with 6'5" post players? In no way is she a "big." Can't understand the comparison. She is, if one needs to categorize, which I don't feel is necessary, a wing, or a guard who slashes to the basket and makes the majority of her shots within 10 feet of the rim. Not a post.

 

[hoophuskee]

Is it really?
Tell me, what is the difference between goals and challenges?


I believe His Goal or objective is to win the NC's
His Challenge is to develop his players to accomplish that goal.

Yes.

But that challenge you reference also includes his superstars. And history has shown he gives his superstars big minutes. There's a reason. Teams need to develop a certain cohesiveness and that usually starts with your superstars. So in order to accomplish the goal to win championships he gives the superstars many more minutes. And then down the line his next group that is very good but not great etc. The players further down the list get fewer minutes because the superstars are taking many.

It's simple; If there are certain players that aren't as good - he won't give them as many minutes. Why doesn't he give them more minutes? Because he and the players want to be put in the best position to win.

That was my point previously and I think the point the other poster sent to you. Mir McLean is averaging 7.6 minutes per game. With those minutes can you say she is on her way to excellence? If Geno wants to keep everyone happy then why isn't Mir playing more?

 

[Waquoit]

It's up to Mir to produce when she gets the call. I don't think she has. But players get better so next time she might show some more.

 

[hoophuskee]

Mir is 5'1", the same height as Cristyn and Paige. How in the world does one compare her with 6'5" post players? In no way is she a "big." Can't understand the comparison. She is, if one needs to categorize, which I don't feel is necessary, a wing, or a guard who slashes to the basket and makes the majority of her shots within 10 feet of the rim. Not a post.

Because Mir scores nearly all her baskets inside.

When you compared Nika to Mir - were you thinking Mir is scoring mostly outside of 5-6 feet? The problem for Mir is that she is small for a low post player and most of her baskets come form the inside 5-6 feet. She's a small player who plays more like a low post player. And she is not a passer.

If you think she scores many baskets 10 feet or so-- we can agree to disagree - but if I were right that she scores most of her baskets inside 5-6 feet - then you would agree with me, right-- -- That she is a post player? And then you would agree with Geno in regards to playing Nika more than Mir?

 

[BBallF]

Mir is a very raw talent. It is another example of an athletic player being able to dominate in high school without other skills being well developed. She is the quickest leaper on the team but is undersized and has to be able to convert on the put backs by keeping it basic. She was a great defender in high school and should be a better defender in college eventually. I still think it is a practice issue however. I also think she doesn't know the plays yet. I hope she gets at least 4 minutes today and plays smart and aggressively without reach in fouls. She can be a chaos causing player for the other team but she has to get herself under control on the court. I don't think it is that difficult figuring this out. You play animated, hustle defense, rebound, run the plays, and be supportive of your team because there ain't no "I" in UCONN. If you do that, you wind up scoring too. Just ask CW from last week.

 

[Bama fan]

The movement of rules involving refs seems to be toward more, not less and much more going to the monitor. UGH! The flow of the game has become stop and start. I'm dating myself but in earlier days, we were lucky to have a ref, most pickup games were self refed. If there are three refs, that is 1/3 more pair of eyes to call what is seen. Has anybody but perhaps the NCAA studied the number of fouls called since installing three refs and the time taken to play these games? Perhaps there are fewer injuries with three refs? It sure can be hard to isolate the impact. Thoughts?

Players doing mop-up time have a hard time to show their best especially in a pattern offense that we tend to run. Mir will grow her game and help the team.

If the extra ref contributes only 1/3 pair of eyes, that could explain how they missed so many fouls by Boston and Dungee.

 

[Vowelguy]

What I like about Mir is her heart she battles and plays hard every time she’s in there. I

its not a question of liking. It’s almost March.
In an ncaa tournament game explain which 4 players you’re going to take off the floor to put her in and how she’s going to be a better option.

it’s not play time anymore. You take your best 5 players and play them 40 minutes if you have to. And every sub needs to provide something unique that the team needs. Mir is not there yet imho.

 

[CocoHusky]

Mir is 5'1", the same height as Cristyn and Paige. How in the world does one compare her with 6'5" post players? In no way is she a "big." Can't understand the comparison. She is, if one needs to categorize, which I don't feel is necessary, a wing, or a guard who slashes to the basket and makes the majority of her shots within 10 feet of the rim. Not a post.

What position do you think Mir plays?

 

[GRIFFBIFF20]

What position do you think Mir plays?

Some (not me) might think "Left Out"

 

[Martin]

It’s pretty difficult to develop a player during this garbage time as usually the other teams garbage time players are playing as well and therefore the game resembles nothing like the competitive part of the game where the better players are playing. During this Covid shortened season perhaps some of these players would have gotten more playing time and the team might even look different than it does now. Personally I don’t subscribe to the short bench theory because you never know when you will have to depend heavily on those bench players like Kyla and Molly last year a couple of bad Covid tests could really derail this team and then you’re depending on players who really haven’t played. That seems to be the risk and Gino seems comfortable with that risk.

 

[Gurleyman]

There’s no way Saylor can help us more than Mir can this year. Have you watched Saylor play when she got in there. I’m sure she is gonna be a great player for us, but I have not seen anything to suggest that she can help us AT ALL this year. Mir on the other hand, I wouldn’t put it past her to come up with a HUGE offensive or defensive rebound to help us win number 12. It might only be because she got here late, but still. I believe that Mir deserves more playing time than those two, because anyone should be able to see by her playing time that she is far and away better than both Saylor and Piath. Mir I believe can actually help us now if Geno gave her the chance. I think the other two would be more of a liability than Mir because she has her flaws also.

If Saylor can mimic what she does in practice, I can envision a very specific scenario where she could help. Paige sees a box and one (or Paige and Christyn see a triangle and two), other shooters are left wide open, Muhl and Evina are off, and there’s a way to hide her on defense against an opponent who isn’t a scoring threat. So they give her a few minutes to stand in the corner unguarded and play pop a shot to see if she can loosen up the defense. If she makes a couple, great. If she misses, go back to Nika or Evina.

Honestly we don’t want to have to turn to a HS senior at all and the benefit to her being here is getting a head start on her real freshman year, but there’s potentially a scenario where her skill set could have value where its worth it to get her comfortable with game action and the speed at this level.

That said, I also could see Mir as a stopper to rotate on a high scorer (Dungee, Howard, etc.), especially if we get some people in foul trouble, so there’s value in getting her minutes In theory too. Maybe a few minutes on Correa would have been a good idea in the second half (it seems like she’s fouled too much when isolated on defense trying to play too hard, so learning to walk that tightrope would be a key to increasing her value this year).

 

[CocoHusky]

It’s pretty difficult to develop a player during this garbage time as usually the other teams garbage time players are playing as well and therefore the game resembles nothing like the competitive part of the game where the better players are playing. During this Covid shortened season perhaps some of these players would have gotten more playing time and the team might even look different than it does now. Personally I don’t subscribe to the short bench theory because you never know when you will have to depend heavily on those bench players like Kyla and Molly last year a couple of bad Covid tests could really derail this team and then you’re depending on players who really haven’t played. That seems to be the risk and Gino seems comfortable with that risk.

I don't think it has anything to do with COVID or this season specifically. These threads (Why isn't player X or Y not playing more?) pop up every season. The answer is not that deep or profound. It is this simple: If player X or Y showed the ability to positively impact the the game they would be playing more. Geno doesn't do experiments, he is not going to throw a kid out there until he knows they are ready.

 

[Martin]

His challenge is to win NCs.

This reminds of a certain ‘Western’ University head coach spilling the beans that “It’s about money. Got-damn money!’”

Anyone??

 

[hart2hart]

Hopefully Mir will get more meaningful minutes today. Hard to really assess Mir with her short minutes. I for one am rooting for Mir.

 

[Majic Hands]

Personally, and from a coaching perspective (coached a lot of youth softball) you simply can't make any assumptions as to how much playing time the players are getting. The players that the coach thinks are the most critical for the team are going to get the minutes until the team is playing as good as it can..

Yes, I think it's great when our walk-on gets a few minutes. But, are those minutes building the team to win a NC? I don't think so. I suspect our walk-on starts getting minutes after next year's class becomes sophomores. When you as a coach have your core players, playing at the level you believe they need to I be playing, then you want to rest and reduce minutes of key players to protect them from injury or fatigue.

The question of why is Saylor getting more minutes than Mir? I have no idea and it doesn't matter. Perhaps the coach has an idea of what his team is looking like and Saylor needs to get up to speed as quickly as possible, or perhaps he knows what he is going to have with Mir and needs to see more of Saylor in game situations.

I have players I like and think that they could become big-time players. However, coach sees all the players in stressful situations where I never see them. Golly-Gee Ono & CW makes "me" nuts to the point of cussing every time they Jack up a 3 when they would be just as open for the shot two steps inside the arc and way more likely to actually generate some points and force the bigs to come out with them. but again it doesn't matter what I think, it's what the coach has decided to do based on what they see and are trying to get the individual players and team to do.

 

[HuskyNan]

If Saylor can mimic what she does in practice, I can envision a very specific scenario where she could help. Paige sees a box and one (or Paige and Christyn see a triangle and two), other shooters are left wide open, Muhl and Evina are off, and there’s a way to hide her on defense against an opponent who isn’t a scoring threat. So they give her a few minutes to stand in the corner unguarded and play pop a shot to see if she can loosen up the defense. If she makes a couple, great. If she misses, go back to Nika or Evina.

Honestly we don’t want to have to turn to a HS senior at all and the benefit to her being here is getting a head start on her real freshman year, but there’s potentially a scenario where her skill set could have value where its worth it to get her comfortable with game action and the speed at this level.

That said, I also could see Mir as a stopper to rotate on a high scorer (Dungee, Howard, etc.), especially if we get some people in foul trouble, so there’s value in getting her minutes In theory too. Maybe a few minutes on Correa would have been a good idea in the second half (it seems like she’s fouled too much when isolated on defense trying to play too hard, so learning to walk that tightrope would be a key to increasing her value this year).

Mir could carve a role out for herself as another Ashley Battle or Kalana Greene. Neither of them scored much but they could wreak absolute havoc on the defensive end. Come to think of it, same for Kelly Faris. She didn’t score much until her senior year (remember the Duke game? 😀)

 

[VidNick]

Just think about what will happen next year! Who is going to sit so Fudd, Decharme and DeBerry get playing time. With the 7-8 player rotation 3-4 players now getting decent minutes will have to sit or worse, play the last two minutes of games.

 

[eebmg]

FWIW, Mir had 8 minutes and looked active as the 8th player.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Geno is insistent on players playing the game they way he wants it to be played. Just a thought.

I think you're right... Mir would be all over the court (which is good and bad) and Geno wants structure

 

[freshler40]

What position do you think Mir plays?

Mir got 8 minutes yesterday, a big swing from recent games. She looked OK, she is quick, jumps well and looks to shoot if possible. But, But she gives up size to most inside players, perhaps a better spot for her is where Griffin often plays. The challenge for Mir is to bring what she brings and that needs to be a plus for the team for her to get meaningful minutes. As the tournament time nears, Geno will play fewer players so bench players won't see minutes but will get practice time against the best, perhaps better than actual mop-up minutes!

We haven't seen Mir much so it's hard to say where she is most effective. In a wild thought, could she be a point guard in waiting? Can she handle the ball well?

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Because Mir scores nearly all her baskets inside.

When you compared Nika to Mir - were you thinking Mir is scoring mostly outside of 5-6 feet? The problem for Mir is that she is small for a low post player and most of her baskets come form the inside 5-6 feet. She's a small player who plays more like a low post player. And she is not a passer.

If you think she scores many baskets 10 feet or so-- we can agree to disagree - but if I were right that she scores most of her baskets inside 5-6 feet - then you would agree with me, right-- -- That she is a post player? And then you would agree with Geno in regards to playing Nika more than Mir?

To follow up, Mir is listed as a "forward" on the UConn website. She's listed as a "wing" on the ESPN recruiting page (where she was also listed as the #25 recruit in the nation last year!). And she was listed as the #4 wing in the nation. No slouch! And to make clear, she's 5'11".

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I don't think it has anything to do with COVID or this season specifically. These threads (Why isn't player X or Y not playing more?) pop up every season. The answer is not that deep or profound. It is this simple: If player X or Y showed the ability to positively impact the the game they would be playing more. Geno doesn't do experiments, he is not going to throw a kid out there until he knows they are ready.

As Kara Walters noted in her broadcast, when a player sees her minutes go down, it's usually a signal that the coach is not happy with her attitude, or output, during practice. Mir's back!!

 

[cohenzone]

To me, Mir seems to be a player who is pretty productive per minutes played. Could just be she’s the size of a small forward who plays bigger than her size (that was her hs school reputation) and she brings energy. Seems like she can play a role as a sub for a few players, especially against overmatched teams. But GA has rarely used a long bench in other than 4th quarter blow outs. I’m with those who, if all the recruits are as good as billed, wonder how he’ll manage next year’s team. For those of us old enough to remember, very experienced Paige Sauer and Stacy Hansmeyer played far less minutes as seniors than previously, especially Sauer. It was pretty stark in her case.

 

[CocoHusky]

Mir got 8 minutes yesterday, a big swing from recent games. She looked OK, she is quick, jumps well and looks to shoot if possible. But, But she gives up size to most inside players, perhaps a better spot for her is where Griffin often plays. The challenge for Mir is to bring what she brings and that needs to be a plus for the team for her to get meaningful minutes. As the tournament time nears, Geno will play fewer players so bench players won't see minutes but will get practice time against the best, perhaps better than actual mop-up minutes!

We haven't seen Mir much so it's hard to say where she is most effective. In a wild thought, could she be a point guard in waiting? Can she handle the ball well?

No.
No.
Mir is an undersized post (4). although she did played some (5) in the Arkansas game. She is currently the 4th post in the the UCONN rotation behind Anna, ONO, AE and AG. Mir does not have the skill set to play on the wing or either guard position. The Guard and Wing positions are actually deeper positions on the current UCONN roster and projects to be even deeper next year. MIr would not benefit from a position switch as you seem to be suggesting. MIr is doing just fine. Meg Colmo added to the BY speculation yesterday by saying that inconsistent minutes as we are seeing for Mir "usually" equate to bad practice habits. The other thing that is going on is that the rotation is being setup for a NCAA tournament run. The current rotation is 7 players with Anna to be added when she returns.

 

[CocoHusky]

As Kara Walters noted in her broadcast, when a player sees her minutes go down, it's usually a signal that the coach is not happy with her attitude, or output, during practice. Mir's back!!

I think you are reading way..... too much into that. When Mir entered the game yesterday, with about 8 minutes left in the game, the score was 66-22. Contrast that with the Arkansas game where Mir made her first appearance when UCONN was trailing by 13 points.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I think you are reading way..... too much into that. When Mir entered the game yesterday, with about 8 minutes left in the game, the score was 66-22. Contrast that with the Arkansas game where Mir made her first appearance when UCONN was trailing by 13 points.

The last game, she got in just 2 minutes, and that was after Poffenbarger and Gabriel. That, too, was a blowout win. She's averaged seven and a half minutes in the past, and played eight and a half this time.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

No.
No.
Mir is an undersized post (4). although she did played some (5) in the Arkansas game. She is currently the 4th post in the the UCONN rotation behind Anna, ONO, AE and AG. Mir does not have the skill set to play on the wing or either guard position. The Guard and Wing positions are actually deeper positions on the current UCONN roster and projects to be even deeper next year. MIr would not benefit from a position switch as you seem to be suggesting. MIr is doing just fine. Meg Colmo added to the BY speculation yesterday by saying that inconsistent minutes as we are seeing for Mir "usually" equate to bad practice habits. The other thing that is going on is that the rotation is being setup for a NCAA tournament run. The current rotation is 7 players with Anna to be added when she returns.

She's not a post player. Never was. Coach Geno never could have envisioned her as a post player defending players 6'4" and taller. Makes no sense. Nowhere is she listed as a post, not on the UConn website, nor the ESPN recruiting webpage. And Coach Geno could never have recruited her thinking she was a "post," then figured out that she was only 5'11" and decided that, whoa!, she's too small to play that position. Clearly, he knew how tall she was when he recruited her. Her height is not the issue keeping her out of significant minutes.

 

[CocoHusky]

She's not a post player. Never was. Coach Geno never could have envisioned her as a post player defending players 6'4" and taller. Makes no sense. Nowhere is she listed as a post, not on the UConn website, nor the ESPN recruiting webpage. And Coach Geno could never have recruited her thinking she was a "post," then figured out that she was only 5'11" and decided that, whoa!, she's too small to play that position. Clearly, he knew how tall she was when he recruited her. Her height is not the issue keeping her out of significant minutes.

Makes perfect sense if you watch the games and note who Mir is actually subbing into the games for.
I don't suppose you have ever heard of a former All American UCONN 5'11" post player named Gabby Williams?