Moriah as 'most improved player' in AAC?!

[UcMiami]

This happened a while ago, but I was really surprised that Moriah won this award. She is fabulous and deserved the Lieberman and AA status that she earned this year, but 'most improved'?

She was the starting point guard for the NC team last year and from Jan - Mar of 2014 put together some ridiculous stats. For the year her numbers were great and in some instances better than last year:

Stat: 2015YTD: 2014 FY
PPG: 12.4: 10.0
FG%: .596: .575
3%: .505: .418
Asst: 186: 195
A/TO: 3.15: 2.95
Steals: 96: 106
Rebounds: 109: 136
Fouls: 56: 62

She is having a great year and her offensive productivity shows a nice progression year over year which you expect (hope for) from every player on your roster, but also probably reflects the fact that last year she played with a senior AA backcourt mate and this year she is playing with a freshman. She has stepped up to the challenge of taking over from Bria as the teams leader on the floor, though similar to the 2014 year she struggled again through December before really gelling in January. I am ecstatic with her play and she is my favorite player.

BUT - most improved player in the conference?! Is there really no other candidate that had a worse year last year and improved significantly this year? I can actually think of three players on the Uconn team that more closely resemble 'most improved' - Morgan, Kaleena, and Kiah. And other teams in the conference. Just seems like a strange award to give out to a really good player that grew as expected from Sophomore to Junior year. This was a player that played well enough to be a finalist for the Lieberman last year.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Uh, oh, we've exposed her and now they'll take the award away from her.

Yeah, as in previous comments in another thread where a poster was trying to trash her performance for last year (on the really weird grounds that nobody guarded her), the fact is she had a super year in 2013-14, which is I think how 99.9% of us remember it. She indeed was even better in some categories such as the rebounds and steals, not mention that huge category you somehow forgot, blocks (9 in 2014 to 5 in 2015). So it does seem a bit weird to be saying she was the most improved player when there are a lot of players on other AAC teams that seemed to have a much higher leap in performance.

 

[UcMiami]

Thanks for filling me in - I missed the earlier thread, but this had been sort nagging at the back of my mind for a while and finally got around to posting it.

On the blocks - yeah, I thought of including it and she certainly didn't have a block this year as spectacular as a couple from last year, but ... who ever records blocks has it in for short people! She clearly had a block on the first play against MD which she also than rebounded (no credit there either) and threw the long outlet to Morgan for the assist and the first bucket of the game. So I just don't trust those stats. In the post game Kara actually noticed the block on a replay and mentioned it!

 

[ndmb]

X 1,000. Moriah was playing at or near an AA level last year, it just took the world a year to figure it out and catch up. It drove me insane that Doris Burke kept making it sound like Moriah developed a shot 2 months ago. Did no one notice that she had the same A/TO and shot the lights out last year too?

 

[DobbsRover2]

X 1,000. Moriah was playing at or near an AA level last year, it just took the world a year to figure it out and catch up. It drove me insane that Doris Burke kept making it sound like Moriah developed a shot 2 months ago. Did no one notice that she had the same A/TO and shot the lights out last year too?

I think you are right that MoJeff's somewhat erratic freshman year and some leaner stretches in certain shooting stats in an early season range of games the last two years just seem to fester in the brains of certain commentators. To be fair, MoJeff has had some off games as a PG, but when she has gotten rolling later in the season the last two years, she is a work of art.

 

[ndmb]

I think you are right that MoJeff's somewhat erratic freshman year and some leaner stretches in certain shooting stats in an early season range of games the last two years just seem to fester in the brains of certain commentators. To be fair, MoJeff has had some off games as a PG, but when she has gotten rolling later in the season the last two years, she is a work of art.

She has, and the first game against ND comes to mind. But I have yet to see a player who didn't have off-games. Moriah had the misfortune of being very highly regarded coming out of high school, but really taking a year to adjust to the college game. I think commentators started with high expectations, changed their minds once, and it seemed like a lot of mental effort to revisit the issue.

 

[Aluminny69]

Not to go too far off on a tangent, but this is what sets Geno apart from other coaches. Geno is not afraid to break down top recruits, get rid of bad habits, and get them out of their comfort zone. They endure it initially just to spite Geno and prove him wrong. But eventually they build their skills up beyond where they thought they could go.

Without any inside information, an educated guess tells me that other women's coaches are not doing this. They do not try to improve their top recruits, they just try to utilize the skillset the recruits come in with. Four years later, they are not that much better, only older.

Of course, only a certain type of recruit is willing to endure Geno. Fortunately, they have the support of their teammates.

None of the talking heads are talking about it, but this is the way I see the difference between UConn and everybody else. Until other coaches are willing to push their "stars" and maximize their talent, Geno will always be on top.