Natalie takes off

[HuskyNan]

She must be 4 inches off the floor! (lol)

 

[HuskyNan]

Speaking of taking off...

 

[MilfordHusky]

Nat is on Stefanie's path.

 

[UcMiami]

In that particular photo, she is way more athletic than Gabby who can't seem to get any separation from the floor! Who knew!

 

[RockyMTblue2]

In that particular photo, she is way more athletic than Gabby who can't seem to get any separation from the floor! Who knew!

Nah. Gabby knew even if she blocked it, she'd be whistled for over the back.

 

[UcMiami]

I was going to post a Natalie thread - but since this one is started ...

I don't think Natalie is receiving enough Boneyard love early in this season. It is only two games in, but she is playing exactly how I hoped she would play last year prior to her injury. I never expected her to be stuffing the stat sheet, but I did expect good defense, good rebounding, and occasional buckets. And that is what she is providing - and unlike last year, she has not picked up her first foul while walking to the scorer'a table to check into the game. In fact she didn't pick up her first foul until the 4th quarter of her second game.

She played 15 first half minutes in last nights game and 16 first half minutes in the FSU game, helping cover for early foul trouble for Gabby, Napheesa, and Lou and in the FSU game really turned the tide for the interior defense. She likely will not lead the team in scoring in any game this year and may not in rebounding, but she is providing essential minutes to a surprisingly good start to the season. And she is running the floor hard and providing good screens for her teammates.

This is what we all wanted from Natalie, but it seems to be passing under the radar with all the other story lines.

 

[bags27]

Speaking of taking off...

heck of a box out by Kia, protecting Pheesa to shoot without challenge.

 

[Biff]

....This is what we all wanted from Natalie, but it seems to be passing under the radar with all the other story lines.

I really think that is the main reason for the limited comments on her play. The fact that there are so many positive story lines going on early added to some plain exciting basketball games, has made Nat's solid start easy to move down the list of things to chat about.

I think if she keeps this up, and I think that she will, she'll get her due.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Nat has been solid in the first 2 games. I'm happy with her progress. Baylor has some good bigs; Nat held her own pretty well. That was exactly what we needed.

 

[Baroloboy]

I was going to post a Natalie thread - but since this one is started ...

I don't think Natalie is receiving enough Boneyard love early in this season. It is only two games in, but she is playing exactly how I hoped she would play last year prior to her injury. I never expected her to be stuffing the stat sheet, but I did expect good defense, good rebounding, and occasional buckets. And that is what she is providing - and unlike last year, she has not picked up her first foul while walking to the scorer'a table to check into the game. In fact she didn't pick up her first foul until the 4th quarter of her second game.

She played 15 first half minutes in last nights game and 16 first half minutes in the FSU game, helping cover for early foul trouble for Gabby, Napheesa, and Lou and in the FSU game really turned the tide for the interior defense. She likely will not lead the team in scoring in any game this year and may not in rebounding, but she is providing essential minutes to a surprisingly good start to the season. And she is running the floor hard and providing good screens for her teammates.

This is what we all wanted from Natalie, but it seems to be passing under the radar with all the other story lines.

I was going to post a Natalie thread - but since this one is started ...

I don't think Natalie is receiving enough Boneyard love early in this season. It is only two games in, but she is playing exactly how I hoped she would play last year prior to her injury. I never expected her to be stuffing the stat sheet, but I did expect good defense, good rebounding, and occasional buckets. And that is what she is providing - and unlike last year, she has not picked up her first foul while walking to the scorer'a table to check into the game. In fact she didn't pick up her first foul until the 4th quarter of her second game.

She played 15 first half minutes in last nights game and 16 first half minutes in the FSU game, helping cover for early foul trouble for Gabby, Napheesa, and Lou and in the FSU game really turned the tide for the interior defense. She likely will not lead the team in scoring in any game this year and may not in rebounding, but she is providing essential minutes to a surprisingly good start to the season. And she is running the floor hard and providing good screens for her teammates.

This is what we all wanted from Natalie, but it seems to be passing under the radar with all the other story lines.

UcM---Couldn't agree more and I admit I was a Nat-skeptic over the summer. Her toughness quotient has been impressive even on team full of tough players. Against Baylor's big bad bigs she didn't back down an inch---and as you point out without fouling. She was certainly a part of the reason Baylor was not able to get the ball to their posts nearly enough.Her contributions don't show up on the stat sheet which might explain why she doesn't get as much of the limelight as some of the others. Come March it will be difficult for us to get past the elite eight unless she continues to make significant contributions.

 

[todbo]

UcM---Couldn't agree more and I admit I was a Nat-skeptic over the summer. Her toughness quotient has been impressive even on team full of tough players. Against Baylor's big bad bigs she didn't back down an inch---and as you point out without fouling. She was certainly a part of the reason Baylor was not able to get the ball to their posts nearly enough.Her contributions don't show up on the stat sheet which might explain why she doesn't get as much of the limelight as some of the others. Come March it will be difficult for us to get past the elite eight unless she continues to make significant contributions.

I was so happy to see her taking on the Baylor bigs. We had, by the way, an excellent performance from the two non-CD freshmen at the end of the first half.

 

[Kibitzer]

An area of special excellence by Nat is her talent for long, well-aimed outlet passes after she snags a rebound. Instead of an easy lob to a nearby teammate, she looks to trigger a rapid transition game with a high trajectory pass to mid-court vicinity. Reinforces the patented UConn belief that offense comes from defense.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

I've loved Natalie's game from the start, and realized how much the thumb injury set her back last year!

 

[Dougie]

I was going to post a Natalie thread - but since this one is started ...

I don't think Natalie is receiving enough Boneyard love early in this season. It is only two games in, but she is playing exactly how I hoped she would play last year prior to her injury. I never expected her to be stuffing the stat sheet, but I did expect good defense, good rebounding, and occasional buckets. And that is what she is providing - and unlike last year, she has not picked up her first foul while walking to the scorer'a table to check into the game. In fact she didn't pick up her first foul until the 4th quarter of her second game.

She played 15 first half minutes in last nights game and 16 first half minutes in the FSU game, helping cover for early foul trouble for Gabby, Napheesa, and Lou and in the FSU game really turned the tide for the interior defense. She likely will not lead the team in scoring in any game this year and may not in rebounding, but she is providing essential minutes to a surprisingly good start to the season. And she is running the floor hard and providing good screens for her teammates.

This is what we all wanted from Natalie, but it seems to be passing under the radar with all the other story lines.

Great points. Natalie Butler is becoming a steady force and will only get better. Throw last year out the window.

Natalie has come into this season with a much better understanding of what to expect and also what is is expected from her. By being in better shape she's been able to make adjustments to her game that make all the difference. She's eliminated silly reach-in and over the back fouls. She's not leaving her feet unnecessarily on the defensive end but instead is using her length just like she's supposed to. I thought her presence (and rebounding) against FSU turned that game around.

Natalie has been in better position to get rebounds, is making the quick outlet pass, is always looking to set a screen, is running the floor well and is much more in the flow of the game. You can see that she's playing with more confidence and I think she'll assert herself more on the offensive end as the year progresses. I'm particularly glad for her because I know how much she wants to contribute.

 

[Jimbo]

An area of special excellence by Nat is her talent for long, well-aimed outlet passes after she snags a rebound. Instead of an easy lob to a nearby teammate, she looks to trigger a rapid transition game with a high trajectory pass to mid-court vicinity. Reinforces the patented UConn belief that offense comes from defense.

Great point, and I would add that she is judicious when deciding whether to pull the trigger on one of those passes. I love that she is always looking to throw a long outlet pass, but she rarely (if ever) forces one when it isn't really there.

 

[Geew1992]

She just needs more confidence in her shot. Stop the hesitation and shoot the ball!!

 

[iri10]

I'm reminded of something I believe Tara Vanderveer said about her players: as far as basketball goes, they are sometimes too smart for their own good. The Stanford players tend to have some powerful brains (in the analytical or computational sense), and it perhaps gets in the way on the basketball court. Too much thinking about how they're playing instead of actually playing.

Could it be that Natalie is the same way? She sometimes hesitates in that sort of way, like Geew said. I think that if she had gotten the attention of the college recruiters earlier on, she might have ended up going to a school like Stanford. But oh well. Their loss was Georgetown's gain...and then UConn's gain.

 

[Rayvin56]

From photos of the Baylor game--is that a major bruise on the side of Natalie's knee, or something on the photog's lens?

 

[pacific 44]

She might want to look into moving that bruised patellar bone back into place.

 

[Tidepool]

During the first half, one of the TV broadcasters said words to the effect that Natalie seemed out of shape. And I note that despite being productive in the first half, Natalie played only 6 or 7 minutes in the second half. Anybody see what the broadcasters were seeing? And if not, why the reduced minutes in the second half?

 

[bags27]

I'm reminded of something I believe Tara Vanderveer said about her players: as far as basketball goes, they are sometimes too smart for their own good. The Stanford players tend to have some powerful brains (in the analytical or computational sense), and it perhaps gets in the way on the basketball court. Too much thinking about how they're playing instead of actually playing.

Not calling you out for this, but rather Vanderveer who is just blowing smoke. The idea that "smart" (what does that even mean??) people can't be in the flow athletically is simply preposterous. How many of her players are in fact gifted "in the analytical or computational sense"? And what the hell does that have to do with fast twitch and being in the flow? It's just junk science to make those claims. Has anyone ever heard of Bill Bradley? Andrew Luck (who majored in engineering!)? There's a pretty decent cornerback (a position that requires nothing but fast decision-making) from Stanford playing for Seattle, isn't there? etc. etc. That's complete snobbery on V.'s part, trying to pump up Stanford's so-called academic elitism and whining about her own lack of recent success. As Geno recently said about Joanne P. McCallie, must be hard to recruit at Duke, huh? Ditto Stanford.

Really sorry to rant, but this just drives me nuts. Schools like ND, Stanford, Duke have this mystique that their student/athletes are somehow academically superior and therefore it's harder to succeed athletically because they have to be great at both. I say this over and over: no academic program in the country is more intellectually rigorous that Professor G. Auriemma's Select Topics in Basketball 101, taught 7 days/week 3:00-5:00 pm at Werth. Additional requirement: daily lab from 6:00-8:00 am in Werth weight room. Attendance mandatory, and don't bother showing up if you're going to be late.

 

[CL82]

heck of a box out by Kia, protecting Pheesa to shoot without challenge.

"Wait you wanted me to box out one just player at a time? Sorry coach, I'll leave more for the other girls next time."

 

[HopJim]

I was going to post a Natalie thread - but since this one is started ...

I don't think Natalie is receiving enough Boneyard love early in this season. It is only two games in, but she is playing exactly how I hoped she would play last year prior to her injury. I never expected her to be stuffing the stat sheet, but I did expect good defense, good rebounding, and occasional buckets. And that is what she is providing - and unlike last year, she has not picked up her first foul while walking to the scorer'a table to check into the game. In fact she didn't pick up her first foul until the 4th quarter of her second game.

She played 15 first half minutes in last nights game and 16 first half minutes in the FSU game, helping cover for early foul trouble for Gabby, Napheesa, and Lou and in the FSU game really turned the tide for the interior defense. She likely will not lead the team in scoring in any game this year and may not in rebounding, but she is providing essential minutes to a surprisingly good start to the season. And she is running the floor hard and providing good screens for her teammates.

This is what we all wanted from Natalie, but it seems to be passing under the radar with all the other story lines.

Totally agree. Geno is somewhat like Bill Belichek in that in addition to positive results, he demands consistency and predictability. Natalie is doing all three-solid performance against Top 10 talent that you can count on.

 

[Bronxjeff]

Natalie is terrific this year. Her big problem last year was not being able to hold onto the ball well. She was playing with a repaired thumb! This year she is grabbing and holding the rebounds and still has a great soft jumper. Plus as many above appreciate her outlet passing and court vision seem European center level.

 

[CL82]

Great points. Natalie Butler is becoming a steady force and will only get better. Throw last year out the window.

Confidence is great thing. We know she's a very good player. It looks like she is beginning to remember that as well.

I expect a very solid year from her.