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Message: [QUOTE="bballnut90, post: 2523530, member: 2117"] Are you trying to argue that entering the season there are similarities between UCONN/Notre Dame or are you making the comparisons midseason? If you're looking at it entering the season, I don't see much in common other than both teams were expected to have shorter rotations and lacked depth in the post. No one really knew how UCONN was going to be and how players would pan out. Nurse, despite not being an AA the year before, was a starter on back to back championship teams and was rated preseason #7 on the HG top 25 players. KLS was a #1 recruit, Collier a top 10 player who was also expected to be a larger part of the offense, and Williams was a good athletic undersized forward. No one was sure how players would adjust to new roles and develop. At Notre Dame, they had 2 big scoring guards coming back in Mabrey and Arike. They also had a glue player in Westbeld back, along with some new freshmen posts and a talented freshman in Young who was expected to take on a larger role. Depth appeared to be an issue without Turner and Shepard wasn't expected to play. People thought ND would be good again and a Final Four contender, but probably not a viable threat to UCONN without Turner. If you're looking at how the teams unfolded by midseason, there are zero similarities there: At Connecticut, everything gelled really well and went better than hoped. The big 3 all developed into stars in Geno's system, while Nurse and Chong played their roles perfectly. It was the same UCONN machine, just different players. Despite whatever players were ranked coming out of HS, it was very clear that the Big 3 were some of the best players in the country. At Notre Dame, they've been decimated by injuries and haven't been able to find their rhythm with all of the changes (Westbeld overcoming her injury, Thompson going down, Johnson going down, Vaughn going down, players having to play different roles than they expected to, etc). All of these injuries and changes throw players out of their rhythm and force them to start over more frequently rather than build on the foundation they've started with. Perhaps most significant, UCONN had more talented players than Notre Dame does this year! No one at Notre Dame is at the talent level of UCONN's Big 3 the same time a year ago. Notre Dame also doesn't have a good option at PG. UCONN had 3 viable options, 2 if you were in the belief that Dangerfield wasn't ready last year. Nurse has played PG throughout her career and internationally--she is much more experienced as a PG than Mabrey or Ogunbowale. Chong also stepped up as the starting PG last year and looked very comfortable in her role. Even if she was recruited to be a SG, she evolved into a good PG last year for Geno. At Notre Dame, Mabrey is manning the point spot but clearly is not as comfortable or adept to play the position as Nurse or Chong were. She is a fantastic 2 guard, but the additional responsibilities have hindered her play this year. Other players who can step in and play point for ND are Ogunbowale and Young, neither who have any PG experience and are not suited for the role. Yes, only one is playing PG at a time but when Mabrey goes out, that responsibility falls on Young/Ogunbowale which takes them out of rhythm in their other position, so it does affect all 3 of them. In regards to conditioning, Shepard wasn't expected to play this year and is brand new to MM's system and level of conditioning. The conditioning isn't there, and it wasn't expected to be there coming into the season. Westbeld was injured the entire off season after having ankle surgery so she's had a late start, Mabrey is not out of shape but is playing a more demanding position, and Nelson is much leaner than she has been. Nelson also wasn't expected to be a rotation player and isn't a big contributor, so not sure why she's mentioned at all here. None of those 4 girls are nearly as athletic as Nurse, Williams, Dangerfield, or even Collier, which adds to my point that Connecticut was flat out more talented than this year's ND 7. BTW-Williams was ranked higher than Westbeld coming out of HS. And Nurse, despite being ranked #33 by HG, was clearly under ranked coming from Canada, as she cemented her starting spot 2 games into her freshman year. Both are more talented than Westbeld. Notre Dame does have talent and absolutely can be a Final Four team. That said, 2016-17 UCONN was on a different stratosphere than this Notre Dame team was. We can agree to disagree, but I still don't see any similarities. [/QUOTE]

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