Now that Serah is on Board. What is the starting 5 for next year?
- Thread starter jabstep
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Putting Morgan as 3rd off the bench given how she was before her injury became apparent. She seemed to have progressed better than Allie had. Though I could always be wrong, as while Allie is able to practice and grow, Morgan is out of commission until further notice.
PacoSwede
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wow. already?
no BYer has all the data to make predictions. geno's speculations might be fun ... but he couldn't honestly give his perspective until november, soonest ... as for BYers? only good for feuding ... totally worthless!
no BYer has all the data to make predictions. geno's speculations might be fun ... but he couldn't honestly give his perspective until november, soonest ... as for BYers? only good for feuding ... totally worthless!
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Hahahahahahahaha!!!! I love it. The perennial thread. One of my faves.
I’ll begin with a distinction between November/December starters and February starters. And I’ll pretend Kayleigh is not coming to Storrs.
November/December
Azzi Sarah Serah KK Ash. Why? Because they understand the system. Well, maybe not Serah, yet. But the subbing will be so liberal as not to matter very much who starts.
February
Azzi Sarah Blanca KK Ash. Now there’s something to argue about. Again, I presume liberal subbing. Maybe a ten player rotation.
I’ll begin with a distinction between November/December starters and February starters. And I’ll pretend Kayleigh is not coming to Storrs.
November/December
Azzi Sarah Serah KK Ash. Why? Because they understand the system. Well, maybe not Serah, yet. But the subbing will be so liberal as not to matter very much who starts.
February
Azzi Sarah Blanca KK Ash. Now there’s something to argue about. Again, I presume liberal subbing. Maybe a ten player rotation.
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Prudent you say? Have you been to the BY before? Prudence is not our strong suit. Plus, there’s this little issue of a total lack of practical consequences if we turn out to be wrong. It’s hard to apply an adjective like ‘prudent’ in such circumstances.
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Team A:
Jana, Serah, Sara, Azzi, KK
Team B:
Ice, Blanca, Caroline, Ash, Kayleigh (?)
Team C:
Gandy, Yanna, Morgan, Allie, Kelis
Geno is going to try out his own combinations. I tried put people in the order 5 to 1. Injured players are on team C as I don’t know when they will available.
Jana, Serah, Sara, Azzi, KK
Team B:
Ice, Blanca, Caroline, Ash, Kayleigh (?)
Team C:
Gandy, Yanna, Morgan, Allie, Kelis
Geno is going to try out his own combinations. I tried put people in the order 5 to 1. Injured players are on team C as I don’t know when they will available.
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I don't think Bianca will start. I'm not aware of any Bianca anyway. Maybe I missed something. My vote would be for Blanca (you never mentioned her) to start at some point, but lets let it play out?
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There are very few "sure things" in life, except death, taxes and BYers anointing some incoming freshman who has never played a minute of Division 1 ball as the next starter/phenom/can't miss/National Freshman of the Year.
Ayanna, Ice, Jana, now Blanca (and throw Gandy in there too). Slow your roll. If Blanca gets into the rotation as one of the first 2 front court players off the bench, consider that a really good year for her. Not sure she's the second coming of Sarah Strong.
Sereh (SW), Sarah (SS), Ash, Azzi and KK will start. The only reason Ash doesn't start is if Geno wants her energy and scoring off the bench as the 6th person.
Jana, Blanca, Caroline, Morgan, Allie are the second unit, and by themselves could finish 2nd in the Big East. Throw Ice in there somewhere although with Serah ahead of her now she's going to compete with Blanca for time.
Ayanna, Gandy, Kelis are going to have to fight to get playing time other than blowout duty.
Ayanna, Ice, Jana, now Blanca (and throw Gandy in there too). Slow your roll. If Blanca gets into the rotation as one of the first 2 front court players off the bench, consider that a really good year for her. Not sure she's the second coming of Sarah Strong.
Sereh (SW), Sarah (SS), Ash, Azzi and KK will start. The only reason Ash doesn't start is if Geno wants her energy and scoring off the bench as the 6th person.
Jana, Blanca, Caroline, Morgan, Allie are the second unit, and by themselves could finish 2nd in the Big East. Throw Ice in there somewhere although with Serah ahead of her now she's going to compete with Blanca for time.
Ayanna, Gandy, Kelis are going to have to fight to get playing time other than blowout duty.
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I envision a different schema for Geno this coming year. He has more height overall and with Serah, Jana, Ice and Yanna, more potential in the paint than the past. He also has some interesting possibilities with his wings, Sarah, Blanca, Morgan and Caroline. With that in mind I wonder if he would reorient the offense accordingly to take the scoring pressure off the guards?
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poor Ice. Sad.
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Nope. Kayleigh at point if we get her. Azzi, Serah, Sara, and one of a number of other guard/forwards with a nod to Morgan for her size and aggession (plus Coach likes her game.)
Ash and KK per last year, and Ice has more upside to utilize. Many will never get off the bench unless Geno creates a special second team to play exclusively against all Big East teams.
I’m curious how Yanna will do assuming she is healthy and able to play. She may be able to take minutes from Ice- Yanna is a better rebounder and defender. Ice is a better shooter, but she takes so few shots that it doesn’t matter.
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That probably is the starting 5.
Kk, Azzi, Sarah, Serah and either Ash or Bianca. That is a ridiculously good starting 5/6...
Serah Williams, who is 6-foot-4, averaged 19.2 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.3 blocks this past season and was the 2023-2024 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team all conference selection.
Of course I am extremely happy myself that we got Serah Williams but I still don't like or agree with the portal.
But I guess I can smile because it looks like 2 NCS in a row.
yeah but what else we gon' do?
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PG KK......(Kayleigh).......Kelis
SG Azzi.......Ashlynn......Allie
W Blanca.....Morgan......Caroline
PF Sarah......Ice......Ayanna
C Serah......Jana......Gandy
Obviously if Kayleigh doesn't sign Kelis moves up
Morgan could under certain circumstances play PG
If Caroline is any where near her old self she moves ahead of Morgan
Gandy will get the least PT
I can see Geno & staff mixing and matching depending on our opponent
SG Azzi.......Ashlynn......Allie
W Blanca.....Morgan......Caroline
PF Sarah......Ice......Ayanna
C Serah......Jana......Gandy
Obviously if Kayleigh doesn't sign Kelis moves up
Morgan could under certain circumstances play PG
If Caroline is any where near her old self she moves ahead of Morgan
Gandy will get the least PT
I can see Geno & staff mixing and matching depending on our opponent
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You got that right !, except that (if Kayleigh) came aboard, Geno may want to use her in the Chen role as a starter, just because he likes to bring the terror twins (KK and Ash) in together to finish off teams that are already wobbly on the ropes from dealing with the speed of the starting lineup. One nice trait of Kayleigh is that she really pushes the pace on offense, with long passes, in much the same way as Nika Muhl used to.
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I think Serah has to be in the starting lineup.
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Blanca is the big question for me. What does it mean if she cracks the starting lineup as a freshman?
One thing it would mean is she’s proven something to Geno in practice. And if she’s done that, she’d also have proven it to her teammates. I suspect none of them would want to feel like they have a starting spot for any other reason than this. If Blanca starts she’ll have their support. One of the effects of Geno’s coaching style is that it acquaints players with themselves: selfless team play requires a bit of self-knowledge. I expect this also makes winning even sweeter.
If Blanca starts she’ll have leapfrogged over Morgan, Allie, Carol and Ash. When any of them rotates in for her during games I’m sure they’ll congratulate her and play their hearts out both to support what the starters have accomplished and to supplant her as a starter in the next game. And if they succeed, she’ll congratulate them and continue the competition for that spot. This is the best kind of camaraderie.
One thing it would mean is she’s proven something to Geno in practice. And if she’s done that, she’d also have proven it to her teammates. I suspect none of them would want to feel like they have a starting spot for any other reason than this. If Blanca starts she’ll have their support. One of the effects of Geno’s coaching style is that it acquaints players with themselves: selfless team play requires a bit of self-knowledge. I expect this also makes winning even sweeter.
If Blanca starts she’ll have leapfrogged over Morgan, Allie, Carol and Ash. When any of them rotates in for her during games I’m sure they’ll congratulate her and play their hearts out both to support what the starters have accomplished and to supplant her as a starter in the next game. And if they succeed, she’ll congratulate them and continue the competition for that spot. This is the best kind of camaraderie.
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I think KK-- who just won Kelsey Plum's "Big Dawg" award for MVP at Plum's point guard academy-- has earned her spot. The idea that a transfer just comes in and is the heir apparent to the starting position makes me uncomfortable and seems really disrespectful to KK.
Additionally, team chemistry is so important, I'm not convinced that two transfers plus three first years (five new players to the team) is necessarily a good thing. Perhaps as important as Paige's basketball skill and acumen was the intangible value she brought to the entire team as support and team glue. She supported Caroline by flying to Florida to be with her during treatment; she was always Azzi's support during her injuries. Her team spirit absolutely found its way to the box score.
And finally, y'all are tempting the injury gods. Being happy with what we have seems to me to be the best way to placate those gods. (Just look at my avatar.)
Additionally, team chemistry is so important, I'm not convinced that two transfers plus three first years (five new players to the team) is necessarily a good thing. Perhaps as important as Paige's basketball skill and acumen was the intangible value she brought to the entire team as support and team glue. She supported Caroline by flying to Florida to be with her during treatment; she was always Azzi's support during her injuries. Her team spirit absolutely found its way to the box score.
And finally, y'all are tempting the injury gods. Being happy with what we have seems to me to be the best way to placate those gods. (Just look at my avatar.)
diggerfoot
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I often have played devil’s advocate, both in regards to length of rotation and newcomers starting. There are times when a #30 ranked recruit starts right away, as with Dolson, and when a #1-2 ranked recruit does not, as with Sales, Ralph, Taurasi and Moore. The difference seems to be more in terms of position of need than the ranking. Even in a positionless offense there is a lead guard who specializes in leading the offense and a Center who anchors the defense. These are the positions where newcomers are most likely to start right away if the need is there.
The portal has added a new wrinkle to “newcomer,” in that they may only be here for one year. When that is the case we have seen those newcomers starting so far, a la Chen and LLS. When they have more than one year available they have not, a la Stevens and Juhacz. While no one is guaranteed playing time, I expect that any accomplished player with just one year left would be reluctant to transfer in unless they thought their opportunity to start in their last year would be favorable. Those with more than one year ahead would be receptive to not starting, considering that even nonstarters in our program have gone on to WNBA careers.
S. Williams transferring in always made sense. While I think El-Affy has shown she can be a competent Center for us, she is still an underclassman with more years ahead to show she deserves to be our starting Center of the future. S. Williams can and likely will start with no adverse affects.
I previously argued against Kneepkens because she only had one year left and would need to start over guards who were now upperclassmen that had proven their championship worth. I did not think much good would come from Kneepkens joining us. However, Heckel as an underclassman is different. Transferring in but not starting still makes sense for her, just as it made sense for Stevens and Juhacz or, for that matter, the highly ranked recruits of Sales, Ralph, Taurasi and Moore coming in as freshmen. Plus Fudd will be gone next year and that spot open in the future for a determined guard.
Starting five prediction based on these factors:
Arnold
Fudd
Shade
Strong
Williams
The portal has added a new wrinkle to “newcomer,” in that they may only be here for one year. When that is the case we have seen those newcomers starting so far, a la Chen and LLS. When they have more than one year available they have not, a la Stevens and Juhacz. While no one is guaranteed playing time, I expect that any accomplished player with just one year left would be reluctant to transfer in unless they thought their opportunity to start in their last year would be favorable. Those with more than one year ahead would be receptive to not starting, considering that even nonstarters in our program have gone on to WNBA careers.
S. Williams transferring in always made sense. While I think El-Affy has shown she can be a competent Center for us, she is still an underclassman with more years ahead to show she deserves to be our starting Center of the future. S. Williams can and likely will start with no adverse affects.
I previously argued against Kneepkens because she only had one year left and would need to start over guards who were now upperclassmen that had proven their championship worth. I did not think much good would come from Kneepkens joining us. However, Heckel as an underclassman is different. Transferring in but not starting still makes sense for her, just as it made sense for Stevens and Juhacz or, for that matter, the highly ranked recruits of Sales, Ralph, Taurasi and Moore coming in as freshmen. Plus Fudd will be gone next year and that spot open in the future for a determined guard.
Starting five prediction based on these factors:
Arnold
Fudd
Shade
Strong
Williams
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