Of all UCONN Freshman was Maya most consistent

[hoopfan515]

We all know what Stewie did her Freshman year in the Final Four and NCAA Tournament. However, Stewie also had her ups and downs throughout her first season and had the luxury of coming off the bench. Other great UCONN players such as Diana Taurasi, and Shea also came off the bench during their Freshman year.

I think Geno would love to use Christyn Williams off the bench if they had more depth. Like Christyn, Maya too started as a Freshman from day one. Maya is reminding me how great she really was by showing how hard and unusual it is for a player to bring the same fire every game.

 

[DeeHusky]

She was. Kaleena was as well. She led team in scoring her freshman year off the bench.

 

[MilfordHusky]

She was. Kaleena was as well. She led team in scoring her freshman year off the bench.

Kaleena outscored Tiffany as a freshman and Stewie as a sophomore. She was Special K. As Geno noted, though, K had a freshman slump during which she “pouted.” She shot a little under .400 from the arc for the year, by far her poorest shooting year.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Maya set the Big East Freshman scoring record. She tied the Big East Freshman record for double-doubles (matching Tina with 11). She set the record for being selected the Big East Freshman of the Week the most times (10, breaking Rebecca's 16-year-old mark of 7). She was a consensus AP (5-player) First-Team All-American each of her four years, including her freshman year. She finished 2nd, 1st, 2nd, and 1st in AP POY voting. Maya played in all 154 games and, I believe, scored in double-figures in 150 of them. She scored 3,036 career points. A player does not get that many if she has a prolonged slump. Maya was the hallmark of consistency.

Stewie set the UConn Freshman mark for the most points in her first 10 games, just surpassing Maya's mark. But then teams learned to get physical with Stewie, and she struggled. The low point came in the February 18 loss to Baylor--zero points and zero rebounds in 7 minutes. (Kaleena had 26 points and 15 rebounds in that game.) Shortly after that, Stewie began to find her way and rose like the Phoenix from the ashes, culminating in being named the Final Four MOP. She was pretty much untouchable after that. Christyn has about 3 weeks longer than Stewie had to turn things around. I'd love to see Christyn "get it" for March.

 

[DaBball]

Lou had a pretty good freshman season too. She was on one of (if not the) most dominant UConn teams in WCBB history, and averaged 11 PPG on nearly 50/40/80 shooting, which is pretty darn impressive for a freshman.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Maya did not start until Mel and/or Kalana went out for the year with a knee injury. In perhaps the understatement of the century, Geno said, “I like to bring Maya in off the bench, because not many teams have a bench player they can bring in to counter her.” Bench player? There was only 1 starter that year who was comparable to Maya, and that was Candace Parker. Candace was the AP POY. Maya finished 2nd in the balloting.

 

[lebronfan23]

Geno respected Maya. He doesn’t respect the new new kids. He wants to bring them to low points where they just start questioning everything especially there confidence and that’s obviously not working anymore. Times are changing and players are changing.

 

[uconnfan68]

Geno respected Maya. He doesn’t respect the new new kids. He wants to bring them to low points where they just start questioning everything especially there confidence and that’s obviously not working anymore. Times are changing and players are changing.

Hey, get off our lawn!

 

[inthisopinion]

Maya is the greatest college player I've ever seen in the women's game. In fact during her career I considered her the best college player man or woman at that time. Of course, she was the best freshman player in UConn history or any school's history. One could make the case that KLS is equal to any UConn frosh since considering she had to defer to Stewart on that team where Stewart had no such situation in her frosh season.