Our Nucleus is key

[Tonyc]

What made Sarah so effective last season was when she played down low in our small ball formation Sarah could come out and hit an outside shot while many times her defender remained a distance away. Another point was Paige took pressure off Sarah and Azzi allowing them a bit more time to get their shot off. We will see how that plays out this season with Paige gone. I am confident with all our other options that will not be a problem because Azzi and Sarah will draw alot of attention and they will find their open teammate and those teammates are special players who can create their own shot.

I feel we have so much talent that will step up it wont matter. Azzi and Sarah both have a pull up jumper and a deep outside shot. Both are very difficult to defend. With that said we have so many others who can score in a variety of different ways and Ash has shown she too has a pull up jumper. This will help their teammates. I am expecting to see alot of improvement from and alot of confidence from our veterans. One thing I saw at the Sacred Heart practice was confidence in KK Caroline Ice and Kayleigh. We are going to see see a monster of a team this season. With so much talent and growth this team is destined. So many comments on the board of how good this team is. I think were better then we think and as the season progresses we will mold into a well oiled machine again. Complete dominance. We have no weak links. I think that is a huge key. We have players on a mission because of the belief that was created last season winning the NC against 3 number 1 teams. That was a tuff road and UConn dominated them without question. This season we have more experience, we are healthy, we have grown so much from last season and most of all we have confidence. We have alot of stars that will shine this season. Geno has done alot with lesser talent. This season he has an abundance of talent and I can only imagine what he will do with it

 

[Bone Dog]

Azzi and Sarah both have a pull up jumper and a deep outside shot… and Ash has shown she too has a pull up jumper.

I share much of your optimism, but I have one caveat here. The pull up jumper has long been a staple of Geno’s offense and Paige was an absolute master of it. Dee and Maya too. And as Tim Fudd said in an interview recently, it was a staple of Azzi’s game before her injury, and he’s happy to see it return as a sign of her confidence.

But my bugaboo about pull up jumpers is that they’re not the same as a midrange jumper or an elbow jumper. Sarah is not known for her pull up jumper even though she has an excellent midrange game. I’d say the same about Aaliyah who had an excellent elbow jumper and drove the lane or the baseline really well. A pull up requires something else, a quick move off the dribble and a sudden stop and jump. It’s really hard to do well and it can be hard on one’s joints. This is mainly the territory of guards not bigs. And for the guards it requires a lot of nerve since it often means getting the shot off among the tall trees. This was Paige’s genius. Azzi has it too, and so does Ash. Kaitlyn didn’t have this move in her arsenal and neither does KK. I’m curious to see if Kayleigh does. And I’m even more curious to see if Blanca has one or can develop one.

Having three players on a roster who have a pull up jumper is a lot. Very few teams have even one, mainly because coaches don’t teach it as much as they used to because of so-called analytics. Jordan King on Marquette had a really good one. Jasmine Bascoe on Villanova has one too.

On UConn, Azzi and Ash have one, and it remains to be seen if a third will emerge. In my view, it’s the most important part of an offensive scheme, a reliable midrange shot that can be created off the dribble. It’s more important than a three-pointer or a post move. It’s not because UConn more points off them. The value lies in its reliability. It’s the staple of the ‘bucket-getter,’ the player who can be counted to stop an opponent’s run and calm her teammates down. This is what Paige and Geno understand so well. Just watch the Oklahoma game to see the truth of it.