Paige listen to your coach as Larry Legend listen to his coach!

[SVCBeercats]

A couple of blondies with similar traits.

 

[JellyBean]

Pretty nice. Thanks for sharing...and Paige....listen to your coach.

 

[chrissaran]

Paige does listen, which is why she said she needs to be more of a leader and take the game not just let it come to her.

 

[SVCBeercats]

Paige does listen, which is why she said she needs to be more of a leader and take the game not just let it come to her.

Saying and doing are required before one can say she is listening to Geno.

 

[Carnac]

The problem with our youths today is they don't know what they don't know. Oh but "IF" thy would only trust and listen to their elders, parents and those in whose care they have been entrusted (coaches), they would "buy in" sooner, and be so much farther ahead in the game of basketball and life. All of the coaches are telling her the same thing. No doubt her parents and teammates are as well.

The light will go on, if it hasn't already. I expect Paige to have an even more phenomenal year than last (if that's possible). All she has to do is take the shots (as Geno has told her to do) that the defense gives her, and manage the game. Be the floor general. She's already proven she can do that. UConn/Paige will be fine. She'll be surrounded with uber talented teammates again this season. She won't have to try and carry the team alone.

 

[Alydar]

Maybe my memory is bad but I have a clear recollection of Taurasi having a 4 year battle with her coach.
A leader leads and frankly there has never been a freshman at UConn that took the reins like Bueckers. And yet I read "the light will go on"? The light came on long before she enrolled at UConn.

If anyone needs their lights switched on it's the seniors.

 

[Littlemin]

Maybe my memory is bad but I have a clear recollection of Taurasi having a 4 year battle with her coach.
A leader leads and frankly there has never been a freshman at UConn that took the reins like Bueckers. And yet I read "the light will go on"? The light came on long before she enrolled at UConn.

If anyone needs their lights switched on it's the seniors.

Sorry but playing “your way”, not the coaches, and bad body language when coming out of the game does not a leader make. Neither does just being the most talented player. Having said that, Bueckers gets WAY more than just a pass from me because she was only a freshman, but IMO, she had an absolutely terrific freshman year with ample room for improvement.

 

[Carnac]

Maybe my memory is bad but I have a clear recollection of Taurasi having a 4 year battle with her coach.
A leader leads and frankly there has never been a freshman at UConn that took the reins like Bueckers. And yet I read "the light will go on"? The light came on long before she enrolled at UConn.

If anyone needs their lights switched on it's the seniors.

Alydar, of course you may disagree if you wish. I stand by my take. The light WAS NOT on before she came to UConn. Whatever she was doing for her HS, AAU and USA coaches and the way she was playing had nothing to do with what Geno wants and expects her to do while at UConn. Various different coaches, various different philosophies and approaches.

Last season, she was not doing what Geno wanted her to do. That's not my opinion. It has been acknowledged by Geno and her. SHE was doing what SHE wanted to do. No man (woman) can serve two masters. She is either going to do what Geno wants to do, or what SHE wants to do. There is no 3rd option. When players "buy-in" to a coach's program or philosophy, they buy-in 100%, and will do EXACTLY what the coach and his/her staff is teaching and telling them to do.

Taurasi had a 4 year battle with Geno because she was and still is stubborn. That's who she is. She wanted to do things HER way. Stubbornness is not a trait limited to athletes. I'm not sharing anything here you don't already know. That "light" has gone on for the rest of the team, in that, they are doing EXACTLY what they are being coached and told to do. Last year Geno wanted her to shoot more, especially at the beginning of the game. She wanted to wait and let the game come to her.

She said in a recent interview that she will take a more proactive approach to playing for Geno, and do what he wants her to do. Granted, she had a phenomenal year. She won ALL of the major awards going away. I'm not try to take anything from her. I'm on the front row of her cheering section. I hope she averages a triple double for the season. But as Littlemin suggests, there is still room for improvement. We'll see. IF she does, that means that the light has come on, she's doing it Geno's way, and she now get's it.

 

[Alydar]

Alydar, of course you may disagree if you wish. I stand by my take. The light WAS NOT on before she came to UConn. Whatever she was doing for her HS coach and the way she was playing had nothing to do with what Geno wants and expects her to do while at UConn. Two different coaches, two different philosophies and approaches.

Last season, she was not doing what Geno wanted her to do. That's not my opinion. It has been acknowledged by Geno and her. SHE was doing what SHE wanted to do. No man (woman) can serve two masters. She is either going to do what Geno wants to do, or what SHE wants to do. There is no 3rd option. When players "buy-in" to a coach's program or philosophy, they buy-in, and will do EXACTLY what the coach and his/her staff is teaching and telling them to do.

Taurasi had a 4 year battle with Geno because she was and still is stubborn. She wanted to do things HER way. Stubbornness is not a trait limited to athletes. I'm not sharing anything here you don't already know. That "light" has gone on for the rest of the team, in that, they are doing EXACTLY what they are being coached and told to do. Last year Geno wanted her to shoot more, especially at the beginning of the game. She wanted to wait and let the game come to her. She said in a recent interview that she will take a more proactive approach to playing for Geno, and do what he wants her to do. We'll see. IF she does, that means that the light has come on, and she now get's it.

When I read "the light turned on" I think of Charles, who while playing really well was still in and out of Geno's dog house for 2.5 seasons. Or Stokes, who spent her entire career as a sub because she refused to play aggressive offense. Bueckers' bulb is about 1000K times stronger than either of those two's, even when they were upperclassmen. Exactly how many times was Bueckers benched for not doing what Geno wanted?
As far as high school, Bueckers and her coach banged heads for 5 years. Even he said that Bueckers was very stubborn, that she just has to have the last word and that he was happy to let her. Cosgriff was the Geno of Minn. A coaching legend. And his teams relied on defensive pressure and a fast pace of play. In many ways it was UConn, only on a lower level. I can still put an old Hopkins game on and enjoy watching them play, and I'll bet I can count on one hand the high school games I've watched in their entirety since I turned 18. As an 8th grader in her 2nd varsity game she hit nine 3's . That isn't someone who is reluctant to shoot. She took more shots than anyone else on this season's UConn squad (14.6/gm). In 2015 Kelsey Mitchell, generally considered a selfish gunner on this board, averaged 19.4 shots/game. Five more shots/game than Bueckers. Mitchell was criticized for 4 years for taking too many shots and yet Geno and many here seem to want Bueckers to be more selfish and act more like Mitchell? I find that hard to swallow. And I don't think Geno wants that either.

Geno says a lot of things just for effect. Too many take him literally. When a freshman (or an 8th grader) is the best player on the team it can put stresses on team chemistry. I thought Bueckers showed a lot of maturity in the way she respected the upperclassmen. She also knew that when Mühl became a starter her job as a 2 was to get open and shoot and I thought she did that very well.
Cosgriff said it best when asked about how he coached Bueckers. "For the most part I just let her do what she wanted".

 

[Bald Husky]

Last year Paige did take more shots than anyone else at the direction of Geno. Geno knew she was the best shooter by far, and that their best chance to win was for her to shoot more. This year will be different with Azzi in the line-up. Now it can be spread around with more options, but that doesn't mean that it won't happen if needed. Paige will get her shots in, but it won't be the direction of Geno that pushes her to do so. Her job now is to show what kind of team player she is, and show us, as Sue did, how she can effectively run a team.