PG for this season: Paige, Azzi, KK, Kaitlyn, Morgan

[Steelerone]

Unfortunately, Paige is multi talented and, while probably being the most talented for the point guard position, Geno realizes her rebounding and shooting ability. She will be a "tweener", serving as a guard and small forward, even when designated otherwise.

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

Just to be clear, @NycUcWbbFan and @hoophuskee, I said Geno didn't replace Aubrey with Nika because the default starters at the beginning of the season did not include Aubrey. He was trying out replacements for Anna. You can see it in the boxscores from the season if you like: WBB: 2020-2021 Game Replays. It was Olivia Evina Christyn Anna and Paige from the the first game. When Anna had to work through an injury, he tried Aaliyah and Aubrey in the position before settling on Nika. In other words, Geno had not approached the season with the assumption that Aubrey would be his fifth starter. She was just one of the stopgaps he tried before settling on Nika. And just generally, Geno has tended to use Aubrey as a 6th woman, and in that role she's one of the best in D1. Naturally, I'm not including the first half of last season, because injuries forced Aubrey into a starting role, and Geno had some humorous comments about this.

I realize this is a fine distinction, but I think it's worth attending to because people often misrepresent the way Nika came into the lineup and also the way Aubrey tended to function on Geno's teams.

Simplistically, this question for me boils down to:

• (a) Is the break (Aubrey due to Anna’s injury) in a pattern (Anna) just a break in a pattern?
• (b) Or is the break in the pattern, now a new pattern — a pattern that Nika broke (as a result of UConn’s loss to AK)?

A way to decide between (a) and (b) is number of games:

• (1) Anna in starting lineup: 6 games;
• (2) Aubrey in starting lineup: 4-5 games (I am counting the 1/23 game when Paige DNP);
• (3) Nika in starting lineup: 13 games
• (4) Aaliyah in starting lineup (due to Nika’s injury): 5 games;

I am firmly in (b).

 

[Bone Dog]

Simplistically, this question for me boils down to:

• (a) Is the break (Aubrey due to Anna’s injury) in a pattern (Anna) just a break in a pattern?
• (b) Or is the break in the pattern, now a new pattern — a pattern that Nika broke (as a result of UConn’s loss to AK)?

A way to decide between (a) and (b) is number of games:

• (1) Anna in starting lineup: 6 games;
• (2) Aubrey in starting lineup: 4-5 games (I am counting the 1/23 game when Paige DNP);
• (3) Nika in starting lineup: 13 games
• (4) Aaliyah in starting lineup (due to Nika’s injury): 5 games;

I am firmly in (b).

Okay, but a few caveats.

1. Anna only came out of the starting lineup because of injury, while Aubrey came out because of something Geno saw in gameplay he didn't like. It was conceivable that Anna could have kept the starting spot but for the injury, but I don't think Geno had any notion of returning Aubrey to the starting lineup.
2. and neither Anna or Aubrey was playing PG. It wasn't until Nika came in that the PG duties were shifted partially away from Paige and Evina. I think this changes the meaning of your proposed decider. It's a simple replacement if the role is the same.
3. Also, don't forget, Aaliyah also started against Providence on 1/9.
4. Finally, the Arkansas and Tennessee games were perhaps what decided Geno because, though Aubrey played well enough in them, Paige did not. Of the Arkansas game, Paige said she started looking for her shot too late, despite Geno's urging, and in the Tennessee game Paige shot quite poorly until the very end, even before she turned her ankle. What I mean is, he saw how thin the team was if Paige had an off night. Neither Aubrey nor Anna was enough to take up the slack, even when they played relatively well. This called for a shakeup.

Maybe the upshot of this is that you're right. But I still think it doesn't quite feel right to say simply that Nika replaced Aubrey. Something more complicated was going on there.

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

Okay, but a few caveats.

1. Anna only came out of the starting lineup because of injury, while Aubrey came out because of something Geno saw in gameplay he didn't like. It was conceivable that Anna could have kept the starting spot but for the injury, but I don't think Geno had any notion of returning Aubrey to the starting lineup.
2. and neither Anna or Aubrey was playing PG. It wasn't until Nika came in that the PG duties were shifted partially away from Paige and Evina. I think this changes the meaning of your proposed decider. It's a simple replacement if the role is the same.
3. Also, don't forget, Aaliyah also started against Providence on 1/9.
4. Finally, the Arkansas and Tennessee games were perhaps what decided Geno because, though Aubrey played well enough in them, Paige did not. Of the Arkansas game, Paige said she started looking for her shot too late, despite Geno's urging, and in the Tennessee game Paige shot quite poorly until the very end, even before she turned her ankle. What I mean is, he saw how thin the team was if Paige had an off night. Neither Aubrey nor Anna was enough to take up the slack, even when they played relatively well. This called for a shakeup.

Maybe the upshot of this is that you're right. But I still think it doesn't quite feel right to say simply that Nika replaced Aubrey. Something more complicated was going on there.

While I agree with all your points #, I don’t see how they are germaine to the simplistic lens I described above.

A starting lineup is the coach’s best guess of the optimal five given the available roster:

• a starting lineup changes when there is an injury to a starter (e.g. Anna, Nika), or the coach determines the lineup as suboptimal (e.g. Ark loss);
• starting lineups with Anna, Aubrey, Nika and Aaliyah were for several games, so it is a little weird to think that Aubrey’s starting lineup (4-5 games) was just a bridge starting lineup — it could have gone for longer if UConn didn’t lose to Arkansas — and Anna’s starting lineup (6 games) was not substantially longer;
• maybe it helps to think of the transition as a change from the Aubrey starting lineup to the Nika starting lineup — not simply Nika just directly replacing Aubrey — since the two starting lineups distinctly differed in how they operated as a team.

# Yes, the tally of number of games for Aaliyah in the starting lineup includes the 1/9 Providence game.

 

[hoophuskee]

What am I missing? Why does it matter who Nika replaced? The point is she replaced someone which gave UCONN in one area better passing among other things. And this discussion relates to the creation subject of this thread that UCONN could possibly have sharing of pg duties rather than just Paige. So, it's not like this is off-topic.

And I'm not saying this will happen. I believe in my opinion it will but Geno may very well decide other such as Paige then non-pg's. But the fact is - it is not without precedent to have Paige share pg. Which I believe will do in part because players like Caroline won't be healthy enough to trust.

And it is possible that Nika would have started earlier. In her frosh year she missed 3 games in December. Also mised the Tenn game.

 

[Bone Dog]

While I agree with all your points #, I don’t see how they are germaine to the simplistic lens I described above.

A starting lineup is the coach’s best guess of the optimal five given the available roster

You’re right, of course. I was engaged in a reverie instead of a focused analysis. But I wouldn’t have said the Aubrey lineup was a bridge, since it wasn’t necessarily leading to a pre-ordained end. That’s why I spoke of all these lineups as experimental, until he got to the Nika lineup. That seemed to be the one he liked best.

Also, I tend to give a privilege to the first one, though clearly there are notable exceptions. He spent the summer and the fall working on it. I take that to mean he thought Nika wasn’t ready for the job in November, but his assessment changed and he reconsidered the structure of the lineup.

I find it interesting that he went with a 4-guard lineup that season too. He only had 11 on the roster including a walk-on, though Saylor arrived in the spring. But this 4-guard lineup was by choice unlike last season. He tried Aaliyah next to Liv against Providence and opted against continuing with it. Admittedly these were initially big guards when it was Paige Evina and Anna, and subsequently Aubrey, who is arguably not a guard. Each around 6’. Only Jesuit was 5’10”. And then he went even smaller with Nika instead of Aubrey.

I go into these side alleys merely to try to understand the nature of Geno’s thinking when he turned to Nika. He didn’t just replace a player. He revamped the lineup, going from a big guard to a power forward to a small forward to an even smaller guard. Another less precise way to put it: he went from a 4-out offense to a 3-2 to a smaller 3-2 to an even smaller 4-out.

This is clearly not a perfect analysis by any means. Maybe it’s useful as a thought experiment.

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

What am I missing? Why does it matter who Nika replaced? The point is she replaced someone which gave UCONN in one area better passing among other things. And this discussion relates to the creation subject of this thread that UCONN could possibly have sharing of pg duties rather than just Paige. So, it's not like this is off-topic.

And I'm not saying this will happen. I believe in my opinion it will but Geno may very well decide other such as Paige then non-pg's. But the fact is - it is not without precedent to have Paige share pg. Which I believe will do in part because players like Caroline won't be healthy enough to trust.

And it is possible that Nika would have started earlier. In her frosh year she missed 3 games in December. Also mised the Tenn game.

You are not missing anything.

Your post 108, with the requested clarification on Nika I supplied in post 110, is the last non-redactive post in this odd saga of some second-guessing what Geno is doing that we can all see with our eyes and which he has freely explained.

While it may(?) have been amusing to play “50 First Dates” in argument form on this topic, the season is right around the corner.

 

[ashfan]

Since a related topic is active on the general board, perhaps we might chew on this over here too. I have a few observations.

• Paige is clearly the best PG in WBB, but there may be reasons not to use her in that spot this season, or at least not exclusively. She is a dazzling playmaker and floor general, as she has proven many times. But she is great in more ways than this, and if Geno uses her exclusively as a PG he may eclipse other players who aren't quite as versatile.
• Azzi could be a good PG, but this doesn't seem to fit her as well as it does Paige. I'm reminded of the Texas game 2 seasons ago, where she was brilliant as the PG, dominated the game, but it still seemed like a loose fit for her. SG seems so much more clearly to fit the way she thinks and reacts on the court. She is probably the pre-eminent SG in the game right now.
• KK is Geno's budding PG, but she may not be all the way there yet. On defense, she seems ready, but her offense is still rounding into form. The puzzle is how else to use her if not as PG. She is not quite SG material on offense which means she'd cost Geno a shooter when she's the on the floor as anything other than a PG.
• Kaitlyn is a fully fledged PG, as she has demonstrated over the past two seasons. She is solid at both ends of the floor, but can also be a second scorer at the SG spot.
• Morgan has the intensity on defense to be an excellent PG, and her size makes her a matchup nightmare for most other teams. She's not the shooter that Paige or Azzi (or Sarah) is, but she can crash the boards with the best guard in the game. At her best, Morgan is playmaker and a rebounder and full court defender, but she may need to develop the "court balance" mentality the best PGs have.

You may have noticed that Ash and Allie are not in this list. I don't doubt that if pressed, either could cover the spot for portions of a game. But it is clearly not Ash's best spot, and I suspect Allie will also seem out of place as a PG.

Finally, what about Sarah? She has good handles and a fabulous perimeter shot, as well as awesome rebounding and scoring skills in the paint. She may not have the foot speed to keep up with the quickest opponents on the perimeter. But she has really quick, strong hands and that may make up for a lot. I'm not seriously suggesting she play PG, merely because there are lots of other things Geno will want to use her for. But I can also imagine that her skillset may end up overlapping with whoever the PG is at any moment.

KISS! KK or Chen--that's it. Period. I'd go with KK; she is the future, near term and long term. Youth must be served.

 

[Alydar]

In their interviews after the first practice both Geno and Bueckers said that she needs the ball in her hands a lot more than in prior seasons. Less off-ball.

I win.

 

[Bone Dog]

Picture yourself hustling down the court to guard Paige, and breathing hard you leap at her in a vain effort to disturb her concentration... and she does this. How demoralizing. You exhaust yourself to no avail.

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

Oh, well…

Day 1: Kaitlyn, Ash, Paige, Sarah and Jana
When Azzi returns: Kaitlyn, Azzi, Paige, Sarah and Jana

I am changing my old starting lineup to reflect three recent items:

• (a) Geno saying Azzi might be available before UConn’s main OOC opponents;
• (b) Geno saying he wants Paige to handle the ball more;
• (c) Geno praising Kaitlyn in a way that is not just to prime WNBA scouts on her.

Underlying the change:

• (b) means Geno is ditching the 3-point guard lineup;
• (c) means Kaitlyn will be in the starting lineup;
• (a) means Ash in Day 1 starting lineup as it is a smoother transition to Azzi;
• Kaitlyn and Paige will be this year’s analog of Sue and Diana (scorer);
• Kaitlyn (and KK) will still be doing the ball-handling to mid-court and first pass past mid-court in most half-court possessions;
• there is enough mature playmaking available that the running game would not be as critical to OOC success as with TASSK’s first year — if Azzi is available for the main OOC games;
• Paige’s more ball touches is so she can be more aggressive as a scorer (killer mentality a la Diana (from Ringer article)) in addition to having more pass (point) opportunities compared to last year.

With (b), Geno is probably also thinking of some possessions that will utilize tactical rotations such as:

• Shooting Rotation with Paige, Azzi and (Ash/Q/Allie) as guards;
• Big Rotation with Paige, Azzi, Sarah, Ice, Jana;
• Disruptive Rotation 1 featuring Aubrey — who will be featured by Geno for her last season to convince scouts for the WNBA — and requires a shooter(s) in the lineup;
• Disruptive Rotation 2 — replace Aubrey above with Morgan. It may not just be happenstance that Aubrey seems to be the senior buddy of Morgan.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Yesterday, in the context of PG, Geno mentioned Paige, Kaitlyn, and KK. That makes sense to me.