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

[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.