POLL: NOW that the roster is complete, choose your starters...

[HuskyPhan]

Whose the knucklehead that didn't vote for Sarah Strong to start?

It's so obvious that Sarah Strong herself has a fake Boneyard moniker and didn't vote for herself on that Starter Poll-damn, I thought I couldn't love her anymore than I do already

 

[fomalhaut]

It may turn out to be the case that who starts is not very important, as the depth will allow more frequent substitutions than any team we've seen.

 

[Next 12]

Need help. How do I change my name to Next13?":

 

[Skeets]

You need to change your name to "Next 13"! LOL

No need. We got 12 and now we're working on the "Next 12".

 

[SVCBeercats]

So you don't think KK is going to stay in the starting lineup?

I voted for KK but now that I have had a look at her stats ... maybe not. She shot 21% for 3pters. However, Heckel is not much better at 28%. Big drop from Kaitlin's 35% and Paige's 42%. Shade (41%) or Azzi (43%) at the point with Cheli (37%) or Ziebell (34%) providing 3pt buckets and more rebounding?! KK as the Energizer Bunny off the bench with defense and penetration offense? KK PRACTICE 3PTERS ALL SUMMER LONG! GET YOUR EYES CHECKED ... SERIOUSLY!

 

[SVCBeercats]

Just found Bianca's 3pter% 27.6%. OK! Big C and Big Z warm up!!!!

 

[Next 12]

No need. We got 12 and now we're working on the "Next 12".

BRILLIANT, Skeets. THANK YOU!!!!!

 

[DEpup]

So I hope the 2 people who didn't choose Strong are just trying to be funny....

 

[uconnfan68]

I think the more relevant question is how many in the rotation? Eight, nine or 10? I vote 10. The squad is too good for the depth to be ignored.

All 15. Geno will have to figure it out. Expect a lot of mix-and-match early.

 

[KCD]

I don’t know if it will be a surprise but Blanca will be next season’s Sarah Strong…. She will start on Day one!!!

I thought about Blanca, but I just don't know enough about her yet. I have very high hopes for her from what I heard, but I have not seen that much tape on her. I have KK, Azzi, Ash, Sarah, and Serah. For the 3, I think that Blanca and Morgan will get most of those minutes and Caroline depending on how she's doing (if she's all the way back, she will pick up quite a bit of time). Ash will still get time, she's too valuable to not get her time (as she has shown for both years so far).

 

[SoCalCanine]

So I hope the 2 people who didn't choose Strong are just trying to be funny....

Well, if that is their motivation, they are destined to fail. The poll is anonymous unless someone tells us how they voted. So even if someone found this "funny" (hard to believe), they couldn't even connect the laugh to a particular voter. My guess is that a couple of people may have confused Sarah and Serah? I still would love to hear the rationale of these two voters.

 

[diggerfoot]

I don’t know if it will be a surprise but Blanca will be next season’s Sarah Strong…. She will start on Day one!!!

Or perhaps she will be next season’s M. Moore and not start on Day one.

I would bet you a pizza Quinones will not start in the first game, except that injuries have been derailing my bets and I’m starting to get superstitious.

 

[Bald Husky]

I think we can all agree on Azzi, Sarah, Serah, and KK. The other position is up for grabs, but the most popular choices are Ashlyn and Blanca. I voted for Blanca, but I believe that Ash will get the starting nod. We all have seen from Nika and Jana that players fresh from playing overseas have a hard time with the lack of physical play, in other words, foul trouble. I think Geno will have Blanca come off the bench until she proves she can control her physical play. Her talent will become obvious, and her value I'm sure will shine through, but I think as long as Ash can produce, she will be the starter for the season. She deserves it, as much as KK does. Blanca will get her minutes for sure, but Ash will be the fifth starter.

 

[Fossil]

I'm inclined to agree with you, but I could see a lineup of Jana at the 5 Serah at the 4 and Sarah at the 3 with Azzi at shooting guard and KK at point. I didn't vote for it, but I can see it as a possibility.

(My starting five was KK, Ash, Azzi, Sarah,and Serah.)

I think four are a given Azzi KK Sarah and Williams, but the fifth starter to me is the big question. With Jana that would free up strong to wander and freelance a little bit at the 3. Without knowing the health of Caroline and Morgan Ice would be the first sub for the Biggs and Ash would be the first sub for the guards and possibly Sarah at the three go small and keep a shooter in the game.Kayliegh would be KK sub. I don’t believe that the big lineup is all that slow strong is deceptively quick and Williams is not slow. If Ash starts. We don’t know who the scorer is coming off the bench many questions about health and experience. if Caroline is completely healthy and playing as well as she can pull Jana move Williams to the five strong to the four Caroline to the three and Ashlyn first off the bench. It’s amazing how stacked this team is. In car terminology. It’s a 16 cylinder Bugatti. It will certainly be interesting to see how Geno splits playing time. Can’t wait.

 

[Bone Dog]

I don’t believe that the big lineup is all that slow strong is deceptively quick and Williams is not slow.

I think this is a good question: how fast would a big lineup really be? I like to think of this in concrete terms (and I suspect Geno does too) — for a big, being fast means moving one’s feet on defense, moving without the ball on offense, and doing rim runs in transition. Sarah is really fast by all these measures, Serah appears to be fast by the first two and maybe the third. The same is true of Ice, who doesn’t really get out in transition much, but moves her feet well elsewhere. Jana was pretty fast by the first measure and maybe the second, but I don’t recall seeing her do a single rim run last season.

The next natural question is, why should Geno care if the bigs can get out in transition? Two reasons I can think of:

• It means when he runs high hedges in the halfcourt defense there’s a constant threat of a big initiating the break.
• It discourages opposing bigs from simply camping out near the baseline on offense.

Geno hasn’t always had bigs who were good at rim runs. Kara and Stef were not fast in transition. But Rebecca and Tina and Jess and Stewie were, to name just a few. And in recent years, it’s clear he really wanted to use Liv and Aaliyah and Dorka this way, running in transition and doing rim runs. Very few teams UConn faced were prepared to deal with Aaliyah especially when she got out in transition, which happened frequently. She generated a lot of these herself with steals out past the top of the key. Small guards were rarely able to cope with her barreling down on them one-on-one. This is obviously also true of Sarah now. But Liv and Dorka also ran the court well and made themselves available for outlet passes from Paige or Nika or Evina.

Bigs doing rim runs may not be the most important feature of Geno’s game plans. But not having it as an ever present threat removes a dimension of his defense. And it’s a clear deficiency to Jana’s current game, and to lesser extent for Ice too. When they’re both on the floor, opposing bigs are less challenged to keep up with them. I suspect they will both work hard on this for next season.

 

[Inthepaint]

Wishful thinking;
Caroline at the 3

 

[CL82]

I think four are a given Azzi KK Sarah and Williams, but the fifth starter to me is the big question. With Jana that would free up strong to wander and freelance a little bit at the 3. Without knowing the health of Caroline and Morgan Ice would be the first sub for the Biggs and Ash would be the first sub for the guards and possibly Sarah at the three go small and keep a shooter in the game.Kayliegh would be KK sub. I don’t believe that the big lineup is all that slow strong is deceptively quick and Williams is not slow. If Ash starts. We don’t know who the scorer is coming off the bench many questions about health and experience. if Caroline is completely healthy and playing as well as she can pull Jana move Williams to the five strong to the four Caroline to the three and Ashlyn first off the bench. It’s amazing how stacked this team is. In car terminology. It’s a 16 cylinder Bugatti. It will certainly be interesting to see how Geno splits playing time. Can’t wait.

It wouldn't be my guess at a starting lineup, but, as I noted in my post, I can see how it would be functional. Sarah is a bit of a unicorn in that she can easily play four different positions on the floor and honestly in a pinch, she could probably play any position. Similarly, Serah is a multi dimensional player, who is not an offensive liability for us. That gives us the luxury of being able to play both of them plus Jana who at this stage of her career is more of a traditional back to the basket big without sacrificing much offensive efficiency.

I agree with you. It's easy to pick the first four starters. I would put Ashlynn in the fifth slot, as she brings defensive intensity while still being a strong offensive threat, but you can make arguments for others.

We are definitely loaded, still doomed mind you, but loaded.

 

[oldhusky]

Wondering what the second 5 might be

Me too, but this poll suggests we pretty much know three of them. One big in Jana, one wing in Blanca, and one guard in Kaleigh. Of course a significant number would substitute Blanca for Ashlynn as the 5th starter at the 3, but beyond the first 8 is pretty much a crap shoot.

First if nobody else really stands out Geno could ride with that 8 player rotation. The rest of the rotation conceivably might not include any additional players, but I expect at least a couple more to do well enough to convince Geno to go 10 deep. The versatility of some of the presumed top 8, plus the rest of the roster probably means the 9th and 10th rotation players, even if we use that many, will likely be the next best players with little emphasis on position.

If i was guessing I would say one from Ice or Ayanna, plus Morgan due to her versatility.

 

[Happydad745]

I chose Jana to start over Ash, either one would work. Having a big Center, a power forward, a shooting forward, a shooting guard and a PG is the standard type lineup. As the season progresses, many things will change.

 

[ec33]

I voted for KK but now that I have had a look at her stats ... maybe not. She shot 21% for 3pters. However, Heckel is not much better at 28%. Big drop from Kaitlin's 35% and Paige's 42%. Shade (41%) or Azzi (43%) at the point with Cheli (37%) or Ziebell (34%) providing 3pt buckets and more rebounding?! KK as the Energizer Bunny off the bench with defense and penetration offense? KK PRACTICE 3PTERS ALL SUMMER LONG! GET YOUR EYES CHECKED ... SERIOUSLY!

I did notice that the 2 point guards on the team didn't add up to 100%.

I find it hard to believe that Geno goes from starting 2 and 3 PGs over the past two years to starting 0 point guards. And keep in mind, that Nika Muhl was a starting PG for the vast majority of her career and shooting was not an overall strong point. I am not sure how much one summer will do, but I would expect them both to shoot better in next year than this past year (although I could see K9 potentially taking over at some point if KK fails to improve all that much and K9 does improve).

 

[mainerhuski]

Don’t count the Sarah-Serah-Jana combo out - Geno may see a matchup advantage if he needs both size and skill on both ends of the court.

I agree. I have seen no evidence that Sarah or Serah are slow, and Jana was much improved by the end of the season, especially post-Ramadan.

 

[MSGRET]

The three starters for sure are Azzi, KK, and Sarah. I believe that the other two for the first game are Jana and Ash.

 

[EMLady]

I think Geno will have Ashlynn starting because of her experience in his system but I believe Blanca will be starting in 2026!

I think Ash is going to be next season's KK--coming off the bunch to give a shot of energy and disruption. She's totally fearless.

 

[ERWUC65]

I did notice that the 2 point guards on the team didn't add up to 100%.

I find it hard to believe that Geno goes from starting 2 and 3 PGs over the past two years to starting 0 point guards. And keep in mind, that Nika Muhl was a starting PG for the vast majority of her career and shooting was not an overall strong point. I am not sure how much one summer will do, but I would expect them both to shoot better in next year than this past year (although I could see K9 potentially taking over at some point if KK fails to improve all that much and K9 does improve).

Nika was the last true PG that ran the offense. KC was the PG during her time at Princeton and had great moments especially late in the season here. But it was mostly Paige once the ball got over the mid stripe. If Geno's thinking is to keep Azzi at the 2, both to have her concentrate on shooting, but also watch her minutes, then the PG position becomes super critical to the success of the team. Consequently I expect to see quite a bit of rotation with KK, K9 and Kelis both in practice and early games to see who has that particular skill set to (1) bring up the ball (handles), (2) run the offense (BBIQ), and score (3's, post ups, and drives). I might also expect that Geno will take some pressure off there by more plays for the bigs and wings now with Serah and Blanca on board.

 

[ec33]

The three starters for sure are Azzi, KK, and Sarah. I believe that the other two for the first game are Jana and Ash.

No Serah, eh? It would be great if that was because Jana was outplaying Serah and not out of "loyalty/continuity."