POLL: NOW that the roster is complete, choose your starters... | Page 4 | The Boneyard

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

Who will start on day 1? Vote for 5...

  • Azzi Fudd

  • Serah Williams

  • Caroline Ducharme

  • Ice Brady

  • KK Arnold

  • Ash Shade

  • Ayanna Patterson

  • Jana El Alfy

  • Allie Ziebell

  • Morgan Cheli

  • Sarah Strong

  • Kayleigh Heckel

  • Kelis Fisher

  • Gandy Malou-Mamel

  • Blanca Quinones

Results are only viewable after voting.
Vowelguy said:
Who’s the chucklehead who doesn’t have Sarah Strong starting?
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I was going to ask the same thing?! That had to have been an accidental click of the mouse. Makes ZERO sense.
 
Bone Dog said:
My inclination is to say that it doesn’t make sense to start Jana or Ice alongside Sarah and Serah. I worry that such a lineup would be too slow. But others seem to think this wouldn’t be a problem. I wonder if I'm too focused on overall team speed. After all, in seasons when we had Liv, Dorka and Aaliyah, Geno regularly had two bigs on the floor together and it wasn't a problem.

On the other hand, I remember the games right after Paige's first knee injury when Geno was forced at times to put all three of them on the floor at once -- against Ga Tech and UCLA -- and we lost the first and the second was a close call. Perhaps this is the wrong analogy.
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That is an interesting comparison and I agree that in general Liv, Dorka and Aaliyah at the same time didn't work, mostly because although Aaliyah has some perimeter skills, she is not the passer or outside shooter you would expect from that position, in essence a natural 4 somewhat out of position at the 3.

With this year's group of bigs, it is different, because one of them (Sarah) is quite capable of playing the 3, in fact maybe at an All American level. She has the three point shot and passes like a PG. It might be a little bit of a quickness question guarding smaller players, but I think she might be pretty good at that too. Serah can easily play the 4 well, and with Jana at the 5 this could be potent.

Having said that, the only combination of three bigs that is likely to work is with Sarah and only Sarah at the 3. We could play with a normal lineup, two bigs, a small lineup with just one, or a big lineup with three. All are possible at times IMO.
 
oldhusky said:
That is an interesting comparison and I agree that in general Liv, Dorka and Aaliyah at the same time didn't work, mostly because although Aaliyah has some perimeter skills, she is not the passer or outside shooter you would expect from that position, in essence a natural 4 somewhat out of position at the 3.

With this year's group of bigs, it is different, because one of them (Sarah) is quite capable of playing the 3, in fact maybe at an All American level. She has the three point shot and passes like a PG. It might be a little bit of a quickness question guarding smaller players, but I think she might be pretty good at that too. Serah can easily play the 4 well, and with Jana at the 5 this could be potent.

Having said that, the only combination of three bigs that is likely to work is with Sarah and only Sarah at the 3. We could play with a normal lineup, two bigs, a small lineup with just one, or a big lineup with three. All are possible at times IMO.
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If I had to guess, I'd say the season starts with Azzi Sarah Serah and KK playing ~25 minutes each. Exactly who gets what percentage of the remaining ~100 minutes will probably vary quite a bit through November and December. Whether that 5th starter is Jana or Ice or Ash or Kayleigh or Blanca or Morgan or Ayanna or Allie will probably be the subject of some careful experimentation and situational choices. Does Geno want a bigger lineup against one opponent or a quicker one against another? Of course, practice performance will be at the bottom of all of it, but this will not answer all questions.

But by mid-January, I expect the lineup situation to have settled into a few recurring patterns to allow for the process of building chemistry to develop. And by mid-February we should be able to see who the main rotation is pretty clearly.
 
ERWUC65 said:
I am sure many of us are perplexed as to why she has not caught on with any other schools, even Div II or III. I thought she had at least as much potential as Ines or Amari. Perhaps now that the UConn roster is full, she will find a home.
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It's a matching process.
I'm sure there are many schools that would love to have Q. But she might not have interest in them.
 
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I thought I voted for Herbert Hoover. Eh, mistakes were made, but Hoover would have been an awesome power forward playing next to Eleanor Roosevelt at the wing.
 
I went out on a limb and changed my vote from three (3) players to five (5), and for sentimental reasons went with Caroline, Azzi, Sarah, Serah and KK. Although it's unrealistic to believe Caroline could possibly be ready by day 1, if she's close ... I think Geno might start her. More realistically (if she can make it at all), she could be in the starting lineup by mid-January. Additionally, as I've been saying since before Kayleigh (k9) actually committed, I expect her to also be in the starting lineup by mid-January replacing KK. Not necessarily because I believe she is better than KK (we just can't know that at this point). For me, you can't put a price on team chemistry, and having KK and her enormous strenghs coming off the bench to stop any potential turnarounds by our opponents is one of those "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" situations.
 
As much as I love Caroline D I don't see her starting, even if she come all the way back. Just not fast enough and
her shot is not consistent enough. I know that she is a BY favorite but her ability on the court just is not there?
 
cgshuskie said:
As much as I love Caroline D I don't see her starting, even if she come all the way back. Just not fast enough and
her shot is not consistent enough. I know that she is a BY favorite but her ability on the court just is not there?
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Disagree. Sorry. She wasn't up to speed in April, but she could well be caught up by October. More importantly, she looks to be just about as fast as she ever was, and though she's not quick like the little guards, she made up for that with her crafty moves. Once the perimeter shot returns, she'll have what she needs to beat players off the dribble. This is what she has always known how to do.
 
cgshuskie said:
As much as I love Caroline D I don't see her starting, even if she come all the way back. Just not fast enough and
her shot is not consistent enough. I know that she is a BY favorite but her ability on the court just is not there?
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Obviously you have either forgotten her abilities or perhaps never actually saw them before the injuries? Or you are judging her based on what you saw at the end of last season (as @Bone Dog alluded to above) or when she tried to play still suffering from the aftermath following the concussion protocol. That was not Caroline at her best, the young woman who put UConn on her back and won games ... pretty much all by herself. If she comes back all the way, she can play with anyone! But there is no sense in arguing about it. She'll either do it or she won't.
 
The UConn Weekly take:

IMG_0743.jpeg

Unsurprisingly, it's the same line up as The Boneyard in the above poll.
 
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I tend to think that will indeed be the starting lineup. I think it's unlikely it changes during the season, no matter how good any of the bench players may end up being, barring injuries.

Certainly if Blanca shows she's really good and too valuable to keep on the bench, she could see closer to starters minutes. I originally thought she was talented enough to be a starter and Geno might bring Ash off the bench again, but given that Blanca is missing the summer session due to high school classes, I don't think she will have enough "UConn experience" to displace Ash.

This team is going to need games to be 50+ minutes long to get everyone the PT they "deserve". Fortunately it's a team of unselfish "us/we first mentality" players, so I don't anticipate any chemistry issues.

BTW normally in big games Geno goes 7-8, if he even has that many quality subs. I could realistically see him going 10, provided everyone is healthy and they all improve like we hope/expect over the summer. It will be fascinating to watch how Geno manages the minutes for everyone. It will also be fun to see who surprises us, who is better than we expected, and who (if any) struggle...
 
Ditto. Just did a quick review of the top teams UConn will be playing and a smaller, quicker lineup is likely to earn the majority of minutes. In all fairness to Jana, having Sarah, Serah, 6'2" TBD lineup matches up better to competition based on achieving better results in all aspects of game including rebounding, offense, and defense. For the teams like UCLA with a dominate big, we will be happy we have Ice and Jana.
 
I think most about Caroline's performance in the 2022 Championship game against Sourth Carolina. In that game she was at her best physical capability and performance. She made some big mistakes in that game which the Gamecocks took advantage of and which cost Uconn dearly. I recall Aliyah Boston blocking a Ducharme shot, collecting the ball and handing off to Destiny Henderson for an easy layup. That game showed the benefits of Ducharme and the weaknesses. She made some key shots and made some major mistakes. In balance I think the mistakes and missed shots outweighed the great shots. While I love having Caroline on the team I don't think that, at her best, she can't replace Paige Bueckers.
 
cgshuskie said:
I think most about Caroline's performance in the 2022 Championship game against Sourth Carolina. In that game she was at her best physical capability and performance. She made some big mistakes in that game which the Gamecocks took advantage of and which cost Uconn dearly. I recall Aliyah Boston blocking a Ducharme shot, collecting the ball and handing off to Destiny Henderson for an easy layup. That game showed the benefits of Ducharme and the weaknesses. She made some key shots and made some major mistakes. In balance I think the mistakes and missed shots outweighed the great shots. While I love having Caroline on the team I don't think that, at her best, she can't replace Paige Bueckers.
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I think you're neglecting the hip injury that required surgery at the end of that season. If you watch replays of the games in the February and March, you see Carol gradually slowing down, her stride becoming more clipped. It was painful to see. And even with that, she played 22 minutes against SC in the NC game, shot 4-8 in 22 mins and fouled out. By that time, she was a step slower than normal.

And normally I wouldn't dredge this up, but since you mention it, Boston fouled Carol on that block even if the refs missed it. Boston was very good with her hands on blocks, but she often got a free pass on fouls with the body, as in this case.
 
That basket by Caroline in the First Practice video was eye-opening for me. She looks quicker, that pull-up jumper with her height is deadly, and her release point is higher than before. She is going to have a really good year!
 
cgshuskie said:
I think most about Caroline's performance in the 2022 Championship game against Sourth Carolina. In that game she was at her best physical capability and performance.
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Don't agree at all - as the poster Just_A_Fan makes mention and to paraphrase that - --- Caroline was a shell of herself in that title game. Nowhere near her best.

During the season she had 12 consecutive games of averaging 20 minutes or more. In 6 of those games she was the team's leading scorer.

And leading up to the title game, the 4 prior games she played 4, 9, 5, and 8 minutes respectively. For the player that was the go-to for a stretch of time to get so few minutes leading up the title game shows she was not near her best.

In regard to her starting, my guess is for those of us that loved her game but did not vote her to start, need to see her get a few shots to the head then continue to play that game and follow it up with consesecutive games.
 
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Really it comes down to Jana vs KK. 3 Guards vs 3 Bigs.

Who starts the majority of games is fairly irrelevant. You want the best 5 out there against the other teams best 5.

Sometimes we will need Jana, sometimes we will need KK.

Truly I think we all hope Jana improves during the offseason and becomes indispensable. Sarah, Serah, and Jana would be formidable frontcourt. Shade and Fudd is clearly a great backcourt. And we hope KK improves as well so our Shade / Fudd / Arnold backcourt would be fearsome too.
 
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