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Rank those on the Wall

CocoHusky

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Put it this way, Taurasi had Maria Conlon starting in the backcourt next to her, plus major minutes being played by Morgan Valley and Ashley Valley, who were not in the same conversation as the teammates that Stewart had (no disrespect intended to Conlon or the Valley sisters, as they were very hard workers who maximized their potential under Geno Auriemma but who were not nearly as naturally gifted, talented, or athletic as many of the teammates of Breanna Stewart).
To solidify your point regarding DT and lack of quality teammates in the run to 2003 and 2004 championships:
Breanna Stewart had three teammates (Kelly Faris, Kia Nurse & Kia Stokes) not on the Wall of Honor & not previously mentioned here that would have been arguably the 2nd best player on either the '03 & '04 UCONN teams featuring Turner, Conlon, and Strother.
Likewise Maya also played with Doty, Hayes, and Greene.
Stewie had the most help in winning her 4 championships including 8 teammates from the WoH +Faris, Stokes & Nurse. DT had the least help especially in those last two championships which is what makes DT the goat IMO.
 
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In a recent post, it was suggested that not every player on UConn's Wall of Honor deserves to be there. The exact quote was "I wish the criteria for WOH was a 5-person AA team, not the wussy 10-player WBCA team. WOH is overpopulated with players who weren't 'real' first-team AA's and didn't lead their teams to NCs." This got me thinking, who should be removed from the WOH? How do we reduce this "overpopulation?

Let's go through the names on the Wall and see if we can tackle this overpopulation, making what, according to at least one commentator, are some badly needed edits and corrections.

Kerry Bascom - Never won a national championship. Lost in only Final Four appearance. Scoring record eclipsed by a number of Huskies, including a player with a crutch. Besides how many Boneyarders saw her play? She's off the wall.

Nykesha Sales - Only one National Championship. Scoring record eclipsed by other Huskies (and needed some help from Villanova to do it). Only an All American twice. She can be removed from the Wall.

Svetlana Abrosimova - Only one National Championship. Big East player of the year only once. Pretended not to understand English when asked to play defense. Should be removed from the Wall.

Shea Ralph - Only one National Championship. All American only once. Only averaged 13.1 points/game. Injury prone. Doesn't belong on the Wall.

Swin Cash - All American only once. Averaged less than 12 points/game. Not even the best player in her graduating class. Off the Wall.

Renee Montgomery - Averaged 13.3 points/game. Won Frances Pomeroy Award for Best Player Under 5'8" (Is this even a thing?), effectively eliminating over half of the competition from consideration. Wouldn't have won any National Championships without Maya. Shouldn't be on the Wall.

Stefanie Dolson - Averaged 13.6 points/game in her best season. Never won national player of the year. Was not a very good jumper. Should be removed from the Wall.

Bria Hartley - Never won national player of the year. Averaged 13.0 points a game for her career. Assist/turnover ration of less than 2-1. Doesn't belong on the Wall.

Kaleen Mosqueda-Lewis - Made less than 400 3pt shots, with a percentage of under 45%. Career record for 3pt shots already surpassed. Should be off the Wall.

Morgan Tuck - Less than 1300 career points. Averaged 11.3 points/game. Not the best player in her graduating class. Definitely not Wall material.

Gabby Williams - Averaged 10.6 points/game for her career. Did not win National Championship her final two seasons. Only made 1 3pt shot in her career. Remove her from the Wall.

Kara Wolters - Only 130 assists in for her career. Won a single National Championship. Less than 1000 career rebounds. Should be removed from the Wall.

Jennifer Rizzotti - Averaged 11.1 points for her career. Assist/turnover ration of less than 2-1. One measly National Championship and one measly player of the year award. Wore knee pads. Not Wall material.

Tina Charles - Less than 200 career assists. Lost 6 games during her career. Only All American twice. Wonder how she got on the Wall in the first place, time to go.

Rebecca Lobo - More turnovers than assists. Only All American twice, and only one National Championship. Spends a lot of time with Tennessee grad Kara Lawson. Besides, isn't the Basketball Hall of Fame enough? Take her down from the Wall.

Sue Bird - Career scoring average of 11.7 points/game. All American just once. Never won consecutive National Championships. How she got on the Wall I'll never know. Down.

Moriah Jefferson - Averaged less than 10 points a game for her career. Less than 25 career blocked shots. According to her coach, looked like an eighth grader. Remove her from the Wall.

Maya Moore - Only was national player of the year three times. Lost 4 career games. Did not average 20 points a game for her career. Did not win National Championship as a senior. Place on Wall indicative of "everyone gets a trophy" mentality. Time for her to come down.

Diana Taurasi - Only averaged 15.0 points/game for her career, with assist/turnover ratio of less than 2-1. Won national player of the year just twice. Played poorly in Final Four as a freshman. Not. Wall. Material. Take her number down.

Breanna Stewart - Not UConn's all-time leading scorer. Made less than 36% of her 3pt shots. Played only 12 minutes against Baylor as a freshman. Only two undefeated seasons. In the words of Reagan, "tear down [Breanna's number from] this wall."

Chris Dailey - Seriously? She's never been a head coach. And even though her job is to keep Geno from getting technicals, he still manages to get them. Doesn't belong on Wall at all.

Geno Auriemma - Probably biggest mystery of them all. Can't recruit. Can't win overtime games. Hasn't won a National Championship in two years. Lost two straight games sometime in the 90's. Take him down from the Wall to avoid the embarrassment to both him and the program.

This exercise has been clarifying. Now that it's been pointed out that UConn's Wall of Honor is overpopulated, this review has revealed to me just how overpopulated it is. Bluntly, there is not a deserving name on the Wall. Hopefully this egregious oversight will be corrected immediately and by the time UConn has it's next home game all the numbers on the Wall will be removed and replaced with a banner that says "This space reserved for a deserving players and coaches. (If that day ever comes.)"

The definitive analysis. None of the players belong on the wall. :rolleyes:
 

CocoHusky

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Jefferson is being very undervalued here. UCONN doesnt win 4 in a row without her. She was just as important as Stewie. Best PG in our history.
It's definitely close. Sue Bird has 3 Liberman Awards compared to Moriah's 2. Jen and Sue were National Player of the year. Moriah has a National Defensive Player of the year trophy in her cabinet. I'd question Moriah contribution to those first two Championships. During the first championship she was the last guard (5th) in the rotation until until Banks got hurt.
 
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The Taurasi legend grows with each passing year. Stewie arrived as a freshman, promised and delivered four NCs. It might not be a fair comparison, as they played at different times against different teams. Fresher memories show them as pros. I suspect Stewie will get better and better. But, come on, this is hardly Sophie’s choice.
 

meyers7

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Jefferson is being very undervalued here. UCONN doesnt win 4 in a row without her. She was just as important as Stewie. Best PG in our history.
It's definitely close. Sue Bird has 3 Liberman Awards compared to Moriah's 2. Jen and Sue were National Player of the year. Moriah has a National Defensive Player of the year trophy in her cabinet. I'd question Moriah contribution to those first two Championships. During the first championship she was the last guard (5th) in the rotation until until Banks got hurt.
It is very close with Bird and Jefferson. In fact in the Position Poll I did a couple years ago, for PG, Bird and Jefferson ended in a dead tie. So take your pick, you wouldn't be wrong with either one.

A couple notes to add. Bird would have had many more assists/points if she hadn't missed most of her FR year. Bird was probably a better leader/shooter also.

Jefferson didn't have a chance at NPOY, playing with Stewart. Also she lost the NLC awards to Diggins and Sims as SRs. And as noted, she was THE lock down defender her Jr/Sr year for UCONN.
 

Zorro

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There are many other players who contributed as much to the success of the program as some of the honorees, but were prevented by circumstances (mostly AA teammates) from being AA.
 

Waquoit

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Jefferson is being very undervalued here. UCONN doesnt win 4 in a row without her. She was just as important as Stewie. Best PG in our history.
Yes to Jefferson being undervalued. No to her being better than Bird. Bird was the best player as a soph on a team that won a title, a title that didn't contain one of the Big 3. What gives Bird the nod for me is that she was the lead dog in that epic, transformational 2000 Championship game. That was the game where the world realized that UConn was the new standard.
 

meyers7

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Yes to Jefferson being undervalued. No to her being better than Bird. Bird was the best player as a soph on a team that won a title, a title that didn't contain one of the Big 3. What gives Bird the nod for me is that she was the lead dog in that epic, transformational 2000 Championship game. That was the game where the world realized that UConn was the new standard.
Hmmm, not sure about that. Abrosimova and Ralph were AA's that year (AP 1st team no less). Bird wasn't. And Ralph was Final Four MVP.
 
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That's not correct. Bria was an AA before Stewie arrived having been named 2011-12 WBCA/State Farm All-American. Both Players were on the watchlist for both the Wade and Naismith trophies before Stewie arrived based on successful sophomore seasons. KML of course was also well on her way to being an AA when Stewie arrived.

Those players do not compare to Sue, Swin, Tameka and Ashja. Solid yes, but they were not all world.
 
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Those players do not compare to Sue, Swin, Tameka and Ashja. Solid yes, but they were not all world.

Are you saying that Hartley and KML "don't compare" to Tameka and Ashja? Can't say I agree with that.
 
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Jefferson is being very undervalued here. UCONN doesnt win 4 in a row without her. She was just as important as Stewie. Best PG in our history.
Agreed. She had a complete game. Her defense was in my opinion the best I've seen from a Uconn guard. Is there a metric for basketball like the WAR in baseball to show an impact of a player?
 

Zorro

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Except mebbe for Stewie.
 
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"Collosal”??? Stewie’s freshman year was less than memorable Sans her FF performance, particularly defeating ND on the 4th matchup that season. Diana stays #1
Nope. Key phrase sans her FF which gave us the NC! How do you sans that?
 

CocoHusky

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Those players do not compare to Sue, Swin, Tameka and Ashja. Solid yes, but they were not all world.
Are you saying that Hartley and KML "don't compare" to Tameka and Ashja? Can't say I agree with that.
Let's try and stay on topic here. The op asked us to rank the players on the WoH. Tameka and Ashja are terrific players but they are not on the WoH. There was a different thread ~ two years ago that asked to name best players not on he WoH.

 

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