Recruiting Recruiting Recruiting

[cohenzone]

I had the terrifying thought this morning that Williams and Bueckers are going to overlap for two years. Even if Bueckers has the traditional difficult first year at UConn, she will be a sophomore when Williams is a senior.

Good freakin' luck guarding those two in the same backcourt!

UConn is doomed. You didn't get the memo.

 

[cohenzone]

Don't give up on Meg yet. I was surprised last night to look up and see she had 10 points, they were made so quietly. Her line - 14 points (6-12, 2-6 from three), 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals. She still has tremendous upside.

I hope UConn can get a power forward to pair with ONO so Walker is freed up at both ends of the court to play to her strength. She was good almost all year.

 

[ABCDFE]

Don't give up on Meg yet. I was surprised last night to look up and see she had 10 points, they were made so quietly. Her line - 14 points (6-12, 2-6 from three), 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals. She still has tremendous upside.

Absolutely. If she makes a couple of easy layups that she usually misses she easily can average 14+

 

[jdubct]

She would be great. Buffalo, though, is closer to 8-9 hours by car. I think she’d be flying.

you're right. I've driven it often.

 

[UCBaller2012]

Don't give up on Meg yet. I was surprised at one point last night to look up and see she had 10 points, they were made so quietly. Her line - 14 points (6-12, 2-6 from three), 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals. She still has tremendous upside.

Her and CW were rock solid the last 3 games. Very Promising for next year.

 

[Orangutan]

Don't give up on Meg yet. I was surprised at one point last night to look up and see she had 10 points, they were made so quietly. Her line - 14 points (6-12, 2-6 from three), 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals. She still has tremendous upside.

Absolutely, didn't mean to slight Ms. Walker by omission. She was huge in the Louisville game. In the moment, ignorant of her season stats, I was surprised by her 3-point shooting prowess that day. Little did I know she had the best 3FG% on the team!

The role she has had to play as a forward and secondary scorer makes it easy to forget that the artist formerly known as "50-piece Meg" can light it up from the perimeter as well.

EDIT: To that point, I already forgot about the game that she scored 34 and Tulane scored 33 as a team!

 

[Geesworld]

I hope UConn can get a power forward to pair with ONO so Walker is freed up at both ends of the court to play to her strength. She was good almost all year.

Great point on Meg playing more natural position.

 

[Beemer]

I would not mind this loss so much if the opponent had been anyone other than Notre Dame. I don't think I am alone thinking this way

 

[WLT1717]

I think the die was cast for the team’s title hopes when Azura went pro early. She would have made the difference v Baylor or ND. Don’t begrudge her decision but it created an unanticipated hole that proved impossible to fill. Very impressed with how the team competed all season, including Lou overcoming injuries, Phee being Phee, and all the other players (including the back-ups) growing demonstrably over the course of the season. As always, UCONN is a joy to watch for how they honor and elevate the game. Will miss these seniors, as with Kia and Gabby, but look forward to the next chapter with interest and optimism.

 

[ABCDFE]

Great point on Meg playing more natural position.

Yeah I agree. If she plays the 3 and we have a proper 4 with ONO as the 5 I think meg can be really really good

 

[jaundicedeye]

Yeah I agree. If she plays the 3 and we have a proper 4 with ONO as the 5 I think meg can be really really good

I understand that the sting from last night lingers but this post, as well as many others, have veered from the OP: Recruiting, Recruiting, Recruiting.

 

[uconnfan68]

Agree, we lost from lack of rebounding giving away many second and third chances. Hxxl, we almost lost to Buffalo for the same reason!
As I've said so many times the biggest and best of the bigs are coming out of the south. We haven't been able to figure out how to get them to leave family and friends and come north. I don't know if there is an answer.

They both got lots of extra shots, but it really wasn’t rebounding prowess as much as wild bounces and bad breaks. Bigger, stronger, and faster teams tend to get those breaks. We weren’t bigger, stronger, or faster.

 

[uconnfan68]

You too produced a "nice assessment". In many more recent games I would liked to have seen whether Coombs could be would be an asset in the really big dances. We never got to see.
From years of watching Geno, he is a bit more conservative in his dotage than as young whipper snapper. 20 years ago he may have taken a chance. In these last 20 or so years he only plays, in big game, those with proven track records i.e he trusts them. That trust is not given easily. I'll be 10,000 pennies that with CW he felt damned if he did damned if he didn't--i.e. he had no choice. It was CW or no one, he did early on look at Bent and Irwin to plug that hole. CW with her Frosh faults could score, had court vision, and defended a bit. This wasn't TRUST --it was thrust upon Geno. His choice would have been a Junior or Senior, or God help us--as Soph.
I've said this often this year---Geno was STUCK with that situation. 2 hopefuls Transfered out at a very bad time.

He played CW because she was his best option. It’s a tough life having to play the Naismith player of the year as a freshman. Good thing he’s had a lot of experience with it.

 

[chrissaran]

The lack of Compete Recruiting Classes has caught up to UConn. No Longer are Freshmen able to come off the bench for a year while an All American Caliber player is starting. The last complete recruiting class Geno had was Breanna Stewart's class consisting of Breanna, Morgan Tuck, Moriah Jefferson and Briana Pulido. Since then these are Geno's classes.

2013 Saniya Chong
2014 Kia Nurse, Gabby Williams, Courtney Ekmark (XFR) Sadie Edwards (XFR) Obviously Kia and Gabby were great, No PF or Center
2015 Napheesa Collier, Katie-Lou Samuelson De'Janae Boykin (XFR) Good class, but needed Boykin to Pan Out to make it a Great Class.
2016 Crystal Dangerfield, Kyla Irwin and Molly Bent One Starter out of the Class.
2017 Megan Walker, Mikayla Coombs, Andra Espinoza-Hunter (XFR) Lexie Gordon (XFR) Class Underachieving based on ranking, One Starter. No size despite a four player class.
2018 Christyn Williams Olivia Nelson-Ododa. Time will tell, looks promising but needed a 3rd quality player.
2019 Aubrey Griffin Needed a couple of more quality players.

Geno has gone Six Years without signing a Good Starting Power Forward and Five Years without getting a Post player until Olivia Nelson-Ododa in last years class. ND besides playing better down the Stretch, won the game because of their Offensive Rebounding due to the teams lack of Size and Power up front.

Not saying Geno and Staff aren't working hard to get the quality recruits, but for what ever reason they've come up short these last few years. Had high hopes when Batouly Camara transferred in as she would be the power up front that Geno wasn't able to sign. She's been a disappointment due to injuries and other issues. Needed Stevens this year, but sadly she only played the one year.

Jessica Shephard was given an immediate transfer to play last year. Don't know why. They wouldn't be where they are without her. Boley and Patberg both transferred from ND.

 

[chrissaran]

He played CW because she was his best option. It’s a tough life having to play the Naismith player of the year as a freshman. Good thing he’s had a lot of experience with it.

Coombs very, very rarely shot. Four on Five on offense is not the way to win.

 

[asuwish]

This isn't exactly like it, but Connecticut's last big drought came after Diana Taurasi arrived in Connecticut. From that point until Tina Charles arrived, we went through, what, four years of subpar recruiting.

We've had some good players over the past three years, but not a great, and not an excellent post player, let alone several front court players. Yes, we've recruited one good player for next year. Yes, we've recruited an excellent guard for the year after that. But for UConn to get back to the very top, as we have for years, we need a great post player and three or four strong, big forwards over a couple of years.

Baylor is loaded with talent, especially in the front court. And sitting on the bench is a team that could easily be Top 10 on their own. This year Notre Dame had a team that was tremendously talented at every position, and will get guaranteed top talent at least for the next year.

It's not rocket science. Great talent wins championships. Coach Geno took this team as far as it could logically go, perhaps even further. But for the dynasty to continue we'll need big, talented front court players, and lots of company
Some recruit just said Geno is ONE of the best coaches ever on woman's basketball. This is wrong. He is without equal THE best coach in the history of college basketball, men or women. As long as smart parent want there daughter's to learn how to play this game from it's greatest teacher Uconn will do just fine. 2 side notes. Crystal is the best pure PG in the country, and if Jackie Young turns pro it wouldnt surprise me if ND struggles to be a top 25 team.

 

[Geesworld]

Coombs very, very rarely shot. Four on Five on offense is not the way to win.

I understand your point but I think Good defense, creates offense. I think UCONN had enough offense fire power to give Mikayla some key minutes.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Watched Azzi Fudd on TV yesterday playing for what ESPN2 claimed was the HS national championship. I was not all that impressed. Her team lost, and she looked lost. Of course it's one game. But was more impressed by her sophomore counterpart Jada Walker:

jada-walker

 

[Go/huskies]

Watched Azzi Fudd on TV yesterday playing for what ESPN2 claimed was the HS national championship. I was not all that impressed. Her team lost, and she looked lost. Of course it's one game. But was more impressed by her sophomore counterpart Jada Walker:

jada-walker

The young lady calling the game, said the joy that Fudd plays with makes her Transcendent, I wasn’t that impressed with her game yesterday either, but you can tell she’s built to score and can do so in a lot of ways, I was also surprised to hear she works out with same trainer that Curry from the nba warriors works out with, that explains a lot about her shooting form and follow thru. At a school like UConn with Paige getting her the ball and the talent that would be around her, she could probably avg more point then Pheesa, Lou, or Maya did and her assist would be high with some of the double teams she will face.

 

[HopJim]

Great point on Meg playing more natural position.

This year's line up not only meant 2-3 Huskies played out of position but against the better teams, a bigger player switched out on many of the KLS/Collier pick and rolls, reducing one of UConn's core plays. Collier and Meg took most of the hit.

 

[CocoHusky]

Watched Azzi Fudd on TV yesterday playing for what ESPN2 claimed was the HS national championship. I was not all that impressed. Her team lost, and she looked lost. Of course it's one game. But was more impressed by her sophomore counterpart Jada Walker:

jada-walker

You are probably one of three people in the whole world that share that opinion about Azzi.
All she did this year was become the first player EVER to win the Naismith as a sophomore in HS. You have heard of the Naismith, right?

 

[Go/huskies]

Meg doesn’t handle the ball that well, that’s my only hold up with her moving to the wing in college.

 

[BroadwayVa]

He played CW because she was his best option. It’s a tough life having to play the Naismith player of the year as a freshman. Good thing he’s had a lot of experience with it.

I agree---CW was GENO's Best and ONLY option and a """"" Terrible Choice""""". In many of the more recent years he had the luxury of Sophs and above to plug holes and to allow Frosh to slip in and gain experience without great pressures. CW, whom I thought then and now is top player Frosh or not, was by Geno's former standards "thrown to the wolves" if you will. Early this season I compared CW to DT, obviously I was wrong. Yet, I believe by a Junior or Senior year she will come very close.
""

 

[BroadwayVa]

Your right, Geno hasn't gotten another big and it hurt us this year.
Pheesa and Stevens was a great combo last year mixed in with Gabby's athletic ability. But none of them were enforcer type.
Emphasis next two years should be find 1 mobile Big and 1 stabilizer big to play along side ONO for her last two years.

I'm either selling ONO too highly or you are selling her to short. If Geno can get an EFFECTIVE Defensive Big I'd be thrilled. The games I have seen ONO in, including 2 ND games, she wasn't pushed off the blocks. Her defense, with Frosh limitation, was almost outstanding. Stevens was an outstanding scoring machine but not one cent for defense, to reuse an old phrase. I doubt she would have added much to the first Baylor game--may have kept the scoring closer I'll admit. Try as Geno may have he couldn't make Center out of a forward.

 

[BroadwayVa]

She would be great. Buffalo, though, is closer to 8-9 hours by car. I think she’d be flying.

I made that trip regularly by car to visit Fillmore Hospital and Doctor Giddi Doktar, (loved that name). She'd be smart to fly.

 

[TheFarmFan]

You are probably one of three people in the whole world that share that opinion about Azzi.
All she did this year was become the first player EVER to win the Naismith as a sophomore in HS. You have heard of the Naismith, right?

Those two things are possible to both be true - she can have a bad game where she looked uninspired and unimpressive, and she could also be the national POY. Think of games like Lauren Cox vs. Stanford compared to Cox vs. Oregon this weekend. They're practically different players.

This gives me a lot of sympathy for the recruiting services that have to rate and rank players all across the country facing different kinds of competition and being just one player in a team sport. How much of their performance is based on their talent? On their team and HS coaches? On the kinds of sets and plays prevalent in high school? Will that talent, ability and desire/focus translate to college, which presents a whole different set of challenges and opportunities? Will they grow into their bodies well, or not? It's a wonder the top high school players generally regularly translate their game to being top college players.

And I'll say this - I watched the Hull twins win the same HS national championship game last year and they both looked terrific on offense - moving around the basket at will. This year? Guess what - being 6'0 and probably 150 ain't going to let you push too many people around in the paint in the PAC-12. Different competition, different sets to learn, new challenges.

It's clear Fudd is a top recruit. It's also clear that a 16 year old has good days and bad ones. I know I sure did. I was just lucky that my bad ones didn't happen to air on national TV.

 

[eebmg]

Agree, we lost from lack of rebounding giving away many second and third chances. Hxxl, we almost lost to Buffalo for the same reason!
As I've said so many times the biggest and best of the bigs are coming out of the south. We haven't been able to figure out how to get them to leave family and friends and come north. I don't know if there is an answer.

I guess another Civil War is too drastic?

 

[Geesworld]

I'm either selling ONO too highly or you are selling her to short. If Geno can get an EFFECTIVE Defensive Big I'd be thrilled. The games I have seen ONO in, including 2 ND games, she wasn't pushed off the blocks. Her defense, with Frosh limitation, was almost outstanding. Stevens was an outstanding scoring machine but not one cent for defense, to reuse an old phrase. I doubt she would have added much to the first Baylor game--may have kept the scoring closer I'll admit. Try as Geno may have he couldn't make Center out of a forward.

Oh no I m not selling low. I'm Definitely selling high on ONO. In fact I wanted more ONO. Call me crazy but I even thought she should have started and CW come of the bench. CW would have brought energy and offensive surge coming off the bench and also made for better rotations. My point was more about moving forward and giving her another big to relieve some of the load she will have to carry next season. She is fouled prone and will not be able to play as aggressive defensively as she did this year because our depth at PF/C is weak. Another Defensive Big will also free up ONO who I believe is very athletic and has more range than what we seen this season. I thought she was a good passer at the high post and showed the ability to maybe hit a elbow shot to keep others bigs honest. Remember, ONO will be on an Island next year. No Pheesa to draw attention away from her.

 

[Artifact]

Geno was counting on Stevens as his big & the recruiting seemed to center around her being on board. When she suddenly departed that left a big whole in the rebounding game. The staff was unprepared, after all the training time & effort had been put into her. Injured, Camara, was unable to provide much because of her injuries. Enough !

 

[CocoHusky]

Meg doesn’t handle the ball that well, that’s my only hold up with her moving to the wing in college.

If MW is the UCONN full time PF next year UCONN is in trouble. UCONN offense is not that dependent on perimeter ball handling. Megan led the team in 3pt shooting %, UCONN is going to need that from the wing next year.