Response to Sun's post on the Prognosticator's week 4 thread

[cferraro04]

Sun: "Not that it matters, but I don't see how Duke's 5 star post player Brown gives up any advantage to UConn's 5 star forward Edwards who has only played one game at center this year as a replacement for Dorka. There's a distinct difference in shot blocking, rebounding and perhaps even pure inside scoring ability. At worst they're even, but at best the advantage would go to Brown & Duke at that position IMHO."

Response: Not that it matters, but it may just be that Aliyah Edwards is much better than she is being given credit for. While I appreciate Sun's opinion with regards to "Duke's 5 star post player Brown not giving up any advantage to UConn's 5 star forward Edwards who only played one game at center this year as a replacement for Dorka", I strongly disagreed with his assessment before this game was played and in the aftermath of this game my opinion regarding Aliyah's value has only become more galvanized. Sun, cited Brown's "distinct difference in shot blocking, rebounding and pure inside scoring ability". Lastly, Sun's conclusion that they're even in the worse scenario and at best the advantage would go to Brown/Duke couldn't have been more wrong.

This game which featured Aliyah Edwards primarily one on one with Brown resulted in a complete vindication of my prediction that UConn would prevail at that position. Aliyah's 17 point and 11 rebound performance totally eclipsed Brown's 3 point and 3 rebound performance. Aliyah's mobility around the rim and in the paint, her overall quickness were too much for Brown to handle. I suspect as the season goes along folks will realize the absolute treasure Aliyah is. I believe Aliyah will be an All American and UConn's fortunes this year will be directly tied to how successful a season Aliyah has.

 

[tkaes]

I generally don't pay attention to players who go to schools other than the one I root for because I don't care about those programs (I'm a fan of UCONN BB, not WCBB). Based on what I saw last night, if Brown was a 5 star than that's a perfect example of the problem with star ratings. Brown is big but she's slow and not nearly the athlete that Edwards is.

 

[Next 12]

Aaliyah is coming into being a dominant player as this year she has found herself. She has found the confidence in herself that is necessary to become a dominant player. This year she is relentless under the basket and has become the scorer someone her size should be. The best part of this post is Aailyah is going to get better and better. GO AALIYAH!! GO HUSKIES!!!

 

[sun]

Sun: "Not that it matters, but I don't see how Duke's 5 star post player Brown gives up any advantage to UConn's 5 star forward Edwards who has only played one game at center this year as a replacement for Dorka. There's a distinct difference in shot blocking, rebounding and perhaps even pure inside scoring ability. At worst they're even, but at best the advantage would go to Brown & Duke at that position IMHO."

Response: Not that it matters, but it may just be that Aliyah Edwards is much better than she is being given credit for. While I appreciate Sun's opinion with regards to "Duke's 5 star post player Brown not giving up any advantage to UConn's 5 star forward Edwards who only played one game at center this year as a replacement for Dorka", I strongly disagreed with his assessment before this game was played and in the aftermath of this game my opinion regarding Aliyah's value has only become more galvanized. Sun, cited Brown's "distinct difference in shot blocking, rebounding and pure inside scoring ability". Lastly, Sun's conclusion that they're even in the worse scenario and at best the advantage would go to Brown/Duke couldn't have been more wrong.

This game which featured Aliyah Edwards primarily one on one with Brown resulted in a complete vindication of my prediction that UConn would prevail at that position. Aliyah's 17 point and 11 rebound performance totally eclipsed Brown's 3 point and 3 rebound performance. Aliyah's mobility around the rim and in the paint, her overall quickness were too much for Brown to handle. I suspect as the season goes along folks will realize the absolute treasure Aliyah is. I believe Aliyah will be an All American and UConn's fortunes this year will be directly tied to how successful a season Aliyah has.

Your prognostication for the game was UConn - 92 Duke - 64 which was 28 points off the final score.
My prognostication for the game was UConn - 78 Duke - 69 which was 19 points off the final score.

I was very fortunate to predict the exact amount of UConn points so I'll try not to let it go to my head.
Opinions & predictions are a lot like taking shots in the dark, you win some & you lose some.

 

[cferraro04]

I agree Sun with most of what you said but, since you mentioned it I was able to predict the exact MOV 28 points. As far as taking shots I offered a full game analysis that was a whole team approach. I agree with your statement that predictions are like “taking shots in the dark” it should however, be noted that it was also you who decided to single out Edwards and somehow tried to indicate that she was over her head at the center position and the best she could hope for was a push.

Edward’s performance in this game IMHO exposed Brown as slow, ineffective and not up to the task.

As far as my predicted score for the game I will concede that I missed the mark with UConn’s score by 14 which given the fact that Azzi was 16 points off her average and sat out about half of the fourth quarter is not hard to understand. Missing Duke’s score by 6 points certainly is respectable.

At the end of the day you are exactly right it is a guessing game. We use the stats and facts at our disposal to try and prognosticate the end results. It is all good fun but I felt I needed to have our girl Aliyah’s back. I truly believe that Aliyah will make one of the All American teams.

 

[sun]

Missing Duke’s score by 6 points certainly is respectable.

Your prognostication of Duke's score was off by 14 points, not 6 points.
The final score was UConn - 78 Duke - 50.

 

[cferraro04]

Oops you win…sort of…how much did you miss Duke’s score by? How far off were you on the MOV?

 

[HuskyNan]

Geez Louise,these threads make my head hurt