Roster issues over the next 4 years | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Roster issues over the next 4 years

VidNick said:
My son was a heavily recruited baseball player out of HS. We visited 6 schools that are perennial contenders for a National Championship as well as some others in our State. With only one exception we found coaches will tell you anything to sign with them. Once you get there, those promises are forgotten, with the exception for players such as a Bueckers, Fudd, etc. Recruits are well advised to pay attention not to what the recruiter says, but what they have done in the past.

I do not have any idea what Geno (Chris) tells kids when they are recruited. However, I have observed only 6-8 players get meaningful playing time. With a normal spacing of classes this has worked out OK in that a Gabby Williams sits in 1st year and gradually gets more playing time. However, with this lower class (Fr, So) scenario shaping up, some very good players may languish on the bench all four years. This is why having to sit out a year after transferring is a bad rule for the athletes.

As for me, I would much prefer a larger rotation of players getting real playing time.
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This is an article about how Geno recruits. It’s from several years ago but it’s similar to what we’ve heard recruits say for decades now. No promises from Geno.

 
Per the article: "Auriemma seldom makes promises to players, at least ones players will admit to, although Williams said he promised her a starting position next year. "But only if I work hard," Williams said. "If I don't work, I'll sit."

The caveat 'if I work hard' gives Geno an easy out. Same as the " she didn't practice well' concept oftentimes mentioned. Is some type of 'forced ranking' used to determine which 8 players worked the hardest this week? Be definition the rest of the players did not work hard enough.

Paige is a unique individual, not only in basketball skills, but personal skills. She has always wanted to go to Uconn, same as Stewie and others. It would not surprise me at all if Paige is an indirect factor in pulling all this elite talent to Uconn at this time.
 
Tonyc said:
IMO you can thorough out much of what has happened in the past. We are loaded next season and it will take time for the freshman to learn Genos system and they will get play time. IMO Azzi will start. For who I dont know but shes to good and didnt come here to sit and from many reports she shoots better then Paige and with that said think about Paige setting her up with passes. Yeah thats gonna be somethin else. We have a bunch of number 1 HS players on the roster next season Evina was 2 and many of the rest are top 10 and top 20. Theyre gonna play when theyre ready and Geno has to get them ready of the following season when Evina Liv and Christyn graduate and most likely turn pro. I wouldnt worry too much about next season we need to win a NC this season and we need our bigs to play big over the next 4-5 weeks.
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To be honest, I don't believe any player comes to UConn or any other school to sit. Fudd would not be alone in that. I am pretty sure McClean and Griffin did not come to UConn to sit but someone has to. If Fudd does not meet the coaches expectations early on, she will sit too.
 
donalddoowop said:
To be honest, I don't believe any player comes to UConn or any other school to sit. Fudd would not be alone in that. I am pretty sure McClean and Griffin did not come to UConn to sit but someone has to. If Fudd does not meet the coaches expectations early on, she will sit too.
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DON'T THINK SOOOOOOOOOOOOO
 
I remember Shea Ralph writing that Geno´s telling her "You will get as much palying time as you earn in practice" was the clincher for her. Other coaches had promised her all sorts of things, but all she wanted was honest competition.
 
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Aluminny69 said:
Some people considered Poffenbarger a great shooter. So far, she is 1 for 9 on 3 pointers, 2 for 13 overall. So, it remains to be seen.
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Are you serious (of course you are)? This kid should still be in HS but she chose to leave home mid season, come to Storrs and go into quarantine alone, start college classes remotely, start practicing under the toughest Coaches and probably for these reasons has been put into games to reward her!!! And BYers are going to criticize her performance????
Geno considers her a good shooter...that's good enough for me.
 
mbr33ct said:
At least she's not 0 for Maryland, not bad for a high school kid.

casablanca heres looking at you GIF
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"We'll always have Storrs."
 
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As a season progresses, every player develops injuries that they have to play with because of a short bench. As a result, the injuries do not heal or get worse. Playing tired increases the chance of injuries and is not fun, Kelly Ferris once said that having to play 35 minutes is not good; but, players do it because there is no one on the bench to replace them. It must reduce the pleasure in playing the game. II certainly reduces the player's performance. Usually when a player has a subpar performance, we learn later that they were playing injured.

You cannot , as Geno advises "play smart and enjoy the game," when you are exhausted and/or injured.

The year that Bill Walton played for the Celtics, they sometimes used a platoon system for part of the game. Walton and four other veteran players would come in to replace the starters.

Geno did that once when he was pissed off at the lazy play of the starters. In this case, it would be the younger players, who play together in practice. This would give them real game-time experience playing together, which they will do as the starting unit in future years.

So, as the wiseperson once said,
WiseOne said:
Now what’s the issue again???
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my2cents said:
This is one of those games that the badass was the entire team.
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AgStatesman said:
IT IS AN ISSUE! Do you see the last year listed? We only have five players! If anyone gets injured we won't be able to play any games. How many times are we going to finish a game with three or four players if someone fouls out? A five person roster in D1 basketball is going to be a disaster!
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Whatever players are left will just have to step up!
 
HuskyNan said:
Diana Taurasi didn’t start until Svet got hurt

uconnhuskies.com

Cumulative Statistics - University of Connecticut Athletics

Cumulative Statistics
uconnhuskies.com uconnhuskies.com
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As did Maya Moore eight games in when Kalana Green went down. Moriah Jefferson, Morgan Tuck, and Napheesa Collier didn't start as freshman. Samuelson was the third player tried as the fifth starter her freshman year and won that job by default as the other two (Napheesa and Chong I believe) had not done well as starters and she still averaged under 20 minutes as did all of those listed except Maya. Stewart, the last HS phenom, averaged under 24 minutes and only started 14 of 36 games as a freshman.

Yes, every player would love to play every game, but any player recruited by a powerhouse program knows that game minutes are extremely competitive - Uconn starts freshman infrequently and only when there is not a viable returning player to challenge them. Some recruits look closely at the presumed returning roster of the teams recruiting them and make their choices based primarily on that and the probable minutes available - the smarter ones look at the coaching and style of play and team dynamic and the chance of winning more games than they lose and make different choices.

Moriah Jefferson looked at the Uconn roster and saw an AA quality starting PG (Bria) would be at Uconn for her first two years and still chose Uconn. She obviously made a 'stupid' choice that limited her playing time as a freshman and left Uconn with her four NCs after a stellar career. :cool:
 
EricLA said:
Just look at this season with all the players we have on the roster. Suddenly Anna is out (saw her at the end of the last game in a boot and "sleeve" on her leg limping - hope she comes back this year, but it seems doubtful). Given her injuries, it's possible she may not be 100% effective next year.

Paige keeps tweaking her ankle, and missed 1 game this season. Nika was in and out for the first few months with injuries. Evina is dealing with chronic knee issues. A roster of 10 scholarship players has been as low as 8. You just never know how injuries will affect a team.

People keep asking "how is Geno going to keep everyone happy"? I have 2 answers for that. First, that's not his job. It really isn't. His job is to recruit, develop players, and win. Every single kid coming in knows exactly how good their teammates are, and how hard it will be to earn a starting spot and playing time.

The kids who practice the best and who produce in games will play the most. Period. Take Nika for example. She's a PG. She verbaled after Paige did, who is the best player in the country. Nika knew how good Paige was projected to be, and her attitude was (paraphrasing) "I'm a very competitive person and I look forward to being her teammate and competing with her for PT".

Which leads me to my 2nd point. UCONN is not for everyone. No matter how much kids talk to former players, read their comments, know how HARD it is at UCONN, the reality is still different from what they expected. Some will thrive, some won't.

It's possible (maybe even likely) Evina will leave after this season for the WNBA, like Morgan Tuck did. It's probable that Geno has told the core players that minutes will be less next season in non-competitive games. And you never know how injuries or sicknesses will affect the team. Remember when UCONN lost Sveta AND Shea in the same season? Everything will work out, and how blessed are we to have "too much talent" as our biggest issue!!

Worry about what you can control. The rest will take care of itself! UCONN has always been, and always will be, TEAM first.
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Great stuff @EricLA. Even used the verb "affect" and not the noun "effect." Terrific.
 
Golden Husky said:
Great stuff @EricLA. Even used the verb "affect" and not the noun "effect." Terrific.
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One of my pet peeves. One of many - English is not easy - and I am by no means an expert, but I see those errors, and malaprops, all over the place, not just on the BY!!!
 
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UcMiami said:
As did Maya Moore eight games in when Kalana Green went down. Moriah Jefferson, Morgan Tuck, and Napheesa Collier didn't start as freshman. Samuelson was the third player tried as the fifth starter her freshman year and won that job by default as the other two (Napheesa and Chong I believe) had not done well as starters and she still averaged under 20 minutes as did all of those listed except Maya. Stewart, the last HS phenom, averaged under 24 minutes and only started 14 of 36 games as a freshman.
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Think it was Napheesa and Gabby.
 
Zorro said:
It is a nice sort of problem to have. It might not be too much of an overstatement to say that UConn will be close to having the two best teams in the US next season. Although it is always shaky to make predictions, especially about the future, it seems likely, bar injury, that next year's starting five for the first game will be ONO, Paige, Edwards, Westbrook (if she stays), Williams and Muhl (if Westbrook leaves). First off the bench will of course be Azzi and Anna, if Anna is OK, and Aubrey. THEN, as deep reserves, we have DeBerry, McClean, Poffenbarger, Caroline and Gabriel. As the season progresses, both the starting lineups and the most called upon reserves may change and probably will. You could easily imagine a team made up of the non-starters (as imagined above) that would not only win the Big East but probably go undefeated in league play and be very competitive at the Dance. We should all have such problems!! Practices next year may well be more competitive than all but a few games.
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I am thinking ONO, Edwards, Bueckers, Fudd, and Muhl: Speed & accuracy and plenty of bench strength to not allow any other team within 20 points of them next year....
 
The CDR-Ret said:
I am thinking ONO, Edwards, Bueckers, Fudd, and Muhl: Speed & accuracy and plenty of bench strength to not allow any other team within 20 points of them next year....
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That’s a good lineup but a very unlikely one imo. It is far more likely to be Christyn instead of Muhl. Muhl would relieve Paige as PG. No way Geno sits his senior shooting guard for a sophomore who can’t score.
 
Cuango said:
That’s a good lineup but a very unlikely one imo. It is far more likely to be Christyn instead of Muhl. Muhl would relieve Paige as PG. No way Geno sits his senior shooting guard for a sophomore who can’t score.
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I would not be so sure Auriemma and company are going to put Bueckers back to the traditional PG role next year. Just my opinion, but I highly doubt it. As for starting there is no doubt Williams in my mind will start but it is totally irrelevant as far as I am concerned. Like her or not, Muhl is going to see plenty of minutes.
 
huskyd said:
What else is there to make predictions about if not the future?
And Azzi isn't coming off the bench; she'll start beside Slim for the next (?) several years. There are actually some who consider Fudd the better (shooter) of the two. Scary.
Doubters watch this: Azzi Fudd workout highlights with Chris Brickley - YouTube
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one of the 'some' is Paige. I believe it is universally accepted that Azzi is the better shooter and it's really not close. I have shared this comment before that while doing a joint interview they were asked with the game on the line what is your go to move; Azzi, "Probably my midrange jumper." Paige, "Pass to Azzi".
 
I can see this thread having "legs" and continue for the next 4 years. :eek:
 
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HuskylnSC said:
one of the 'some' is Paige. I believe it is universally accepted that Azzi is the better shooter and it's really not close. I have shared this comment before that while doing a joint interview they were asked with the game on the line what is your go to move; Azzi, "Probably my midrange jumper." Paige, "Pass to Azzi".
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Saw the video of Paige and Azzi having a 3 pt competition. They took 25 shots from 5 different angles. Paige made 20 of the 25, Azzi made 21. Paige complained that Azzi did not feed her very well in a couple situations, and I think Azzi called her a loser as they walked out of the gym. This is going to be fun next year guys, the friendly competition between the two will only make them even better. Can't wait!
 
TB12 said:
We all have our favorites, but lets finish this season before we worry about any other season. The players knew what could happen here. I hope they work harder to play. This can get into issues we do not want to get into. Enjoy what we have, hope that it works. Support the players.
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Well said.
 
Cuango said:
That’s a good lineup but a very unlikely one imo. It is far more likely to be Christyn instead of Muhl. Muhl would relieve Paige as PG. No way Geno sits his senior shooting guard for a sophomore who can’t score.
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I like the lineup with Nika in it, but like you suspect Geno would prefer Christyn to Nika. If Evina comes back there are four players who have been regular starters at Uconn that are vulnerable and could wind up on the bench, Anna (who's starting days are likely behind her), Evina, Christyn and Nika.

The most likely thing IMO is that two of those four sit if Evina returns, and two of three sit if she doesn't. The reason I say two is based on two assumptions. First that Aaliyah becomes a starter at the 4 and small/ball becomes an option off the bench but is not in the starting lineup. That takes players like Evina and Anna and throws them into the wing/guard competition.

The second assumption is that Azzi starts somewhere, and she drops another to the bench. If Azzi started with Nika and Paige, obviously Evina, Christyn and Anna don't. If Paige starts at PG with Christyn and Azzi, Nika, Evina, and Anna are on the bench. Even if Evina departs, a very good player gets demoted. Carolyn and Saylor would also be competing with those players for minutes.

Upfront if Aaliyah starts with Live, Aubrey and Amari should have very defined roles. Because of Amari, a three big rotation won't be necessary. We now presumably have a legitimate C backup, and even if Amari wasn't immediately ready, there is also the chance Piath might be. If either is ready for the backup C role, Aailyah can start with Aubrey being her principle backup, and Mir as the third option there.

Are there many players that could play other positions? Yes, but unless the presumed players are unavailable there would be little reason to do so, except as a situational substitution. Whether you compete for playing time with bigs or wings the competition is extensive either way.
 
Having an over abundance of talent is much preferred over not having enough. The day to day lineup will work it's way out. Can you imagine what a UConn practice will look like, it will be a top 10 matchup each and every day.
 
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