Roundtable: Big East women’s basketball’s tourney champ, but not UConn

[SVCBeercats]

Roundtable: Big East women’s basketball’s tourney champ, but not UConn

It’s that time of year again — March. It’s like Christmas for college basketball fans, as the sport they love takes center stage and is televised all day. For the Big East, Friday is the start of the women’s conference tournament, an event as highly anticipated this year as any year in the past...

dailycampus.com

"For the Big East, Friday is the start of the women’s conference tournament, an event as highly anticipated this year as any year in the past. It’s not completely open, as the UConn Huskies are still the top seed, but their two losses in-conference to the Big East’s fourth and fifth place squads add a different feel. With the short-staffed Huskies needing to win three games in three days, there are a number of teams who have a chance to take home the hardware. Who are those non-UConn teams? Let’s take a look."

Succinctly reviews the chances for St. John's, Marquette, and Villanova.

 

[hoopsfan22]

UConn will have at least 9 players available. At what point do you stop saying they are short-staffed? Is it 10 available players? 12? 15?

 

[cferraro04]

UConn will have at least 9 players available. At what point do you stop saying they are short-staffed? Is it 10 available players? 12? 15?

Hoopfan22: I think you understand quite well what the writer meant by "short-staffed". When you are essentially playing five players for the following minutes per game:

Aliyah Edwards - 33.5 minutes
Lou Lopez-Senechal - 32.3 minutes
Dorka Juhasz - 34.2 minutes
Aubrey Griffin - 32.6 minutes
Nika Muhl - 36.5 minutes

Our sixth player Caroline Ducharme is averaging 24.8 minutes per game

And, our remaining 3 players are only averaging: Patterson - 10.8 minutes per game: DeBerry - 8.7 minutes and Bettencourt - 9.4 minutes and between them they only average 6 points and 5 rebounds per game...I guess it is fair to say that we essentially have a 6 player roster with 3 fairly non-productive role players on the bench... I would say that this circumstance basically qualifies us as a team that is short-staffed. Adding Fudd to the active player list would essentially give us 7 players and while it would provide UConn with additional options it still leaves us short-handed with regards to players who can be impactful.

 

[Zarathustra]

Roundtable: Big East women’s basketball’s tourney champ, but not UConn

It’s that time of year again — March. It’s like Christmas for college basketball fans, as the sport they love takes center stage and is televised all day. For the Big East, Friday is the start of the women’s conference tournament, an event as highly anticipated this year as any year in the past...

dailycampus.com

"For the Big East, Friday is the start of the women’s conference tournament, an event as highly anticipated this year as any year in the past. It’s not completely open, as the UConn Huskies are still the top seed, but their two losses in-conference to the Big East’s fourth and fifth place squads add a different feel. With the short-staffed Huskies needing to win three games in three days, there are a number of teams who have a chance to take home the hardware. Who are those non-UConn teams? Let’s take a look."

Succinctly reviews the chances for St. John's, Marquette, and Villanova.

Don't overlook the chances for Creighton = who beat Marquette twice in the regular season.
Of course, Creighton and Marquette are on opposite sides of the Big East's two brackets. Creighton
killed Villanova early in the season, Villanova soundly beat them in the return matchup. Which
Creighton team will show up against Villanova if this rematch comes to be?? It they do play
each other will one tired out the other to help UCONN if UCONN survives the play-in
winners and the anticipated match up with Marquette. ?? OR... Will there be TWO tired teams
facing off on Monday?? Tune in and find out!! GO HUSKIES!!

 

[hoopsfan22]

Hoopfan22: I think you understand quite well what the writer meant by "short-staffed". When you are essentially playing five players for the following minutes per game:

Aliyah Edwards - 33.5 minutes
Lou Lopez-Senechal - 32.3 minutes
Dorka Juhasz - 34.2 minutes
Aubrey Griffin - 32.6 minutes
Nika Muhl - 36.5 minutes

Our sixth player Caroline Ducharme is averaging 24.8 minutes per game

And, our remaining 3 players are only averaging: Patterson - 10.8 minutes per game: DeBerry - 8.7 minutes and Bettencourt - 9.4 minutes and between them they only average 6 points and 5 rebounds per game...I guess it is fair to say that we essentially have a 6 player roster with 3 fairly non-productive role players on the bench... I would say that this circumstance basically qualifies us as a team that is short-staffed. Adding Fudd to the active player list would essentially give us 7 players and while it would provide UConn with additional options it still leaves us short-handed with regards to players who can be impactful.

But that's not short-staffed. That's just not playing half of the players you have available which is a coach's decision.

 

[Cuango]

But that's not short-staffed. That's just not playing half of the players you have available which is a coach's decision.

This is like having five special forces soldiers and three high school kids and then saying you have a fighting force of eight. Sure, you have eight people, but in reality, you have five fighting men and three others who are more a hindrance than anything else. You may get indignant and accuse me of belittling and being mean to the three high school students but objectively, those kids are going to not only contribute nothing to the fight, but they will actually hinder the special forces guys because they will require protection and thus be a distraction. The truth is exactly what Ferraro said, we have a functional team of five starters and one (Caroline) semi-healthy, reserve. The other three, hopefully will become contributors at some point, but they cannot be called that now!

 

[Bone Dog]

1. any team missing Paige, Azzi, and Ice is short staffed, no matter how you slice it. We're not talking Jacy Sheldon here. This is multiple AA caliber players.

2. In a technical sense, we have the personnel to dominate, as we regularly did earlier in the season. But we haven't played like it recently. Is the time off now going to be enough to regroup and rediscover our mojo? I sure hope so.

 

[GoingPostal]

This is like having five special forces soldiers and three high school kids and then saying you have a fighting force of eight. Sure, you have eight people, but in reality, you have five fighting men and three others who are more a hindrance than anything else. You may get indignant and accuse me of belittling and being mean to the three high school students but objectively, those kids are going to not only contribute nothing to the fight, but they will actually hinder the special forces guys because they will require protection and thus be a distraction. The truth is exactly what Ferraro said, we have a functional team of five starters and one (Caroline) semi-healthy, reserve. The other three, hopefully will become contributors at some point, but they cannot be called that now!

Alright, I'm indignant , accusing you of belittling and being mean to the three players. I'm not going to call them high school players because their not. But I agree that they contribute very little to the overall effort, and thus the team is obviously SHORT HANDED!

 

[SVCBeercats]

UConn will have at least 9 players available. At what point do you stop saying they are short-staffed? Is it 10 available players? 12? 15?

UCONN has 6 players who possess the potential to contribute at a high level. One, given the right circumstances of match ups, may contribute enough for one of the other 6 to get a short rest. I believe it was Alexa Philippou who proposed that the three UCONN players who are 7, 8, and 9 on this team would be 12, 13, and 14 if Azzi, Paige, and Ice were whole. So basically UCONN has maybe 6.5 players for the coming higher level of competition. Hopefully Azzi will make it 7.5.

 

[SVCBeercats]

But that's not short-staffed. That's just not playing half of the players you have available which is a coach's decision.

OK there are 9 relatively healthy women available for any of the coming games. Question: How many the these women are skilled enough to be strong contributors in the Big East tourney and the NCAA Championship tourney? Answer: 6 to 6.5! Maybe Patterson is the 0.5 given good match ups for her. Maybe.

 

[BBallF]

UConn will have at least 9 players available. At what point do you stop saying they are short-staffed? Is it 10 available players? 12? 15?

It's when Azzi is back.

 

[Ozimoto]

Hopefully Dorka's ankle will allow her to play effectively tomorrow.

 

[TCC Kid]

This is like having five special forces soldiers and three high school kids and then saying you have a fighting force of eight. Sure, you have eight people, but in reality, you have five fighting men and three others who are more a hindrance than anything else. You may get indignant and accuse me of belittling and being mean to the three high school students but objectively, those kids are going to not only contribute nothing to the fight, but they will actually hinder the special forces guys because they will require protection and thus be a distraction. The truth is exactly what Ferraro said, we have a functional team of five starters and one (Caroline) semi-healthy, reserve. The other three, hopefully will become contributors at some point, but they cannot be called that now!

If you have 5 special forces and 5 are exhausted and the Mission remains the same. You use the three. Mission is the Mission Uconn isn't like a special forces group. It's more like a very good platoon. South Caroline isn't close to a Special Force --
The "Bench" are not new to the game. Most have been plying 5 or 8 years. Basketball is a game. The subs are in College saying they are trainable or able to be educated. Some learn faster than others. Some come to college better prepared--even in basketball. Yet they know the game.

 

[TCC Kid]

1. any team missing Paige, Azzi, and Ice is short staffed, no matter how you slice it. We're not talking Jacy Sheldon here. This is multiple AA caliber players.

2. In a technical sense, we have the personnel to dominate, as we regularly did earlier in the season. But we haven't played like it recently. Is the time off now going to be enough to regroup and rediscover our mojo? I sure hope so.

ABSOLUTELY paragraph 1.