Rumor: Walker Wants to play for Geno

[VAMike23]

Eric and I talked a bit more on this. We agree that Butler will be good. We're not sure how good, but she should definitely contribute.

Another interesting question will be the starting lineup next year. We lose Kaleena and Kiah, so we have Moriah, Kia, Stewie, and Morgan all back. I think it's safe to stay that all keep their starting positions. Who gets the 5th starting slot next year? Natalie as a true 5?

I hope that Natalie plays at a high enough level for her to take the starting spot or at a least a 'preponderance of the minutes.' I believe that Stewie and Morgan both are more effective playing alongside another 'big', for the most part. She doesn't have to block shots like Stokes, but if Natalie can rebound somewhat like her, and contribute a bit more on offense, as well as set good screens(!), we'll be in good shape.

 

[UcMiami]

Milford - if Natalie is 'good' and I think she will be then my suspicion is that having a true center on the court in the starting line-up would be preferred and the freshman would get there minutes from the bench. She does not have to be great but with a year in the system and being a true center I think she would take the strain off Morgan on the defensive end. But who knows!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Milford - if Natalie is 'good' and I think she will be then my suspicion is that having a true center on the court in the starting line-up would be preferred and the freshman would get there minutes from the bench. She does not have to be great but with a year in the system and being a true center I think she would take the strain off Morgan on the defensive end. But who knows!

I tend to agree. I saw Natalie in person on Sunday. She was wearing low heels, so it was impossible to accurately ascertain her height, but I'm betting she's 6'4 or 6'5".

I think Natalie has shown what she can do. I think she'll be a better rebounder than Stef was early on. I think she'll also block some shots and set some screens. I think Stef was a far better passer and somewhat better screener and shooter. But Natalie has up to 3-3/4 seasons remaining to learn and improve. We don't know what her ceiling is, but we know she's a hard worker. Stef was raw as a freshman, Kara Wolters was raw early on, so if Natalie is still raw, it's something she can grow out of. I'm so happy that we have Natalie.

 

[Tonyc]

For me I find it very hard to even think that Butler wont put up big numbers at UConn with the players surrounding her. First of all Natalie averaged a double double in the BE a better conference then the AAC. She did that surrounded by players that aren't close to UConns caliber. NO disrespect intended. Next season UConns bench is a top 10 team. With that said Natalie's role at UConn at 6'5 will be to deny the inside game of our opponents, be an intimidator, rebounder and scorer and with her work ethic she will be terrific. Could Tuck start in the middle. Yes, she is this season. Tuck is one of the best players in the country this season. An AA and when her outside shot is more consistent she will be considered as a candidate for POY. She is that good and with an outside shot she could play away from the basket making room for Butler underneath.

Our freshman class coming in next year is really really good. I was told by some of the AAU gurus that Collier has the potential to be the best player in that class. Katie Lou is a wing/guard and most of us feel will replace KML. Collier and Boykin are going to see a lot of playtime. This team is so loaded and ridiculously talented that NC is written all over them.

So will Butler start. That's Genos decision and we will see how she develops as well as how our incoming class develops and learns the UConn system. As of right now we have to go with Mojeff Nurse Tuck Stewie and Butler. Experience and knowing the system is why I choose that lineup. Heck with our starting lineup everybody is going to see a lot of time.

I wouldn't worry about Butler. She has already proven what she can do. On this team she should have no problem putting up good numbers and at 6'5 opponents will think twice about taking the ball inside. Her work ethic is proof she has the "want to". With that said I cant wait for next season.

 

[cohenzone]

The plane boss, the plane!!! Fantasy Island is alive and well on the BY.

 

[Sonofabeach]

Hell I hope Geno doesn't retire until 2022 because I want my Daughter to play for him even if she is a walk on.
here she is in 7th grade two years a go. I hope she has a shoot.

 

[j66kicker]

So, since Cox & Walker have pretty much committed, should we just go ahead and add them to the "UCONN signee/verbal recruit" thread?

Now, who's next?

 

[Zorro]

Eric and I talked a bit more on this. We agree that Butler will be good. We're not sure how good, but she should definitely contribute.

Another interesting question will be the starting lineup next year. We lose Kaleena and Kiah, so we have Moriah, Kia, Stewie, and Morgan all back. I think it's safe to stay that all keep their starting positions. Who gets the 5th starting slot next year? Natalie as a true 5? Lou as a premier shooter like Kaleena? The efficient, versatile, and hard-working Napheesa? The uber-athletic and more experienced Gabby? Saniya in guard-oriented lineup? I like several of those options. I've listed them in order, from what I deem most likely to least likely. I don't see Courtney or De'Janae starting next year.

Ken; Have been thinking about this and agree 100%. So you must be right. Natalie could be a big force either as a starter or coming off the bench ala Kiah.

 

[NewCorn]

Hell I hope Geno doesn't retire until 2022 because I want my Daughter to play for him even if she is a walk on.
here she is in 7th grade two years a go. I hope she has a shoot.

She's a sure starter for 2022, AA in 2024. Geno can't retire until 2026.

 

[Zorro]

I guess she will get here a couple of years before Mini-chick, so it's prolly ok. Was that her with the driving layup? impressive!

 

[Sonofabeach]

I guess she will get here a couple of years before Mini-chick, so it's prolly ok. Was that her with the driving layup? impressive!

Yes, that was her... she is in 9th grade, now so if she get to the next level it will be in 2019.

 

[Farney]

Hell I hope Geno doesn't retire until 2022 because I want my Daughter to play for him even if she is a walk on.
here she is in 7th grade two years a go. I hope she has a shoot.

I think we can count on an SEC team reporting this as some kind of recruiting violation.

 

[asuwish]

But to me the Big east is just as good if not better than the AAC. But I seen her play twice last year and ima tell you now she is a big body/present on the floor

It seems Cox wants to be more like Tuck or Stewart. Use versatile skills all over the place. No coach moves his taller players all over the court the way Geno does. If we do get Walker to commit I believe that would help attract Cox or other talented players. If your unselfish, you believe you get better playing with other great player, you know opponents can't double team you because your teammates are also a threat to score, and if your goal also includes trying to win a championship, nothing gives you a better chance than being surrounded by great talent and coaching.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Continuing the Butler digression in the Walker thread, not to confuse it with the Cox digression from the Butler digression, I offer three reminders about what manna from heaven this young lady is:

http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article...t-for-transfer-to-UConn&template=fairfaxTimes

http://www.pressboxdc.com/2014/02/19/despite-youth-natalie-butler-a-dominant-force-for-Georgetown

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn...ie-butler-conn-women-1020-20141019-story.html

She's going to be real good and she may end up being a great one.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

I was told by some of the AAU gurus that Collier has the potential to be the best player in that class.

I'm not an AAU guru and I've said several times that, having watched all the top-12 players multiple times, she is the best prospect in the class.

 

[Bgillon]

Continuing the Butler digression in the Walker thread, not to confuse it with the Cox digression from the Butler digression, I offer three reminders about what manna from heaven this young lady is:

http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article...t-for-transfer-to-UConn&template=fairfaxTimes

http://www.pressboxdc.com/2014/02/19/despite-youth-natalie-butler-a-dominant-force-for-Georgetown

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn...ie-butler-conn-women-1020-20141019-story.html

She's going to be real good and she may end up being a great one.

Thanks for reminding everyone how impressive Butler was before she got to UCONN. Unfortunately some people have decided that now that she's here, she probably could be good but there is a high school player who would start ahead of her. And of course the Big East teams Butler played against aren't much better than the high school teams that this other player played against! And Butler's year of learning our system and practising against the UCONN AAs coupled with our outstanding coaching staff won't make much of a difference in Butler's development compared to that high school player.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Natalie lost 17 pounds. Sounds like Stef Dolson.

Her dad had the USNA rebounding record until David Robonson came along. Sounds like Tina Charles.

Natalie was BE FOW 10x. Sounds like Maya Moore.

Amanda Kimball raves about her. Sounds like Kelly Faris.

 

[hoophuskee]

I agree with eric and I respect what slu is saying. Who can't respect slu's posts? He's an excellent poster. If we were fortunate enough to get Cox-- eric is spot on - that doesn't make Butler any worse.

And while I had a disagreement with asuwish on another thread - loved loved it here. Geo moves his bigs. I think slu has mentioned Cox overall variety. ANd of course we know what Geno does with talented STef-like centers which Butler has some terrific strengths. All is well.

In my opinion slu sees Cox in a similar light for example some of us saw Maya Moore in high school. For those of you that saw just 1 high school game of Maya - the 1 that was televised in which her team was playing a tough team that had a real good Rutgers recruit- couldn't you tell how amazing off-the-charts Maya would be? It appears that's what slu thinks of Cox. But at this point in time at least for me - we don't have Cox so I won't lose any sleep over it. I'm grateful we have Butler and very happy we are in the running to get Cox. Imagine them playing together?

 

[Buzzyboy]

I'd like to see Butler play before forming too much of an opinion on her. I like that other coaches who saw her speak highly, and she has a reputation as a hard worker which is good for future development. I don't know what to make of her stats at Georgetown which was a bad team in a blah conference. She played a ton (36 min). She'll never get those minutes at UConn, but I have hopes she'll be a good player.

People who haven't seen her are going to be shocked by how good Cox will be.

When UConn was in the Big East conference they played something like 18 conference games and how many of them were against Notre Dame and Louisville? That meant that UConn played the vast majority of their games against many of the same teams that Georgetown did and how many freshman center ever got close to the double double that Butler did??? Did Dolson? To minimize Butler's achievement by talking about the Big East as if it suddenly went from a great conference with 8 or 9 teams making the tournament to a bunch of chumps because UConn left is a little much. Butler may have gotten better stats because her team wasn't as talented as was a typcial UConn team but then too, she didn't have the support around her that Stef may have had. Because of the amount of teams, there were years where UConn only played Louisville once and though the conference always wanted two UConn/Notre Dame games, there may have been years where that didn't happen. As has been mentioned before, Geno's pals, DePaul coach Doug Bruno and Villanova coach Harry Perrata both raved about her abilities, especially Doug Bruno and that was one of the reasons that Geno brought her into the program. He'd had issues about transfers but those inputs from his fellow coaches, helped clinch the deal.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Natalie lost 17 pounds. Sounds like Stef Dolson.

Her dad had the USNA rebounding record until David Robonson came along. Sounds like Tina Charles.

Natalie was BE FOW 10x. Sounds like Maya Moore.

Amanda Kimball raves about her. Sounds like Kelly Faris.

Doug Bruno raved about her and I'm inclined to think his opinion helped Geno make his decision to accept her transfer. Doug is good enough where Geno has had him on as an assistant coach on his National team, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Buzzyboy]

How did Butler prove it? Just by UConn taking her? She may well be- but I don't think the jury can be out on her yet. I will say, she is in magnificent shape, but time will tell.

How has Cox proved anything but that she's a really good high school player? Butler played in a Big East Conference that was pretty good though NOT AS GOOD as it was with the departure of UConn, Notre Dame and Syracuse. You must remember that when Stef Dolson was a freshman, she played only how many games against Notre Dame and Syracuse? Only a very small amount of games in an entire Big East season so there isn't THAT big a distinction between the rest of the league and didn't the Big East send nine teams to the tournament a couple of years in a row. So we aren't talking garbage, are we? Still some pretty decent teams and she averaged a double, double and was freshman of the year, in the league. She competed against other kids for freshman of the year who had been recruited prior to the Big East folding and she beat them all out, easily for freshman of the year. Did Stef Dolson win freshman of the year? Did she average a double double in her freshman year? How many games did Stef play in her freshman year against teams that were no longer in the conference when Butler got there. Did she play in maybe 3 games, figuring two against either Louisville or Notre Dame and one against the other. Out of how many games? For Doug Bruno to rave about Butler to Geno says quite a bit since Doug is respected enough by Geno to have been selected as an assistant on Geno's national staff. Butler displayed her abilities in college, against actual college players that would have been competing against UConn were it not for the fact that Syracuse and Louisville along with Notre Dame decided to abandon the Big East for the ACC. How many of these people have ever seen Butler play at all? Yet, they're qualified to totally dismiss any possibility that Butler with her added physical maturity and working against this UConn front court while learning the system with all the weight training she's also doing, will have any hope of starting against a girl they've seen a little bit of video of, competing against 15 or 16 year old girls. Is that the silliest thing ever????

Continuing the Butler digression in the Walker thread, not to confuse it with the Cox digression from the Butler digression, I offer three reminders about what manna from heaven this young lady is:

http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article...t-for-transfer-to-UConn&template=fairfaxTimes

http://www.pressboxdc.com/2014/02/19/despite-youth-natalie-butler-a-dominant-force-for-Georgetown

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn...ie-butler-conn-women-1020-20141019-story.html

She's going to be real good and she may end up being a great one.

Thanks for reminding everyone how impressive Butler was before she got to UCONN. Unfortunately some people have decided that now that she's here, she probably could be good but there is a high school player who would start ahead of her. And of course the Big East teams Butler played against aren't much better than the high school teams that this other player played against! And Butler's year of learning our system and practising against the UCONN AAs coupled with our outstanding coaching staff won't make much of a difference in Butler's development compared to that high school player.

 

[Paul1969]

I thought this post was about Walker?

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I thought this post was about Walker?

It is the sine qua non of a truly stimulating Boneyard thread that it goes off on at least two tangents! So this thread has qualified for the Boneyard Order of Rambling seal of approval.

 

[Bgillon]

I thought this post was about Walker?

It was until at least one poster felt it necessary to downgrade Butler in order to extoll Walker's virtues. A similar strategy was used to boost Saniya at the beginning of the season to the detriment of Nurse.

 

[Sonny44]

I thought this post was about Walker?

Surprised?