I think Paige is incredibly deserving, but by the time Sarah is done, her numbers will be better in just about every way imaginable. But I will still believe Paige is deserving so our Mt Rushmore will need 5. Or we will need to call it something else. Maybe the "7 wonders of the basketball world"? That would give room for those 5 plus 2 more...
maybe the Mag 7, like in the stock market!
But she may tie Stewie with 4 rings and be up there with DT with 3 and Maya with 2
I am still soooooo miffed that they didn't make Sarah and Azzi Co-MOPs of last year's Final Four. Check out the numbers!
Because the team is so strong Sarah plays relatively few minutes per game AND she will often not take shots in order to feed teammates who are also open. She is like Paige often preferring to pass first. Of course these factors lower her stats and STILL her numbers stiff the spreadsheets. An AMAZING player.
So who of Stewart, Moore, DT are you dropping?
Come on, this is the BY. If we made it the "7 wonders" we would be debating the #7 spot. If we made it the supreme court, we would be debating the #9 spot. It's what we do.
We might have enough room if we make it the UConn Congress. 😂
On a per game basis Paige indeed does come out a little ahead of Maya in scoring, but well behind on a per-minute basis.
We also have to remember who each of the greats played with. Geno has already said many times, Paige had to do so much more as a freshman and quite frankly her entire career at UCONN because of the players surrounding her and of course the injury situation. To me Paige had to carry so much of the load and also during a time when you WCBB landscape has had more talent spread across more teams. I'm gonna enjoy Sarah now and debate this once she's finished her career.
A little behind on a per minute basis, 25.9-24.8 in per 40, but way ahead on a per possession basis.
That little bit behind comes out to 116 points if she played the same number of minutes as Maya.
To be able to conlude this, we'd also need to know possessions per minute. In the absence of that sort of information, this difference could be merely noise in imperfectly controlled data.
That was the peak of her individual career though at UCONN. You could make a case that Strong's overall freshman season surpasses Paige since she was consistently great all season and dominated the Final Four en route to a title. She's the first UCONN freshman to find that combination of consistency + Final Four success. None of DT, Paige, Moore nor Stewart were able to accomplish both as freshmen.
But availability should be included in the Rushmore criteria.
