Sarah - The Athletics Player of the Year | The Boneyard

Sarah - The Athletics Player of the Year

Couldn't happen to a nicer player. Sarah will deserve every award she gets, Many more to come. Sarah WILL be on the wall.There is still the possibility of a 4-peat ALA Breanna Stewart.She is a generational player for Uconn. Sarah will also set many new records at Uconn. The fans love her. GO SARAH!!!!!! GO HUSKIES!!!!!!
 
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www.nytimes.com

UConn’s Sarah Strong: The Athletic’s women’s basketball Player of the Year

Strong's stat line was historic: 59.5 percent field goal shooting, 40.7 percent on 3-pointers and 88.1 percent on free throws.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
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ME Husky Fan said:
Can’t understand having LSU’s Johnson make it ahead of her teammate Williams.
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Major headscratcher of a pick there. Aside from that I think they nailed 1st and 2nd team. 5 of the 11 picks are sophomores which means the future is BRIGHT for the sport.

Congrats to Sarah Strong, well deserved after an incredible season.
 
Congratulations to Sarah and Azzi!

Here's a gift link to their All-America team article.

Personally, I would have Hannah on the first team ahead of Olivia. I know Hannah can be a polarizing figure, but she is an incredibly talented player who had a great season both offensively and defensively at an extremely high usage rate. I like Olivia Miles, but it should be noted that TCU's SOS is 40 (UConn's, by comparison, is 25; ND's is 14), and some of her gaudiest games stats-wise came during thrashings of weak teams when her coach had her going for triple-doubles in the 4th quarter when they were way up.

And no way Flau belongs on this list. That is a vote based on reputation, not on performance this year. Jaloni deserves that spot to herself.

Would have liked to see Raven as an Honorable Mention. Any thoughts on why Kiki Rice never makes it into these conversations?
 
Jonathan14 said:
Congratulations to Sarah and Azzi!

Here's a gift link to their All-America team article.

Personally, I would have Hannah on the first team ahead of Olivia. I know Hannah can be a polarizing figure, but she is an incredibly talented player who had a great season both offensively and defensively at an extremely high usage rate. I like Olivia Miles, but it should be noted that TCU's SOS is 40 (UConn's, by comparison, is 25; ND's is 14), and some of her gaudiest games stats-wise came during thrashings of weak teams when her coach had her going for triple-doubles in the 4th quarter when they were way up.

And no way Flau belongs on this list. That is a vote based on reputation, not on performance this year. Jaloni deserves that spot to herself.

Would have liked to see Raven as an Honorable Mention. Any thoughts on why Kiki Rice never makes it into these conversations?
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Agree Raven Johnson would’ve been a good pick even if her stats don’t pop.

I’m guessing the last spot for 1st Team AP All America honors will be between Hannah, Olivia and Azzi. Blakes/Betts/Strong/Booker all look like locks.

Rice also would’ve been good for 2nd option, she has nice numbers this year. She’s consistent but eye test isn’t there for me.

I’m surprised at the lack of recognition for Ava Heiden. Shes been great all year. I’d put her and Beers on a team over Strack.
 
The PERFECT player for the award. Sarah will garner many more awards and will have earned every one of them. Over the course of her four years at Uconnj I am curious on how many awards she will amass. To describe her as a natural, built for BB, extraordinary hands physically fit and mentally processes the game. GO SARAH!!!!!
 
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RockyMTblue2 said:
I love it. Been quietly worrying limited minutes and limited, atypical scoring would impact honors and it still might. But The Athletic doesn't mess around and may cut off nonsense at the pass.
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That plus Sarah being named both CPOY & CDPOY will make an extremely “strong” case that Sarah is a complete basketball player. Blakes is very good. But she ain’t Sarah.
 
Part of me wants to complain that Azzi should be first team. But I’ll get to that in a moment. I think it’s clear Joyce deserves first team more than Madison. As for Miles, I agree that her stats are inflated and irrelevant. Hannah and/or Jaloni make more sense in her spot.

As for Azzi, I get the preference for Mikayla. The offensive numbers are impressive in a tough conference. They may be a little inflated by a high usage rate. But her defensive stats are eye catching, and she’s clearly carrying a top ten team. But I also think this gives a distorted picture of their actual accomplishments. Azzi doesn’t have 30 pt games, though none of us surely believes she couldn’t do that if it served her team. She has the ball in her hands a lot, but doesn’t take so many shots, precisely because in her estimation this is what her team needs. Mikayla’s scoring doesn’t put her above Azzi. Perhaps it ought to put her below. It’s the wrong accomplishment to focus on. Azzi is one of the twin pillars UConn’s historic run rests upon.

So much for my defense of Azzi.
 
It's just very hard for teams with multiple stars to get them all recognized. It's just Human nature for voters to want to spread around the love.

Sarah/Azzi

Booker/Harmon

UCLA Team

FJ/MK Williams

R Johnson/ Edwards

All these players put more value on the opportunity to win an ncaa title than individual awards.

Hopefully Azzi gets title #2 and goes #1 in WNBA draft. She has finally had a complete healthy season to show all of her skills. 🥰
 
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packwrap said:
It's just very hard for teams with multiple stars to get them all recognized. It's just Human nature for voters to want to spread around the love.

Sarah/Azzi

Booker/Harmon

UCLA Team

FJ/MK Williams

R Johnson/ Edwards

All these players put more value on the opportunity to win an ncaa title than individual awards.

Hopefully Azzi gets title #2 and goes #1 in WNBA draft. She has finally has a complete healthy season to show all of her skills. 🥰
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One more hope for Azzi, which I think is highly likely. Should Azzi make the 10 player WBCA AA 1st team, she will earn a spot among the HOH. That AA team is typically announced right before the FF starts.

Then we can all look forward to the ceremony when Azzi’s #35 banner is raised into the rafters at Gampel.
 
Bone Dog said:
Part of me wants to complain that Azzi should be first team. But I’ll get to that in a moment. I think it’s clear Joyce deserves first team more than Madison. As for Miles, I agree that her stats are inflated and irrelevant. Hannah and/or Jaloni make more sense in her spot.

As for Azzi, I get the preference for Mikayla. The offensive numbers are impressive in a tough conference. They may be a little inflated by a high usage rate. But her defensive stats are eye catching, and she’s clearly carrying a top ten team. But I also think this gives a distorted picture of their actual accomplishments. Azzi doesn’t have 30 pt games, though none of us surely believes she couldn’t do that if it served her team. She has the ball in her hands a lot, but doesn’t take so many shots, precisely because in her estimation this is what her team needs. Mikayla’s scoring doesn’t put her above Azzi. Perhaps it ought to put her below. It’s the wrong accomplishment to focus on. Azzi is one of the twin pillars UConn’s historic run rests upon.

So much for my defense of Azzi.
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I like Azzi but there is no way she's better than Blakes Watching her the other day I was trying to find fault in Blakes game and I really couldn't she is great and if SS wasn't there she would probably be NPOY.first team along wih SS is Betts and Booker both locks and then you have Blakes who was 2nd team last year like Sara.that leaves one spot open and Miles gets it who also was 2nd team last year..Now that drops HH down from first team to 2nd and although the team stinks she is having a great year
So there really wasn't a spot for Azzi to jump to a first team but she'll be on the 10 player AA team so she can have her #up there and hopefully another Naty along with the# 1 pick in the draft
 
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browns said:
I like Azzi but there is no way she's better than Blakes Watching her the other day I was trying to find fault in Blakes game and I really couldn't she is great and if SS wasn't there she would probably be NPOY.first team along wih SS is Betts and Booker both locks and then you have Blakes who was 2nd team last year like Sara.that leaves one spot open and Miles gets it who also was 2nd team last year..Now that drops HH down from first team to 2nd and although the team stinks she is having a great year
So there really wasn't a spot for Azzi to jump to a first team but she'll be on the 10 player AA team so she can have her #up there and hopefully another Naty along with the# 1 pick in the draft
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Since we're really only arguing about 'eyeball tests,' we can agree to disagree. I agree that Blakes is a great player. I just think Azzi is a better basketball player. As for Betts and Booker, I don't think they have to be 'locks,' though Betts has a better case. Booker is also a great player, but Joyce is better, on a stronger albeit thinner team in the same conference: in my opinion she belongs on the first team more than Madison does. If there were room, both could be there. But if it's a choice, Joyce wins hands down in my view. As for Miles, I think she doesn't have the resumé this season: great offensive stats on an uneven team in a weak conference. I like her game a lot. But that's not enough. Blakes is much more obvious as a first teamer.

Clearly, choices have to be made, because this is a talented bunch. I'd just make different choices. The more interesting thing, in my view, is The Athletic itself. Many of us remember when they came on the scene a few years back, a young crew on a new sportswriting venture as a subset of the NYTimes. There were fits and starts early on, but they have worked hard to get name recognition. Announcing their own AA picks early in the process is a good way to get their brand in the discussion. But that doesn't mean these are great choices. The pressure on them to make picks that look insightful while also not bucking the obvious trends makes for a difficult needle to thread. Often, the compromise they've reached in other articles is to anticipate where they think the rest of the crowd of pundits is headed and try to get there first. This list looks like another case of this. Why else would Flau'jae be included at all, especially over Williams?
 
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