Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="JoePgh, post: 2514703, member: 1131"] Geno has explained his rationale for this in more detail that he usually goes into about such matters. He said it again after last night's game. He said previously that he doesn't believe in giving freshmen significant minutes until they earn it in practice, because if he does that, then "there's no coaching them" when they get to be juniors and seniors. They get the idea that they will play whether they practice well or not, and he believes that he can't coach them if they think that. He said last night that the freshmen seem unable to put together 3 consecutive good practices, and until they do that, "they won't play". He acknowledged that they played well at the end of the game, and he said he was frankly surprised by that (presumably based on their practices). It's hardly a surprise that consistency is not a strong point of freshmen in this program or any program. What may be different at UConn is that Geno is both able (without jeopardizing game outcomes in most cases) and willing to penalize inconsistency by limiting minutes until the freshmen learn to be consistent. As I recall, both Napheesa and Gabby had the same problem as freshmen, and look at them now. Kia Nurse never had that problem, apparently, and Lou had it to a lesser degree than Napheesa, Gabby, or apparently any of this year's freshmen. Stewie and Moriah were that way as freshmen, but Morgan Tuck never was. [/QUOTE]