Should Christyn Come Off the Bench?

[hjoerring]

If we pursue the logic you are working under then Samuelson should also be coming off the bench-- until their shots start dropping. Thinking it through I would like to avoid creating further mental problems-- not to mention the effects on the others. As Geno says, there are other things to do on the court. Whilst the others have shown improvements none of them can start or should start without additional issues for the team . Kyla would provide little scoring, rebounding and D.; Ono is fouling too much, and is not scoring enough; Mikayala would be a possibility, but she too brings no offense, and is clearly not ready to move the pt.guard to a sh guard pos. (And I will leave Molly out of this not withstanding major confidence on her part). In the past, this would not be a problem (our 4 against their 5), but this time around we need that 5th scoring(threat) player to keep the defense from cheating. (I think Stewart came off the bench, but it was for other reasons-- physical. Of course ____[name] volun came off the bench while in a slum but, there were others ensuring continuity. So while she and Samuelson are not shooting as we would like, they have to be defended by opposing players. Watching the game from the bench will do nothing to help them and the team.

 

[CocoHusky]

They have to play a more aggressive defense.
And you know damn well if you’re going to trade 3’s for 2’s with Baylor...and not rebound with anybody , you have to generate easy buckets, and shut down entry passes on the other end.
Tired legs ??? For a senior POY candidate, and a 19 yo #1 —- who are supposedly going 90 mins in a Geno practice harder ?
Lou might be hurt ???? Maybe. More likely in her head.
CW’s appears to be confused more than anything, she passed up a wide open 3 to make a pass for a less desirable position Sunday. She’s thinking instead of playing.
They both just need to keep shooting.
They’re both great shooters, they’ll eventually do what great shooters do.
The offense looks for the uncontested 3. Play the good high energy D, generate some turnover pts. Let Pheesa do her thing, Megan’s for real and let Crystal take over the team.
Tired legs —in an offense that wants to always run — if it is tired legs then shame on them.

That you for your invaluable suggestions. FYI, Geno practices are 120 minutes.

 

['nuff sed]

And you spend 24x7 on analysis and come up with tired legs,...... and a coach who can't keep recruits

With NO solution that enhances chances of winning.

The game is figuring out a way to win without rebounding.......but you haven't come around to that yet.....your still busy parsing shot mechanics.......your solution is heading to what ? everybody has to make every single shot ? That's your fix.

Tell ya what.....go get yourself a milkshake.....sip it slowly.....and come up with a new stat to follow....or switch to baseball

 

[CocoHusky]

And you spend 24x7 on analysis and come up with tired legs,. and a coach who can't keep recruits
With NO solution that enhances chances of winning.
The game is figuring out a way to win without rebounding..but you haven't come around to that yet.....your still busy parsing shot mechanics..your solution is heading to what ? everybody has to make every single shot ? That's your fix.
Tell ya what.....go get yourself a milkshake.....sip it slowly.....and come up with a new stat to follow....or switch to baseball

Thank you for your invaluable suggestions on my lunch options.

 

[ShmiCO]

She’s been playing a huge amount of minutes and hit a wall like all of our former all Americans. She’ll be fine. She’s a winner. Give the kid a break and stop trying to put bench sitters in front of her. Not going to happen.

No better time than now, before the NCAAs, to learn the non-scoring stuff.

I really admire how Christyn is handling this. She's treating her minutes and one-on-one sideline coaching as a golden opportunity - you can see it in her focus and chin up, direct eye contact. Sure, she's in her head a lot atm, but her progress in the non-scoring parts of the game is obvious.

Scoring, particularly in the way she did in ND, I'm not worried about. She described how her role in that game scoring-only in the postgame presser. I think if the coaching staff told her to do exactly that again in another game, she could. Easily and successfully.

Lastly - hi guys! - my first post here. I've been a lurker on rebkell since 2013, but never looked at the BY until recently because I thought it was Uconn-exclusive. Thanks for having me.

 

[EricLA]

I found this thread interesting and the OP posted a valid question. I agree with the people who's answer was "no - she should not come off the bench". But my $.02 is maybe slightly different...

Last year we saw Megan come off the bench. She struggled in most of our eyes (even tho her numbers were not that different from Pheesa's her freshman year). Some had an issue with how Geno handled her (fast forward and she's having a terrific sophomore year with LOTS of consistent praise from coach).

UCONN had the luxury of sitting Meghan since they had 5 AA starters on the court and Z coming off the bench. This year not so much. I love the way Williams is being groomed. She does something boneheaded on the court, coach takes her out, talks to her, puts her back in. She's learning trial by fire and it's a different approach than he took with Meghan. If you read into Geno's comments, it appears Meghan's problems last season in part stemmed from effort, and that doesn't appear to be the issue with Christyn.

Very few freshmen are lighting it up this season. Those who are probably are on weaker teams where they are the primary scoring option. Kids who take 20-25 shots a game are invariably going to score a lot.

 

[oldude]

I found this thread interesting and the OP posted a valid question. I agree with the people who's answer was "no - she should not come off the bench". But my $.02 is maybe slightly different...

Last year we saw Megan come off the bench. She struggled in most of our eyes (even tho her numbers were not that different from Pheesa's her freshman year). Some had an issue with how Geno handled her (fast forward and she's having a terrific sophomore year with LOTS of consistent praise from coach).

UCONN had the luxury of sitting Meghan since they had 5 AA starters on the court and Z coming off the bench. This year not so much. I love the way Williams is being groomed. She does something boneheaded on the court, coach takes her out, talks to her, puts her back in. She's learning trial by fire and it's a different approach than he took with Meghan. If you read into Geno's comments, it appears Meghan's problems last season in part stemmed from effort, and that doesn't appear to be the issue with Christyn.

Very few freshmen are lighting it up this season. Those who are probably are on weaker teams where they are the primary scoring option. Kids who take 20-25 shots a game are invariably going to score a lot.

The vast majority of responses to my OP have generally disagreed with my suggestion that Christyn might be better off coming off the bench, but your post is the first to make a really persuasive argument to keep her in the starting lineup.

Thoughtful and well stated.

 

['nuff sed]

The vast majority of responses to my OP have generally disagreed with my suggestion that Christyn might be better off coming off the bench, but your post is the first to make a really persuasive argument to keep her in the starting lineup.

Thoughtful and well stated.

Christyn is a ticking time bomb who the opposing defenses have to account for.

They can slack off but at a risk.

Even ONO doesn’t provide an equal scare factor.

If CW hits 2-3 in a row watch the reaction from the opposing coach...betcha it’ll be a quick time out

 

[BroadwayVa]

The vast majority of responses to my OP have generally disagreed with my suggestion that Christyn might be better off coming off the bench, but your post is the first to make a really persuasive argument to keep her in the starting lineup.

Thoughtful and well stated.

Coming off the bench in past Genos team was something that regularly happened to frosh. He had teams then that were 9 or more deep. The basic concept stated by Geno way back when, it allowed the (star) Frosh to calm down, see what was happen and have thoughts about handling them. Frosh tend to overly react to unfamiliar situations, this allows the frosh to test the water before jumping in head first.
The ONLY one with a view that matters-- sit and see or jump in--is Geno. But it was a fun OP.

 

[Eggman]

I certainly agree that Liv also needs to be developed as well. The first thing she needs to learn, just like Z, is to stop swinging down when blocking shots. There was one foul she committed yesterday that really bothered me. The UCF post caught the ball in the blocks and spun into the lane to shoot. Liv’s defensive position and footwork were perfect. She was set up for an easy block. She got the ball but also incurred a foul by swinging down, sending the UCF player to the line

But getting back to my OP, while Liv is important, Christyn has the ability to carry the team to a championship when she plays like she did at ND. At the beginning of the season, Christyn’s greatest advantage was her confidence, and right now it’s just not there.

Not sure if this is the block you're talking about, but on one block, Yoko, I mean ONO, did bring her arms down, but did not foul the shooter. It was a bad call and I wonder if refs automatically call a foul if a defender brings her arms down, whether connecting to the shooter or not.

 

[ME Husky Fan]

The other moving part here, not knowing whether it's been stated or not, is the oft-time huge jump from AAU and high school to D1 basketball, not to mention a program and coach as what we have at UCONN. That jump can be a significant one even for a top notch BB player such as Christyn. Keep her part of the starting 5 where she belongs. Will be interested to see how she shows up against Louisville and South Carolina..

 

[oldude]

Not sure if this is the block you're talking about, but on one block, Yoko, I mean ONO, did bring her arms down, but did not foul the shooter. It was a bad call and I wonder if refs automatically call a foul if a defender brings her arms down, whether connecting to the shooter or not.

It was Liv’s 4th pf, occurring 14 seconds into the 4th qtr. I agree it was a close call. There was no contact with the body and Liv got mostly, or perhaps all, ball. But she did swing down, perhaps catching a little bit of arm, and perhaps not. If she doesn’t swing downward, the ref doesn’t blow his whistle, it’s a clean block and the Huskies are heading the other way on a fast break.

 

[oldude]

Christyn is a ticking time bomb who the opposing defenses have to account for.

They can slack off but at a risk.

Even ONO doesn’t provide an equal scare factor.

If CW hits 2-3 in a row watch the reaction from the opposing coach...betcha it’ll be a quick time out

I like the ticking time bomb analogy. However it happens for Christyn, I want that bomb to explode very soon, preferably this Thursday, and then consistently in game after game, all the way to a 12th championship.

 

['nuff sed]

I like the ticking time bomb analogy. However it happens for Christyn, I want that bomb to explode very soon, preferably this Thursday, and then consistently in game after game, all the way to a 12th championship.

Well they’ll need something out of her and a few mins from ONO most likely, both from the defensive side, Thurs nite.

That backcourt’s a problem and it’s not just Durr.

 

[EricLA]

Well they’ll need something out of her and a few mins from ONO most likely, both from the defensive side, Thurs nite.

That backcourt’s a problem and it’s not just Durr.

So is ours! Danger is a handful. Traditionally, UCONN has been a bad matchup for L'ville. last year was the first time I can remember that they hung with us. Durr is a load, and Feuhring is much improved and I think far better than her initial ranking coming out of high school (meaning she's developed nicely under Walz).

Traditionally, L'ville likes to play fast, get into passing lanes, disrupt on the defensive end, and run. They aren't huge (like Baylor or MSU), but have decent size, but still, most of the time, everything they like to do, we just do better. It will be interesting to see if they can build off the last 3 quarters (IIRC) from last year where they outplayed us (we jumped on them early and built a big lead which we rode thru the end of the game).

 

[Los24]

So if Lou and/or Christyn light it up this Thursday at Louisville, how are we going to explain it?

I agree, its not like Lou was not active or playing defense last year (I believe she was second in steals.) How about their sophomore year? Because they are better at certain things this year does not mean they were not exerting effort. Lou was running out more on breaks last year instead rebounding but that said, may times she was boxing out but Gabby and/or Phee would get the rebound.

I also agree with your point about Kia and even more so Gabby providing better passing that allowed her to be in a better position. I have seen her open many times but the pass coming late which allowed the defender to be on her.

Ultimately, she needs to fight through it regardless because a player of her caliber (that most of us hold her in) can not have any of the excuses provided to not improve her shooting efficiency. That said, I think she is contributing in many other ways outside that one terrible game.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Geno addressed this in one of his post game interviews several games ago. He stated that she thinks she needs to score. Bringing her off the bench would only reinforce her thought that she needs to score & that was exactly opposite of what they were trying to get her to understand.

Are saying Geno does not want CW to score? That answers all the questions about why CW isn't scoring..If that is what Geno said/meant.

 

[CocoHusky]

So if Lou and/or Christyn light it up this Thursday at Louisville, how are we going to explain it?

These two players were a combined 7 of 21.

 

[CocoHusky]

No better time than now, before the NCAAs, to learn the non-scoring stuff.

I really admire how Christyn is handling this. She's treating her minutes and one-on-one sideline coaching as a golden opportunity - you can see it in her focus and chin up, direct eye contact. Sure, she's in her head a lot atm, but her progress in the non-scoring parts of the game is obvious.

Scoring, particularly in the way she did in ND, I'm not worried about. She described how her role in that game scoring-only in the postgame presser. I think if the coaching staff told her to do exactly that again in another game, she could. Easily and successfully.

Lastly - hi guys! - my first post here. I've been a lurker on rebkell since 2013, but never looked at the BY until recently because I thought it was Uconn-exclusive. Thanks for having me.

Welcome.

 

[oldude]

These two players were a combined 7 of 21.

And Megan & Crystal were a combined 10 of 30.

Cocoa, I’m surprised at you. It’s really bad form to go back several days, grab a post to say I told you so. I’ve already got a wife to do that.

Hey, here’s an idea. Maybe Christyn would be better if she came off the bench.

 

[OoImFancy]

Honestly, I would bench Williams a couple of games to wake her up even more. I like a bigger lineup with starting ONO to build her confidence up more. ONO is a good player but doesn’t play in games enough to know what to do really. We will need her along with others for the rest of the season. Williams will get out of this slump she’s in just as Stewie did her freshman year. Just food for thought.