Should Geno take a page from Danny’s book?

[BRS24]

Geno hinted at using a pressing defensive style when talking about the team he thought he was going to have last summer. If everyone is healthy I think he will employ that style of play. Most of us think Paige, Nika, Azzi and Aliyah will start with either Aubrey or Caroline. Geno can sub in for quickness (KK and Quadence), scoring (Ice and Ashlynn), rebounding (Ayanna) and a variety of other situations depending on the progress of Jana, ines and Amari. The players can go all out without getting gassed late in the game. Sounds scary to me.

And we saw a bit of that in either the BET or the first weekend of the NCAAT. Albeit against weaker competition, it was fun to watch.

 

[Blond D.]

Maybe Danny should take a page from Geno's book.

 

[hoophuskee]

The year Geno's team was beating opponents by 40 points, Stewie, I think, averaged 25 minutes.

After her frosh year Stewie avg'd 30.5, 28.3 and 29.1 respectively.

 

[hoophuskee]

Geno hinted at using a pressing defensive style when talking about the team he thought he was going to have last summer. If everyone is healthy I think he will employ that style of play. Most of us think Paige, Nika, Azzi and Aliyah will start with either Aubrey or Caroline. Geno can sub in for quickness (KK and Quadence), scoring (Ice and Ashlynn), rebounding (Ayanna) and a variety of other situations depending on the progress of Jana, ines and Amari. The players can go all out without getting gassed late in the game. Sounds scary to me.

The problem is thouhg that once you build a huge lead in the 1st half or ealry 3rd quarter, you pull the press. You can't keep pressing to try to win by 70 points. As a result, the players won't get one bit tired because they aren't pressing that much.

I agree he'll definitely press. But it won't be "40 minutes of hell."

 

[reelfan]

Based on the health history of our best players it is really rolling the dice to play them more than 20-25 minutes per game.

 

[asuwish]

Geno usually has only 7 or 8 players with significant playing time. Will he put more emphasis on developing a deeper bench? A deeper bench helped Adama not be worn out by tourney time. I hope Geno has 10 players with more than 15 minutes per game and no players more than 30.

The 2000 team played 10, used full court a lot and ran teams into the ground. If you have talent use it! When Caitlin Clark got in foul trouble in the first half her coach pulled her. If your afraid four starters and a bench player or 3 starter and two bench players can't keep a game close for a few minutes then you will not win today! Clark also came out just before the TV time outs and end of the quarter to get rest and prevent silly fouls. You play the game to be able to compete at it's end and not run out of gas. UConn will not win playing it's starters 35+ a game. You have to trust that any of the top 10 players can contribute in some way. The depth is there use it or lose!

 

[wingsfan055]

You can make a strong argument that injuries to his team have cost Geno around 5 Titles - from the late 90s/early 00s to the latest run of bad luck. The last few years with KLS/Nurse injuries to Paige/Azzi injuries have just been brutal to see them fall just short.

 

[BBallF]

As for the bold, Sugar Ray Leonard beat Roberto Duran the 2nd time they fought because he chose to not slug it out with Duran. Sugar Ray's strength was his mobility within the ring. But he wouldn't fight that style vs many inferior opponents. So not all the time woudl he go with 1 style. When Geno gets the #1 recruit, he doesn't mess around; he plays to the team’s strength. But VS inferior teams he will play his bench late.

Though similar to Sugar Ray fighting to his strength vs a tough opponent, and challenges the opponent to hit him. Similarly, Geno gets the #1 recruits and challenges the opposing teams to stop them. The very fact he plays them and wins as much as he has- then that generates further interest from the next superstar young players to want to come to UCONN. It's not that he "needs." Instead, he plays to his team's strength. So, his method is self-perpetuating success as long as he keeps winning.

In regard to the italics, it's not a better approach. What's derailed UCONN the last 2 years are injuries. Are the Azzi injuries, the Caroline injuries, Aubrey injury, Ice injury, last year's Dorka injury, all attributed to Geno playing them too much? You can argue Paige but I highly doubt that too but the others - no way.

The prior year what derailed UCONN was Walker leaving. Before that Azura leaving. Before that they lose two buzzer beaters in FF. In which one team, Notre Dame, had a team of basically 6. When Stanford won 2 years ago their pg Williams played about 40 minutes the last 3 games and Hull averaged about 35.

This year LSU won in which their pg from S16 through Final 4 averaged 39 minutes. Reece had 2 games she played 38 and the 1 she played 31 she had 5 fouls. Only South Carolina used its bench a lot last year when they won it. But they tried that this year and how well did their bench wear down Caitlyn Clark? Why couldn't their bench wear her down? How many different players did they put on her? 3? 4? 5?

I agree but I wanted to add another factor which I think is critical. It's scheduling. Look at LSU's pre conference schedule this year and it was a joke. Ours was brutal. We lost to ND and Md on Sundays away in early games after playing at home the Friday or Thursday night before. We had a very very tough OOC schedule and that tends to wear you down when you only have 5 players anyway. Over the course of a season it takes a toll. The BE is not exactly easy anymore either. If the OOC games are cakewalks, you rest your starters, play less minutes, go to your bench and have easy wins. It's especially effective when you have a deeper bench.

The last 2 seasons was all about the injuries, principally to Paige. Two years ago it was a near miracle to almost win it all and this year we missed her sorely against OSU. Not having her, being beaten down, having players come back from injuries and not being even 80%, there was no coaching style or quick fix that could have cured the unresolved issues such as turnovers and lack of reinforcements underneath overnight. The point is that without a grueling OOC schedule and a deep bench and no injuries to your stars or only a combination of 2 of the above, they can go 38 minutes in a FF or Elite 8 game and not get depleted for the next game. I'm not suggesting that we should have an easy OOC schedule, I'm simply adding to the point that with our schedule and with the slew of serious injuries we had, the result in retrospect is not shocking. You can only keep the straw house together so long especially when you have endemic issues that never went away.

 

[mhshuskies]

The 2000 team played 10, used full court a lot and ran teams into the ground. If you have talent use it! When Caitlin Clark got in foul trouble in the first half her coach pulled her. If your afraid four starters and a bench player or 3 starter and two bench players can't keep a game close for a few minutes then you will not win today! Clark also came out just before the TV time outs and end of the quarter to get rest and prevent silly fouls. You play the game to be able to compete at it's end and not run out of gas. UConn will not win playing it's starters 35+ a game. You have to trust that any of the top 10 players can contribute in some way. The depth is there use it or lose!

There have been past seasons when lack of depth lead to foul trouble, remember Lou against nd? That was one thing that mm figured out, so combine that with practicing the flop and well…