SI - Is Stewart Geno's Best Recruit ?

[Wbbfan1]

SI.com - Link

 

[UCONNfan1]

Yes.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Is Bree the best recruit? Ever? This year?

The competition for both is tough.

 

[easttexastrash]

We will have to see how she performs in the college ranks and if she can bring the intensity of DT, who is the best UConn recruit ever, IMO. It's hard to call her the best ever when she has yet to play a Div I game.

 

[UConnCat]

It's hard to call her the best ever when she has yet to play a Div I game.

Hence the question mark. I read the article as asking a question rather than making a declarative statement.

 

[pap49cba]

Love this comment by the writer...

"Stewart likens her Swiss-army-knife game to that of the NBA's Tim Duncan..."

 

[Jim]

Geno's best recruit is Chris Dailey. Without her I don't think UConn gets the recruits they've gotten over the years.

 

[EricLA]

I guess you'd have to compare what they did coming out of HS. I see nothing wrong with making a claim like that since she has 4 years to prove (or not) that she's the best college player. But she's already graduated high school, like DT and Maya, so it wouldn't be that hard to compare what they accomplished in HS and determine which one was the best coming out of HS...

I believe the comment was that she may be his best recruit, not his best player ever...

 

[UcMiami]

I guess you'd have to compare what they did coming out of HS. I see nothing wrong with making a claim like that since she has 4 years to prove (or not) that she's the best college player. But she's already graduated high school, like DT and Maya, so it wouldn't be that hard to compare what they accomplished in HS and determine which one was the best coming out of HS...

I believe the comment was that she may be his best recruit, not his best player ever...

I believe she has the best USA basketball resume of any HS student ever - not positive about this, but pretty sure it is true.

 

[easttexastrash]

For her to end up as the best UCONN recruit ever she has to bring home 4 titles to beat DT's 3. I'm hoping she falls one short.

 

[Buzzyboy]

For her to end up as the best UCONN recruit ever she has to bring home 4 titles to beat DT's 3. I'm hoping she falls one short.

I can't believe that I continue to hear the nonsense that DT is AUTOMATICALLY superior to Maya Moore because DT had three titles while Maya ONLY had two. The sheer nonsense of that statement!!!!! ETT is one of the biggest advocates of Griner of Baylor being maybe the best women's college basketball player ever and the best she'll be able to do is two titles and that's if she wins this year, which I doubt will happen. Based on the "most titles" formula, Griner is no where to be found amongst the best women's players ever. So titles really has no bearing on who may or may not have been the best women's players of all time. I know that Maya Moore did a lot more to possibly win four titles for her team than did Diana Taurasi. Taurasi in her freshman year was maybe the biggest reason why the best UConn team ever did NOT win the title with a perfectly horrendous shooting night against Notre Dame that sealed their semi final loss. She was awful. Maya in both her freshman year and her senior year was wonderful in defeat and in her freshman year she was playing severly injured with a bad lower back (spine) injury suffered earlier.

 

[Icebear]

For her to end up as the best UCONN recruit ever she has to bring home 4 titles to beat DT's 3. I'm hoping she falls one short.

Relax, after three titles there is no way she loses her senior year.

 

[easttexastrash]

I can't believe that I continue to hear the nonsense that DT is AUTOMATICALLY superior to Maya Moore because DT had three titles while Maya ONLY had two. The sheer nonsense of that statement!!!!! ETT is one of the biggest advocates of Griner of Baylor being maybe the best women's college basketball player ever and the best she'll be able to do is two titles and that's if she wins this year, which I doubt will happen. Based on the "most titles" formula, Griner is no where to be found amongst the best women's players ever. So titles really has no bearing on who may or may not have been the best women's players of all time. I know that Maya Moore did a lot more to possibly win four titles for her team than did Diana Taurasi. Taurasi in her freshman year was maybe the biggest reason why the best UConn team ever did NOT win the title with a perfectly horrendous shooting night against Notre Dame that sealed their semi final loss. She was awful. Maya in both her freshman ye.ar and her senior year was wonderful in defeat and in her freshman year she was playing severly injured with a bad lower back (spine) injury suffered earlier.

IMO, DT is the greatest player in UCONN history and did more for the UCONN program than any other player in its history. That is just my opinion. My opinion may change in four years, but DT brought the program to greater heights than any other player. Unfortunately, with a program such as UCONN, which has completely different standards than most universities, that will always be the measuring stick by which players are measured, however irritating it may be to you.

Griner is the without a doubt the greatest recruit in Baylor's history because she has a similar place in Baylor history that DT does in UCONN history.

 

[CL82]

I can't believe that I continue to hear the nonsense that DT is AUTOMATICALLY superior to Maya Moore because DT had three titles while Maya ONLY had two. The sheer nonsense of that statement!!!!! ETT is one of the biggest advocates of Griner of Baylor being maybe the best women's college basketball player ever and the best she'll be able to do is two titles and that's if she wins this year, which I doubt will happen. Based on the "most titles" formula, Griner is no where to be found amongst the best women's players ever. So titles really has no bearing on who may or may not have been the best women's players of all time. I know that Maya Moore did a lot more to possibly win four titles for her team than did Diana Taurasi. Taurasi in her freshman year was maybe the biggest reason why the best UConn team ever did NOT win the title with a perfectly horrendous shooting night against Notre Dame that sealed their semi final loss. She was awful. Maya in both her freshman year and her senior year was wonderful in defeat and in her freshman year she was playing severly injured with a bad lower back (spine) injury suffered earlier.

That back injury was due to a Rutgers cheap shot. I think if Maya is healthy we would have had the NC that year. For what it was worth, though, DT was a mess physically her senior year and still won a NC.

 

[diggerfoot]

I can't believe that I continue to hear the nonsense that DT is AUTOMATICALLY superior to Maya Moore because DT had three titles while Maya ONLY had two. The sheer nonsense of that statement!!!!! ETT is one of the biggest advocates of Griner of Baylor being maybe the best women's college basketball player ever and the best she'll be able to do is two titles and that's if she wins this year, which I doubt will happen. Based on the "most titles" formula, Griner is no where to be found amongst the best women's players ever. So titles really has no bearing on who may or may not have been the best women's players of all time. I know that Maya Moore did a lot more to possibly win four titles for her team than did Diana Taurasi. Taurasi in her freshman year was maybe the biggest reason why the best UConn team ever did NOT win the title with a perfectly horrendous shooting night against Notre Dame that sealed their semi final loss. She was awful. Maya in both her freshman year and her senior year was wonderful in defeat and in her freshman year she was playing severly injured with a bad lower back (spine) injury suffered earlier.

If the way to the championship requires a player to put "everyone on your back," then I would say Moore was/is better than Taurasi. If the way to the championship requires making others better and getting them to gel, then I would say a healthy Taurasi was/is better. Moore's two championships would have been won by Taurasi as well with that same supporting cast. I don't think the same could be said of the second of Taurasi's three championships. That supporting cast would have tried to rely on Moore too much, sort of like what happened in Moore's very last game, and Moore would not have had the ability to bring out their best like Taurasi did. Indeed, switch Taurasi for Moore in Moore's last game and I say she finds a way to bring out more in everyone else to beat Notre Dame.

So if I was building a team I would take a healthy Taurasi over Moore .... or over Griner for that matter. I'm waiting to see where Stewart fits into that equation.

Addendum: You can blame the loss Taurasi's freshman season on Taurasi if you'd like, but precisely as a freshman I doubt Taurasi saw it as her role to make everyone better at that time. It would have been more comfortable for her to have a "get on my back" approach than a "let me rally you" approach at that stage of her UConn career, surrounded by other superstars. For the same reason I would not hold any losses during Moore's freshman season against her, either.

 

[uconnfan68]

SI.com - Link

I love her humility and attitude already.

 

[Tonyc]

Diana was a floor leader. She took a group of players and made them a team by making those players playing around her better. That is what makes Diana the Greatest. No other player can say that. The ND game with Sveta and Shea injured on the bench was Dianas worst game and one poor game in 4 years isnt how I judge a player. Maya is a great player as is Stewie but Diana was special in that she could take over a game when need be and make players around her better. When you look back at the Tenn/UCOnn games Diana single handlely took the game over. There may never be another Diana.

 

[easttexastrash]

DT is so fiery! That is one of her greatest qualities and I have never gotten that same sense from Maya, who is incredibly smooth. I felt that Maya had a tendency to hang back a bit too much before she took over the game, which, IMO, is the reason that UCONN lost to ND in Maya's senior year. I kept waiting for Maya to just take over, which she eventually did, but I felt like it was just a tad too late.

 

[diggerfoot]

DT is so fiery! That is one of her greatest qualities and I have never gotten that same sense from Maya, who is incredibly smooth. I felt that Maya had a tendency to hang back a bit too much before she took over the game, which, IMO, is the reason that UCONN lost to ND in Maya's senior year. I kept waiting for Maya to just take over, which she eventually did, but I felt like it was just a tad too late.

I actually think Moore is plenty fiery and that the problem with ND is almost the opposite: players afterwards bemoaned that they were spectators for too long in that game. There's one play that captures for me the value of Taurasi: a half-court pass of a ball heading out of bounds to Crockett cutting towards the basket, in a semifinal game we easily could have lost. Moore can do things that Taurasi can't, but could Moore make that type of play? More importantly, even if Moore could make that play would her teammates oblige to make it happen? Why on earth would Crockett be cutting to the basket on that play in the first place? One of the early "problems" with Taurasi was it had to be drilled in to old and newcomers alike to expect a pass from anywhere at anytime. There are no spectators on a Taurasi-led team.

 

[CL82]

I think Diana put the team on her back and carried them for the NC run during her senior year. That is her best trait, in my opinion - she is fearless and confident when the game is on the line. It is probably unfair to compare the two though. Needless to say I'd love to have either on my team at any time.

 

[slimmer56]

Diana was probably the best recruit in UCONN history ! Also, at one time a couple of years back wasn't she considered to be the best women's bball player in the WORLD !

It is still too early to tell, but perhaps Breanna Stewart will become UCONN's greatest recruit !
Then go on to follow Diana as the greatest women's bball player on the planet !
GO UCONN GO !

 

[Tonyc]

What I will be looking for from Stewie this season is her stepping up, making plays and taking over games. We have a lot of shooters and scorers who can hit clutch shots. Breanna showed a little bit in the USA games and the exhibition games that when shes needed she does what she has to do to win games. Diana had it and Maya had it. I think Breanna has it too.