Sidney Cooks to Miss St. - Yikes! I am asleep at the wheel

[SVCBeercats]

I missed this by a mile. Why do bigs want to go anywhere but UCONN? Afraid of being compared to the greatness of Stewart? Did Stevens leaving with a year of eligiblity cause them to wonder why?
Schaefer adds transfer Sidney Cooks

 

[HopJim]

Yikes! The only good news is that State may not have enough spots to play everyone. Congrats on another great job of recruiting for Vic S.

 

[Dokey]

Yikes! The only good news is that State may not have enough spots to play everyone. Congrats on another great job of recruiting for Vic S.

It is one of the reasons I listed Miss State a couple of months ago as a team to watch, knowing he could find players. Some of you--very politely--laughed.

 

[hjoerring]

I missed this by a mile. Why do bigs want to go anywhere but UCONN? Afraid of being compared to the greatness of Stewart? Did Stevens leaving with a year of eligiblity cause them to wonder why?
Schaefer adds transfer Sidney Cooks

What do we know about her-- beyond her Bio? I'm always skeptical when a player leaves a highly ranked Institution to one in a wholly diff category. Believe it or not there are a lot of standards that a Program as ours abide by in recruiting a player-- being tall might be a minor one. Nothing against MSU, but the pickings might be better over there than a place like Uconn, etc. Why is she transferring and sitting out a year?

 

[CBus13]

What do we know about her-- beyond her Bio? I'm always skeptical when a player leaves a highly ranked Institution to one in a wholly diff category. Believe it or not there are a lot of standards that a Program as ours abide by in recruiting a player-- being tall might be a minor one. Nothing against MSU, but the pickings might be better over there than a place like Uconn, etc. Why is she transferring and sitting out a year?

I believe, Cooks explained her reasoning for leaving Michigan State was she wanted to find a team who played and uptempo style of play that suited her skillsets, even though she loved playing at MichiganState and playing for Coach Merchant, she felt she needed to go elsewhere to find this style of play.

 

[willtalk]

I believe, Cooks explained her reasoning for leaving Michigan State was she wanted to find a team who played and uptempo style of play that suited her skillsets, even though she loved playing at MichiganState and playing for Coach Merchant, she felt she needed to go elsewhere to find this style of play.

Style of play is certainly a factor. Another is that more players enter college with higher developed individual skills out of high school. Stevens left because she did not deem it necessary to develop her back to the basket game. More and more tall players do not want to be locked into just playing in the post. It is also a catch 22 situation that feeds on itself. If a team does not already have enough post players, then players who want to develop their face to the basket skills will not come because more than likely they will be locked into post play by default. That is what would have happened to Stevens who saw herself as a 3 or 4 and not a 5.

 

[JoePgh]

Style of play is certainly a factor. Another is that more players enter college with higher developed individual skills out of high school. Stevens left because she did not deem it necessary to develop her back to the basket game. More and more tall players do not want to be locked into just playing in the post. It is also a catch 22 situation that feeds on itself. If a team does not already have enough post players, then players who want to develop their face to the basket skills will not come because more than likely they will be locked into post play by default. That is what would have happened to Stevens who saw herself as a 3 or 4 and not a 5.

You may or may not be correct about Azura's thought process in leaving early, but in fact it would only have made her a more versatile player who could command more minutes (and hence more dollars) if she had developed her skills in the paint.

Geno wasn't going to imprison her in the low post, any more than he did with Stewie and Rebecca, who also had inside and outside skills. But it's true that he would not have allowed her to hang out at the 3-point line on offense or at the top of a zone on defense, as she did at Duke.

 

[willtalk]

You may or may not be correct about Azura's thought process in leaving early, but in fact it would only have made her a more versatile player who could command more minutes (and hence more dollars) if she had developed her skills in the paint.

Geno wasn't going to imprison her in the low post, any more than he did with Stewie and Rebecca, who also had inside and outside skills. But it's true that he would not have allowed her to hang out at the 3-point line on offense or at the top of a zone on defense, as she did at Duke.

I agree that Geno was not going to imprison her in the low post. His plans were only to develop her low post back to the basket game. That certainly would have made her a more developed and versatile player going into the Pro's. The thing is that Stevens chose not to be developed and was perfectly happy just having perimeter skills and entering the WNBA draft as is. This is what surprised and shocked Geno He had obviously discussed the plan of developing her post game with her before she even came to Uconn. She may have bought into it initially and only changed her mind once she was at Uconn. Geno's statements about her progress seemed to indicate she was not ever totally on board.

Her satisfaction with only focusing on the perimeter was what surprised Geno. This seems to be the case with more tall players who at one time would have been locked into a traditional 5. Stewie while being an untraditional 5, rather more of a stretch 4 capable of playing the 5. , never the less never saw herself as potentially a wing, as many taller players do now. Uconn, as a rule, does not lock their players into set traditional positions, yet if in a pinch they would have out of necessity put Stevens at the post.

Tall players who desire to not play the post will have a tendency to go to teams that already have post players on the roster which would eliminate the playing back to the basket out of necessity. Oregon St with players 6'6", 6'7", 6'9" and 6'9", is an example of that. Only one is a traditional center with two seeing themselves as stretch 4's and one even as a wing. Those not wanting to play center realize that necessity will never force them into that role.

 

[donalddoowop]

I read a post by a BYer earlier this month that stated UConn was not interested in Cooks. I do not remember the reason why.

 

[bballnut90]

I agree that Geno was not going to imprison her in the low post. His plans were only to develop her low post back to the basket game. That certainly would have made her a more developed and versatile player going into the Pro's. The thing is that Stevens chose not to be developed and was perfectly happy just having perimeter skills and entering the WNBA draft as is. This is what surprised and shocked Geno He had obviously discussed the plan of developing her post game with her before she even came to Uconn. She may have bought into it initially and only changed her mind once she was at Uconn. Geno's statements about her progress seemed to indicate she was not ever totally on board.

Her satisfaction with only focusing on the perimeter was what surprised Geno. This seems to be the case with more tall players who at one time would have been locked into a traditional 5. Stewie while being an untraditional 5, rather more of a stretch 4 capable of playing the 5. , never the less never saw herself as potentially a wing, as many taller players do now. Uconn, as a rule, does not lock their players into set traditional positions, yet if in a pinch they would have out of necessity put Stevens at the post.

Tall players who desire to not play the post will have a tendency to go to teams that already have post players on the roster which would eliminate the playing back to the basket out of necessity. Oregon St with players 6'6", 6'7", 6'9" and 6'9", is an example of that. Only one is a traditional center with two seeing themselves as stretch 4's and one even as a wing. Those not wanting to play center realize that necessity will never force them into that role.

I think Stevens had a very different vision of herself at UCONN and that, combined with limited minutes in the semifinal loss are what triggered her to leave. When she committed to UCONN, she clearly appeared to be the best player on the roster for the 2017-18 season as each of KLS, Collier and Williams hadn't yet blossomed. People were talking about her being a POY candidate when she arrived and fast forward a year and she's only getting 20 mpg off the bench and isnt allowed to shoot from deep. Disappointing finish where she gets benched almost the entire 3rd Q after dominating the 2nd and the team loses in overtime. Sour taste to end the year. If she came back she'd still likely be a 3rd option behind KLS and Collier, and she had her degree, a good shot to get drafted high, and could start her pro career right away. I think based on what she was looking for she made the right choice, even if it was at UCONN's expense.