Jana WAS injured last year, and Amari played scant minutes. Ice, whom UConn still has and apparently is occasionally forgotten, played way more than Amari. Ice has a year of UConn basketball under her belt and is a year further removed from a serious injury. Unless something totally unexpected happened with Amari's development, I wouldn't have expected to see a lot more of her this season.
What does Amari have to do with my specific post?
Top 10 in rebounds per game not padding stats by playing more yearsRespectfully, Dennis Rodman was the #23 all time leading rebounder in the NBA which means that he was hardly one the best rebounders to ever play..
That distinction seems to go to players taller than him who amassed many more thousands of rebounds during their careers.
List of NBA career rebounding leaders - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Amari was the only center period on the team last season and didn’t play in most games despite us only have two post players total. Geno preferred to run a 4 guard offense instead of incorporating our “super big” into the rotation. Geno had Paige do the jump ball with Aaliyah was out instead of playing Amari for one possession. That should tell you all you need to know about how Geno feels about Amari’s departure as it impacts the on the court rotations.
Rodman is the 10th ranked all time in rebounds per game average, so yeah He was one of the very bestRespectfully, Dennis Rodman was the #23 all time leading rebounder in the NBA which means that he was hardly one the best rebounders to ever play..
That distinction seems to go to players taller than him who amassed many more thousands of rebounds during their careers.
List of NBA career rebounding leaders - Wikipedia
Amari had 3 seasons to become a solid off the bench "superbig". It never happened, for whatever reason(s).
How do you know that Geno didn't give both Amari and Ines a heads up at the end of the season that they would most likely be the last off the bench to get into the game. He has stated before that at the end of each season he has a sit down with each returning player on what they need to do over the summer.
I cannot understand this idea that Amari would suddenly morph into a player this season. While I liked her, agree she was very intelligent, and a good cheerleader from the bench, there is absolutely no reason to believe she would have been anything more this year than she had been in her previous three years! I hope she can be productive on her new team but, even if she were to become an AA there, it would not mean that she would have become that here at UConn. While I doubt that will happen, (I hope so, for her sake) the sad truth is, for whatever reason, she was simply not interested in becoming that here at UConn. I wish her all the best but the idea that she would suddenly become a contributor here at UConn is simply delusional! I would add too, that in response to someone saying they thought Geno would be sorry that she transferred, I doubt that very much. While I do not think he disliked her or anything like that, I do believe she was a source of tremendous frustration for him and I would be surprised if he regrets her transfer.
I heard that but it was, "Do you want to make God laugh? Tell him what you have planned for your life."
If you recall coming out of high school she was so highly rated. Then she comes to UConn and she goes absolutely flat. The exact opposite of going from 0 to 60 in 5 seconds. One of the great mysteries in life.
I forgot about that. One of the "Top 10" UConn video clips of all time. FYI, I'd like to see someone with too much time on their hands put together a "Top 10" videos post, maybe a thread by itself with folks putting forth their favorite.
Bigs are the hardest to predict for. So many of them don’t really face comparable competition in high school. Amari said as much herself, that she hadn’t played against anyone her height before coming to UConn. The number of bigs who arrived in D1 fully formed is quite short, maybe Stewie, A’ja, Boston and a couple others. And even A’ja didn’t really peak until she hit the W.
Blocking - Amari blocked 30 shots in 3 years. She did manage to foul 51 times in the same time frame. Her shot blocking ability was limitied by her inability to position herself in the paint
It will be interesting to see how Brenda uses Amari.
you clearly are a fan of amari's on-court potential and are
I believe her lack of speed, lateral mobility, and ballhandling, along with her inability to guard anyone in the open floor or shoot on the move would have made attempting to play wing a disaster. GA did her a favor by trying to keep her inside. His only mistake was misreading her compete level when recruiting her and he realized that after her first preseason. He deserves credit for not pushing her out when many other coaches lacking integrity and desperate to win would have.
We have no proven post players or proven post depth. UConn has limitless potential but that's what makes it fun.+1
Right now Geno has more depth in the paint than when he had all his hair. Who does UCLA have if Betts gets in foul trouble.
The physical abilities are one thing but her mentality says wing.
Well it might work out for her sometime in the future if she joins a YWCA U35 league for adults.
I mean no offense to Amari. I think her size sort of pigeon-holed her and there were times it seemed to me she was indecisive about where on the floor she preferred to play. The videos I saw of her were like the below and I did not see a center, e.g. a back to the basket, bang in the paint player. FWIW, I didn't see the #2/5 ranking either but TBF I only saw high school highlights.Well it might work out for her sometime in the future if she joins a YWCA U35 league for adults.