Starting Line Up , I dont care

[mattlow710]

I dont know why so concerned about starting line up?
As a player, i will give all i have to get that opportunity to be a starting player
As a coach , i will see every condition and what this team really need to adjust my player
As a fans , i just be a cheer leader, no matter my preference player are in court or off court

So i really dont mind who get their opportunity as a starting line up, if will play well you deserve it, if you are out of compete in this game then coach will get you down , period

 

[BlueSkyGLW]

Hmmm.....OK, that's a good stance since Coach will decide anyway.....as he sees fit.

In an interview with SNY after the Mercer game, Paige did say that Coach and she agreed for her to start - I assume her part was to assure him that she was fit enough and mentally ready. Since the Coach seems to have initiated this move, I can only surmise that he was thinking of getting her ready for the later stages of the tournament where he believes she is needed to have a better chance at winning the NC. So, conditioning her in this role earlier prepares her better and starting to do that with easier opponents balances the downside before she gets there.

He is trying to give his best weapons (Paige, Azzi) a chance to be their best.....and that means, get Paige caught up playing with her teammates who have grown when she was sidelined, in the role expected of her. Not easy in the short run of games that was left when she returned. So, he is giving her as much chance to get there. If she doesn't, he will have to think of a different solution (on the fly), including putting Nika back in as a starter (which I seriously doubt will happen and, given his history with Paige, he will be slow to substitute her as well). This is what Coaches do: figure out a way for their best players to play their best when the team needs them most.

Get used to it for the rest of the games they play. I believe they will get to the FF but Stanford is a harder team to beat than South Carolina without Paige being Paige of last year with now a balanced role: playmaker and scorer, given that there are more scoring options, especially with Azzi with her. That is one of the things he must prepare for to get to #12.

 

[Bricklayer]

as much as i, as a player, would rather finish a tough game than being in the starting lineup, there is something to be said for getting off to a good start. uconn is fortunate to have many players that can score and play defense, so who, among the rotating player, starts, is much less of a concern than for most teams. it is nice to have choices...

 

[Cuango]

As long as our defense continues to play at this level, we will have a chance against anyone! If, somehow, our offense breaks out as well and we play really well on both sides of the ball, then we start looking at being a favorite. Will that happen? All we can do is hope!

 

[Littlemin]

No matter all the “coach decides“ posts, which of course he does, what does matter is how the team comes out of the gate at the beginning of the game. That was a huge positive for Uconn coming into the NCAA tournament, Muhl’s very positive effect on the team at the beginning of games noted and praised publicly by Auriemma on more than one occasion. For whatever his reasoning, he abandoned that obvious advantage two games ago, IMO, to the detriment of the team.
Mercer was more difficult to gauge, but the effect of the change against UCF was apparent; instead of taking the fight to them, UCF completely dictated in the 1st quarter who was the aggressor and then coming out of the locker room at half time.
Uconn had great chemistry going into the NCAAs and Auriemma chose to gamble away that advantage to potentially create another one by playing his “best” players more minutes, changing his starting line-up and shortening his bench.
My opinion, through my experience with basketball and business, is it is extremely risky to ”fix” what isn’t broken, to mess with a successful formula. It is absolutely Auriemma’s prerogative, in fact responsibility, to do what he thinks is best for the team but I think he got this wrong big time and in the UCF game, again IMO, that was apparent. Was it the wrong move long term? We shall see.
Last point, not only did the line-up change take away the Uconn advantage at the beginning of the game but the tremendous benefit of having a player like Bueckers coming in off the bench was lost. Now, in fairness, I thought Muhl’s insertion in the 2nd quarter had a profound change in the game, but rather obviously, Auriemmma felt otherwise.

 

[BlueSkyGLW]

No matter all the “coach decides“ posts, which of course he does, what does matter is how the team comes out of the gate at the beginning of the game. That was a huge positive for Uconn coming into the NCAA tournament, Muhl’s very positive effect on the team at the beginning of games noted and praised publicly by Auriemma on more than one occasion. For whatever his reasoning, he abandoned that obvious advantage two games ago, IMO, to the detriment of the team.
Mercer was more difficult to gauge, but the effect of the change against UCF was apparent; instead of taking the fight to them, UCF completely dictated in the 1st quarter who was the aggressor and then coming out of the locker room at half time.
Uconn had great chemistry going into the NCAAs and Auriemma chose to gamble away that advantage to potentially create another one by playing his “best” players more minutes, changing his starting line-up and shortening his bench.
My opinion, through my experience with basketball and business, is it is extremely risky to ”fix” what isn’t broken, to mess with a successful formula. It is absolutely Auriemma’s prerogative, in fact responsibility, to do what he thinks is best for the team but I think he got this wrong big time and in the UCF game, again IMO, that was apparent. Was it the wrong move long term? We shall see.
Last point, not only did the line-up change take away the Uconn advantage at the beginning of the game but the tremendous benefit of having a player like Bueckers coming in off the bench was lost. Now, in fairness, I thought Muhl’s insertion in the 2nd quarter had a profound change in the game, but rather obviously, Auriemmma felt otherwise.

As much as I like Nika, she has one characteristic she hasn't tempered yet: when the opponent wants to rumble, she can't seem to resist the fight at their level, so two quick fouls in the short time on court. Maybe the Coach decided to sit her partly as a lesson while thinking more scorers on the floor would do the trick. Wonder what he was thinking when they were up in double digits and then poof! it disappeared.

 

[Littlemin]

She has committed fouls before. As another poster pointed out, she has clearly demonstrated the ability to ”curb her enthusiasm” by playing with fouls in the past so I think there is more to the story, but who knows? The whole thing is just very strange to me.

 

[CL82]

I dont know why so concerned about starting line up?
As a player, i will give all i have to get that opportunity to be a starting player

Wait, you are a player?

 

[CL82]

I thought Muhl’s insertion in the 2nd quarter had a profound change in the game, but rather obviously, Auriemmma felt otherwise.

Oh, I think if you asked him he would acknowledge that it had tremendous impact, in fact, I believe he said as much in his post game comments, but, he just felt that ultimately scoring was a bigger need.

 

[TCC Kid]

I dont know why so concerned about starting line up?
As a player, i will give all i have to get that opportunity to be a starting player
As a coach , i will see every condition and what this team really need to adjust my player
As a fans , i just be a cheer leader, no matter my preference player are in court or off court

So i really dont mind who get their opportunity as a starting line up, if will play well you deserve it, if you are out of compete in this game then coach will get you down , period

I agree. As a player, I wanted to play, starting was an ego trip for family or fans. As a coach, a player never said : I want to start. Parents did.

I do however think it does matter to the game, what combination of players play against the opponents combination. Geno generally does a good job of doing just that. I think CD did the scouting, I'm not sure who does it now. I say that because that report can change the starters.
Uconn is loaded with players that want to play, and fans like me wanting to see them play, and I too don't care who starts.