Terrific article on Our GIrls

[winlots]

In Nan's news links today, the article in Swish Appeal, about our "Blue Collar" team is right on target. By Holly T. -- very well written and insightful re strengths and weaknesses -- balanced -- and almost sort of inspiring.

 

[HuskyNan]

Yes, the article gripped me from the beginning with this:

"I'm so disappointed in Texas A & M for not showing up."
"Stanford is better than that. Where were they?"
"Dayton should have been able to give UConn a game. Guess the 3 games in 3 days, caught up."

All statements that have been spoken or overheard, this season, in the Connecticut media room at one point or another. So when exactly is the time that Connecticut is going to get credit for what they are doing to their competition and not what their competitors didn't do?

 

[Sonny44]

Awesome, correct, this is the best article I've seen on our gals.

 

[Drumguy]

Juat a nit - I actually hate the term "blue collar" as if those of us in white collar jobs don't work as hard or get our hands dirty. Maybe the dumbest phrase used today in the media.

 

[ChicagoGG]

Yes, the article gripped me from the beginning with this:

"I'm so disappointed in Texas A & M for not showing up."
"Stanford is better than that. Where were they?"
"Dayton should have been able to give UConn a game. Guess the 3 games in 3 days, caught up."

All statements that have been spoken or overheard, this season, in the Connecticut media room at one point or another. So when exactly is the time that Connecticut is going to get credit for what they are doing to their competition and not what their competitors didn't do?

Amen.

Why not say:

"Wow, UConn really showed up for the Aggies"
"UConn really gave Stanford a game."
"UConn showed they can play 3 games in 3 days."

I guess the Horde are bored....

 

[Wbbfan1]

UConn still has the same weaknesses as before: They have suspect post depth. They are not a good rebounding team. Their guards can be susceptible to poor decisions. They have a heavy reliance to scoring points in transition and off of their press and sometimes they rely too heavily on jump shots both of which tends to slow down come conference and tournament games and they haven't been on the road yet with any adversity.

Have to agree with the above statements. IMHO more emphasis needs to be placed to get Stef the ball. If you exclude the Buffalo game where she had 14 shot attempts, Stef is averaging a little over 5 shot attempts per game. IMHO she should be averaging almost 10 shots per game and going to the line 5/6 times per game.

 

[NCorBust]

In Nan's news links today, the article in Swish Appeal, about our "Blue Collar" team is right on target. By Holly T. -- very well written and insightful re strengths and weaknesses -- balanced -- and almost sort of inspiring.

.
Inspiring!
.
These kids define HEART!
(Quotes from the Swish Appeal article)

“Kelsey Bone, former SEC Newcomer of the Year, had an entire year and offseason to get in basketball shape as she redshirted to play for TAMU. She was not hurt, injured or otherwise impaired. So tell me why 8 games into her junior year, she is still laboring to get up and down the court. In a comparable example, UConn center Stefanie Dolson needed one tough game against Stanford her freshman year to figure ‘this isn't working' and worked religiously with the staff to transform her mind and body, DURING THE SEASON.”

“Coach Blair is a great coach - and an even more entertaining person to converse with about the game - but this should not be acceptable. I understand that you lost Danielle Adams and Sydney Colson to the WNBA but you are starting 2 juniors and 3 seniors and you're the defending National Champion. You aren't ready to compete at this level? 5 of UConn's top 8 are freshman and sophomores. Do they look like they had to be taught how to compete or needed time to figure it out?”

“I mentioned during the Buffalo game, that Doty has one good leg after 3 ACL tears and repairs, so tell me: why does she repeatedly beat players with 2 good legs down the floor, including in the TAMU game? That's heart. That's desire.”

“For example, during the Texas A&M game UConn was up 14 points in the first half. Freshmen Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis telegraphed a pass that was easily picked off. What does she do? She runs back down the court. Literally lays out, dives on the floor and steals the ball right back. That is accountability.”

“Texas A&M who is known for their defense and their pressure looked pedestrian. As if they only wanted to get through the 30 seconds to get the ball back to try to score. The urgency just didn't appear, while UConn played like they were down 10 the entire game.”

"I think what happens when you're willing to play at that pace for 40 minutes, I think the other team just kind of gets to the point where they just go, 'I can't keep this up.' " Auriemma said. "You can see it in their face sometimes and in their body language. It's the one thing I'm most proud of. We keep that pace. There's no getting tired, or going I don't feel like it this possession. You try to make people keep up with us."

"Defense is fun," Kelly Faris said. "We take pride on the defensive end and taking things away. We are offended when people score on us. As the game goes along and you get stop after stop, that's fun." God bless Kelly!

 

[NCorBust]

Juat a nit - I actually hate the term "blue collar" as if those of us in white collar jobs don't work as hard or get our hands dirty. Maybe the dumbest phrase used today in the media.

.
I worked my way through undergraduate and graduate school mostly doing blue collar jobs such as mucking out stalls on a dairy farm, digging ditches, mixing cement by hand and hualing it in 5 gallon buckets to the masons, etc. Upon graduation I worked in the information technology (IT) industry. It is as white collar as it gets - desk bound. Usually I worked 60-70 hours a week and traveled a lot, over one million air miles. At times I would start feeling sorry for myself because I was working sooooo hard. Fortunately my mind would drift back to Repine's dairy farm or Vogel's construction company and the work I did. I quickly thought; "my God that was hard work; this IT work and hours is a piece of cake. End the pity party and get your butt in gear, Boy!" Make no mistake blue collar work is physically harder and much more draining than white collar work. Yeah, we white collar dudes put in hours, lots of hours, but the UCONN girls epitomize the hard physical labor of the blue collar workers.
.

 

[EricLA]

great quotes NCorB and loved your comments too!

 

[HuskyNan]

Blue collar and white collar are simply descriptions of the type of work performed, not descriptions of how hard a person works. The term "blue collar" has morphed through the years to mean hard-working but that's not why it was coined. When applied to our Huskies, it's actually a kind of insult as the term means "unskilled labor", lol.

 

[JimGunther]

Bust,
I would "like" your post if I knew how.

I 'coulda said the same thing myself but, you said it better!

.
I worked my way through undergraduate and graduate school mostly doing blue collar jobs such as mucking out stalls on a dairy farm, digging ditches, mixing cement by hand and hualing it in 5 gallon buckets to the masons, etc. Upon graduation I worked in the information technology (IT) industry. It is as white collar as it gets - desk bound. Usually I worked 60-70 hours a week and traveled a lot, over one million air miles. At times I would start feeling sorry for myself because I was working sooooo hard. Fortunately my mind would drift back to Repine's dairy farm or Vogel's construction company and the work I did. I quickly thought; "my God that was hard work; this IT work and hours is a piece of cake. End the pity party and get your butt in gear, Boy!" Make no mistake blue collar work is physically harder and much more draining than white collar work. Yeah, we white collar dudes put in hours, lots of hours, but the UCONN girls epitomize the hard physical labor of the blue collar workers.
.

 

[meyers7]

Bust,
I would "like" your post if I knew how.

I 'coulda said the same thing myself but, you said it better!

Right next to the Reply button you selected to insert the quote, is the Like button.

 

[Sonny44]

UConn still has the same weaknesses as before: They have suspect post depth. They are not a good rebounding team. Their guards can be susceptible to poor decisions. They have a heavy reliance to scoring points in transition and off of their press and sometimes they rely too heavily on jump shots both of which tends to slow down come conference and tournament games and they haven't been on the road yet with any adversity.

Have to agree with the above statements. IMHO more emphasis needs to be placed to get Stef the ball. If you exclude the Buffalo game where she had 14 shot attempts, Stef is averaging a little over 5 shot attempts per game. IMHO she should be averaging almost 10 shots per game and going to the line 5/6 times per game.

IMHO more emphasis needs to be placed to get Stef the ball.

Would seem logical, but it's hard to argue with Geno's game plan against TAMU.

 

[alexrgct]

I'll say this- watching UConn play defense is fun.

I agree getting Stef the ball more is going to be critical. Honestly, the one player who seems to make this an area of focus is KML. She is always looking to get the ball into the post. I haven't seen that as much with the point guards. She's not as tall as Griner, nor does she have Griner's wingspan or movement, but she has the size to make Griner work on D if she can get the ball.

 

[Husky7882]

Blue collar and white collar are simply descriptions of the type of work performed, not descriptions of how hard a person works. The term "blue collar" has morphed through the years to mean hard-working but that's not why it was coined. When applied to our Huskies, it's actually a kind of insult as the term means "unskilled labor", lol.

Not necessarily, Nan. A master electrician or plumber is blue-collar, but it's also skilled-labor. As a white collar person my entire life, I never realized how "skilled" those jobs were until I married a (master) tradesman.

On the other hand, I agree with you that Geno's teams are anything but unskilled.

 

[timedout]

I like the late Tim Russerts description of the difference between Blue Collar and White Collar folks; White Collars take a shower before they go to work, Blue Collars take a shower when they come home. Russerts father, you may recall, drove a garbage truck.

 

[wire chief]

In Nan's news links today, the article in Swish Appeal, about our "Blue Collar" team is right on target. By Holly T. -- very well written and insightful re strengths and weaknesses -- balanced -- and almost sort of inspiring.

Absolutely right, Winlots. Don't know if I've ever read a better team summary.

 

[NCorBust]

Blue collar and white collar are simply descriptions of the type of work performed, not descriptions of how hard a person works. The term "blue collar" has morphed through the years to mean hard-working but that's not why it was coined. When applied to our Huskies, it's actually a kind of insult as the term means "unskilled labor", lol.

.
You could not be more incorrect.
.

 

[winlots]

Absolutely right, Winlots. Don't know if I've ever read a better team summary.

WIRE - I've always figured you to be an unusually savvy dude. Nice to have it confirmed.

 

[NCorBust]

Not necessarily, Nan. A master electrician or plumber is blue-collar, but it's also skilled-labor. As a white collar person my entire life, I never realized how "skilled" those jobs were until I married a (master) tradesman. On the other hand, I agree with you that Geno's teams are anything but unskilled.

.
Spot on! My father start wiring houses and retired from wiring nucear power plants. A cousin of mine. an IEBW member, project manages the wiring of newest class of aircraft carriers. Think about having to wire a high tech town for 6,000 people, then you understand the scope of his responsibities. The new CVN-21 Super Carriers will be much more complex. They wiring everything from quarters to weapons systems to the bridge and navigation. Everything.
.

 

[ThisJustIn]

I'm sure blue collar and white collar initially referred literally to the quality and care the particular shirts (and, therefore the economic 'class' of the worker). It takes a heck of a lot of time and money to keep a white shirt white.

 

[Icebear]

I'm sure blue collar and white collar initially referred literally to the quality and care the particular shirts (and, therefore the economic 'class' of the worker). It takes a heck of a lot of time and money to keep a white shirt white.

You should try black.

 

[rington]

.
I worked my way through undergraduate and graduate school mostly doing blue collar jobs such as mucking out stalls on a dairy farm, digging ditches, mixing cement by hand and hualing it in 5 gallon buckets to the masons, etc. Upon graduation I worked in the information technology (IT) industry. It is as white collar as it gets - desk bound. Usually I worked 60-70 hours a week and traveled a lot, over one million air miles. At times I would start feeling sorry for myself because I was working sooooo hard. Fortunately my mind would drift back to Repine's dairy farm or Vogel's construction company and the work I did. I quickly thought; "my God that was hard work; this IT work and hours is a piece of cake. End the pity party and get your butt in gear, Boy!" Make no mistake blue collar work is physically harder and much more draining than white collar work. Yeah, we white collar dudes put in hours, lots of hours, but the UCONN girls epitomize the hard physical labor of the blue collar workers.
.

I think your key words are, "physically harder."

 

[NCorBust]

I think your key words are, "physically harder."

.
Yes, they are. I used to think my stress factor was higher and more draining when doing white collar work. However, that ended abruptly during an employee evaluation. I had praised an employee for his project management abilities ($10+M effort) and how he was a calming effect when unexpected problems arose despite his detailed contingency planning. He minimized his and his teammates stress. He had a bemused look. He said, "Jim, what stress? Ain't no one dying here." I was taken a back for an instance, then I remembered his background. In Viet Nam he was Marine side-gunner on Huey gunships. All of his missions were rescuses and/or air support for ground troops. Every mission he flew received 50 caliber machine gunfire from the Viet Cong. People DID die. Whenever I began to feel stressed I would remembered his words. I would relax and try to relax the others around me and focus on solving the problem. Thank you, Merlin! I realized I generated the stress, not the situation. Think about how many blue collar jobs can result in death without proper care and attention.
.

 

[Husky7882]

.
Yes, they are. I used to think my stress factor was higher and more draining when doing white collar work. However, that ended abruptly during an employee evaluation. I had praised an employee for his project management abilities ($10+M effort) and how he was a calming effect when unexpected problems arose despite his detailed contingency planning. He minimized his and his teammates stress. He had a bemused look. He said, "Jim, what stress? Ain't no one dying here." I was taken a back for an instance, then I remembered his background. In Viet Nam he was Marine side-gunner on Huey gunships. All of his missions were rescuses and/or air support for ground troops. Every mission he flew received 50 caliber machine gunfire from the Viet Cong. People DID die. Whenever I began to feel stressed I would remembered his words. I would relax and try to relax the others around me and focus on solving the problem. Thank you, Merlin! I realized I generated the stress, not the situation. Think about how many blue collar jobs can result in death without proper care and attention.
.

Thank you, Jim. As someone who sometimes has a tendency to take things a little too serious, I'll try to remember these wise words the next time I'm putting out fires in my white collar job.