The Battle for Playing Time & a Spot on the Rotation

[Just.A.Fan]

@oldude - Excellent analysis as always. I believe Morgan will be in the rotation. They only thing she hasn't been doing is scoring. But she has begun to look and take some opportunities she heretofore has passed up. Hopefully, that's a good sign?

Jana is the big question mark in my opinion. I wonder if Geno truly believes he can count of her? She needs a lot of work in order to improve, yet he is playing her less than half a game. Improvement doesn't come from sitting on the bench. I don't care what the score is in these Big East blow-outs. If Jana is to be counted on against the tougher competition we're going to face going forward, she needs as much playing time as is available.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

I also don't remember either Seton Hall or Nova going to the bonus in the first 8 minutes and everyone getting in foul trouble.I think the press worked well in both games and supercharged our offense to the tune of 96 and 100 points. What about "defense leads to offense"? Allie's substitution position is a direct result of her defensive skills right now.

Under your analysis, Morgan doesn't play because she hasn't been an offensive threat, neither does Aubrey, or Ice or throw in Jana also. This team had a big uptick in its stock when we started to press. If Geno decided to slow it down in the Big Dance or before I would be shocked. He would be giving up a huge plus we have now that we haven't had in years - our depth.

Let’s see how that goes against some teams that can match up against us, and I guess you don’t watch the the men’s team. What part of Mars are you from?

 

[cancontent]

Get your head out of the sand, look at the NBA, NFL and MLB, defense has it’s role but all they care about is scoring runs or putting points on the board. Defense died with Bill Russell, Ray Nitschke, and Casey Stengel. Caitlin Clarke, LeBron James, and Patrick Mahomes are the new stars now.

Defence hasn't died. For example, defence has been key in keeping KC in games all season compared to previous ones where their offence ran roughshod over everyone. There's no way they'd be in the AFC Championship with the tiny win point differential they've had this season without it.

 

[oldude]

Get your head out of the sand, look at the NBA, NFL and MLB, defense has its role but all they care about is scoring runs or putting points on the board. Defense died with Bill Russell, Ray Nitschke, and Casey Stengel. Caitlin Clarke, LeBron James, and Patrick Mahomes are the new stars now.

While I will acknowledge that high scoring offenses have become more prolific in sports, WBB is not the NBA, NFL or MLB. If you can’t stop teams from scoring, you can’t win championships, no matter how effective your offense is. Offensive execution can vacillate from game to game, but good defense is usually far more consistent. Furthermore, the strategy behind teams that press like tOSU, TN and yes, UConn, has as much to do with offense as it does with defense.

After the recent blowout win over Villanova, Geno talked about the need to force Villanova out of their slow and deliberate offensive game plan and get into a higher scoring game where Nova basically couldn’t keep up. Pressing a team does two things. It forces turnovers, usually resulting in easy transition baskets or it forces teams to use up possession time beating the press, leaving less time to run their offense, forcing rushed shots, that lead to defensive rebounds, fast breaks and easy transition baskets. Essentially, you press to speed up the game, create more offensive opportunities and score more points.

In previous seasons UConn did not have the roster depth to commit to a pressure defense all game long. This year they do. The TN game will be interesting. The LV’s press all game long, subbing in groups of players frequently like hockey. I expect UConn to press as well, because TN does turn the ball over a lot. We’ll see who comes out on top.

One last comment. We can disagree on the Boneyard without being disagreeable. There is no reason to disparage BBallf just because his opinion differs from yours.

 

[Majic Hands]

Wow! I’ve enjoyed this thread. Everyone or anyone could end up correct in whole or in part.

This thread bonus is that I haven’t anyone trying to piss on anyone’s else’s thoughts .

 

[Majic Hands]

Wow! I’ve enjoyed this thread. Everyone or anyone could end up correct in whole or in part.

This thread bonus is that I haven’t anyone trying to piss on anyone’s else’s thoughts .

Humm. I may have posted to soon.

 

[HuskyNan]

Get your head out of the sand, look at the NBA, NFL and MLB, defense has its role but all they care about is scoring runs or putting points on the board. Defense died with Bill Russell, Ray Nitschke, and Casey Stengel. Caitlin Clarke, LeBron James, and Patrick Mahomes are the new stars now.

You want to watch chuck-and-run basketball? Not me.

 

[Rb335]

My prediction: he goes with 10 as long as he can. But in the last 2 or 3 rounds, there may be a contraction to 9 or even 8.

This last part is key. Once we get to the Sweet 16 and beyond, the rotation will surely tighten. I don’t see a world in which Paige, Sarah, and Azzi aren’t on the floor for 35-40 minutes. The rotation may certainly still go 10 deep, but players 9-10 may only see a minute or two of action.

It’s fascinating because each player brings qualities that make an argument for play time. But in my opinion, when push comes to shove we’ll ride the shoulders of our best players for all they can give.

 

[Bone Dog]

Jana is the big question mark in my opinion. I wonder if Geno truly believes he can count of her? She needs a lot of work in order to improve, yet he is playing her less than half a game. Improvement doesn't come from sitting on the bench.

I’ve been reflecting on this same thing all season. In October, I simply assumed Geno would get Jana as much playing time as possible, with the only limit being her stamina. I also assumed Ice would play next to her at the 4 much of the time. I was really wrong about both assumptions.

Now having watched half the season unfold, I think it’s clear that Geno has a different vision of the team than I expected. He wants to play small-ball for significant parts of games and he is busy developing the talent he has on this roster in that direction. This requires playing time.

He also is prepared to rely on Sarah much more than I anticipated. She seems to have arrived in Storrs D1-ready and appears to be developing on an All-American trajectory. She seems able to play almost any position on the court, rather like Paige. That sort of versatility seems to catch Geno’s eye and he knows how to use it. And to maximize its value means getting all the rotation players used to playing the game she makes possible, not just the starters.

I expect Geno is starting Jana because he also wants to be able to play a more traditional game, with her at the 5 next to Sarah at the 4. With Ice ready to sub for Jana in a similar lineup, the team isn’t as vulnerable to foul trouble. Last season, he was forced to play small-ball most of the time and the team was constantly vulnerable to foul trouble. This current roster gives him an opportunity to address this.

In the end, I think Geno wants to develop Jana as much as he can. But he has other things he wants to develop as well, and this leads him to use the available minutes in several ways. A lesser coach might simply develop his best players and shorten the rotation earlier in the season, and hope that’s enough. But Geno seems to recognize both the new level of competition in D1, and the special possibilities this roster gives him. It may be a gamble with a very young team, to try to develop such a long rotation, but it also may be his only path to an NC.

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

Let’s see how that goes against some teams that can match up against us, and I guess you don’t watch the the men’s team. What part of Mars are you from?

You have a very peculiar argument. And reaching support for that argument from misapplied authority from other sports (as others have noted) with a certain air.

Geno has not coached his teams his entire career the way you advocate. There’s a very high probability that he knows more basketball than you will ever do.

 

[Geew1992]

The starters: Paige, Kaitlyn, Azzi, Sarah and Jana.

The subs: Ash and KK for sure. Now it becomes tricky. Morgan is probably one and I think Ice has to be one.

I would put Aubrey on the list but right now, she still has to get in gamer shape.

I would not be surprised if Geno went 10 deep for games.

There is no probably, Morgan is def in the rotation. She's one of the first off the bench.

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

Imo, Geno knows his postseason 10-player rotation, and it is the Noah’s Ark TASSK-look-alike rotation.

Each starter has an on-paper backup. (Yeah, I know UConn plays positionless basketball.) And each backup (KK, Ash, Morgan, Aubrey, and Ice), other than Morgan, has previously been a starter. Morgan is who Geno refers to as a basketball player.

Apart from the Big 3 and Kaitlyn and KK, the amount of minutes for the 5 other players will be based strategically on a particular game.

• Like the TASSK team, everyone on the 10-player rotation are all or nearly and near-evenly seasoned contributors;
• For 9 of the remaining 11 regular season games and 5 of the possible 9 postseason games, I don’t see that Geno will depart markedly from the minutes distribution &1 of this 10-player rotation;
• For the harder games, the Big 3 will play more minutes than their current average; the seven other players will play more or less (or not at all) minutes than their season average &1 depending on who has it that night or if matchups do or don’t require a player that night;
• Geno uses the substitution levers to strategically change a game, and he has quite the farm system to play with.

The 10-player rotation enables and is enabled by UConn being nearly a pick-your-poison team, fully aggressive in both offense and defense (with multiple opponent shotclock violations);

• the number of possessions remain the same (68 possessions) among the November games, the Seton Hall game and the Villanova game.

For reference, below are the season averages for this year’s team (to date) and the TASSK 1999-00 championship team. Note that this team finally had possibly its full team and has finally played full vintage beautiful UConn basketball for the last two games (19th and 20th game of a 31-game regular season).

&1 See Minutes Played (MP) in Per Game table.

 

[Bone Dog]

Imo, Geno knows his postseason 10-player rotation, and it is the Noah’s Ark TASSK-look-alike rotation.

Each starter has an on-paper backup. (Yeah, I know UConn plays positionless basketball.) And each backup (KK, Ash, Morgan, Aubrey, and Ice), other than Morgan, has previously been a starter. Morgan is who Geno refers to as a basketball player.

Apart from the Big 3 and Kaitlyn and KK, the amount of minutes for the 5 other players will be based strategically on a particular game.

• Like the TASSK team, everyone on the 10-player rotation are all or nearly and near-evenly seasoned contributors;
• For 9 of the remaining 11 regular season games and 5 of the possible 9 postseason games, I don’t see that Geno will depart markedly from the minutes distribution &1 of this 10-player rotation;
• For the harder games, the Big 3 will play more minutes than their current average; the seven other players will play more or less (or not at all) minutes than their season average &1 depending on who has it that night or if matchups do or don’t require a player that night;
• Geno uses the substitution levers to strategically change a game, and he has quite the farm system to play with.

The 10-player rotation enables and is enabled by UConn being nearly a pick-your-poison team, fully aggressive in both offense and defense (with multiple opponent shotclock violations);

• the number of possessions remain the same (68 possessions) among the November games, the Seton Hall game and the Villanova game.

For reference, below are the season averages for this year’s team (to date) and the TASSK 1999-00 championship team. Note that this team finally had possibly its full team and has finally played full vintage beautiful UConn basketball for the last two games (19th and 20th game of a 31-game regular season).

&1 See Minutes Played (MP) in Per Game table.

View attachment 106462
View attachment 106463

I think I see why you make the comparison to the 1999-00 team. They were also young, mainly sophomores with a couple of juniors in the main rotation. They featured a pair of 1st team AAs, Shea and Svet, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Paige and Sarah in the AA running this season. They featured a better scoring punch, though they took fewer 3s (12.7 to 24.1), even though the 3pt line was closer in those days. And they played similarly tough defense, holding opponents to ~55 pts while scoring 86 themselves. it’s a shame we don’t have a ‘minutes played’ figure for that team, but the scoring numbers suggest a 10 person rotation. For this season, simply taking 10mins as the cutoff for the rotation, we’re at 10 flirting with 11 currently.

 

[Hedge]

"Get your head out of the sand." "What part of Mars are you from?" One of the things I enjoy most about the Boneyard is we usually can have disagreements without being disagreeable or insulting. Not to say that it doesn't happen but it is glaring when it does happen and unfortunate

 

[CONN78SEJ]

While I will acknowledge that high scoring offenses have become more prolific in sports, WBB is not the NBA, NFL or MLB. If you can’t stop teams from scoring, you can’t win championships, no matter how effective your offense is. Offensive execution can vacillate from game to game, but good defense is usually far more consistent. Furthermore, the strategy behind teams that press like tOSU, TN and yes, UConn, has as much to do with offense as it does with defense.

After the recent blowout win over Villanova, Geno talked about the need to force Villanova out of their slow and deliberate offensive game plan and get into a higher scoring game where Nova basically couldn’t keep up. Pressing a team does two things. It forces turnovers, usually resulting in easy transition baskets or it forces teams to use up possession time beating the press, leaving less time to run their offense, forcing rushed shots, that lead to defensive rebounds, fast breaks and easy transition baskets. Essentially, you press to speed up the game, create more offensive opportunities and score more points.

In previous seasons UConn did not have the roster depth to commit to a pressure defense all game long. This year they do. The TN game will be interesting. The LV’s press all game long, subbing in groups of players frequently like hockey. I expect UConn to press as well, because TN does turn the ball over a lot. We’ll see who comes out on top.

One last comment. We can disagree on the Boneyard without being disagreeable. There is no reason to disparage BBallf just because his opinion differs from yours.

What I basically was saying was you need to have a strong offense to keep the opposing defense honest, if you don’t have a strong offense then the opposing defense can easily double and triple team your best scorers. It’s as simple as that. That exactly what happened to UConn when they played Notre Dame.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

You have a very peculiar argument. And reaching support for that argument from misapplied authority from other sports (as others have noted) with a certain air.

Geno has not coached his teams his entire career the way you advocate. There’s a very high probability that he knows more basketball than you will ever do.

Whatever……I guess I’m not John Wooden after all.

 

[oldude]

What I basically was saying was you need to have a strong offense to keep the opposing defense honest, if you don’t have a strong offense then the opposing defense can easily double and triple team your best scorers. It’s as simple as that. That exactly what happened to UConn when they played Notre Dame.

Agreed. But if you want to win a championship, you better have both a strong offense and defense.

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

I think I see why you make the comparison to the 1999-00 team. They were also young, mainly sophomores with a couple of juniors in the main rotation. They featured a pair of 1st team AAs, Shea and Svet, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Paige and Sarah in the AA running this season. They featured a better scoring punch, though they took fewer 3s (12.7 to 24.1), even though the 3pt line was closer in those days. And they played similarly tough defense, holding opponents to ~55 pts while scoring 86 themselves. it’s a shame we don’t have a ‘minutes played’ figure for that team, but the scoring numbers suggest a 10 person rotation. For this season, simply taking 10mins as the cutoff for the rotation, we’re at 10 flirting with 11 currently.

Yes, you correctly guessed why I frequently refer to that team — a young and healthy super team where developing that talented youth is crucial to postseason success.

There are reasons why Geno has not been able to recreate annually what he had with TASSK until the current irreversible era of superteams where he has to change recruiting tactics.

• With large annual talented recruiting/transfer-in classes, this might be Geno’s newish MO (same as his very old MO).

As for scoring punch, the 1999-00 team had its team intact from the first game. And the sophomores already had 1-year’s seasoning (Sue’s injury year when she did the ground work en route to become arguably the best full time point guard of all time.)

• This year’s team has become more comparable beginning with the last two games (the 19th and 20th game of the 31 game season).

 

[visitingcock]

You're so right that there's not much to dispute or add.
I think that everyone is going to continue to get opportunities to play throughout the BET because it's important that every player keeps their skills fresh & not regress in the event that there's a late season injury(s), no matter how minor.
That also keeps Geno's options open for the NCAAT, as far as which players are playing better than others & have more momentum & motivation being displayed on the court.

One of the biggest questions for me is Aubrey.
I think that she's more of a specialist unless she can prove that she possesses more of the all around abilites that are required of deserving more PT verses less PT compared to other players such as Morgan & Ice.
I believe that these are game time management decisions.
Geno can have someone penciled in but if & when the team falls behind or stagnates then Geno can just as easily use his eraser & pencil them out.

Whatever the moment requires the most is what Geno needs to figure out, and that's not necessarily predictable.
I suspect that there will be some bumps & bruises that will help Geno figure out which players get penciled in or out & when.
Coaches that use analytics may come to different conclusions than those who coach using more of their gut.
I don't see any player receiving the hook this early., not when Aubrey's performance & readiness is up in the air.

When Morgan and Chloe Kitts match up, we may need to put our floor on injured reserve

 

[Stagnant]

We don’t have a ton of evidence. And we don’t have evidence against good teams yet. But based on what we have. I think ice has responded well to being benched. She has played a little better the last couple of weeks.

I definitely see us shortening the rotation during the tournament. Geno proved that he will do that during Caroline and azzi’s freshman season.

The ncaa tournament rotation against good teams will be imo:

1. Paige
2. Sarah
3. Azzi
4. Jana
5. Kaitlyn
6. KK
7. Ash
8. Aubrey
9. Ice

I don’t see us going 10 or deeper. I just don’t.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Agreed. But if you want to win a championship, you better have both a strong offense and defense.

That’s why I like Ash over KK and Kaitlyn as a 3rd scorer, when she’s in the game and draining 3’s or hitting those short stop and poppers the opposing defense can’t double team Paige or Azzi.

 

[BBallF]

While I will acknowledge that high scoring offenses have become more prolific in sports, WBB is not the NBA, NFL or MLB. If you can’t stop teams from scoring, you can’t win championships, no matter how effective your offense is. Offensive execution can vacillate from game to game, but good defense is usually far more consistent. Furthermore, the strategy behind teams that press like tOSU, TN and yes, UConn, has as much to do with offense as it does with defense.

After the recent blowout win over Villanova, Geno talked about the need to force Villanova out of their slow and deliberate offensive game plan and get into a higher scoring game where Nova basically couldn’t keep up. Pressing a team does two things. It forces turnovers, usually resulting in easy transition baskets or it forces teams to use up possession time beating the press, leaving less time to run their offense, forcing rushed shots, that lead to defensive rebounds, fast breaks and easy transition baskets. Essentially, you press to speed up the game, create more offensive opportunities and score more points.

In previous seasons UConn did not have the roster depth to commit to a pressure defense all game long. This year they do. The TN game will be interesting. The LV’s press all game long, subbing in groups of players frequently like hockey. I expect UConn to press as well, because TN does turn the ball over a lot. We’ll see who comes out on top.

One last comment. We can disagree on the Boneyard without being disagreeable. There is no reason to disparage BBallf just because his opinion differs from yours.

Thanks oldude. I wasn't even going to dignify that comment with a response.

 

[DefenseBB]

There are few other peripheral items I want to point out: while I understand the 8-9 person rotation issue/stance, the simple fact is Geno and the team are in a new paradigm of rotation options. This is the first year in a long time that he has quality depth (albeit very young). The past two years, he had so many injuries, we lacked numbers and with Azzi and Aubrey now being cleared, we have 12 mostly healthy bodies able to play.

Roster overview:
This 12 person active roster (sans Caroline/Ayanna) are all highly ranked players coming out of High School. The least ranked player is Kaitlyn who was #66 and Q was #41. Technically, Jana was not ranked but my guess is she would fall in the high teens or low 20s had she been assessed. The point is twofold, Geno has a talented bench AND as he has stated many times, the players earn time in practice so the fact he uses 10 players regularly means all are working their tails off in practice to earn time. The games against the Big East offer our younger players opportunities to garner experience. The other P4 programs get to use their OOC for this experience but UConn does not have that luxury.

As such, to me, the assessment of who plays is wholly dependent on the type of team we are playing-Creighton offers a different skill set to defend than does Tennessee, than does South Carolina.

In all of D1 Basketball, there are really only 3-5 schools with elite front courts in terms of talent and depth (SC, Texas, UCLA to name 3). We play SC shortly so we shall see how Jana, Sarah, Morgan and Ice can manage.

While ND and SoCal have interior size, we either were missing Azzi or she was not fully healthy enough to play and we were able to keep the games close so that adds an interesting dynamic back if we play them again-a fully healthy and functioning Azzi.

Geno will use any of 11 players (assuming Aubrey can regain her game legs) to best match up as he deems fit so it will not be just an 8 or 9 set player rotation but the best 8-11 group he feels matches the opponent.

I also think there is a bit of over exuberance about Kaitlyn Chen's game vs. Villanova. Before I parse that, I want to point out a key factor in the last two games-Paige had 8 & 9 assists vs. just 2 turnovers as well as 18 and 21 points which also resulted in Blowout games against two usually steady programs. Paige handled the ball more often thus freeing Kaitlyn to play more "off guard" and still be effective as a passer. Geno addressed this in his post-game Villanova presser with Paige bringing the ball up in the middle of the court. This aspect is really the key to us evolving as no one sees the floor like Paige so we should have the ball in her hands more. Geno also alluded to using Chen and KK to produce different looks for the other teams to have to defend. I truly liked this comment and gives me hope on our other players development with Paige putting them in positions for success. This is not a knock-on Kaitlyn but she is not Paige.

Kaitlyn Chen: There is the very good, the good and the not so good.
The very good:
Kaitlyn is an experienced guard who knows how to pick her spots on what she can do well and what she can't. She is good against smaller and the mid-major teams. She has a great back board shot and knows when to drive to the basket.
The good:
Kaitlyn has improved her Assist to turnover ratio with 2.03 (75-37) over her Princeton days (1.46) and her normal FG% has improved to 51.1% vs, her career of 46.5%. Her 3 pt shooting is about the same with 32.4% this year and 32.8% last year and 29.3% for her career. In short, she knows she is not a 3 point shooter and only reluctantly shoots them. Against the 4 better teams on our schedule this year (UNC, Ole Miss, ND and SoCal) she shot 10/20 so she can pick her spots and I would encourage her to shoot more as 5 shots a game is not a lot.
The not so good:
Her A/TO stats against those 4 teams point out her issues with ball handling and decision making as she had 10 assists/11 Turnovers.
I also question her quickness and ability to defend against elite guards like Hidalgo, Miles, Watkins, Spear or Johnson to name a few. How will she handle the Tennessee press is another concern I have where I feel KK's speed and her quickness is better for us.

That said, keeping her as the starter makes sense with KK providing energy and tenacity off the bench but it is NOT a lock that Kaitlyn has earned all the time due to ONE GAME. We have to admit that this 7/8 FG and 2/3 3-pt FG was the aberration of her career as she never had a game like that at Princeton.

As a pre-emptive strike on the common Oldude refrain of "Kaitlyn killed Columbia", Ms. Chen was 6-2 in her career against Columbia with her last two years being 3-2. Her stats were good, not great with 17.6 pts per game for all 8 and only 15.6 for the last two years. Her A/TO line was 35/22 for all 3 years with 8 games but only 25/19 for the last 5 games-again, good but not great. I would not qualify that as "killing Columbia". In her sophomore year, Kaitlyn was the 3rd option on the Tiger team behind Abby Myers and Julia Cunningham. If Kaitlyn can find a way to contribute on a nightly basis with 10 pts per game (up from her 6 right now) I would be ecstatic.

The other observation is with Paige as the primary ball distributer the dynamic process with Sarah is remindful of IonescuHebard duo with Sarah being a much better all around player than Ruthy ever was. Against Villanova, with Paige as the primary ball handler, she and Sarah had 8 assists to each other!

This team will only go as far as Paige, Sarah and Azzi can carry them with key contributions from Jana, Chen, KK and others and it will be a rotating cast of contributions.

 

[Cornell Lt]

We don’t have a ton of evidence. And we don’t have evidence against good teams yet. But based on what we have. I think ice has responded well to being benched. She has played a little better the last couple of weeks.

I definitely see us shortening the rotation during the tournament. Geno proved that he will do that during Caroline and azzi’s freshman season.

The ncaa tournament rotation against good teams will be imo:

1. Paige
2. Sarah
3. Azzi
4. Jana
5. Kaitlyn
6. KK
7. Ash
8. Aubrey
9. Ice

I don’t see us going 10 or deeper. I just don’t.

Morgan Cheli will definitely be in the rotation, somewhere between 5-7 on your list

 

[Bigboote]

When Morgan and Chloe Kitts match up, we may need to put our floor on injured reserve

I love watching both of them. When I first saw Kitts, she seemed so out of control, and I marveled ar how she got the job done. Now, she just sometimes seems at the edge of being out of control. So much fun to watch.

 

[The deacon]

10 deep is hard when you’re playing in a tight game. If you assume that the Big 3 average around 35 minutes each, Kaitlyn and KK split the pg duties and Jana gets at least 20 minutes, that leaves you with only 35 minutes of PT to split among 4 players: Ash, Ice, Morgan & Aubrey.

During last night’s postgame presser, Geno talked about the need to get his “primary players” more minutes. Unless you go into OT, there are only 200 minutes of PT to dole out each game.

Lots of wisdom in your post, Oldude, but I'll mention again, Dawn Staley has been doing pretty darned well using 10, 11 or even 12 players, even in big games, and it's hard to differentiate which players will be playing when....

The point is, if Aubrey asserts herself in Aubreyish style, the Huskies go at least 10 deep in quality players, and 11 if you want to give Allie a few shots...

 

[Just.A.Fan]

I’ve been reflecting on this same thing all season. In October, I simply assumed Geno would get Jana as much playing time as possible, with the only limit being her stamina. I also assumed Ice would play next to her at the 4 much of the time. I was really wrong about both assumptions.

Now having watched half the season unfold, I think it’s clear that Geno has a different vision of the team than I expected. He wants to play small-ball for significant parts of games and he is busy developing the talent he has on this roster in that direction. This requires playing time.

He also is prepared to rely on Sarah much more than I anticipated. She seems to have arrived in Storrs D1-ready and appears to be developing on an All-American trajectory. She seems able to play almost any position on the court, rather like Paige. That sort of versatility seems to catch Geno’s eye and he knows how to use it. And to maximize its value means getting all the rotation players used to playing the game she makes possible, not just the starters.

I expect Geno is starting Jana because he also wants to be able to play a more traditional game, with her at the 5 next to Sarah at the 4. With Ice ready to sub for Jana in a similar lineup, the team isn’t as vulnerable to foul trouble. Last season, he was forced to play small-ball most of the time and the team was constantly vulnerable to foul trouble. This current roster gives him an opportunity to address this.

In the end, I think Geno wants to develop Jana as much as he can. But he has other things he wants to develop as well, and this leads him to use the available minutes in several ways. A lesser coach might simply develop his best players and shorten the rotation earlier in the season, and hope that’s enough. But Geno seems to recognize both the new level of competition in D1, and the special possibilities this roster gives him. It may be a gamble with a very young team, to try to develop such a long rotation, but it also may be his only path to an NC.

I agree with your assessment 100%.

 

[Just.A.Fan]

That’s why I like Ash over KK and Kaitlyn as a 3rd scorer, when she’s in the game and draining 3’s or hitting those short stop and poppers the opposing defense can’t double team Paige or Azzi.

Wouldn't that make her the 4th scorer behind Paige, Azzi and Sarah?

 

[The deacon]

Get your head out of the sand, look at the NBA, NFL and MLB, defense has it’s role but all they care about is scoring runs or putting points on the board. Defense died with Bill Russell, Ray Nitschke, and Casey Stengel. Caitlin Clarke, LeBron James, and Patrick Mahomes are the new stars now.

Casey Stengel?

 

[oldude]

Lots of wisdom in your post, Oldude, but I'll mention again, Dawn Staley has been doing pretty darned well using 10, 11 or even 12 players, even in big games, and it's hard to differentiate which players will be playing when....

The point is, if Aubrey asserts herself in Aubreyish style, the Huskies go at least 10 deep in quality players, and 11 if you want to give Allie a few shots...

Close. During the 1st half of a top-5 battle at home with LSU, Dawn has used 9 players, although Dauda hardly played. LSU has used 8 players.