The Dolson Conundrum | Page 2 | The Boneyard

The Dolson Conundrum

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vtcwbuff said:
"God she was awful . . . "??? Sorry UC but you could not be more wrong. Tina Charles was awesome for all 4 years at UConn. She just didn't play to Auriemma's expectations until her junior year. She was also injured for part of that time.
As Ozzie noted - it was an ironic openning paragraph - though if one went back to the message boards from those years you would find lots of posts after games complaining about what a waste of space Tina was in some particular game and 'deep' analysis of why she was struggling so much.
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tomcat said:
Agree with all above, but I think the absolutely worst thing that could have happened to her was (and yes, here I am going to criticize He Who Must Not Be Criticized) for her coach to suggest she was the second-best center in the country.
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Well, perhaps he should have said, "I couldn't think more highly of Stef", that way, we can look at it any way we want.
 
I remember the quote but not so clear on the context. I do seem to remember that it seemed genuine and I took it at face value. I thought he believed that and so did most of us here.

I know it wasn't a throw away like "she couldn't guard a chair".
 
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I haven't done the research, but the comment was roughly, "There's a center down at Baylor is pretty good, but Stef has got to be the second best center in the country." It wasn't a throwaway comment. He stated that it was based on her improvement over the summer (including her conditioning) and her knowledge of the offense.

Like many such predictions (even by coaches), it didn't work out that way. I am apparently the only one to see a similarity between Stef and Meighan Simmons of Tennessee, both of whom had surprisingly good freshman years and were expected (by coaches and hometown fans) to be more reliable as sophomores than they have turned out to be. It happens.

Tina as a freshman and sophomore had more rebounds than Stef, and was more talented than Stef all around, but never had a grasp of the offense that would allow her to make passes from the high post to set up others. She showed enormous improvement when she matured personally, and it really began to show around the middle of her junior year.

Stef has some maturing to do, mainly just to take it more seriously (less as "just a game") than she has thus far. She still has a major upside when she gets it together. I don't think she will ever be the rebounder that Tina was, and probably will never be an Olympic player, but she will be very good -- at least at the Schumacher / J. Moore / K. Wolters level.
 
Interesting comparison to Wolters. A different era, but she dominated the paint. Once she got in shape and toughened up there was nobody better. I used to love that baby hook.
 
I think Stef has hit the Soft wall.........She played BB all summer and she traveled to Europe twice once with UCONN. Her body is tired and the week from the XL ND game has 5 or 6 days rest.........All she needs is her batteries recharged
 
Her comments of late suggest that she knows what she has to do. That's a good omen.
She will improve; she loves the game too much not to.
 
JoePgh said:
I haven't done the research, but the comment was roughly, "There's a center down at Baylor is pretty good, but Stef has got to be the second best center in the country." It wasn't a throwaway comment.
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Did he repeat that again? If not, it's a throwaway comment. And not something that poor Dolson has to play up to all year long. Even now, I see posters using that statement against her.
 
JS said:
Maybe it's not entirely their fault either. The passes are more difficult than they were last year because of the extra defensive attention being paid to Stef.

Here's where the absence of Maya is underestimated. Stef needs a genuine scoring threat at the 4 to free her up. She had it last year and doesn't now.

Maybe Kiah can grow into providing some of that -- needs to show a little more mid-range capability, which may be there -- though her main role is backup center.

Michala needs time and added strength. Heather obviously isn't adaptable to the needed role.

Next year, the void gets filled, big time, with BStew and Tuck. I think that pair will contribute right away, and as far as getting the ball inside, Stef and the guards will return to having some breathing room to operate.
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Great teams have inside -outside balance.
 
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doggydaddy said:
Did he repeat that again? If not, it's a throwaway comment. And not something that poor Dolson has to play up to all year long. Even now, I see posters using that statement against her.
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Remember that he made this comment very early on. Maybe he didn't repeat it because as the season wore on it became obvious that she wasn't progressing the way he expected.
 
vtcwbuff said:
Remember that he made this comment very early on. Maybe he didn't repeat it because as the season wore on it became obvious that she wasn't progressing the way he expected.
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Exactly. So why should she have to deal with the fan's latching on to that early season statement that he didn't repeat?
 
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I just reread this entire thread and could not find a post that used that quote to "bash" her.
 
If you guys really want to help WBB out, just send any of the other 300+ schools any of your players that you are unhappy with.

The idea reminds me of a Tina Charles related story in 2007. I guess you guys had a (relatively) tough time with Green Bay in the tourney; at the Final 4 we saw Kevin Borseth (who was coaching GB at the time) and he said he would have had a much better chance if he could have borrowed Kia Vaughn to play against Tina Charles.
 
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