Do you really think that the bench players go to practice and just play slap and tickle? This notion that only 5, 6, or at most, 7, players earn playing time in practice is getting old. I'm willing to bet that every one goes to practice and busts their asses, every day. One doesn't get to become a Div 1 athlete by being lazy. Phees is a tremendous player, but having her play against bigger post players for 40 minutes every night is going to wear her down.
OMG!!! I never thought such an innocent comment would draw such negative responses. I stand firmly behind my comment. Shenandoah, I have no problem with you commenting or rebutting any of my comments. BUT......................When you do, you can't put YOUR words in my mouth to bolster your argument. "
Do you really think that the bench players go to practice and just play slap and tickle?" Did I say this? No I didn't. Did I suggest that UConn players go to practice and play slap tickle? No. "
One doesn't get to become a Div 1 athlete by being lazy" Did I say this? No I didn't. Where did I mention, state or suggest that any UConn player is lazy? Nowhere in my comment did I mention Napheesa Collier.
It's amazing to me how you can come up with these conclusions/opinions from one bland and naked fact. You're going way out of your way to rebut my comment and make your point by saying things I did not say or imply.
As far as players earning time on the floor, this is a fact of life in Geno's program. It's been that way for the last 34 years. Anyone that is a UConn fan, or has been following the program for any length of time knows this. Geno has stated this out of his mouth in numerous media interviews over the years. That is not MY "notion" as you call it. That is Geno's rule. I do not determine who gets playing time off the bench, Geno does. So if you think it's getting old, and have a problem with it, you need to direct your anger and angst at HIM.
PVdoggy, Donalddoowop and you are looking at the disparity in the 11-1 bench point differential differently than I am. PVDoggy's arguent was that their bench played 40 minutes to UConn's 11, thus the large difference in points. When I see the 11-1 difference, I wonder why the SJ coach has more faith in his bench than Geno has in his.
I'm suggesting that the quality of the players on UConn's bench is better than that on SJ's. With rare exception, UConn recruits only highly ranked top 100 players. This is another opinion we can debate if you like.
You're injecting your own personal thoughts/opinions as to what you think I meant, and the way
you perceived it. I said:
"The only negative I took away from this game was that the St. John’s bench out scored UConn’s 11-1". As I mentioned before, this is a statistical FACT. You can argue or debate opinions, but you can't argue facts. All I did was repeat this stat the exact same way it was given to us on the radio by Bob Joyce. He read off a list of game stats. This was one of them.
Anytime your bench gets outscored, it's NOT a positive. Stats are either positive, or negative. Just like battery terminals.
I would wager without checking, there is not a single player on SJ's bench that was ranked in the top 100 of their respective class. I see the negative here as SJ's coach has more faith and trust in his reserves against the #2 ranked team in the country, than Geno does in his against an unranked mid-major. This was proven by the minutes Tartamella gave his bench, versus the minutes Geno gave his. Even though theoretically, Geno has better players on his bench than Tartamella does. I don't know how you view this dynamic, but I see this as a negative.
You're venting at me personally for having an opinion and mentioning a factual game statistic. Really Shenandoah? I can only imagine the critical and tyrannical posts that will be posted here after a loss. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It would not surprise me if a poster or two suggests that Geno is washed up, can no longer coach and calls for his head.
There will be losses (plural). Now, if you want to argue something, argue that. This UConn team will not go undefeated.
St. Johns played UConn very close until the last minute.
St. Johns is unranked. Looking ahead, UConn will play 6 teams that are currently ranked in the top 25. I expect UConn to get tougher play from these 6 teams than they did from St. Johns. UConn may look and play a lot worse against these 6 than they did last night.
This may also be the year UConn loses it's first AAC game. Don't forget the 63-60 narrow win at Temple 2 years ago. The other AAC teams are slowly closing the gap and improving the quality of their programs by recruiting better players and hiring new coaches.
Remember, on any given night, a series of bad calls leading to early foul trouble for one or more of our starters, an injury to a starter, etc, and there you have it. Or simply a team is up for you, and is balling out figuring they have nothing to lose.....as St. Johns did last night, and Stanford did in 2014.
That's also how Louisville beat Baylor in the 2013 NCAA final 4 to clear the way for UConn to win the NC that year. Baylor was highly favored to win the NC that year, not UConn. They had already lost to Notre Dame 3 times that year, and to Baylor (Feb 18) 76-70. Some teams don't fear UConn anymore. If Haley Jones chooses to go else where, they'll fear UConn even less.
As
Longtime fan says in a post below,
"We have to be prepared to lose some games during the season."
This is very big for the March-to-come. I don't really want to talk about the "Big 3" anymore. These two--CW and MW--are equal parts now. And they will just get better and better.
I had not seen the game when I shared that stat. I still haven't. I'll watch it later today. My reference to that stat has nothing to do with whether I saw the game or not. We're 4 games into the season. The dust is beginning to settle.
