The scariest thing about the UConn Huskies

[Carnac]

They are going to be deep, in contrast to last year. We have 8 players that would start anywhere. The starting lineup will change to match the opponent and players will get the rest they need.

With the depth of Geno's team this year, one would think that towards the end of the season, when UConn will be playing AAC teams that are not as challenging as some teams they'll face in March, Geno will dial back the minutes of the starters just a bit so that they are fresh and rested for the post season tournaments. That philosophy would afford the bench players a little more playing time as well.

 

[CocoHusky]

Personally, and I may be the only one on the BY that feels this way, I am thrilled that Aja Wilson signed and is playing for SoCar & NOT UConn! I just don't like her game! Yes she's a talented athlete but she strikes me as high maintenance, I think Azura is going to put Aja to shame! Azura is almost a Stewie clone IMHO! Aja NEEDS press conferences and Stewie just needed the hood of her Dad's pickup!
For all the pre-college publicity you would think Aja had a deadly inside & outside game. But she's basically a 15' and in player!
UConn has shown when they are really physical with Aja, she folds her tent and goes away!
Before I get attacked for MHO above, that is what I get when I see Aja play! We'll have to agree to disagree!
Azura & Batouly are going to become huge fan favorites, Azura is more well-rounded and Batouly is a banger in the true sense. BC won't dazzle you with her point totals, but she reminds me of Jamelle Elliot back in the early '90's! She enjoys the physical aspects of an inside player! And is more than willing to sacrifice her totals to pass, block out, garbage baskets, whatever the team needs!
I have more respect for UCLA's Jordin Canada! I think she's the real deal! She plays the most like a UConn player!
And finally, SoCar won the NCAA title for one reason, UConn wasn't in the Finals! It's all about matchups and UConn vs MSU surprisingly became a poor matchup for our Huskies while UConn owns Dawn Staley and SoCar!
This coming season UConn will not have any poor matchups, they have tremendous players/people with the best coaching staff in all WBB, the WNBA or WCBB working their magic with the girls day-in-and-day-out!

I'm pretty sure you are not the only one, but I don't feel the same way. Note: That was not an attack, it was firm disagreement.
A'Ja Wilson is a terrific player. Jordan Canada is a terrific player. Azura' was terrific in a Duke uniform. It 's alright to say you are going to appreciate Azura' more in a UCONN uniform-I know I will- WITHOUT diminishing any other player. That ball hog chick that graduated UCONN around 2004, she wasn't high maintenance?
After Stewie signed on the hood of the car there was this: " When I (Stewie) came in as a freshman we (Geno & Stewie) butted heads. There’s no other way to look at it besides that."

 

[SCspur]

Personally, and I may be the only one on the BY that feels this way, I am thrilled that Aja Wilson signed and is playing for SoCar & NOT UConn! I just don't like her game! Yes she's a talented athlete but she strikes me as high maintenance, I think Azura is going to put Aja to shame! Azura is almost a Stewie clone IMHO! Aja NEEDS press conferences and Stewie just needed the hood of her Dad's pickup!
For all the pre-college publicity you would think Aja had a deadly inside & outside game. But she's basically a 15' and in player!
UConn has shown when they are really physical with Aja, she folds her tent and goes away!
Before I get attacked for MHO above, that is what I get when I see Aja play! We'll have to agree to disagree!
Azura & Batouly are going to become huge fan favorites, Azura is more well-rounded and Batouly is a banger in the true sense. BC won't dazzle you with her point totals, but she reminds me of Jamelle Elliot back in the early '90's! She enjoys the physical aspects of an inside player! And is more than willing to sacrifice her totals to pass, block out, garbage baskets, whatever the team needs!
I have more respect for UCLA's Jordin Canada! I think she's the real deal! She plays the most like a UConn player!
And finally, SoCar won the NCAA title for one reason, UConn wasn't in the Finals! It's all about matchups and UConn vs MSU surprisingly became a poor matchup for our Huskies while UConn owns Dawn Staley and SoCar!
This coming season UConn will not have any poor matchups, they have tremendous players/people with the best coaching staff in all WBB, the WNBA or WCBB working their magic with the girls day-in-and-day-out!

I respect your honest opinion but let's leave your personal feelings out of it. Just because A'ja announced her decision on ESPN doesn't mean she NEEDS the press, you also can't compare her to Stewart because every player is different. A'ja is the most humble player and person you'll ever meet so don't jump on here acting like she's an egotistical player. Stating she's high maintenance like you know her personally really shows me what kind of person your are.

As to her game, I think there's room for improvement with her shooting as well as court awareness but during her sophomore season she shot 31% from Midrange and this year her total went up to 58%, so she's definitely improved along the way. Now with all the hype coming into college has been lived up to. She doesn't need an inside outside game to be effective because she's comfortable with her present skill set and has been dominating with just that. She's a 3 time All-American, 2 time SEC POY, 2017 FF MOP, National Champion and has led her team to 3 straight regular season and 3 tourney titles so I would say she has certainly lived up to her billing from HS.

 

[Alydar]

I respect your honest opinion but let's leave your personal feelings out of it. Just because A'ja announced her decision on ESPN doesn't mean she NEEDS the press, you also can't compare her to Stewart because every player is different. A'ja is the most humble player and person you'll ever meet so don't jump on here acting like she's an egotistical player. Stating she's high maintenance like you know her personally really shows me what kind of person your are.

As to her game, I think there's room for improvement with her shooting as well as court awareness but during her sophomore season she shot 31% from Midrange and this year her total went up to 58%, so she's definitely improved along the way. Now with all the hype coming into college has been lived up to. She doesn't need an inside outside game to be effective because she's comfortable with her present skill set and has been dominating with just that. She's a 3 time All-American, 2 time SEC POY, 2017 FF MOP, National Champion and has led her team to 3 straight regular season and 3 tourney titles so I would say she has certainly lived up to her billing from HS.

I think Wilson is a terrific player and the front runner for POY but you are wrong about her living up to her high school hype. Didn't both she and her father say she wanted to play guard? There were videos of her ball handling skills and her outside shooting. I've yet to see her be an effective perimeter shooter ala Stewart. I believe she was 0-1 last season. So that aspect of the hype is still missing. And I'm not saying she needs a perimeter game, just that she was touted as having one and we haven't seen it.

 

[CocoHusky]

I respect your honest opinion but let's leave your personal feelings out of it. Just because A'ja announced her decision on ESPN doesn't mean she NEEDS the press, you also can't compare her to Stewart because every player is different. A'ja is the most humble player and person you'll ever meet so don't jump on here acting like she's an egotistical player.

Can we just pretending here! We both know that no self-respecting, egoless UCONN player would go on ESPN to announce their decision when there are perfectly good car hoods in the parking lot & no matter how many times you begged them.

Top-ranked prospect Walker commits to UConn

 

[SCspur]

I think Wilson is a terrific player and the front runner for POY but you are wrong about her living up to her high school hype. Didn't both she and her father say she wanted to play guard? There were videos of her ball handling skills and her outside shooting. I've yet to see her be an effective perimeter shooter ala Stewart. I believe she was 0-1 last season. So that aspect of the hype is still missing. And I'm not saying she needs a perimeter game, just that she was touted as having one and we haven't seen it.

I totally agree with you. I would like to see more of an outside shot in her game. And yes it was said she would have been on the perimeter but playing more as a Forward then a wing is what's effective for her. I think her game is still growing though, and we could see more of a perimeter game next year and in her WNBA career.

What I meant by living up to her high school hype was her being a program changer and a tough competitor. She has totally transformed a cellar program into one of the nations elite. She will go down as one of the best players to ever wear a SC jersey. If she continues to expand her game and understanding of it she could have a great pro career as well.

 

[CocoHusky]

I think Wilson is a terrific player and the front runner for POY but you are wrong about her living up to her high school hype. Didn't both she and her father say she wanted to play guard? There were videos of her ball handling skills and her outside shooting. I've yet to see her be an effective perimeter shooter ala Stewart. I believe she was 0-1 last season. So that aspect of the hype is still missing. And I'm not saying she needs a perimeter game, just that she was touted as having one and we haven't seen it.

It wasn't her father it was her AAU coach. Dawn actually started A'Ja at Guard for the first game of her Freshmen campaign against USC before quickly getting religion. The experiment lasted a total of 16 minutes in which A'Ja shot 2-7 had 3 TO and 1 assist.

 

[Alydar]

I totally agree with you. I would like to see more of an outside shot in her game. And yes it was said she would have been on the perimeter but playing more as a Forward then a wing is what's effective for her. I think her game is still growing though, and we could see more of a perimeter game next year and in her WNBA career.

What I meant by living up to her high school hype was her being a program changer and a tough competitor. She has totally transformed a cellar program into one of the nations elite. She will go down as one of the best players to ever wear a SC jersey. If she continues to expand her game and understanding of it she could have a great pro career as well.

S Car wasn't a cellar program when she arrived. SC was already a rising program when Coates got there a year prior to Wilson's arrival. If I remember right, SC had a good year when Coates was a HS senior but they lost a lot of seniors and most were predicting them to slide in Coates' freshman year. She and Staley proved the experts wrong. In fact I would say that Coates freshman season was a big reason Wilson signed.

 

[UConnCat]

S Car wasn't a cellar program when she arrived. SC was already a rising program when Coates got there a year prior to Wilson's arrival. If I remember right, SC had a good year when Coates was a HS senior but they lost a lot of seniors and most were predicting them to slide in Coates' freshman year. She and Staley proved the experts wrong. In fact I would say that Coates freshman season was a big reason Wilson signed.

You caught that one too. South Carolina was hardly a cellar program when Wilson arrived. The year before Wilson joined SC, 2013-14 season, the Gamecocks ended the season 29-5, were ranked in the Top 10 during the season, won the SEC regular season title and lost to UNC in the Sweet 16. The season before that, 2012-13, the Gamecocks were ranked in the Top 20 and ended the season 28-5.

Wilson certainly helped transform the team in to a national champion (wouldn't have happened without 2 big transfers), but let's not get carried away.

 

[CocoHusky]

S Car wasn't a cellar program when she arrived. SC was already a rising program when Coates got there a year prior to Wilson's arrival. If I remember right, SC had a good year when Coates was a HS senior but they lost a lot of seniors and most were predicting them to slide in Coates' freshman year. She and Staley proved the experts wrong. In fact I would say that Coates freshman season was a big reason Wilson signed.

Before Wilson: SC was #1 Seed in NCAA Finished 29 & 5, lost no seniors of significance, Lost to DD in Sweet 16 of NCAA.
After Wilson: SC was #1 Seed in NCAA 34 & 3, Lost to ND in FF by 1 point. Neither Wilson (Freshmen) nor Coates (Sophomore) started for SC on this team & Tiffany Mitchell was the go to player & Welch the heartbeat of the team.

 

[oldude]

I think Wilson is a terrific player and the front runner for POY but you are wrong about her living up to her high school hype. Didn't both she and her father say she wanted to play guard? There were videos of her ball handling skills and her outside shooting. I've yet to see her be an effective perimeter shooter ala Stewart. I believe she was 0-1 last season. So that aspect of the hype is still missing. And I'm not saying she needs a perimeter game, just that she was touted as having one and we haven't seen it.

The idea of Wilson playing guard in college is almost as outrageous as Gabby Williams playing center...

 

[CocoHusky]

The idea of Wilson playing guard in college is almost as outrageous as Gabby Williams playing center...

The funny thing is that I think Geno could pull off both while no other coach could pull off either.

 

[Bestiarius]

Can we just pretending here! We both know that no self-respecting, egoless UConn player would go on ESPN to announce their decision when there are perfectly good car hoods in the parking lot & no matter how many times you begged them.

Top-ranked prospect Walker commits to UConn

Have you ever seen Brian Stewart's car?