The Triple Double

[my2cents]

This may be a little bit of a controversial topic. Like no hitters in baseball, triple doubles in basketball are rare. They become career milestones for players. They are even rarer for guards.
Last night Paige Bueckers had a great chance to get one, but didn't play the last 13 minutes of the game.
I understand the 'self-sacrifice' mantra of UConn women's basketball that has resulted in 11 National Championships. Nobody has exemplified that more than Bueckers.
All of our HOF UConn grads could have scored more points, had more assists and rebounds but do not play much after the scores get out of hand.
However, I do believe that a player that has exemplified that philosophy like Bueckers, when given a chance to that milestone, should have been allowed to get that.

 

[Puppy Love]

I disagree…because given the last few years, I would not take the risk of her getting hurt.

 

[oldude]

Paige played a brilliant all-around game last night, which clearly demonstrated to me why she is the very best player in WBB. But Paige and UConn have never been about individual stats, and that’s the way it should be.

Contrast Paige’s performance with JuJu Watkins still playing in the 4th qtr of a blowout earlier this season, while putting up 50 pts, only to injure her ankle. I suspect that Lindsay Gottlieb learned from her mistake in allowing Watkins to chase an individual stat when the game was out of reach.

 

[BobbyJ]

It would be just another hollow stat line. As a player I wouldn’t be that proud of staying in a 40+ point blowout to do it.

 

[Rowdy831]

Paige played a brilliant all-around game last night, which clearly demonstrated to me why she is the very best player in WBB. But Paige and UConn have never been about individual stats, and that’s the way it should be.

Contrast Paige’s performance with JuJu Watkins still playing in the 4th qtr of a blowout earlier this season, while putting up 50 pts, only to injure her ankle. I suspect that Lindsay Gottlieb learned from her mistake in allowing Watkins to chase an individual stat when the game was out of reach.

Juju played 36 minutes this week in a game the other starters played 20. They are clearly leaving her on the court when other players are coming out. Why would they do such a thing? If it was me I would also want to play regardless of the score because I loved to play but the coach does need to trump the player and do what is best for the team.

 

[Rowdy831]

I disagree…because given the last few years, I would not take the risk of her getting hurt.

I understand what you are saying but I wouldn't use injury as a reason not to play someone. Every minute in every game the chance of injury is there but at some point UConn is going to have to get their players ready for real teams and 40 minute games. I do understand not wanting to run up the score against terrible teams and do like that all players are getting some court time.

 

[oldude]

Juju played 36 minutes this week in a game the other starters played 20. They are clearly leaving her on the court when other players are coming out. Why would they do such a thing? If it was me I would also want to play regardless of the score because I loved to play but the coach does need to trump the player and do what is best for the team.

The “why” is simple. USC wants to give Watkins every chance to break Caitlin Clark’s all time scoring record.

 

[BobbyJ]

The “why” is simple. USC wants to give Watkins every chance to break Caitlin Clark’s all time scoring record.

Not to mention how much the end of season award voters love gaudy stats.

 

[oldude]

Not to mention how much the end of season award voters love gaudy stats.

Right now, if I had to vote for NPOY it would be Lauren Betts.

 

[my2cents]

Paige getting hurt makes no sense to me. She could get hurt in the first minute against Creighton. ( God forbid). How many minute will she play against Tenn, or South Carolina? 38?

 

[Dugway]

Paige getting hurt makes no sense to me. She could get hurt in the first minute against Creighton. ( God forbid). How many minute will she play against Tenn, or South Carolina? 38?

No, when we are up by 42-pts going into Q4 against those teams, I expect that she will sit most of the 4th and thus have fewer than 38 playing minutes. We will have to wait and see it, but that is my guess.

 

[OldSchooler]

In Geno we trust.

 

[kjkj3]

Geno said in the post game press conference that he doesn’t look at individual stats, but if he had known, he probably would have left he’d in.

 

[donalddoowop]

Last night Geno said he was not interested in that kind of stat.

 

[my2cents]

It's not just another STAT. It's a milestone for a player in their careers.

 

[Bone Dog]

I can only think of one time Geno put a player on the floor in order to get her a stat line achievement, and it was in the closing moments of a blowout win in an NC game.

 

[uconnfan68]

I can only think of one time Geno put a player on the floor in order to get her a stat line achievement, and it was in the closing moments of a blowout win in an NC game.

And another to break the old career scoring record.

 

[BobbyJ]

It's not just another STAT. It's a milestone for a player in their careers.

Probably for an egotistical chump like an NBA player. Bueckers is a classy competitor and would probably be embarrassed to do it under those circumstances.

 

[BRS24]

The team goals each season:
1 - BE regular season title
2 - BE tourney title
3 - National Championship

Geno and the staff do a fabulous job of recruiting players who have that mindset, where individual accolades are cool, but are not the objective. Stewie's goal was 4 nattys, and not 4 Finals MVP awards.

 

[cabbie191]

IMO, there have been several times this year that had the team been focused on having a player achieve a triple double, there were the opportunities, particularly multiple times for Paige and Sarah.

Personally, I love that Geno & CD are playing the entire bench and giving the starters lots of rest time. I think this has the potential to pay dividends on several levels come tournament time.

Beyond that, given what I expect will be a long arc of success for Paige and Sarah continuing beyond their UConn careers, I don't think NOT achieving a triple double will in any way tarnish their legacies. So far as I can tell, Taurasi, Bird & Moore never accomplished a triple double but I doubt anyone considers this a ding on their overall records.

 

[packwrap]

Not to mention how much the end of season award voters love gaudy stats.

Paige's opportunity to get back in NPOY race is to do some Paigelike things in the Big TV games against Tenn and SC.

JuJu train by the way chugging right along on the Caitlyn Clark record pace. Did I hear correctly that she dunked vs Purdue?

 

[BRS24]

IMO, there have been several times this year that had the team been focused on having a player achieve a triple double, there were the opportunities, particularly multiple times for Paige and Sarah.

Personally, I love that Geno & CD are playing the entire bench and giving the starters lots of rest time. I think this has the potential to pay dividends on several levels come tournament time.

Beyond that, given what I expect will be a long arc of success for Paige and Sarah continuing beyond their UConn careers, I don't think NOT achieving a triple double will in any way tarnish their legacies. So far as I can tell, Taurasi, Bird & Moore never accomplished a triple double but I doubt anyone considers this a ding on their overall records.

Ask and ye shall receive. This is from this year's media guide:

 

[Bigboote]

I like the OP's comparison of the triple-double to the no-hitter.

The triple-double is kind of an artificial thing. Ten (points, rebounds, assists, etc.) isn't much different than nine. If someone has triple-doubles consistently like Ionescu, Alyssa Thomas, Clark, that indicates a well-rounded player. How many people know Grace Berger led the nation in triple-doubles the year after Ionescu graduated? I didn't think so (she had three, btw).

And the no-hitter is largely a matter of luck. The umpire who called Roger Clemens's first 20-strikeout game had called, I think, seven no-hitters but said Clemens's game was the best pitching performance he'd seen. Jerry Grote said the same thing when he caught Tom Seaver's 19-strikeout game in 1970. Thing is, if one guy hits the ball off the end of the bat to where nobody can get to it, there goes the no-hitter and nobody remembers anything. Same thing happens when you're going for 20 strikeouts, you still have 19 strikeouts, which has still happened fewer times than no hitters.

In Kelly Faris's senior year against, I think, Maryland, UConn looked pretty flat in the first half. Kelly turned the game around. She finished with something like 10 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, and 7 steals. Not a quadruple-double, but pretty close, and in my eyes, way better than 90% of the triple-doubles I've seen.

 

[darrell]

Ask and ye shall receive. This is from this year's media guide:

View attachment 106440

I remember Gabby’s like it was Yesterday. I believe her last assist was to Natalie Butler.

 

[Happydad745]

It happens in the WNBA too, padding a players stats so they can get more double-doubles, even in a losing effort, to make them appear to better than they are.