The Triple Double

[Sakibomb25]

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

Correction - it’s a milestone according to YOU, not to Bueckers. A bigger milestone for her are probably a Big East Championship and an NCAA title. Not everyone thinks a triple double is as big of achievement as other goals they are chasing.

 

[Blueballer]

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.

It would have been nice but I guarantee you she cares a lot less about those things than we do.

 

[meyers7]

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.

That might also be a $$$$ incentive in their contract. Kick in a bonus or something.

 

[Forego]

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.

Your discussion regarding Kelly Faris is most apt for this thread. For those of you that don’t remember, Kelly had a quadruple double when she was in high school. I have to go back and check, but I’m pretty sure that another Indiana high school player had a quintuple double just a few days ago.

 

[darrell]

Your discussion regarding Kelly Faris is most apt for this thread. For those of you that don’t remember, Kelly had a quadruple double when she was in high school. I have to go back and check, but I’m pretty sure that another Indiana high school player had a quintuple double just a few days ago.

You are correct. The youngest of the Reynolds bunch from Purdue.

 

[OldSchooler]

And another to break the old career scoring record.

That was the notorious Nykesha Sales incident in 1998, from which Geno learned an embarrassing lesson.

 

[OldSchooler]

Correction - it’s a milestone according to YOU, not to Bueckers. A bigger milestone for her are probably a Big East Championship and an NCAA title. Not everyone thinks a triple double is as big of achievement as other goals they are chasing.

And Paige -- being Paige -- probably gets more of a kick watching her benchwarming teammates getting their minutes in.

 

[SCNCHuskie]

I have always believed that a triple double, like hitting for the cycle in baseball is only notable because of its mathematical infrequency. In basketball, what would be the better stat line 40/9/9 or 10/10/10? In baseball is it better to hit for the cycle (single, double, triple, and home run) or three home runs and a single? They are both only notable because of the uniqueness.

 

[meyers7]

That was the notorious Nykesha Sales incident in 1998, from which Geno learned an embarrassing lesson.

I don't think so. I think he was happy that he did it. And would have done it again. I think his only regret was the crap Sales got for it. But that was everyone else's problem. Not Sales, Bascom's or UCONN's.

 

[my2cents]

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.

He started a game with Nykesha sales making a basket to set, at that time , a UConn scoring record.

 

[huskeynut]

He started a game with Nykesha sales making a basket to set, at that time , a UConn scoring record.

And that game was against Villanova. Harry Peretta was the head coach and he was all for it. Nykesha had torn her Achilles tendon and her season was over.