Thoughts on the Bench

[RockyMTblue2]

If Saniya doesn't "get it" pretty soon she may be delegated to the bench with others ahead of her. I love the fact that Gabby answered Geno's call and Courtney who is really behind in court time at least was aggressive enough to take some shots. I realize that Courtney is behind in minutes but I have no doubt that she has the confidence to jump ahead of others. There was one game at the beginning of the year that Eckmart was the second one off the bench. I really hope that Saniya gets back to pre-season form. Unfortunatly for me I haven't seen her shine other than the Stanford game that Moriah had a horrible game. I'm rooting for her because she does have the talent but not sure of the confidence.

I , too, root for Saniya and most of us here do and realize that her talent "unlocked" would be a great thing. Some things she does absolutely puzzle and you would think that they would stop cropping up. One of those is her maddening habit of purporting to direct other players around - point guards do this of course, but mostly her use of the off hand in this fashion is a time waster and misdirected. Last night she signaled Morgan (I believe) to move out from under the hoop some when she should have passed, then passed after having given the defense the opportunity to read and break up the play, which was broken. Stuff like that should be fixable.

 

[lanieer]

I hate to say it but I get the feeling in Geno's interviews that he is getting very frustrated with Saniya. He was livid at the 5 second call. At the end of the game in his interview he said that his guards don't listen to anyone. I was assuming that he meant Saniya since Moriah and Kia don't really meet that criteria. I think she is at an important time in her career as Moriah was during her Sophomore year.

 

[JS]

At the end of the game in his interview he said that his guards don't listen to anyone.

Not exactly. It went like this:

Q. Is Moriah a good teacher [of other guards]?

A. Well, some of our guards are unteachable.

You can draw your own conclusions as to

-- who he meant; and

-- how far, if at all, his tongue was in his cheek.​

 

[mysticmajor]

1. I think Gabby is developing nicely. She makes her own opportunities. Given her brake away basket, the ball handling skills seem to be coming back.
2. Courtney seems improved over her initial appearances early in the season. I agree that she made some really nice passes, her foot speed seemed better, and the shots were really nice.
3. Kiah is obviously comfortable on defense. Question is how to translate that to consistent offense. For me, it was important to set the benchmark of the ND as her defensive potential and insist that she live up to that potential. IMO she has offensive skills. I wonder if it shows better in practice than in the games we have seen. My experiment might be to see if she can shoot herself into a rhythm or benchmark of success on the offensive end. I don't know if that would be by paring her with great outside shooters to prevent sagging or what. Just make sure she knows that she's 'it'. I think she does much better when she knows others are depending on her. And, I think it would help for her to work through the offensive end instead of perhaps feeling that she is helping by not shooting. IMO, she doesn't need an arsenal, just a consistent 'something' combined with her defense to be a great contributor.

Overall, I keep thinking back to something Gabby said. She took ownership of needing to give coach a reason to play her. She understood that she needed to add some benefit that is not there by leaving her on the bench. It's all about risk vs rewards. Figure out how you add value and go for it.

 

[Sonny44]

Am I the only one getting hooked on Gabby? I love it when she comes in. She really goes for the net!

 

[Adesmar123]

Why is it called a "bench" when it is actually a series of chairs?

Such are my thoughts on the bench.

 

[mysticmajor]

Am I the only one getting hooked on Gabby? I love it when she comes in. She really goes for the net!

I'm crazy happy about her attitude and performance.

 

[Ellie]

Agree Gabby Williams is going to be a great player. Indeed, will be lots of fun to watch her develop over the years. Her court awareness and basketball IQ higher than I gave her credit for. Athletically reminds me of taller and stronger Kalena Greene. Gabby has some "hops" which allows her to appear/play taller than 5'11". Also agree that Courtney is reminiscent of Mel Thomas with a quicker release and better shot. Has problems keeping quick players with the ball in front of her, as did Mel, but she'll learn to be a better defender by learning angles and "anticipating" with more game experience. Is she as tough as Mel Thomas? Only time will tell. Sadly, agree with most of the Saniya observations. She plays worrying about making mistakes and therefore comes across as someone going to a job they don't particularly like and not showing much joy in doing it. Shot mechanics are not conducive to college level. Has lots of work to do but is much better now than as a freshman so I'm cautiously optimistic (especially so if Geno can schedule her in to see Dr Phil!) Kiah is a senior and will surprise us on occasion, as with ND, but will not change who she is; a great defender with any offense being a bonus.

 

[manfredonia]

Geno tried an interesting experiment tonight. With about 15 minutes to go, Geno put four non-starters ( Stokes, Chong, Williams, and Ekmark) in to play together, along with one starter.
Here are some of my observations now, maybe some later when I can see the actual stats.
1. Most important, to me, there is a clear drop off in talent from the starting five. I can see why Geno is reluctant to make a sub. It looked like the second five had trouble staying with Tulsa, which is not saying much.

Individually,
Williams - Best of the four, had a nice bounce back game after only 2 minutes against St. Johns\
Stokes - I don't think she is ever going to be a scorer. Great rebounder and shot blocker, but no offense at all.
Ekmark - Nice three point shot, but I hope she's not just a one dimensional player. Nothing else about her game stood out to me.
Chong - Basically, no confidence at all. Not a great game for her.

Like everyone else, I'm rooting for these four to improve, but I didn't see it tonight ( except Williams).

I would like to read others "objective" observations on Geno's experiment. Right now, I have to reluctantly agree with him. The drop off in talent from the starting five is pretty clear.

 

[Striper69]

Not exactly. It went like this:

Q. Is Moriah a good teacher [of other guards]?

A. Well, some of our guards are unteachable.

You can draw your own conclusions as to

-- who he meant; and

-- how far, if at all, his tongue was in his cheek.​

Yeah, but he was smiling when he said it. ;-)

 

[Striper69]

Not only that, if you put Stewart in with the other 4, Stewart won't look that good either.
It is easy to point to the 15 pts that Gabby scored and said that she had a great game, but the fact that she scored the points a s a by-product of the spacing of the system with the starters when she was in. Chong on the other hand is looking totally lost.

If he puts Stewart in with the others the whole mentality of the other team changes. They can't sag inside like they did when she went out of the game.

If he puts KML in with them then the other team automatically "face guards" her and takes that person out of helping the others on defense.

Stewart and KML- you're talking about the best player in WCBB and the next #1 WNBA draft pick here.

 

[Striper69]

I'm crazy happy about her attitude and performance.

I like her more and more all the time.

 

[geneticrex]

Am I the only one getting hooked on Gabby? I love it when she comes in. She really goes for the net!

No, you are not the only one.

My brother and I watch the games and can't wait to watch her displays of elite athleticism.

 

[UcMiami]

Beyond her ability to score around the basket what has impressed me with Gabby is her ability to make clean interior passes to other post players - she has set Kiah up for most of her baskets it seems and has made beautiful passes to Tuck and Stewart as well after drawing the defense.

On the last 15 minutes of the game last night ... yeah I was disappointed with the offense and defense but ... you had three freshman on the court at the same time and that really isn't a good idea. The best learning experience and the best performance for any of them is to be inserted with most of the starters and play a specific role - Gabby work inside and rebound, Ekmark spot up and set exterior screens, Nurse run in transition, drive, and spot up. When Nurse is not out there with the other starters she struggles with the organization and spacing just like the other freshman do. And the same is true with both Kiah and Chong - give them an organized team around them and they perform their roles, surround them with people unsure of what they are doing and it gets ugly quickly. That is why the team looked best when Moriah was in during those 15 minutes - she could impose some organization where both Nurse and Kaleena struggled to do so.

 

[boontonbomber]

Am I the only one getting hooked on Gabby? I love it when she comes in. She really goes for the net!

You're hardly alone . As soon as she comes into the game, she begins to have an impact. Overall, I think she does more things than Stokes. She makes very few mistakes, except fouls when she tries to do a bit too much. She is a very good passer. She is a statistical machine; rebounds , assists, points. And she is fearless. Barring injury, seems like she will be a great player, really unlike anyone I've seen play at Uconn.

 

[CL82]

Before we write off our subs as being less talented than Tulsa, keep in mind that they haven't been getting minutes together. Basketball is hugely about timing and chemistry in addition to talent. They haven't had a chance to develop that with each other. Yeah, the didn't look much our national championship worthy talent, but is it really fair to expect them to?

 

[Striper69]

Geno did the right thing. He gave the subs some much needed game time. So they were rusty and all that. So what? They had the game in hand.