Time for the final starting 5 poll before Geno tells us who it will be... | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Time for the final starting 5 poll before Geno tells us who it will be...

Choose your starting 5. You can vote for up to 5.

  • Evina

  • Olivia

  • Christyn

  • Dorka

  • Aubrey

  • Paige

  • Nika

  • Aaliyah

  • Azzi

  • Caroline

Results are only viewable after voting.
D J B said:
I'm a huge Nika fan, too. No matter who gets the starting job, Nika will have her role on the team. There will be times in almost every game when Geno will need someone to go out there and totally disrupt the other team's offense and game plan. Nika is that someone. Let her get in someone's face, earn a few fouls, wreak a little havoc. Take her out, put her back in, let her do it again. That's what I love about her. She holds her own in a street fight.
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excellent strategy. Have her pick up fouls so the other team gets free throws. Bold Strategy
 
To start the season Azzi will come off the bench and Evina will start. With that said Azzi will get alot of minutes. CW and Paige are 100% starting. A little birdie told me.
 
Paige, Azzi & Dorka and Geno could get 2 players off the street and UConn would still win the Big East.
 
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Nika is the perfect 6th Player. Instant energy off the bench. Can play aggressive & well in spurts. But, she's nowhere near the talent of Azzi.
 
I predict that the starting five will the 5 players that Geno/Chris has determined earned it, through seniority and/or their work in practice.
 
oldude said:
I assumed we are talking about the Arkansas game. The first 4 are easy imo, Paige, Christyn, Evina & Liv. I wrestled with who the 5th starter will be: Nika, Aaliyah & Azzi.

Ultimately, I went with Aaliyah because that’s the way last season ended and I expect that while the competition for PT at UConn’s practices is fierce, nothing has changed……yet.
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True but the reason AE started was because of the Nika injury. Geno loves Nika's defense at the point and the way she sets up the team. He said last year that the team was better with her. I think she starts against Arkansas and the first sub is either a big, or two, maybe for Evina and ONO, and then we see Azzi, maybe for Nika, and Paige slides to the point. It's a real conundrum because you also have Aubrey who has been overlooked by many here but shouldn't be. She is the best floor player on the team and a junior. It's a great pressing team actually. I know a lot of BYers were disappointed with Azzi in the U19 but I wasn't. She deferred to the older players on offense which is not unusual but I was impressed with her on-ball defense which I didn't know about and I think she can be very effective in a press. She has great pass lane anticipation and will get a lot of deflections this year. That's a very important part of a press.
 
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Just an observation. Apparently most on the Boneyard want to keep the starting lineup, going with Aaliyah or Nika as the 5th starter depending on who you consider the incumbent there.

What I find interesting is outside shooting at least by Uconn's high standards was a relative weakness last year, with just one shooter that really scared the opposition, just Paige. Yes Christyn, Evina and Nika could make an ok percentage of them, but stopping Paige outside and Aaliyah and Liv inside is a much higher defensive priority. A three pointer from those three is something opponents can live with.

Now everyone is very excited about adding great shooting in Azzi, Caroline and perhaps Saylor, and we are all pumped about how deep we are, but the popular starting line-up choices don't address the outside shooting at all. We have the same issue until Azzi or Caroline get into the game to replace Christyn, Evina or Nika.

Unless Azzi and Caroline reduce the minutes for some of those three substantially, the problem continues. Yes we would have good "bench" three point shooting and that helps, but for a team that expects to be great, the favored starting lineups would not address in a big way what is probably our number 1 team weakness, despite now having potential solutions on the bench.

Best fit vs. best player overall could be a factor here. I would like to see one more shooter in the starting lineup, most likely Azzi at the expense of Christyn or Evina. In Azzi's case it might be better player overall and better fit.
 
A testament to the projected team depth this year is that at the time of this post, Aubrey is tenth with 1 lonely vote.

She has logged over 1,000 minutes total over the last two years and was sixth in total minutes played in 2019-2020. She also started 5 games in 2020-2021.

She is now officially flying under the radar.

This may end up being the deepest UCWBB team ever. We will see.
 
Aubrey is not going to start and we all know that but she is going to play a lot more minutes than people think. I don't think she is under Geno's radar. She is a junior, great versatile defender and leaper, long wing span, unselfish, and I opine this about her PT even if she didn't improve offensively over the summer. She does a lot of good things on the court for the team. I'm very excited to see her this year. At the worst, I assume she is stronger and quicker.
Last year, she was second on the team in rebounds per minutes played for a full season behind ONO, second in steals per minutes played behind Nika by 1%, 3rd on the team in FT % for players taking more than 25 free throws, and 1st in free throws per minutes played for players over 175 minutes. Those are the stats of a valuable floor player. Plus, she is a great young woman. She was a very young player in terms of actual age when she arrived here and I am really very hopeful that she makes the "jump" this year. In fact I am confident she will.
 
oldhuskie said:
Just an observation. Apparently most on the Boneyard want to keep the starting lineup, going with Aaliyah or Nika as the 5th starter depending on who you consider the incumbent there.

What I find interesting is outside shooting at least by Uconn's high standards was a relative weakness last year, with just one shooter that really scared the opposition, just Paige. Yes Christyn, Evina and Nika could make an ok percentage of them, but stopping Paige outside and Aaliyah and Liv inside is a much higher defensive priority. A three pointer from those three is something opponents can live with.

Now everyone is very excited about adding great shooting in Azzi, Caroline and perhaps Saylor, and we are all pumped about how deep we are, but the popular starting line-up choices don't address the outside shooting at all. We have the same issue until Azzi or Caroline get into the game to replace Christyn, Evina or Nika.

Unless Azzi and Caroline reduce the minutes for some of those three substantially, the problem continues. Yes we would have good "bench" three point shooting and that helps, but for a team that expects to be great, the favored starting lineups would not address in a big way what is probably our number 1 team weakness, despite now having potential solutions on the bench.

Best fit vs. best player overall could be a factor here. I would like to see one more shooter in the starting lineup, most likely Azzi at the expense of Christyn or Evina. In Azzi's case it might be better player overall and better fit.
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You have provided a very detailed argument for your position, which I certainly appreciate. However:
  1. Have you considered the possibility that Christyn, Evina, and/or Nika could have improved their 3-point accuracy over the offseason to the point where it is at least in the high 30's (percent) range? I think that is most likely for Evina, who was hampered by injury last year. If that has occurred, then finding another 3-point shooter for the starting 5 is unnecessary.
  2. Although Azzi (based on her hyped reputation) is probably a 40% to 45% 3-point shooter over her entire college career, it seems to me quite unlikely that she will be at that level from Game 1 of her freshman year. There will be just too much of a glare of visibility/pressure on her, and unlike Paige, she is not immune to that. I expect that her freshman year shooting will be like KLS's: bad for the first 10 games or so, then pretty good for the rest of the season, but never stellar until later years.
  3. But if you are right and I am wrong about both of the above points (i.e., the returning guards are no better in their 3-point accuracy than last year, and Azzi is above 40% starting in Game 1), I still think that Geno will wait to see that be proven in competitive games before he alters the starting lineup. I think the same applies to Liv and Dorka -- even if Liv is unimproved and Dorka is an All Hungarian-American, Geno will wait until about mid-December to replace Liv with Dorka in the starting lineup.
  4. Either way, everyone named in this conversation will get significant minutes (15-20 minimum) throughout the season, as will Caroline if she is as advertised. If Aubrey now has a mid-range jump shot, she also will get those minutes; otherwise she will occupy the end of the bench until she is needed to defend a particularly fast opposing guard.
 
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I agree with the first 3 but not the 4th. I don't think Aubrey's value is one dimensional. She is a very quick rebounder, can cover not just a guard but also a 3 ( small forward) and a 4 in a pinch, gets to the line, causes and gets steals, gets junk baskets and is a solid floor player. Yes, a mid range jumper would be great and is a deficit, but even without one I don't see her at the end of the bench.
 
Huskee11 said:
A testament to the projected team depth this year is that at the time of this post, Aubrey is tenth with 1 lonely vote.

She has logged over 1,000 minutes total over the last two years and was sixth in total minutes played in 2019-2020. She also started 5 games in 2020-2021.

She is now officially flying under the radar.

This may end up being the deepest UCWBB team ever. We will see.
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I think the hesitancy of anyone to choose Aubrey as a starter goes to something Geno said about her in his presser after the SC game. I think it's her consistency, probably just waiting on a little maturity. He likes to put her in and stir things up a bit. I think she'll get there.

"Aubrey will do ten things in the first fifteen seconds she's out there. Five of them will make you think 'why'd you put her out there', and the other five will make you think "why doesn't she start and play forty minutes'."
 
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I have some reservations regarding point #3.
I believe we will see liberal substitutions on the front line- mixing and matching players early on in the season, looking for chemistry and lethality from the towers he has at his disposal.
Aaliyah, Dorka, Liv and yes, some Piath will all get switched in and out, searching for the right fit in the right situations.
These experiments will begin early on, hopefully.
 
Skeets said:
Street fight? I'm 6'2" and 200 pounds (give or take, hopefully more take than give) and I would not want Nika mad at me in a dark alley... I would have my eyeballs scratched out. UCONN needs this kind of person. Has UCONN have this kind of player since the GOAT DT?
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What was Kelly Faris. Don't recall her giving an inch.
 
If you watch YouTube videos you know there is always that one person who down votes everything. They think it is funny or cute. Of course it is not. Just makes you look stupid.
 
JonathanXIV said:
What was Kelly Faris. Don't recall her giving an inch.
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I see your point. Kelly was tough, focused, and intense. I never though of her as a street fighter, but yeah, you could describe her that way. I would not be surprised if Nika let some choice Croatian words fly during the heat of battle. I don't think Kelly would do that, I don't believe she speaks Croatian :)

Or DT punching the basketball up right because she wanted to "hit something orange". I don't see Kelly doing something like that.
 
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I went with the consensus top four and plugged Nika in over AE because I think that's what will happen. If it were up to me I'd start AE every game until she proves she doesn't deserve it.

This is a year when there are more than five who would be legitimate starters. Who starts doesn't mean much, particularly early season. By mid-January we'll know which rotations work best, which of the freshmen are a better option than some of the older players, and which players have made the on court case that they simply have to be in the top 8 to 10.

If we have the depth we seem to, it will be hard to go wrong with any number of starting fives.
 
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Interesting- according to the top vote getters, UCONN Nation wants to stick with a four guard starting team.
Not my pick with all of the height Geno has amassed.
Maybe so, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing a “super sized” front line sometime in the first quarter.
(Dorka WILL be getting major minutes)
 
Aaliyah and Olivia are in the top 5 vote getters which one will be plaYing guard
 
Just curious. Paige has 259 votes which translates to 99.6% of the voters putting her in the starting 5. Obviously .4% of the voters think otherwise. I'd love to read why they voted that way.
 
Zanzman said:
Aaliyah and Olivia are in the top 5 vote getters which one will be plaYing guard
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You are correct that Aaliyah (clearly not a guard) is 5th in the voting and beat out Nika by a pretty close margin. On the other hand If you add Azzi's votes to Nika (guards) and combine Dorka with Aaliyah (bigs) the Boneyard appears to be near evenly split on whether that 5th starter should be a big or a guard.

I am for Aaliyah here, but clearly this has been and continues to be one of our most hotly debated issues.
 
i'd be fine seeing how both nika and liya do the job, and letting evina sit to see how it works out ... evina's mature enough to accept coming off the bench. she knows she's plenty good enough to start but she also should know that taking the bench to start may in fact benefit the team the most. kinda like bria did a few years ago.
 
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oldhuskie said:
You are correct that Aaliyah (clearly not a guard) is 5th in the voting and beat out Nika by a pretty close margin. On the other hand If you add Azzi's votes to Nika (guards) and combine Dorka with Aaliyah (bigs) the Boneyard appears to be near evenly split on whether that 5th starter should be a big or a guard.

I am for Aaliyah here, but clearly this has been and continues to be one of our most hotly debated issues.
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In the final analysis, I believe Aaliyah will prove to be an all time great Husky.
In the meantime, I think that Dorka is going to force a tough decision.
Such problems...
 
Eagle4 said:
Azzi and Dorka will have a MUCH greater impact on the team than the BY voters seem to be saying. Maybe another way of saying it matters much more who is on the floor at the end of close games than who starts.
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If you are right (and you might well be), then they will replace Liv and (???) in the starting lineup after enough games to demonstrate the fact, but not in Game 1. Geno is not going to pull seniors out of the starting lineup until younger players demonstrate in games (not just practices) that they will play consistently better.

But the difficulty is that (I think) Geno will go with a 3-guard, 2-big lineup. If he does that, I have trouble seeing him benching any of [Paige, Christyn, Evina] unless they clearly play badly over the course of several games, which I do not foresee. I think all of them have shown enough productivity that they will not lose their starting job to a freshman even if she is really good. But if Azzi is that good, she will get 20-25 minutes off the bench, as Bria Hartley did in her freshman year.

But Geno will be quick to pull the trigger if he sees any lapse in effort or defensive performance. He demonstrated that when an overtime loss to Stanford was enough to make him pull Kiah Stokes and Saniya Chong out of the starting lineup, and replace them with Morgan Tuck and freshman Kia Nurse. That was after only 2 games in that season. Morgan and Kia held their starting jobs for the rest of that season, and indeed for subsequent seasons.
 
very surrpised of the 5 starters Evina got the lowest votes, I thought Olivia for sure would have gotten less. I voted Olivia tho, I think some ppl been too hard on her for one game.
 
Stymie said:
I chose both Liv and Dorka.
Time for the big front line era to begin.
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Suspect in practice, Aaliyah has the ability to dominate Dorka. Too strong. Too quick. Geno not likely to ignore what he sees every day.
 
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