yup.
And thanks so much, blakeon18; I almost left early myself, as I had “misunderestimated” the time of practice and held up our family dinner. Gotta say, it was worth the grief!
Last bits, somewhat randomly.
Geno talked to us about who gets to shoot. The 2 extremes of getting open: the best get open and the worst shooters get open because the defense lets them shoots. The best get the most shots, and he said the player who shot most in all UConn history was Maya. He then mentioned Sue, and whole range of UConn immortals. Funny, he never mentioned D.
Geno made a really interesting point about defense and the difference between the men’s and women’s game. When trapping in the corner, the offside guard of course slides down to protect against a skip pass. But that’s much easier to defend against in the men’s game, because male guards are just a lot taller. It made me appreciate that height is not normalized by gender (it doesn’t matter if women are smaller, because they’re all smaller together), but rather that there are some ways that size by gender does change the game. (We all know of course about dunking, by this was a lot more subtle.)
Geno’s very, very high on next year’s UConn recruits. But he doesn’t think this year’s high school junior class is generally as strong as the sophomore class, which he’s also very excited by.
It’s funny to see them in gym clothes and under a bit different lighting. Kia looks a bit more slight, and Pheesa and Lou a bit broader, at least to my old eyes. Batouly continued to impress me physically and in every way. To me, now that she’s pretty much recovered, she’s the question mark for this team, as it contemplates defending bigs. Maybe there are subtler things about her play that keep her from getting more minutes. You know I’m a Meg fan-boy, and I just loved being so close to the action and watching her move so gracefully.
The players and the coaches were very grateful for us being there. The cheerleader for expressing that gratitude, of course, was the irrepressible Kia. Does anyone have as many endorphins as she? And Geno gave her a big shout out by comparing the freshmen who aren’t even yet used to the intensity of the practices to Kia, who is always running full out.
Geno seemed to say contradictory things (or maybe I just processed what he said that way) about the Louisville game. On one hand, he seemed to suggest that after that incredible first quarter, UConn played the game the way it wanted; on the other, he said that UConn was hurt in the 2nd half by Pheesa’s and Crystal’s poor shot selection.
Geno said what we all know: that since Stewie’s graduation, UConn’s defense has really suffered by not having a rim-protector. He says he loves Z, but before she blocks a shot, she asks the shooter if the shooter minds if she blocks the shot. Theme of kids being too nice.
But generally, he’s very, very proud of this team. He believes they play a style of basketball that is unique and it’s clear how much he likes the players themselves.
Wrapping this up with a couple of observations:
Like all of us as we go through life, Geno changes. He seems much more mellow and philosophical and less urgent than he appeared at least in the media earlier in life. He seems more kindly disposed to his players personally even while criticizing generally the way our evolving society has conditioned them to be less intense. I’m inherently skeptical about the idea of “What’s the Matter with Kids Today” (after all, Bye Bye Birdie was 2 full generations ago). Certainly athletes and athletics are evolving, but so are Geno and CD, and maybe they’re a little less intense, a little less desperate for a title, and so aren’t motivating these players quite as much to be as urgent. This is certainly no criticism: all things flow, said Heraclitus (or at least it’s attributed to him).
On the other hand, practice began at 2:00—but that’s the practice we saw. I gather they may have been watching film before they came out on the court. And it ended at 5:00, at which point Geno came over and spent 30 minutes with us. Around 4:45, I got to thinking. It’s a late Friday afternoon in mid-February. All the biggest games before Albany have been played. Can there be a more obvious moment for everyone to just fade out? But no, Geno’s still teaching hard and the kids are still listening intently and learning. As a teacher myself, I find this just extraordinary. It’s a testament to an amazing coaching staff, very careful recruiting, and their capacity to create a mutually supporting and energizing community. Really and seriously, that is about as impressive as anything I’ve seen in 40+ years in the academy.
Over and out.
