You are right in one sense. JuJu is better at somehow having the entire focus of the team (including the coach) revolving around getting her (JuJu) the ball! (Now I will not blame JuJu exclusively for this as the coach clearly encouraged it but it does speak to her character (or at the very least, her basketball IQ) that she did not say something about including her teammates more) I wonder what Paige would have averaged if the entire team was told by Geno to “Just get the ball to Paige!” and actually practiced that?
You must be joking! Paige is a better shooter (from all levels) their respective passing abilities cannot even be compared, Paige’s efficiency completely dwarfs JuJu’s, Paige has a much higher basketball IQ, and (it must be said, Paige would never play in a system that essentially debased everyone else in order to make her look good!) Why do you think Heckel and Howell transferred? I won’t even address the Clark statement as it is self evidently ludicrous! Yes, JuJu is very good, especially when the entire focus of the team is to help her score!
Paige- 3pt-42.3% 4.5 attempts JuJu-32.2% 6 attempts
Paige- FG-53.1% 14.2 attempts JuJu- 41.2% 20.3 attempts
Paige- Assists-4.5 JuJu-3.4
(Remember, Paige rarely played exclusively at the point or her assist #s would be much higher) My point being that Paige could play the point!
Paige-Rbds 4.7, FTs 85%, TOs 1.7, Fouls 1.3, Stls 2.1, Blks .8
JuJu- Rbds 7, FTs 83.6%, TOs 3.7, Fouls 2.4, Stls 2.2, Blks 1.7
Paige is clearly the better player!, not based merely on the numbers but more so in how she played the game and led her team. Again, the Clark statement doesn’t even deserve a response. I’m not going to list her numbers as well but suffice it to say, her (Clark’s) numbers are almost all better as well. Finally, JuJu is definitely not chopped liver but until she changes her “score at all costs” mentality, or stops listening to people who are pushing her to play that way, she will never be more than a great (volume) scorer. It’s really a shame because she could be so much better than she currently is.
If you doubt the individual over the team aspect of her game, go back and watch the play where she suffered her injury. She had a teammate running free to the basket and rather than passing it to her, she (JuJu) put her head down and tried to bull her way to the basket. I don’t want to turn this into a Geno thing but it is inconceivable that any UConn player would have failed to make that pass! That goes for virtually all well coached teams as well. Can you even imagine Dee, Maya, Stewie, Paige, Sue not making that pass?
