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Message: [QUOTE="hoophuskee, post: 2490132, member: 3535"] But you did list Stanford as a big game and used those stats to sort of downplay Nurse. And looking back at last year of Stanford or Oklahoma etc imo is irrelevant. Is Stanford a big game this year? And the answer is no. I didn't look at the polls (do the polls show Stanford at 6-6?) - I looked at ncaa rpi and Sagarin - and I glanced at Massey. Stanford is rating in the 30's while California was rated higher. So I was just asking "why Stanford?" - when I believe they have no business this year being considered a big game for our discussion purposes. You mentioned California but used the Stanford stats to downplay Nurse. Further I included Oklahoma because so far they were the 3rd closest maybe even 2nd closest in terms of being close in the 2nd half. IMO that makes them much, much, much more relevant than Stanford. I'd think in evaluating player's it is far more important to see how they did when a game was close vs a 35 halftime blowout. Because you want me to look back at last year to determine if this year is a big game -- then you would never "after-the-fact" consider saying the Tulane game which UCONN won last year "as a big game" while using those stats to define a player "in big games?" IMO last year for example the Tulane game was big. We'd want to see who can perform in the clutch while also exposing a flaw or two. When it comes to evaluating a player-- when you are up 35 at halftime with a team that is nothing more than a 6-6 team, you're not a "[B]big game team by any means[/B]." There si no pressure on the palyers. All we learned in that game was UCONN Team was far superior and Stanford was lousy. While you want to give big kudos for Og what she did in Overtime vs Marquette- I'd be interested to know why 1-- the ball didn't see Shepard more. And 2-- WHy was she was 4-14 from the floor vs a a team which is far superior to Marquette? Taking bad shots or missing wide open ones or something else? But going 4-14 in a close game leading into Ovt in which she is the best player and her team is far superior- I wouldn't go give her a lot of Kudos in this game. It's not like I'm not giving her credit. But this game shouldn't have reached overtime. I have her as an all-american though. She would be in my 2nd grouping at this moment. I'm interested to see her future matchups with Durr. The reason why I get into this -- is that I disagree with you and others is that all I see is that you must look at one-on-one as a priority vs efficiency. Am I wrong? Otherwise what else relevant is Og vs Nurse when you consider Nurse is averaging 16 and outplayed Og head to head-to-head? The efficiency from Nurse is "out-of-this world" and she is scoring. An secondly you arent' giving Nurse imo anything near the credit she deserves vs Oklahoma. On this site there were some UCONN fans that last year didn't seem to appreciate Lou's ability to shoot. And over and over I read many compare players using fg% and not efg% or some other variant. FG% is flawed if you are comparing players that also shoot 3's. One can always google efg calculator and see. So it's not hard. My point is -- efficiency is important. Winning and outplaying another player head-to-head is important. Because a player can go one-on-one better doesn't make them better. When Beard and DT came out college, quite a few thought Beard was better and would be the better pro. IMO this one-on-one is superior-- it's flawed thinking unless you prove to be unstoppable. Bill Russell once said how they'd defend Wilt was throughout the game they'd guard Wilt a bit loose so he'd take many of the shots. Late int he game they'd guard him much tighter and force him to pass. His teammates though were out-of-rhythm. When Don Nelson was a good coach early on with the Bucks there was an article in which he stated something similar. Nelson gave an example of his coaching style = though he never gave the opposing player's name but said in 1st qtr they wouldn't guard him very tough. Each qtr they would subsequently guard him tougher. By the the 4ht qtr he would say that player would never give up the ball even if you threw multiple players at him. Just because Og can go better one-on-one -- doesn't maker her better. I'd like to know why Shepard and the other ND bigs didn't get more touches vs Marquette. [/QUOTE]

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