Traffic Jam For Playing Time Next Year

[JoePgh]

I realize that it's a little too early to fret about next year, and I also appreciate that the problem noted here is a classic "good problem to have". But it still seems like a BIG problem.

Next year UConn will have (by my count) no less than 11 players capable of making an impact, possibly all at a "near-All-American" level. It's also true that they are spread nicely by position:

"Bigs" (4 and 5 players): Butler, Stewart, Tuck, Collier, Boykin
Wings: Samuelson, Williams, Ekmark
Guards: Jefferson, Nurse, Chong

And it's true that several of these players are flexible as to their position -- Stewie can be a 3 or 4; Williams can be a 1, 2, or 3 (probably); Samuelson can be a 2, 3, or 4; Ekmark can possibly be a 2 or a 3.

Despite all this, how can Geno possibly give all of them a reasonable amount of playing time in competitive games, or in the first half in other games so that they are not just playing in garbage time?

If you assume that Stewie will get 30 minutes and Morgan will get 25 minutes in a competitive game, that leaves 145 minutes for 9 other players -- an average of 16 minutes per player. Is that really enough for marquee freshmen such as KLS or Napheesa? Or for Moriah or Kia Nurse? Or for Gabby Williams? Or for Natalie Butler (who may have to play more than that against opponents with good size)?

I'm sure Geno will figure it out (or injuries or other issues may solve the problem on their own -- hopefully that will not be the case). But I'm not sure he has ever had to deal with that much talent on one team, even in 2000 or 2001.

 

[AboutWeston]

Perhaps the plan is to sell tickets to practice sessions?

 

[sarals24]

Where are you getting Williams as a 1,2 or 3? She has played primarily 3 or 4 this year, and Geno doesn't sound too high on her guard skills.

I'm sure it will be similar to other years. Geno will get in the freshmen when he can, but he's not going to take minutes from Stewart, Tuck, Jefferson or Nurse to do it. Nor should he.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I think Geno will have amazing versatility. Look for Morgan and De'Janae to play some back-up center to Natalie. Look for Lou to play some shooting guard. A big lineup of Butler, Stewie, Tuck, Lou, and Nurse could be outstanding. Or an athletic lineup of Stewie, Collier, Gabby, Nurse, and Moriah. Oh my!

We will have at least 3 HS All-Americans on the floor in garbage time. Yikes!

 

[j66kicker]

I think Geno will have amazing versatility. Look for Morgan and De'Janae to play some back-up center to Natalie. Look for Lou to play some shooting guard. A big lineup of Butler, Stewie, Tuck, Lou, and Nurse could be outstanding. Or an athletic lineup of Stewie, Collier, Gabby, Nurse, and Moriah. Oh my!

We will have at least 3 HS All-Americans on the floor in garbage time. Yikes!

After seeing KLS play the other night, I'd be surprised if she played any guard in college. Tall & lanky. Quick, but not in a 'wiry quick' guard way. Seeing her again tonight. ??

 

[Boreifs]

I believe Collier is a wing, not a post.

 

[HGN]

I don't think this is a problem at all.........Sure , all players want to play. But realistically a coach , any coach , can only put 5 players on the court at a time. Players come to UConn to play for The Best and to be The Best. And , by statistics and history , to have The Best chance at winning a National Championship. I believe that is why Geno and his staff only recruit a certain type of player. Sure they want the Best players , who doesn't , but they want the Best , right type of player , with the right type of attitude. One that concentrates on the Team goal , and not just a individual goal.

Uconn is in an enviable position that everybody would love to be in. To have quality depth. Unselfish AA depth if possible. Team Oriented with one goal in mind, to win a National Championship. Not to log heavy minutes and lose. I am sure , and Geno has proven , that when a player proves in practice that they deserve minutes in the game they get minutes. Quality minutes.

And having quality depth is a must if you want to win a NC. Injuries and illnesses happen....... NC robbing injuries. So having good quality , starter potential depth , is a must if winning a NC is the goal.

And winning National Championships seemingly is Geno's goal..... Every year.
And every year that he has won a NC (9 times) he has had potential starters sitting on the bench.... I don't see that next year will be any different.

 

[meyers7]

I realize that it's a little too early to fret about next year, and I also appreciate that the problem noted here is a classic "good problem to have". But it still seems like a BIG problem.

Not at all worried. As a fan, it's not our problem. If it ends up being a problem for Geno, then good. He gets paid the big bucks. I'd much rather him have this problem than be short. In fact I'd love him to have this problem EVERY year. Heck I'd love for him to have it ONE year.

I'm sure Geno will figure it out (or injuries or other issues may solve the problem on their own -- hopefully that will not be the case).

It will be the case though. We have injuries every single year. Some major, some minor. Players transfer (in and out). Coming into this year some people where all worried how we were gonna get time for all the guards. We now (right now) have 3 guards for 2 spots and have to move KML over to take some of the minutes. We haven't been really stacked numbers wise since 2000-2001. Geno didn't seem to have that much trouble cycling people in and out then. But even that year we ended up losing JMoore to R/S, Ralph, Abrosimova, Walters, and Battle to injuries.

I don't think we are ever gonna have a BIG problem with too many good players.

But I'm not sure he has ever had to deal with that much talent on one team, even in 2000 or 2001.

There was a ton of talent on that 2000-2001 team. I believe ;
10 HS AA's (Ralph, Bird, Williams, Jones, Cash, Walters, KJ, DT, Battle, MValley).
5 AA's (Ralph, Abrosimova, Bird, Cash, DT)
2 NPOY's (Bird, DT)
5 Olympians (Bird, Cash, Jones, DT, Abrosimova)
9 WNBA players (Abrosimova, Schumacher, Bird, Williams, Cash, Jones, DT, Battle, JMoore) (and Ralph was drafted but blew out her knee, again)

 

[Zorro]

How can Gabby play the point if she can't dribble, pass or shoot?

 

[Vowelguy]

People said that playing time was going to be a problem this year and that we were really deep.
Not so much.

There will be 3 frosh whose minutes will be limited by their ability to pick up the system.
And having some depth will be a nice change from recent years.

 

[ochoopsfan]

Never know when another guard/wing may show up on that list.

 

[Tonyc]

It not hard to figure out. When UConn needs to open things up they put in the shooters, when they need rebounding they put in rebounders. Some games some will play more minutes then others and some games others with play more minutes then others based on the teams needs. Don't try to figure out minutes per game because it will vary. The freshman will need time and will be worked in. Against top teams if UConn is up a lot they might get more playtime if UConn is in a close game they may not get a lot of minutes. During conference games most everybody will get good minutes.

 

[itsasport]

What if they play each conference team just once and play UConn vs UConn scrimmage games. It would be very interesting to see how they play each other. And the games would be better than most WCBB games.

 

[Aluminny69]

Nice distribution of minutes:

## SUMMARY GP-GS Min FG% 3PT% FT% R/G A/G STL BLK PTS/G
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
25 Abrosimova, Svetlana 19-19 24.5 .538 .448 .707 6.5 4.1 54 0 14.1
32 Cash, Swin.......... 35-33 23.8 .555 .000 .592 7.5 1.5 33 34 12.2
03 Taurasi, Diana...... 33-14 24.0 .444 .386 .878 3.2 3.3 39 29 10.9
10 Bird, Sue........... 34-34 27.7 .443 .432 .778 2.6 5.0 63 4 10.9
34 Williams, Tamika.... 33-3 19.9 .759 .000 .619 5.6 0.8 45 7 9.8
33 Ralph, Shea......... 30-30 23.7 .519 .333 .806 4.0 4.1 53 3 9.7
15 Jones, Asjha........ 35-23 19.5 .440 .250 .603 5.4 1.4 32 38 8.7
11 Schumacher, Kelly... 29-14 16.9 .524 .222 .769 4.3 1.0 11 41 6.3
23 Johnson, Kennitra... 34-3 17.9 .418 .323 .667 1.4 1.9 55 6 5.7
22 Battle, Ashley...... 5-0 10.4 .692 .000 .375 2.8 1.4 9 0 4.2
05 Conlon, Maria....... 23-0 7.1 .426 .422 .632 0.8 0.6 11 3 3.6
44 Rigby, Christine.... 25-1 6.1 .617 .000 .800 1.3 0.3 1 4 3.3
20 Valley, Morgan...... 29-0 10.3 .393 .385 .857 1.9 0.8 18 4 3.0
13 Czel, Marci......... 27-1 5.7 .333 .429 1.000 0.3 0.4 10 0 1.6
Total............... 35 .499 .385 .687 43.9 21.7 434 173 86.7
Opponents........... 35 .343 .270 .664 32.7 11.0 249 78 54.9

Sorry, don't know how to format this, but sue Bird led the team with 27.7 minutes per game, 10 players averaged 10 minutes or more per game.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

There will be 3 frosh whose minutes will be limited by their ability to pick up the system.

Being a frosh hasn't lessened Nurse's minutes. She's getting buckets of them. Williams is picking up more and more too. Collier and KLS are 25-minute players IMO, so how this will work out is anyone's guess.

As for the 2000 team and its distribution of minutes, that was a rare feat but not likely to be repeated. Not much chance Stewart or Jefferson have their minutes (30) cut as seniors. If Tuck is healthy Geno will want her out there often. And you'd have to drag Nurse off the floor. On paper you have an 11-player squad and minutes for maybe 8 of them.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Being a frosh hasn't lessened Nurse's minutes. She's getting buckets of them. Williams is picking up more and more too. Collier and KLS are 25-minute players IMO, so how this will work out is anyone's guess.

As for the 2000 team and its distribution of minutes, that was a rare feat but not likely to be repeated. Not much chance Stewart or Jefferson have their minutes (30) cut as seniors. If Tuck is healthy Geno will want her out there often. And you'd have to drag Nurse off the floor. On paper you have an 11-player squad and minutes for maybe 8 of them.

I really don't see any reason that Stewart or Jefferson NEED to get over 30 minutes. It's not about what they want but what the team needs. If there is need to give some deserving kid some minutes out on the floor to keep them ready for contingency situations, then so be it. The idea that Sue had ONLY 27 minutes a game and all the other quality players on that team (Geno's best, it is said) had less suggests that it isn't some kind of horrific situation that players like MoJeff and Stewie could possible end up with less than 30. The same goes for Tuck. We're losing a couple of exceptional players this year and we're having 3 come in. Are all three going to be primed and ready to undertake a whole bunch of minutes. That's surely questionable. I don't think it'll be a major problem and if we were to have a devastating injury (hopefully not), than our depth would be a major plus. Why are we making something an issue when I doubt it's any issue with Geno & company?

 

[Sluconn Husky]

I really don't see any reason that Stewart or Jefferson NEED to get over 30 minutes. It's not about what they want but what the team needs. If there is need to give some deserving kid some minutes out on the floor to keep them ready for contingency situations, then so be it.

We heard this before with this same topic yet Stewart and KML are averaging 31/game and Nurse 29 as a starter. Jefferson's minutes are actually down a bit. I'll be surprised if they don't approach last year's eventually.

 

[bballnut90]

I realize that it's a little too early to fret about next year, and I also appreciate that the problem noted here is a classic "good problem to have". But it still seems like a BIG problem.

Next year UConn will have (by my count) no less than 11 players capable of making an impact, possibly all at a "near-All-American" level. It's also true that they are spread nicely by position:

"Bigs" (4 and 5 players): Butler, Stewart, Tuck, Collier, Boykin
Wings: Samuelson, Williams, Ekmark
Guards: Jefferson, Nurse, Chong

And it's true that several of these players are flexible as to their position -- Stewie can be a 3 or 4; Williams can be a 1, 2, or 3 (probably); Samuelson can be a 2, 3, or 4; Ekmark can possibly be a 2 or a 3.

Despite all this, how can Geno possibly give all of them a reasonable amount of playing time in competitive games, or in the first half in other games so that they are not just playing in garbage time?

If you assume that Stewie will get 30 minutes and Morgan will get 25 minutes in a competitive game, that leaves 145 minutes for 9 other players -- an average of 16 minutes per player. Is that really enough for marquee freshmen such as KLS or Napheesa? Or for Moriah or Kia Nurse? Or for Gabby Williams? Or for Natalie Butler (who may have to play more than that against opponents with good size)?

I'm sure Geno will figure it out (or injuries or other issues may solve the problem on their own -- hopefully that will not be the case). But I'm not sure he has ever had to deal with that much talent on one team, even in 2000 or 2001.

Lots of depth for UCONN. A lot can change die to injuries/transfers/players improving, etc. but as of right now, my guess is it will shake out like this:

Starters:
Stewart
Tuck
Samuelson
Nurse
Jefferson

Bench Rotation Players:
Collier
Butler or Williams
Chong

Limited minutes in big games:
Williams or Butler
Jenkins
Ekmark

Uconn returns 4 starters and KLS should smoothly fit in to the void that KML leaves. Collier sounds like a stud, and Chong is needed for backup minutes at guard positions. Butler and Williams are toss up players for me. Butler had a great freshman season in a very mediocre program, I don't know see her displacing Tuck, Stewart, or KLS from the starting 5 and I don't know if she can beat out Williams for minutes in the post, as Williams is a much better athlete and should be improved as she heals and develops into a strong forward.

I think Jenkins will see limited minutes her first year, and I don't think Ekmark is quick enough to take minutes from Chong, Jefferson or Nurse. My guess for how it'll shake out if everyone is healthy.

 

[huskeynut]

Lots of depth for UCONN. A lot can change die to injuries/transfers/players improving, etc. but as of right now, my guess is it will shake out like this:

Starters:
Stewart
Tuck
Samuelson
Nurse
Jefferson

Bench Rotation Players:
Collier
Butler or Williams
Chong

Limited minutes in big games:
Williams or Butler
Jenkins
Ekmark

Uconn returns 4 starters and KLS should smoothly fit in to the void that KML leaves. Collier sounds like a stud, and Chong is needed for backup minutes at guard positions. Butler and Williams are toss up players for me. Butler had a great freshman season in a very mediocre program, I don't know see her displacing Tuck, Stewart, or KLS from the starting 5 and I don't know if she can beat out Williams for minutes in the post, as Williams is a much better athlete and should be improved as she heals and develops into a strong forward.

I think Jenkins will see limited minutes her first year, and I don't think Ekmark is quick enough to take minutes from Chong, Jefferson or Nurse. My guess for how it'll shake out if everyone is healthy.

I'm going to disagree some. Butler will start, not Samuelson. Butler is a needed post presence and the word is she is working hard, she can run the floor and is learning the system. Samuelson will get minutes no doubt.

 

[meyers7]

I think Jenkins will see limited minutes her first year,

Boykins? There is no Jenkins.

By the way, here's a Traffic Jam for you.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

How can Gabby play the point if she can't dribble, pass or shoot?

She can transfer to Tenn! One served up like that has to be swung at....

 

[Vowelguy]

We heard this before with this same topic yet Stewart and KML are averaging 31/game and Nurse 29 as a starter. Jefferson's minutes are actually down a bit. I'll be surprised if they don't approach last year's eventually.

Stewart could be down to high 20s if there were more good players.

 

[Wbbfan1]

I'm going to presume that Natalie Butler is talented enough and has learned the offense to be able to start from day one. She'll have a year learning and playing Geno's system at a more grueling pace then most games UConn will play this year.

If that's the case, IMHO the starters are Butler at the post, Tuck at PF, Stewart at wing, Kia at SG and Moriah at PG.

Playing Tuck at PF and Stewart at wing, plays them at their Natural position and where they'll play at the next level.

Gabby will be given off season workout routines to enable her move back to her more natural position of SG. If she doesn't have the ball handling skills to play guard, then she'll stay a forward/wing and compete for minutes with Samuelson, Boykin and Collier. Not sure what happens with Courtney Ekmark as we need to see more of her play this year.

When Geno can, I can see a lineup of Boykin at Post, Collier at PF, Samuelson at Wing, Gabby and Saniya at guard playing extensive minutes during blowouts. Will have to consider Courtney in the mix as well.

 

[Vowelguy]

Being a frosh hasn't lessened Nurse's minutes. She's getting buckets of them. Williams is picking up more and more too. Collier and KLS are 25-minute players IMO, so how this will work out is anyone's guess.
.

I said contingent. Some players get going faster, others don't (witness tuck and MoJeff In their frosh years). And then there's necessity. Nurse HAS to play.
Gabby is also needed given the thin front line. But she has been brought along deliberately. Again with more depth, she probably would be coming along a bit more slowly.

 

[Bayareahusky]

Not at all worried about this..... If they play well in practice, they will see playing time in the games..... if all show well in practice, then they can split time...... "In Geno We Trust!!"