And his "I just want to be liked" personality was just antithetical to someone nicknamed "The Black Mamba". Kobe didn't even try to relate to his teammates until his final two years in the league.
Oh yeah, forgot about the transfer year. Dean will be a senior next season. So yeah, UCLA will be in sore need of a competent point guard after next season.
I going to take much grief for saying this and it will never happen in a million years considering the history but,... of all the transfers, especially those that are immediately eligible to play Sierra Calhoun would make an excellent addition to this year's UCONN roster. It is a win win for both sides. UCONN has minutes available at 2/3 instead of having to rely on a freshmen or unproven sophomores. In one year at UCONN Calhoun can become more pro ready that in her combined 4 years at the Ohio State & Duke.
"instead of having to rely on a freshmen or unproven sophomores"
While the thought of adding a veteran player to the roster is always appealing, this one doesn't work for many reasons. Calhoun played for a team that played questionable defense. She shot less than 40% from the floor with an A/TO ratio right around 1. Beyond that, she would have to learn UConn's system on the fly, and every minute that Calhoun played would be a minute that MW, CW, Mikayla and/or Lexi sat on the bench. If Calhoun doesn't work out, or even if she does, you've sent the wrong message to players who you recruited who will be at UConn for another 3-4 seasons.
Strongly disagree with the "wrong message" part of that equation. Danni Williams (a very comparable player to Calhoun) & also a transfer visited UCONN before deciding to go elsewhere. If the wrong message was being sent UCONN would never get anywhere in recruiting because every time a recruit stepped on campus we would be worried about the "development" of some existing players. Early in the season Geno stated that we need additional contributions from the guards, Danni Williams could have provided it, Christyn Williams could provide it or Calhoun can or members of the existing team can step up and provide it.
Obviously, we don't know all the details of Williams' visit to UConn and whether or not she got an offer. All that I do know is that she appeared to tagalong with Howard, as they were supposedly hoping to present some type of package deal. Quite a difference between Williams and Calhoun. Williams is a much better defensive player, better shooter and dished out almost twice as many assists as Calhoun. Even at that, I'm not in favor of "one and dones" unless their is a critical need.
I am holding out a slight bit of hope that if things don't work out for Anriel Howard with Miss. State or South Carolina, that Texas could be her landing spot. We didn't have an open 'ship for her until just last week. With Danni Williams signing with Texas, perhaps that is something for Howard to take into account. Plus, Texas has now lost 3 power forwards in the offseason (Rellah Boothe, Khaleann Caron-Goudreau, and Jordan Hosey). So, she'd be competing with Joyner Holmes and Charli Collier for minutes.
Boothe & Goudreau were not necessarily surprises, or major losses imo, but losing Hosey hurts. Once Howard finishes her summer classes and presumably earns her degree at A&M, it will be interesting to see where she ends up.
Again I disagree with almost all aspects of this. First I don't think it fair to characterize Williams' visit to UCONN as any part of a "package" deal because UCONN was the only place where both players visited together and Danni has already committed to a school and Howard is still TBD.
We’ll just have to disagree on who the better player is. But you are missing my primary point. Neither Williams or Calhoun fill a critical need at UConn. Their primary roles at A&M & tOSU were catch and shoot 2 guards to spread the floor for Carter & Mitchell respectively.
Never said who was the better player, the word I used was comparable. Geno is a very busy man, no UCONN need would mean no Williams visit. The roles that Williams or Calhoun played at tOSU and Texas A&M will be far different that the roles they would play at UCONN. Jessica Shepard played a far different role at ND than she did at Nebraska and parlayed that into a Championship. Dawn Staley got Kaela Davis to play brilliant stretches of defense & enough to win another championship.
C’mon Cocoa. The season was over. Geno had a skip a tee time at the Club on Saturday to spend a couple hrs meeting with 2 young ladies who were doing some window shopping for a new team. The same thing he does with countless HS players who he never offers.
Personally, I’ll play the cards in my hand before I go after a “one & done” that came out of programs respectively where one player dominated the ball on offense and it’s questionable whether either player could learn fast enough to become a contributor at UConn.