the most wise and learned Carnac never errs--he was just testing the alertness of his unworthy followers.
U19 World Championship Gold Medal Game 2:30 USA vs Australia
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Azzi will be fine. 3 games in 3 days. She played a lot of minutes and actually played defense. she is an excellent all around player. There is a reason Coach Close kept her on the court despite not shooting well. Some of the guards did her no favors in not giving her the ball when she was open. This led to pressing when you don’t know when you’ll get your next shot. You could tell she was uncomfortable with the ball yesterday. She took ten shots yesterday and not one of them was bad compared to the other guards, but several were bad for her normal shot selection.
bbsamjj
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Both PaoPao and Diamond Johnson had excellent freshmen years as guards at Oregon and RU respectively. They got overshadowed by Paige and Clark, but they were top 15 recruits who lived up to the hype.
Sakibomb25
Yamasaki Let the Good Times Roll
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It's my hope that Mendelson just concentrates on volleyball - she's the No. 2 player in her class and I think her ceiling is higher for volleyball. And it's my hope that she of course chooses Stanford
Sakibomb25
Yamasaki Let the Good Times Roll
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Azzi will be fine. She won't be the second coming of Bueckers... because she's not Bueckers. She'll be one of UConn's top players, whether as a starter or a bench player. Auriemma will know what to do with her talents to maximize her gifts. People have to understand these championships are glorified All-Star games - not a true indication of how they will perform at the next level. Sure, you can make some assumptions, but you shouldn't ever write-off a player based on their performance.
Case in point, Cameron Brink came off the bench and wasn't particularly outstanding during her time on the court when she played for the youth teams. And yet she was outstanding for Stanford as a freshman. Azzi will be fine.
Case in point, Cameron Brink came off the bench and wasn't particularly outstanding during her time on the court when she played for the youth teams. And yet she was outstanding for Stanford as a freshman. Azzi will be fine.
SVCBeercats
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My opinion has little to do with her performance in the FIBA U18 championship. UCONN has had three transcendent players; "D", Maya, and Stewie. Paige is looking very much like #4. Three more years will tell the tale. The probability of back to back transcendent players is very low. True there have been excellent pairs Sue & "D", Maya and Tina, etc. Which players had freshmen seasons like Paige? Maya! Stewie struggled but rallied in the NCAAs. "D" was very good as a freshman but not like Paige and Maya. Being the #1 high school player doesn't mean anything in college even if it happens as a sophomore. CW and Meg were #1 in high school but not amazing in college, very good at times but no Wunderkinds. Azzi will be a very good player. However, I think Caroline Ducharme will also be a very good player. Both may have similar average playing times as freshmen.
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SVCBeercats
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Yes, she will be fine but some folks seem to believe in Azzi UCONN will have another Paige. I just believe back to back Wunderkinds is highly improbable. A very good player? Yes!
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The announcers for the game were very good. They concentrated on what was actually going on in the game (very refreshing).
They said that defense won the game for the USA, and gave Fudd most of the credit because she shut down the Aussies primary scorer. Fudd also sent good passes inside.
One bad shooting night means nothing, She has a beautiful shot. She did not take one bad shot, which cannot be said for other players.
She is an incredibly smooth player on offense and defense.
She will end up, at least, as the equal to Paige and in the top tier of players to wear the Husky uniform.
JoePgh
Cranky pants and wise acre
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Thanks very much for posting a link to this game. I just finished watching the whole thing. Since Amari didn't play, I mainly focused on Azzi's performance.
From a shooting standpoint, it was definitely a "lowlight reel" game for her. She hit two shots in the entire game, despite playing mucho minutes. One of her baskets was a putback of her own 3-point miss, and the other was a 3-pointer with about 15 seconds left, after the game had been decided -- i believe it was the last shot of the game. In between were a bunch of misses, mostly of 10-foot pullup attempts. I agree that she didn't take any bad shots, and hopefully she would hit more of these shots on most nights. But generally it was like watching Olivia in the Arizona game, but fortunately without a similar bad result.
The announcers were very informed (two Aussie ladies), and as noted, they gave her credit for her defense against Jade Melbourne, who is normally Australia's leading scorer but who was held to 7 points in this game. I guess that Cori Close agreed -- I can't figure out any other reason why she gave Azzi so many minutes when she clearly couldn't hit the side of a barn. But her "floor game" was very unselfish and very good.
The game was much closer, especially in the first half, than you might think from the final score or the box score. The teams were tied at 26 very late in the first half, and then the US started to pull away. It was mainly on 3-point shooting from guards other than Azzi, and total control of the boards at both ends. Lauren Betts is for real, and so is Sonia Citron.
I haven't seen the box score, but I think the teams' shooting percentages were similar (not very good for either team), but the US dominated in shot attempts due to their offensive rebounding.
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Yes, Fudd isn't the second coming of Bueckers, she's the second coming of Moore, a little smaller but a better shooter coming in. I remember reading posts somewhere in 2007 or so that Moore was overhyped and would have trouble adjusting to college because she played mostly inside in HS and had shown no outside shot. She was supposedly too small to find inside success in college and she wasn't a very good 3 pt shooter. Yes, those things were discussed extensively and by more than a couple of posters (not here).
I also read that Bueckers would get destroyed by the physicality of the college game do to her frail body.
Fudd is rock solid in all phases of the game. Where Bueckers is inventive, Fudd is precise. Both share a high BB IQ, and a competitive nature.
Fudd will get a lot of minutes because Geno knows that she will always be positioned correctly on the court and Geno rewards players who execute his plans efficiently.