U19 World Cup - Kayleigh Heckel | Page 5 | The Boneyard

U19 World Cup - Kayleigh Heckel

I appreciate BoneDog's comments and all the comparisons made here regarding Hildago and others, but my point wasn't about comparing a single player from UConn to another on another team. My point, rather, was to indicate that as a team, UConn is going to be fast, fast, fast. Here is my original comment: "Our swing players, Blanca, Sarah, Morgan, and Caroline, are going to be freaking awesome! This team will be built for speed...they are going to be fast, fast, fast! Defensively, we are going to be an absolute nightmare for teams".

As you can see, I am referencing that our team is "built for speed". Think about it for a second... You have at the point: KK Arnold, Kaleigh Heckle, and Kelis Fisher. Are you kidding me? Show me three point guards from one team in US college basketball that will be faster than them. Then at the shooting guard, you will have Fudd, Shade, Ziebell...not slow and will be in shape to run with the point guards. Next up, the swing forward-guard position...all I can say is Wow! Blanca, Morgan, Caroline...plenty of speed, no one is going to be accused of being slow. The power forward position with Sarah Strong, Ice Brady, and Ayanna Patterson. I can't wait to see the forwards from other teams trying to run with this group. Then you have at the Center, position more than likely, you will have Sereh Williams, Jana El-Alfy, and Gandy. These are all centers that can run the floor.

As I said in my original post...this is going to be one "fast team". I do not envy any team that has to play 40 minutes against this group. Not to mention the defensive pressure that UConn is going to put on these teams is going to wear them out on their offensive end and then when they need to switch over to defend...by half-way through the third quarter I am going to predict there is going to be a lot of teams who will be exhausted and will run out of gas which will just make UConn look even faster. I think next year we are going to see some teams proverbially "run off the court".
 
Watching today's game Betts is not a good low post defender. Australia is getting a lot of low post baskets. Australia has scored 42 points in the low post. USA in the 3rd Qtr played a lot of one on one basketball. Its any teams game. USA can't let Australia tie the game.
 
USA wins 88-76 over Australia. USA had lead for the complete game and pulled away starting the middle of 4th Qtr. I thought Heckel played well. However because FIBA allows it she does push off when dribbling. Probably called for an offensive foul in the College.
 
Game just ended. Gold for USA.

Hall was again spectacular.

Too bad Jazzy doesn't get to play with JuJu for a while. I assume she starts immediately for Southern Cal.

I am glad Kayleigh is a Husky. She does not get rattled. Knocked down the FTs down the stretch.
 
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Hall gets MOP, and deservedly so. I hope Geno puts the full court press on her recruitment. She's Sara Strong in a big guard body.
 
Husky fanatic said:
Kayleigh needs to cut down her turnovers. Overall a pretty good floor General. Saniya Hall would be a great addition to UConn.
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If anyone rewatches the game, note the pass from Saniya Hall to
Kayleigh Heckel at the 3:20 minute mark of the second quarter.
A wonderful connection between them... and then note the
smiles of each as they acknowledge the GREAT chemistry.
So... I agree maybe some future chemistry in Storrs???
It was beautiful seeing Kayleigh drawing those fouls late
in the fourth quarter... 4 for 4 to help "seal the deal"!
 
I would say Jazzy and Hall were the two best players for USA at this event. Heckel was one of the more reliable players on the floor and important to team USA’s success.

There were some turnovers. But there were also some weird rules in FIBA. About getting the ball across half court for instance. And the shot clock didn’t reset when it should sometimes. And the officiating was really poor; obvious fouls often not called. It is a different game. I won’t hold the turnovers against anyone.
 
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Few thoughts:
*Congrats to team USA for winning the gold.
*team and individual defense was pretty bad for the whole team.
*Kayleigh Heckel was the only reliable PG on this team. While Skinner and Harpring played the position, to me they seem more SG's than PG's.
*The rotation was shrunk, and it was clear who are the players Moran trusted.
*Hall is an amazing player and going to be a menace on the next level. Hopefully we can get her.
*Davidson was impressive. She is skinny so i wonder how her body will hold against D1 defenders. USC is getting a real good one and it's a shame we will not be able to see this coming season the Juju Davidson Show.
*Was not impressed by Betts. Big and strong but showed no mid-range shot, bad post defender, slow and a bad free throw shooter. I was surprised that she was chosen to the tournament top 5 instead of Davidson.
*Kayleigh Heckel is very steady and calm and clearly was playing the game plan of coach Moran. Loved her clutch free throws. At UConn she'll need to up her play on defense considerably. I don't see any comparison between KK and Kayleigh Heckel as defenders. KK is way way better.
*In general, the team seemed tired the second half. Luckily, Australia was as well.
 
I am not surprised the US was tired. I think the commentator said it was 7 games in 9 days.

One thing I will say. I was surprised that Jerzy Robinson was banished. If the US has lost, I think that would have been a talking point.
 
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Watching Kayleigh Heckel in this series as well as some games from last season...
and trying to take a long term viewpoint...

We've lucked into an absolute winner here.
She's under 19
Which means (in arithmetic I understand)
She was 17 and point for a top-ten team.
Didn't take an extra year to get ready
for college

She's confident, savvy, aggressive and a fine ball-handler.
I expect her to fill Chen's shoes admirably
Is it possible that she has even more upside?
And this from a Kaitlyn admirer.
 
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Husky fanatic said:
Kayleigh needs to cut down her turnovers. Overall a pretty good floor General. Saniya Hall would be a great addition to UConn.
Expand ...
Agree on Kayleigh's turnovers. She has a bit of Nika in her, and what I mean by that is she sometimes tries the high difficulty pass where the opening is small and/or defender a little too close. It is a risk reward trade off to be sure, but Uconn as a team generally has a very high assist to turnover ratio, and KK is an example of that too.

The turnover numbers at USC were a little on the high side as well. Having said that, turnovers are huge in these kind of tournaments where teammates have little time to develop chemistry, and of course Kayleigh was a freshmen and assist/turnover ratios generally improve substantially over a player's career, and probably even more so coming to the Uconn program.

On the positive front, clearly Kayleigh was the point guard most trusted to run the show in this tournament, and her role appeared to be to keep the train on the track and be a good complimentary player, a role that will serve her well at Uconn too. Overall I feel confident she will be a solid to very good part of the rotation and be a good fit to the Uconn culture.
 
Stagnant said:
I am not surprised the US was tired. I think the commentator said it was 7 games in 9 days.

One thing I will say. I was surprised that Jerzy Robinson was banished. If the US has lost, I think that would have been a talking point.
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Why? She didn’t play well when she was on the court.
 
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Boreifs said:
Why? She didn’t play well when she was on the court.
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I saw her at least two times playing against top talent and she did not look good.
 
msf22b said:
Watching Kayleigh Heckel in this series as well as some games from last season...
and trying to take a long term viewpoint...

We've lucked into an absolute winner here.
She's under 19
Which means (in arithmetic I understand)
She was 17 and point for a top-ten team.
Didn't take an extra year to get ready
for college

She's confident, savvy, aggressive and a fine ball-handler.
I expect her to fill Chen's shoes admirably
Is it possible that she has even more upside?
And this from a Kaitlyn admirer.
Expand ...
Msf22b, I agree. We have a gem in Kayleigh. High energy and solid courts smarts for a sophomore.

One minor correction: she turned 19 two weeks ago (08 July), which means she played her entire freshman year at USC as an 18 year old.
 
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YKCornelius said:
Msf22b, I agree. We have a gem in Kayleigh. High energy and solid courts smarts for a sophomore.

One minor correction: she turned 19 two weeks ago (08 July), which means she played her entire freshman year at USC as an 18 year old.
Expand ...
Thanks for the correction
 
I'm sure a lot of Kayleighs turnovers at USC was the result of forcing the ball into Juju. She is double teamed all the time, sometimes triple teamed, but the mandate was get the ball to Juju. Kayleigh will not find that problem here, as any one of our girls can shoot, and shoot effectively. She is going to love it here, and I'm sure we will love her back. Another reason I can't wait for the season to start.
 
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