Whose minutes would you decrease to give to Ines? Nika? KK? Ash? Paige? No thank you. If she is needed, it will be because of catastrophic injuries; did Lawler or Pulido ever play significant minutes? No D1 or D2 program signed her; she was going to play at a community college. I’m sure she is a great person, but she will never be part of a winning rotation at UConn.
Butler's offense had very quick ball movement until it found a shooter. The ball did not stick as it does quite often in our guards and bench players. That seems to be the major area for future improvement. All of our players need to look for the ball and move around some in their respective areas like the corners. We also eliminated the easily read cross court pass cutting down on turnovers and fast breakpoints for the opponents. This was a good coaching change.
KK Arnold is a disrupter. She gets the ball into the paint and just needs to slow down a tad. KK is what the teams needs. Her shot will come. The starting players are now playing enough minutes together that they jell. The coaches know where to place the pieces to maximize their efforts. The players respect and love getting the ball in good places.
One of the worst? That's a compliment for her. How about that call on KK?
Ice took a big step forward last night. I think a couple games vs teams like Butler and Toronto Metropolitan are good to rebuild her confidence before the team plays a couple ranked teams (Marquette and Creighton).
I was a fan of INES BEFORE she came to STORRS! She is the ideal guard/PG for her role on
When a team clogs the paint on defense like Butler did, the largest facet of KK’s game is taken away. Perhaps Quadance needs more time and KK less when that happens. Having said that, though, KK was a better matchup defensively.
Tony, in the time Amari did get last night she put in little effort to grab rebounds or put a body on a post player in a defensive effort. I saw Q fly in from the perimeter to try to snag a rebound while Amari just watched it.
Big fan of Shade and KK. Enough has already been written about Ashlynn (note---2 "n's) so a comment here on her FR starting lineup buddy. KK is going to be a great PG for the next 3 years. She already is as good of a one on one defender as Nika and, in fact, play aggressive one on one very similar to Nika. Two areas of needed improvement; 1. Get under control when driving into the paint and stop forcing thing while there; 2. Take a 1000 shots a day, especially pull up jumpers inside the arc like Ash shoots, KK really needs to improve her non-layup shooting.
While no surprise to anyone who has followed Ash, she played all but the finial few minutes, played constant defense against quick guards, moved constantly on offense, and never looked like she was tired.
Not a great league but much improved. Creighton, Marquette are solid, top 20ish teams. Several others will make the top 40. While I do not expect UConn to lose these games, it would not be surprising to see one these experienced teams get hot and steal a game.
My sense is that Ines does what Paige, Nika and KK do.
Last years team wasn't better, it was different. The guard play this year seems to be much better and last year she was a true point guard and I don't think that is needed as much this year. She is a quality player and will see more time as the season progresses but I don't think she moves into the rotation ahead of anyone that is currently in front of her.
I agree. Her story is an interesting one and may still have some surprises in it given how plucky she seems.
Hopefully Nika will feel much better today and in coming days. Dehydration's often the culprit with those 'stomach bug' symptoms.
