UConn Freshmen/Commits: C. Collier, Coombs, AEH, Gordon, Walker

[MilfordHusky]

Shooting from 15+ feet clearly her biggest thing to work on. She's very physical, posts up, drives, draws fouls, really good along the baseline and with the short pull-up jumper. Athletic, strong, smart. Reminds me of early Dwayne Wade.

I think she is very good up to about 15', including FT shooting in general. But expanding her range to 20' would be a big plus.

The DWade comparison seems apt.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Piece on Mikayla Coombs' last game at Wesleyan:

UConn-bound Coombs resuscitates Wolves in state title win

 

[MilfordHusky]

Piece on Mikayla Coombs' last game at Wesleyan:

UConn-bound Coombs resuscitates Wolves in state title win

Notice her vertical in the pic. She's very quick and athletic, despite knee surgery.

 

[BobbyJ]

Piece on Mikayla Coombs' last game at Wesleyan:

UConn-bound Coombs resuscitates Wolves in state title win

I got a real good feeling about this kid. And those are some serious hops on that jump shot.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I got a real good feeling about this kid. And those are some serious hops on that jump shot.

I think she can be an elite defender, plus more.

 

[donalddoowop]

A little lack of modesty there. Geno and CD will work with her.

Geno complained that this season's players don't show that kind of confidence. Didn't he?

 

[CoachBill]

Matthew Hatfield‏ @hatfieldsports
UCONN Head Women's Coach Geno Auriemma here to witness this 4A State Championship thriller and Megan Walker lead Monacan to win with 35Pts.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

At the center of it all is Walker, the 6-foot-1 senior guard who arrived as a freshman and immediately began to dazzle her audiences. She drew college coaches such as Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma and Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw to her games. She became a high school basketball celebrity and committed to Connecticut, the pinnacle of women’s college basketball, in November.

It’s hard to ask for anything more for a final game. In addition to her 35 points, she recorded 11 rebounds, six blocks and five steals. The last moment of her high school career came at halfcourt of the Siegel Center, hugging her teammates and waving to the television cameras.

“It was a crazy, tremendous career,” she said.


Monacan wins its third straight state title by beating King's Fork 60-59 in a wild finish

 

[Sluconn Husky]

More video from Monacan's win including a Geno sighting:

Monacan Lady Chiefs 3-peat as 4A state champs

 

[oldude]

A little lack of modesty there. Geno and CD will work with her.

At his core, Geno is a cocky kid from Philly. I think he will love Megan's self confidence.

 

[Zanzman]

Always look forward to your updates thanks sluconn

 

[Charliebball]

Matthew Hatfield‏ @hatfieldsports
UCONN Head Women's Coach Geno Auriemma here to witness this 4A State Championship thriller and Megan Walker lead Monacan to win with 35Pts.

I wonder why Geno attended Walker's last game............perhaps he feels she needs the extra personal attention......................

 

[BobbyJ]

A little lack of modesty there. Geno and CD will work with her.

I like to call it self belief. All the great ones have it and most of them have said it. There just wasn't a microphone in their face at the time. And IMO, you can't be great without it. It can be tempered and molded and you're right, Auriemma and CD know how to do that.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Geno does talk about confidence. He says that, during the tough freshman year, if you don't have confidence, you have nothing.

My guess is that one of the staff was at Mikayla's game as well. The team has an extended down time, and the coaches try to both observe and support the recruits.

Meg will come to UConn with a personal streak that extends to last season or maybe the season before. She won 3 Virginia championships. Her high school record was very comparable to Maya's.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Meg will get lots of "guidance" from Geno next season. If it gets her down at all, Lou can point out that she was the kid being called out for having no heart who became the tough player known for the barf bucket and also making the national news for her record-setting night against USF.

 

[UcMiami]

I wonder why Geno attended Walker's last game..perhaps he feels she needs the extra personal attention.......

I think it is just pretty standard procedure to continue attending, and perhaps it is combined with something else like a quick golf break.

 

[donalddoowop]

I wonder why Geno attended Walker's last game..perhaps he feels she needs the extra personal attention.......

To tell her she needs to improve her outside shot.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Notice her vertical in the pic. She's very quick and athletic, despite knee surgery.

No, I've been corrected about that; it's just the angle of the camera that makes it look like her feet or over the other kid's waist.

 

[MilfordHusky]

No, I've been corrected about that; it's just the angle of the camera that makes it look like her feet or over the other kid's waist.

It's the angle AND the vertical.

 

[B BLOCK]

Ossining and AEH beat Elmire 87-80 in a wild affair that had Ossining up 20-2 in the first quarter only to be behind by as much as 8 in the fourth quarter. AEH finished with 40 points. By the way she has now set a new school record for points in a season, which was held by Saniya at 928, Andra now with 944 with hopefully 2 games left and the state record is 985.
Ossining will play Our Lady of Mercy of Rochester, Friday 3/17/17, 8:00 pm at HVCC in a NYSPHSAA Class AA Semi-final game.

 

[CoachBill]

I think it is just pretty standard procedure to continue attending, and perhaps it is combined with something else like a quick golf break.

needs extra personal attention ??

yess.... definitely standard practice
why wouldn't He / staff go see a Signee with this break before NCAAs

 

[j66kicker]

Geno does talk about confidence. He says that, during the tough freshman year, if you don't have confidence, you have nothing.

My guess is that one of the staff was at Mikayla's game as well. The team has an extended down time, and the coaches try to both observe and support the recruits.

Meg will come to UConn with a personal streak that extends to last season or maybe the season before. She won 3 Virginia championships. Her high school record was very comparable to Maya's.

ASU must have extended downtime now too - Charli Turner-Thorne was checking into the Tucson JW Marriott Resort & Spa same time we were Friday afternoon. Had a (male) teenaged kid with her who was bouncing a basketball, but no sign of the team. Suspect no recruiting visits or team practice involved - this resort is more of an Arnold Palmer signature golf course type place with 3-4 huge swimming pools & 6 restaurants. (I'm not a golfer and didn't use the pools, except to read and drink by. But we got comp'd for the weekend so we ARE checking out the restaurants).

 

[Charliebball]

needs extra personal attention ??

yess.... definitely standard practice
why wouldn't He / staff go see a Signee with this break before NCAAs

The reason I ask is that I'm not aware if any of the coaches went to see Coombs or AEH in their playoff games in the past few days..................

 

[ctdupree]

The reason I ask is that I'm not aware if any of the coaches went to see Coombs or AEH in their playoff games in the past few days...

As the game was in my backyard I decided to see what AEH was all about. Warming up it looked like the game would be no contest. Elmira looked like a JV team - but I failed to notice that the starters chose to sit on the bench - they must have warmed up previously. While the height differences amongst the starters were not that great, Ossining blew the doors off in that first quarter and I was scratching my he'd wondering how Elmira could have gotten this far. Well - they outscored Ossining the rest of the way, gradually building a lead on the basis of terrific PG play by a Crystal Dangerfield-like 9th grader who controlled the floor. AEH was actually pretty quiet, missing a lot of shots - until crunch time when she asserted herself. But I was left thinking she will be overwhelmed next year by the sheer difference in play from what she experienced at the HS level to what she will see at UCONN. She is a talented player and her smile lights up the arena but Geno is going to eat her lunch on the defensive end and she will struggle to find minutes. I hope she sticks with it.

 

[ladybird]

Before this last post by Ctdupree I was going to post on how I feel AEH gets shorted in the national eye. Her pure 3 point shooting has been pretty consistent. Sure walker is the face of the uconn recruiting class and Mikayla is the athlete but AEH was offered early and for a reason. The truth is not many other kids see too much time until the new big 3 are gone anyway other than walker. Will be interesting to see it all play out.