UConn Needs Forwards! | Page 5 | The Boneyard

UConn Needs Forwards!

Woof said:
No, it doesn't. When I see those numbers against the likes of USC, SC, LSU, UCLA and Texas, I will join you in your optimism.
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Those teams you mention would all lose by double digits to Croatia, Greece, Denmark and Macedonia, the teams involved in the Euroqualifier tournament.
 
Woof said:
Hope is not a plan. No one has any idea, based on any relevant data, that she will be able to score from the perimeter at the D1 level, let alone against the top D1 teams. Bigs typically take time to adapt. Look at Betts' freshman year. And she was considered a far better prospect. She also isn't Tina Charles so don't expect THAT kind of a freshman year either. We need a proven big that can help us win NOW. That will give Vukosa time to adjust.
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The thing is, hope is all you have to go by with college athletics. The name of the game at Storrs is development, and that is essentially about hope. And hard work. Geno picked Kayleigh because he knew how hard she’d work. Same with Ash and KK. And it’s absolutely the same with Olivia. In fact, hope and hard work is the story of Olivia’s entire high school career. She might fall short at the D1 level. It happens. Top ranked kids, especially bigs, have gone bust before. But the scouts who’ve seen her up close don’t seem to think so. I think the only real question is how long it takes her to get up to speed. Will she get minutes in November? Will she start by January? I really have no idea. But in late April, I’m not prepared to write her off. Spring is the season of hope.
 
oldude said:
Those teams you mention would all lose by double digits to Croatia, Greece, Denmark and Macedonia, the teams involved in the Euroqualifier tournament.
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Show me the box scores. Until then, it is just opinion.
 
Woof said:
We don't know because we haven't seen Vukosa against top D1 competition. Trygger is a known commodity. If we get her and Vukosa ends up being even better, great. If Vukosa struggles like most freshman posts, we have a known commodity. You do know that she will be a freshman, right? I can't emphasize that enough.
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I think the Big "O" can match these numbers from last season.....

Trygger vs Notre Dame - 2 pts in the first game, zero pts in the second game
Trygger vs Duke - 6 pts
Trygger vs Michigan - 6 pts
Trygger vs Louisville - 3 pts
Trygger vs USC - 8 pts
Trygger vs Tennessee - 6 pts
Trygger vs NC - 11 pts
 
Woof said:
We don't know because we haven't seen Vukosa against top D1 competition. Trygger is a known commodity. If we get her and Vukosa ends up being even better, great. If Vukosa struggles like most freshman posts, we have a known commodity. You do know that she will be a freshman, right? I can't emphasize that enough.
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You know that Sarah was a freshman last year, right? Not saying Olivia can compare to Sarah but freshmen do occasionally play well. Let’s hope she’s one of them.
 
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oldude said:
Those teams you mention would all lose by double digits to Croatia, Greece, Denmark and Macedonia, the teams involved in the Euroqualifier tournament.
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It is very confusing and hard to compare elite USA College WBB
teams with the FIBA National Teams. I agree that Olivia Vukosa
is one of those players that makes her whole team BETTER. Go
OLIVIA! GO UCONN!
 
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Charliebball said:
I think the Big "O" can match these numbers from last season.....

Trygger vs Notre Dame - 2 pts in the first game, zero pts in the second game
Trygger vs Duke - 6 pts
Trygger vs Michigan - 6 pts
Trygger vs Louisville - 3 pts
Trygger vs USC - 8 pts
Trygger vs Tennessee - 6 pts
Trygger vs NC - 11 pts
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Not very impressive.
 
Who knows what will happen. Who knows?

I’ve heard Geno on more than one occasion say that having two superstars is great, but when you have three; three unstoppable scorers then you are on a completely different level.

With that said, Kymora Johnson, simply Lightening In A Bottle.
 
With regard to Olivia, I am fully confident that she will quickly be an effective part of the offense (as long as she gets to touch the ball consistently - as opposed to what happens in all-star games).
I think what will probably take longer is for her to be a real contributor on defense, as UCONN'S defensive rotations seem to take a while to get down and become pretty automatic.
 
oldude said:
The box scores are posted on Fiba’s website. You can look at them yourself, unless you need someone to hold your hand….
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You have box scores of those FIBA teams beating the top D1 teams?
 
Cuango said:
You know that Sarah was a freshman last year, right? Not saying Olivia can compare to Sarah but freshmen do occasionally play well. Let’s hope she’s one of them.
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You know that Sarah is not a post, right. She is a stretch 4. She can play the 5 but she has the skill and athleticism of a stretch 4.
 
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Charliebball said:
I understood her initial attraction to a great program like Stanford..........in choosing TCU, her priorities have markedly changed......
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I was saying that myself. The business side of basketball really exposes who is in it to win championships, and who's looking to get that big purse. I hope this trend ends soon because im such a huge fan of women's college basketball, that I would hate to kinda see it in the same state that mens college basketball is in with their NIL's and 6-7 year eligibility issues with players.
 
NYCHUSKIES said:
I was saying that myself. The business side of basketball really exposes who is in it to win championships, and who's looking to get that big purse.
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I'm usually on the side of supporting the "academic schools", and am sort of shocked at the recent bailout of Stanford players. (Note some of the jr transfers will complete their undergrad degree at Stanford.)

For a 19 yr old player, however, looking "to win championships", TCU is a better choice than Stanford for '27 after back to back Elite 8 finishes vs not in tournament. 🤔
 
ERWUC65 said:
"Forgive me for repeating myself, but with no changes where do we get Azzi's 20+ points per game?
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I said this with Paige and now I'll say it again with Azzi. Azzi took something like 14 or 15 shots per game and made 50% of those. Someone else is going to take those shots and probably make 40% of them. So, what needs to be replaced? Just a very few points and that shouldn't be impossible to do.
 
BB Dawg said:
I feel Skylar is Uconn’s best option. Unfortunately, that is not happening. Geno does not poach in his division
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There's also the idea that a good player from a Big East school is probably going to a "bigger" conference.
Of course we know that UConn is better than the schools in every bigger conference...
 
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If no new transfers are added to the roster next year, UConn will still be very competitive and we will have a brand new set of conversations when the reach the final four....again. Many of our non-starters would be starters for other teams, ranked or not.
 
Charliebball said:
I think the Big "O" can match these numbers from last season.....

Trygger vs Notre Dame - 2 pts in the first game, zero pts in the second game
Trygger vs Duke - 6 pts
Trygger vs Michigan - 6 pts
Trygger vs Louisville - 3 pts
Trygger vs USC - 8 pts
Trygger vs Tennessee - 6 pts
Trygger vs NC - 11 pts
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I think she will do better than those numbers
 
Olivia might do better than those numbers but if Trygger was with UCONN she might have better numbers too.
Still, I'm thinking Olivia is gonna have a better year.
 
Blond D. said:
Olivia might do better than those numbers but if Trygger was with UCONN she might have better numbers too.
Still, I'm thinking Olivia is gonna have a better year.
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I agree. And more importantly, why interrupt a recruit’s developmental path just to get a transfer who won’t do any better?
 
ConnMotors said:
We need a senior post to help control the paint and grab some rebounds. She doesn’t have to be a super star. Just my thought.
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Why do you say "a senior"?

I think UConn would be well advised to focus any portal recruitment on incoming sophomores or possibly juniors who will have time to learn the UConn system and contribute to their full potential. A senior who has played in someone else's front court for three years is probably not going to be fully "UConn-ized" before she graduates and disappears.

Also, any such player will take valuable developmental minutes from homegrown underclass post players like Jana, Olivia, and Gandy. Those three all appear to have enough potential to make their development a critical priority even if it means deferring the 13th NC to a future year (although I doubt that will be the deciding factor in whether UConn wins next April).
 
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JoePgh said:
Why do you say "a senior"?
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Hi to the Recruiting thread. Then see who the players of interest are. You will see that the Class of 2027 is loaded with players that UConn is recruiting. And, 2028 had two post players that Geno and staff would like. That is why I say Senior. We just need a couple of bodies to fill in and help.
 
ConnMotors said:
We just need a couple of bodies to fill in and help.
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This is the problem with this entire way of thinking about the season. It’s not about adding a ‘couple of bodies.’ It’s the mind that makes the athlete. Being a certain size or strength is not all that important. But having the right attitude, the quickness of perception, the ability to recognize a scoring opportunity, the disciplined habits of mind to play crisp defense, and above all the intellectual camaraderie to be able to trust that all your teammates are on the same page. This is what Geno is constantly showing us. And this is what the portal is poorly suited to provide. That kind of camaraderie takes time to develop, maybe more than one season. Don’t expect Geno to bring in just another body, big or little. He’s looking for a mind. And if he doesn’t find what he’s looking for he won’t bring in anyone.
 
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Bone Dog said:
This is the problem with this entire way of thinking about the season. It’s not about adding a ‘couple of bodies.’ It’s the mind that makes the athlete. Being a certain size or strength is not all that important. But having the right attitude, the quickness of perception, the ability to recognize a scoring opportunity, the disciplined habits of mind to play crisp defense, and above all the intellectual camaraderie to be able to trust that all your teammates are on the same page. This is what Geno is constantly showing us. And this is what the portal is poorly suited to provide. That kind of camaraderie takes time to develop, maybe more than one season. Don’t expect Geno to bring in just another body, big or little. He’s looking for a mind. And if he doesn’t find what he’s looking for he won’t bring in anyone.
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I understand everything that you wrote. We need bodies, players, young ladies to fill the roster. And right now they are coming from the portal. Ad I wrote in other threads I would hope that if we do sign anyone that they would be seniors. That is because the high school classes coming up are loaded with talent.
 
Morgan C being out all of last year is almost like getting a transfer. She's a solid forward, if she is over her injuries. Losing Caroline, Ayanna and Ice can't be the justification to add a forward because they took up about 4 minutes a game between them. Morgan fill those minutes by herself before halftime.
 
It's not quite like the Bettencourt situation, but this past season UConn had a 15 player roster, yet often 10 or fewer were available to play at any given time. Before the season started many folks wondered how can you manage 15 players? In reality it was a smaller number. Adding a body or 2, providing they are a decent fit, would be a good insurance policy.
 
Skeets said:
It's not quite like the Bettencourt situation, but this past season UConn had a 15 player roster, yet often 10 or fewer were available to play at any given time. Before the season started many folks wondered how can you manage 15 players? In reality it was a smaller number. Adding a body or 2, providing they are a decent fit, would be a good insurance policy.
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You make a good point. 33% is a scary injury rate.

I’d only add that of the 15 players on the roster last season, 4 were longstanding injury situations and 1 had her own injury history. All but one of those players has now moved on. The only player with anything resembling an injury question mark is Morgan.

I don’t mean to worry karma, but 12 may be a deep enough roster in the new reality.

And before folks jump on me, let me add that I’m not averse to bringing in a senior or two. I’m simply wary of clogging the roster with transients who depress recruiting and take a long time to figure out Geno’s system. I’ve already put in my vote for Aliyah Moore, and I have no idea what sort of shape she’s in. I just like that kid.
 
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