I hate to pour cold water on the idea of Reagan Beers to UConn, but after watching her play a few times, she really doesn’t fit well with the Huskies style of play. She’s obviously a big, strong kid who can bang with opposing post players in the paint and set some serious screens. But her mobility is limited.
I’ve had this same feeling ever since this topic surfaced. It’s not just Beers. This will be the problem with most bigs Geno might get. Dorka was an unusual case in that she fit into a motion offense well, though it took quite some time for her to fit herself into it. The key was her mobility and that she could play high post as well as low post.
Beers could obviously figure out Geno’s offense and would probably end up as mobile as Stef Dolson was. She wouldn’t get out on the transition offense much, or do high hedges, but she’d improve our rebounding and be a rim protector. One obvious way Geno might use her is in a twin towers lineup next to Jana. He’s had good success with such lineups before, like Rebecca and Kara, Stef and Stewie, one of whom was more mobile than the other. Interestingly, he didn’t use Dorka and Liv this way very much, perhaps because they were both quite mobile. But he did like playing Aaliyah next to either of them.
As a freshman Beers played on a lineup with a couple other bigs and quickly showed her promise. As a sophomore, she showed the world that she was the main presence on the floor for OSU. When she sat down the team suffered. Coming to UConn, she’d have to fit herself in as more of a cog in a larger machine than the main event, which might be a difficult adjustment. I’m sure she’s capable of it, but she might not want it. Would she want only ~20 mins/g? This is a possible result of her coming to Storrs.
I agree that Jana might not mind having another big in the lineup to take some of the pressure off her as a first year player. Ayanna too. Ice might be another story. 80 frontcourt mins to be divided between 5 or 6 players means some of them will be squeezed. If Raegan and Jana split ~50 between them, that leaves only 30 for Ayanna Ice Sarah Morgan Caroline Aubrey. The last four can play at the wing as well so there might not be as much pressure on their minutes. But Ayanna and Ice don’t have nearly the flexibility of the others.
All in all Raegan would be a positive addition to the team. But there will be some challenges for Geno in reworking the team to make the best use of her next to Jana and Ice and Ayanna. And Raegan would have to get used to not being the primary scoring option, since that is likely to come more from the backcourt on UConn.