UConn roster - 2024 and beyond ... | Page 2 | The Boneyard

UConn roster - 2024 and beyond ...

Cuango said:
I think people are underestimating what just happened with Sarah Strong’s commitment! I believe she will start from day one and the reason I believe this is because I think she is a generational talent in the same vein as Page, Stewie, Maya, and Dee! Now I’m not saying she’s as good as those players but I do think she will be an AA player for us and that her talents will be similarly impactful for this team! I see her as the afterburner for this team, that turns us from very good, to almost unbeatable! I realize comparing a recruit to those icons is a bit much but again, not saying she’s as good as them, merely that her impact on this team will be similar!

If this roster can finally get healthy and stay that way for a couple or three years, we have a chance to be as good as we’ve ever been! Does that mean multiple undefeated seasons? I think that’s pretty doubtful to ever happen again as the talent level has exploded across the country. However, I do think we have a chance to revisit the dominance that typified this UConn program in the 2010s! Strong is the real deal and I’m willing to bet she shows up in the best shape of her life! She and Paige are going to be something to see next year! (And the rest of the roster ain’t bad either.:))
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I agree about everything except that people are underestimating Sarah. The only question we might still have concerns stamina, but the espn article suggests this is not going to be a problem. One of the reasons she chose UConn — among several — is that Geno and Jamelle told her she needed to get in better shape. She seems like the kind of kid to take that sort of advice to heart.

I also think she’ll be a Paige-level talent and will lead this team on a tear for 4 years. And Geno has begun the process of building an incredible group of players around her. Paige Azzi and Caroline for next year, of course. Morgan and Allie and Jana will be with her to the end. Ice and Ayanna and Ash and KK and Q for the next three years. Kelis and Gandy (and maybe Lara?) for a different three years. And maybe even the Big O (fingers crossed!) for a couple years.
 
Cheddie said:
Geno will have an over-abundance of riches next season. Staley gave 9 players minutes against NC State. Geno will have 13 realistic contributors. I'd love to see UConn come at teams with waves of players and wear them down physically with aggressive play. Not sure Geno is comfortable playing a full roster.
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I think we have 11 players in the rotation and maybe if one of the others shows great strides a 12th.
 
David54 said:
My guess is Paige Azzi Sarah Aubrey Ice. As starters. I have no idea how good Jana might be hopefully she and ice can battle it out or split time. I would think Geno will be very careful with Azzi so plenty of time for Shade and other guards.sure he will want Paige playing off the ball at times so plenty of time for KK too. Of course much of this is dependent on how people are recovering or have recovered from injuries. In fact AG may not even be ready at start of the year. Potentially a team that can compete with anyone.
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I'll be the first to say this. Not that I don't think Aubrey doesn't deserve to start, but Geno likes Aubrey coming off the bench and I think Aubrey excels as well as a 6th man. But right now, the earliest I can see her back is in the new year so we will need to patient with her progress and getting back into game shape.
 
Gauging by her talent and size, no matter the combination of players most likely to start, I think Geno will have Sarah in the starting line up by the end of November at the latest. She's got more size than Aubrey, Caroline, and Ayanna. She's a better shooter (and seems to be quicker than Ice) than Ice, Aubrey, and Ayanna. She's more versatile than all 4 of them.

With that in mind, I think Azzi, Paige, Sarah, and Jana are your locks for best starters, if you are taking best talent and skillset at their positions. That 5th player, in my humble opinion should be a "dog" primarily focused on rebounding and defense. Aubrey first comes to mind, but I'd love to see Ayanna develop over the summer after recovery, because I think she could be the most athletically gifted to help is in that area. If she can refine her moves in the paint (back to the basket and put backs), and a free throw line jumper, this starting 5 would be dominant!

Of course, health is the primary enemy, even Sarah seemed to be affected at the McDonald's AA game, but beyond that... "the roof is the ceiling"! Lol! Go Huskies!
 
Sarah starts from day one. She is that good and she is exactly what this team needs.
 
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I think a good place to start with Geno and large rosters of talented players is his National Team work. He consistently had a starting five, and a second six, and an emergency player for fatigue, injury, or foul issues. And you can also look back to the 2000 and 2001 Uconn teams with really strong benches, where the start/second-string minute distributions were usually in the avg range of 24/16.

With three freshmen and a sophomore coming being in practice for the first time, and 4 addition players coming off injuries a lot will depend on their health/development/availability. That is 53% of the roster by itself. Add in two players who had minimal minutes this year and you are up to 67% of the roster that are really 'unkown.' Two of the remaining five are sophomores who received 'spotty' minutes, while the other 3 - Paige, KK, and Ash are the only actually 'known' members of next years roster.

I think those three will be very hard to displace from the starting lineup though I expect their minutes will be reduced.

Ice has the inside track on the fourth starter position, but she has to show marked improvement this off season to hold off both returning wounded and incoming freshmen.

And the fifth position is probably Jana's to lose because she is the only post on the roster - if she can't claim that position, I would not be surprised if Geno went with twin PFs of Ice and Strong trading off inside/outside on both ends of the floor.
 
We are not allowed to speculate but Geno did offer another player a scholarship while knowing that Sarah was coming to Storrs.
 
Paige will be the only return starter next season assuming everyone is healthy which to me is a question mark. Too many injuries over the past few years to think it isn't something in the training at least from my point of view. Azzi and Sarah will be automatic starters and I would also put Jana into that category too.

The final player in the starting five to me will be someone that gives you length and strength in the post and right now that would be Patterson or possibly Ice. KK, Ice and another shooter will play in the rotation but all the others will be spot duty when it matters and be mop up players. I also don't think they will have 15 players on the roster unless they pick up a couple from the portal.
 
We have depth. We will see & hear in a few months about how things are progressing with the players. I do hope, like always, that Coach Auriemma opens up with the playing time window a little more because I probably would have been fired if I was an assistant coach sitting on that UConn bench, especially during that Iowa game, saying "Coach. Q can't get a few minutes on the floor? Her length could help us. Her shooting could help. Her ability to get in the passing lane could help". But it is what it is and hopefully, with everyone back and 100% healthy, coach and the coaching staff figure out how to unleash this wonderful roster of talent.
 
Heytherego said:
Yeah I definitely see KK being the starter next year regardless of anything. He likes having a “true PG” I don’t see anyone else who really fits that bill. I personally really like Paige at the point but it seems Geno prefers her off the ball.
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If everyone can stay healthy Paige might play point more since she won‘t have to carry the team as much as this year and will be able to get some rest. Bringing KK and Aubrey off the bench adds defensive pressure and a ton of energy.
 
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November: Paige KK Ash Ice and Jana. That's who already knows the system, so they'll start early on. But this lineup is sure to change as more kids come up to speed, and I sure hope Sarah is the first of them.

The more interesting question to me isn't who starts but how deep a rotation Geno will run. I expect it will be very deep in November-December and will gradually shrink to 5+3 or 5+4 by late March. It's impossible to say who they will be now, but my guess/hope is that it's Paige Azzi Morgan (at pg) Sarah Jana, with KK Ash Ice Caroline Aubrey Q Ayanna and Allie coming in off the bench. Oh, wait, is that more than 5+4? D'oh! :eek::D

Teamwork Makes The Dream Work GIF by Adult Swim
 
Hmm. Another open spot. Maybe portal look or Emely gets the green light to accept.
 
Ines now also in portal. I think we should look for a 5 (if there's a decent one) and a grad student like Chen in the portal just because we don't know the injury situation for next year and how that shapes out.
 
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I’m surprised how many people see Jana as a starter. We’ve never seen her play and, as a foreigner, she wasn’t ranked. Yes she’s tall, but so is Amari. I. Sure hope she’s good enough to start, but to me a more likely scenario is that Ice and another of our “bigs” (Sarah?) start in the frontcourt. Or maybe a 1 year portal transfer?
 
ABCDFE said:
Ines now also in portal. I think we should look for a 5 (if there's a decent one) and a grad student like Chen in the portal just because we don't know the injury situation for next year and how that shapes out.
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So I guess this answers the earlier question, which was never going to be a real question, about who would be #21.;)
 
darkstar1 said:
I can’t believe how little love Ash is getting on this thread. She will be a part of the rotation for sure.
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I too love Ash’s game but I can see why she’s not an automatic starter next year. The talent on this team is almost unprecedented! Everything except for Paige is probably up in the air. I think Jana, Strong, and
Azzi, if 100% are very likely but even they are not set in stone!
 
VA Huskie said:
I’m surprised how many people see Jana as a starter. We’ve never seen her play and, as a foreigner, she wasn’t ranked. Yes she’s tall, but so is Amari. I. Sure hope she’s good enough to start, but to me a more likely scenario is that Ice and another of our “bigs” (Sarah?) start in the frontcourt. Or maybe a 1 year portal transfer?
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There is plenty of video of Jana playing basketball. Sure, the quality of opponents is not super high but believe me, she has shown enough to warrant the optimism being shown on this thread!
 
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NW-MW said:
These Highlights really show off Jana's full capability. Her shot is beautiful and can be expected to be a high percentage free throw shooter on top of having post skills.
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I also love the way she runs the court. She is a very athletic 6’5”. There’s a couple of good transition plays on that video
 
NW-MW said:
These Highlights really show off Jana's full capability. Her shot is beautiful and can be expected to be a high percentage free throw shooter on top of having post skills.
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Look at the rotation on her shot!:) I believe she’s going to be a big star for us! I think there’s plenty of videos on her that justify some pretty high expectations on our part!
 
Cuango said:
There is plenty of video of Jana playing basketball. Sure, the quality of opponents is not super high but believe me, she has shown enough to warrant the optimism being shown on this thread!
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I think the reason so many have Jana starting even though she hasn't proven anything yet, is partly our optimism over her future, and partly because her likely competition if anything has under-performed expectations. Ice, Ayanna, and Jana probably came in with roughly similar expectations IMO. Two of those have a one year track record that doesn't rule out achieving at a high level, but has dampened expectations somewhat. Jana hasn't so much jumped ahead of them, as they fell behind.

Of the smalls, we have a couple of players who have proven something, being pretty good in their freshmen season. But KK and Ash have tons of very high level competition this year, including two players who were better than them in their freshmen season (Azzi and Caroline), and two incoming frosh with similar HS rankings (Allie and Morgan).

So do I think Jana has as good a chance to start as KK or Ash? Yes, and I think she will be very good, but frankly as the only player over 6-3 her path to starting is much easier. For positions 1-3, I see Paige and Azzi (if healthy) as locks and as many as 7 good candidates (including Q) for that third perimeter spot. Being as good as KK and Ash were last year, even with some significant improvement, may not be good enough to be at the top of that very good list of competitors.

In the backcourt we can be near certain that whoever starts will have to be very good, but at the 5 we are far more dependent on Jana being the real deal, unless we pull in a top portal transfer.
 
BRS24 said:
Saw the news of Amari & Ines while enjoying a girls' day at Busch Gardens and thought, darn it, there goes the roster grid. So, I'm going to wait just a little bit longer before posting an update, because, well, you know. ;)
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Still gonna wait ... unless ... reverse mojo where I post an update with Chen and then we get another? Hmmmm ...
 
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