Who is the Uconn GOAT? It's all in the numbers...maybe.

[and one]

There have been Boneyard discussions on who the Uconn GOAT is over the years although a quick search didn’t pull up a poll on the subject. I’m talking about Uconn career, not including post-college performance. Include that and Taurasi wins hands down, end of discussion.

When just considering Uconn play, my impression is that Taurasi, Moore and Stewart are the acknowledged big three and Taurasi has the most support for Uconn GOAT. To satisfy my own curiosity I compared the Uconn career stats for all three, and added a couple of other greats in Lobo and Bascom.

The players were given points for both statistical categories and for major awards:

The five player’s career statistics were ranked against each other for the following categories:

Field Goal %, 3 Point Field Goal %, average points per game, average rebounds per game, total points scored. In these categories points awarded were 5 points for first in each category, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 for fifth.

Free throw %, average assists per game, average steals per game and average blocks per game. In these categories points awarded were 4 points for first in each category, 3 for second, 2 for third and 1 for both fourth and fifth. These categories were slightly less weighted as they, at least to me, seem somewhat less impactful over a season of games. In the case of steals, blocks and assists, the average number per game is low and the range between highest and lowest not as impactful as say shooting percentages. For instance: in assists per game the high was 4.5 (Taurasi) and the low 2.1 with one outlier of 1 (Bascom), in steals the high was 2 (Moore) and the low 1, and for blocks the high was 3.1 (Lobo) and the low 1, with an outlier of 0.2 (Bascom). For free-throw % the range was very narrow, with a high of 81.9% (Taurasi) and a low of 79.6%, with an outlier of 69.5%d (Lobo).

Honors included are National Championships, NCAA tournament MVP, AP first team All American and Wade Trophy. One point is award for each honor awarded during the player’s career. There are other honors bestowed on players but these seem to be the most important.

Non-collegiate activities such as WNBA or Olympics are not included in the ratings. GOAT is defined here as performance as a Uconn player only.



Bascom: Total Points 22. She ranked 2nd in rebounds per game and blocks per game, 3rd for total points, 4th for free throw %, rebounds per game and steals per game, and 5th for assists per game and blocks per game. She had no honors. Bascom played before Uconn became a women’s basketball power and had national visibility and so her opportunity for national honors were very limited.

Lobo: Total Points 25. She ranked 1st in rebounds per game and blocks per game, 3rd in field goal %, 4th in3 point %, assists per game, and points per game, and 5th in free throw %, steals per game, and career total points. Her honors included one each of National Championship, NCAA tournament MVP, AP first team All American and Wade Trophy recipient. All of the honors came during her senior year.



Taurasi: Total Points 28. She ranked 1st in free throw % and assists per game, 2nd in steals per game, 4th in blocks per game and total points and 5th in field goal %, 3 point %, rebounds per game and points per game. Her honors include 3 National Championships, 2 NCCA tournament MVPs, 2 first team All American, 1 AP player of the year and 1 Wade trophy.



Stewart Points 44 She ranked 1st in field goal %, 2nd in steals per game, blocks per game and total points, 3rd in free throw %, rebounds per game, assists per game and points per game, and 4th in 3 point %. Her honors included 4 national championships, 4 NCAA tournament MVPs, 3 first team All American, 3 AP POY and 2 Wade Trophies.



Moore Points 47 She was 1st in 3 point %, assists per game, steals per game, points per game and total points, 2nd in field goal %, and free throw %, 3rd in blocks per game and 5th in rebounds per game. Her honors include 2 national championships. 1 NCAA tournament MVP, 4 1st team AP All American, 2 AP Player of the Year and 3 Wade Trophies.



Based on just game statistics, Moore was 1st with 35 points, Stewart 2nd with 27 points, Bascom 3rd with 22 points, Lobo 4th with 20 points and Taurasi 5th with 19 points.



I’ve always thought that Maya was the best to ever suit up for Uconn, with Breanna a hair behind and then Diana. Based on the numbers that seems right, while granting that there are factors beyond the numbers that factor in. Diana’s swagger and big game mentality certainly bear consideration.

Bascom was last in points, but if only game stats are looked at she did well, third ahead of both Lobo and Taurasi, who was last. I was surprised at that.

So do the stats and honors tell us everything, or at least a lot about who the GOAT is or is there more to the story? I think there is Moore!

WHO is the GOAT?

 

[Steelerone]

Ruth, Cobb, Williams, Speaker, or Wagner? Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Jordan, James? Brown, Montana, Brady, Greene? I don't care what statistics you would be able to present for any of these players you won't convince a New England fan that Montana is better than Brady, Jordan better than Russell, or Ruth better than Williams. (Of course we all know that Clemente was the greatest),

 

[Mike_In_Storrs]

Does anyone really think Stewart isn't the greatest?

As much as I love Taurasi and Maya...Should anyone be mentioned with Stewart as "GOAT".... She was basically perfect...

Just my opinion.

 

[Kaizen]

In the future, Paige Bueckers

 

[bluedevil]

[QUOTE="Steelerone, post: 3680992, member: 831
Ruth, Cobb, Williams, Speaker, or Wagner? Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Jordan, James? Brown, Montana, Brady, Greene? I don't care what statistics you would be able to present for any of these players you won't convince a New England fan that Montana is better than Brady, Jordan better than Russell, or Ruth better than Williams. (Of course we all know that Clemente was the greatest),
[/QUOTE]

 

[bluedevil]

[QUOTE="Steelerone, post: 3680992, member: 831
Ruth, Cobb, Williams, Speaker, or Wagner? Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Jordan, James? Brown, Montana, Brady, Greene? I don't care what statistics you would be able to present for any of these players you won't convince a New England fan that Montana is better than Brady, Jordan better than Russell, or Ruth better than Williams. (Of course we all know that Clemente was the greatest),

[/QUOTE]
Then you are saying it is all subjective and not quantifiable...(Honus Wagner was the greatest).

 

[DeeHusky]

Does anyone really think Stewart isn't the greatest?

As much as I love Taurasi and Maya...Should anyone be mentioned with Stewart as "GOAT".... She was basically perfect...

Just my opinion.

I don’t. Lol

 

[baggerbob]

Ruth, Cobb, Williams, Speaker, or Wagner? Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Jordan, James? Brown, Montana, Brady, Greene? I don't care what statistics you would be able to present for any of these players you won't convince a New England fan that Montana is better than Brady, Jordan better than Russell, or Ruth better than Williams. (Of course we all know that Clemente was the greatest),

Gehrig was the straw that stired the drink. When Ruth hit 60, Gehrig had 47 and led the league with 175 RBI batting behind Ruth.

 

[Mike_In_Storrs]

I don’t. Lol

I am Italian so I have a special love for Dee and Rizzotti. Lol. And Maya was awesome.

But I won't deny Stewie the honor of being the "GOAT" ever in my eyes..

 

[hoophuskee]

There have been Boneyard discussions on who the Uconn GOAT is over the years although a quick search didn’t pull up a poll on the subject. I’m talking about Uconn career, not including post-college performance. Include that and Taurasi wins hands down, end of discussion.

When just considering Uconn play, my impression is that Taurasi, Moore and Stewart are the acknowledged big three and Taurasi has the most support for Uconn GOAT. To satisfy my own curiosity I compared the Uconn career stats for all three, and added a couple of other greats in Lobo and Bascom.

The players were given points for both statistical categories and for major awards:

The five player’s career statistics were ranked against each other for the following categories:

Field Goal %, 3 Point Field Goal %, average points per game, average rebounds per game, total points scored. In these categories points awarded were 5 points for first in each category, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 for fifth.

Free throw %, average assists per game, average steals per game and average blocks per game. In these categories points awarded were 4 points for first in each category, 3 for second, 2 for third and 1 for both fourth and fifth. These categories were slightly less weighted as they, at least to me, seem somewhat less impactful over a season of games. In the case of steals, blocks and assists, the average number per game is low and the range between highest and lowest not as impactful as say shooting percentages. For instance: in assists per game the high was 4.5 (Taurasi) and the low 2.1 with one outlier of 1 (Bascom), in steals the high was 2 (Moore) and the low 1, and for blocks the high was 3.1 (Lobo) and the low 1, with an outlier of 0.2 (Bascom). For free-throw % the range was very narrow, with a high of 81.9% (Taurasi) and a low of 79.6%, with an outlier of 69.5%d (Lobo).

Honors included are National Championships, NCAA tournament MVP, AP first team All American and Wade Trophy. One point is award for each honor awarded during the player’s career. There are other honors bestowed on players but these seem to be the most important.

Non-collegiate activities such as WNBA or Olympics are not included in the ratings. GOAT is defined here as performance as a Uconn player only.



Bascom: Total Points 22. She ranked 2nd in rebounds per game and blocks per game, 3rd for total points, 4th for free throw %, rebounds per game and steals per game, and 5th for assists per game and blocks per game. She had no honors. Bascom played before Uconn became a women’s basketball power and had national visibility and so her opportunity for national honors were very limited.

Lobo: Total Points 25. She ranked 1st in rebounds per game and blocks per game, 3rd in field goal %, 4th in3 point %, assists per game, and points per game, and 5th in free throw %, steals per game, and career total points. Her honors included one each of National Championship, NCAA tournament MVP, AP first team All American and Wade Trophy recipient. All of the honors came during her senior year.



Taurasi: Total Points 28. She ranked 1st in free throw % and assists per game, 2nd in steals per game, 4th in blocks per game and total points and 5th in field goal %, 3 point %, rebounds per game and points per game. Her honors include 3 National Championships, 2 NCCA tournament MVPs, 2 first team All American, 1 AP player of the year and 1 Wade trophy.



Stewart Points 44 She ranked 1st in field goal %, 2nd in steals per game, blocks per game and total points, 3rd in free throw %, rebounds per game, assists per game and points per game, and 4th in 3 point %. Her honors included 4 national championships, 4 NCAA tournament MVPs, 3 first team All American, 3 AP POY and 2 Wade Trophies.



Moore Points 47 She was 1st in 3 point %, assists per game, steals per game, points per game and total points, 2nd in field goal %, and free throw %, 3rd in blocks per game and 5th in rebounds per game. Her honors include 2 national championships. 1 NCAA tournament MVP, 4 1st team AP All American, 2 AP Player of the Year and 3 Wade Trophies.



Based on just game statistics, Moore was 1st with 35 points, Stewart 2nd with 27 points, Bascom 3rd with 22 points, Lobo 4th with 20 points and Taurasi 5th with 19 points.



I’ve always thought that Maya was the best to ever suit up for Uconn, with Breanna a hair behind and then Diana. Based on the numbers that seems right, while granting that there are factors beyond the numbers that factor in. Diana’s swagger and big game mentality certainly bear consideration.

Bascom was last in points, but if only game stats are looked at she did well, third ahead of both Lobo and Taurasi, who was last. I was surprised at that.

So do the stats and honors tell us everything, or at least a lot about who the GOAT is or is there more to the story? I think there is Moore!

WHO is the GOAT?

I go with Stewart as GOAT. But imo any of the 3 have great arguments - Stewart, DT and Maya. It probably comes down to preferences of style as well. Stewart's game imo was more "boring" but I feel she is GOAT.

What I like in a minuscule way about Stewart is that she can score inside or out. And her defense is outstanding.

IMO when Stewart went inside-- the defense collapses. It opens up the whole game for everyone else. With Maya I thought it was all about her jump shot on the offensive end. IMO it's harder with her style to make it easier for teammates. Further, defensively Stewart is a major intimidator. Your stats cannot show that. But the stats can show in Maya's frosh year in FF- she didn't shoot well and the counterpart star playing wing for Sanford devastated UCONN.

As for DT-- can't get that freshman year final four game out of my mind in this comparison. because Stewart was also very good defensively, she didn't have any overall bad games in Final Four. DT was exceptionally great offensively - and because she is a guard-- at times she is naturally setting up the offense more. For example her pass leads to a 2nd pass while Maya was more of a pure scorer.

Though with Stewart vs DT- a 2nd point is the defense though DT was underrated as a defender and was a tremendous rebounder for a guard.

 

[Wally East]

Stewie is the greatest, then Maya and D.

The problem with the approach taken by the OP is that by simply awarding rank points, it doesn't account for when the differences are very great or very small.

One way to account for this and then total things across categories is to divide each player's total for a category by the best total for that category.

For example, for total points, Maya's total is the highest. You would divide her score by itself and get 1.00. Then you divide Stewie's total points by Maya's and get 0.9something and so forth.

You could then do that for each category. Then, total each player's scores. If you wanted to weigh stats, this would be the place to do it. For stats that you valued less, you could multiply those decimals by whatever you felt was appropriate. So, if you thought assists per game were worth 75% of points per game -- the thing you valued most highly -- you'd multiply each player's assists per game by 0.75 to get the weighted score. Then, total each player's weighted score.

Additionally, looking at career totals puts Lobo and Bascom at a serious disadvantage since they played far fewer games than the other three.

You might also consider including Tina Charles

Anyway, just my thoughts if you wanted to run the numbers again

 

[Wally East]

Gehrig was the straw that stired the drink. When Ruth hit 60, Gehrig had 47 and led the league with 175 RBI batting behind Ruth.

RBIs are a terrible stat since it's totally dependent on who gets on base ahead of you.

 

[cbraarj]

Taurasi won with a big freshman class in 2003. Maya lost with a freshman class her Sr.year! Moore won with other AAs ( Rene & Tina in 09, then with Tina in 10 ). Diana won with no other AAs in 03 & 04. Taurasi because of her position at guard made those players better. It's harder for a forward to do that IMO. Both Geno and Sue said Dee could average 30 a game if she wanted to.

 

[Sonny44]

Why didn't you set up a poll?

 

[cookie447]

Some people use statistics the way a drunk uses a lamppost; for support, not illumination. So, never mind the stats, Swagger carries the day and DT wins hands down!

 

[and one]

Why didn't you set up a poll?

Sheer ignorance. Don't know how. I suppose I could have rooted through Nan's instructional but maybe another day When I do I'll also figure out how to attach videos and spreadsheets and the like.

 

[BostonBay]

Cumulative stats like these are over-rated when talking about GOAT. What separates the true GOATs is how they perform in clutch time, when needed, to carry their teams to titles. That's why Lebron will never be close to MJ, imo. He doesnt have the clutch gene like MJ, Bird, Brady, etc.

Thats why DT is my choice. She was clutch & showed leadership in those very key moments (plus she has the stats). This criteria is unfair to Stewart since her teams were so dominant, she didnt need to be clutch. But, if I had to pick 1 player, its DT for that reason.

 

[EricLA]

I think it's becoming pretty much universally accepted that DT is the GOAT for Women's Basketball (ie. the pros - WNBA, Euroleagues, etc.). But as for who was the UCONN GOAT? IMHO there is one thing that separates each of the big 3 from everyone else:

Diana - sure she won a NC with Sue, Swin, Ashja and Tamika, but then she went on to win 2 more with starters of Conlon, Moore, Strother and Turner with Crockett and Battle off the bench. NO ONE in the history of UCONN has done more with less.

Maya - was the 2nd leading vote getter as a FRESHMAN to Parker, and would have won 4 NPOY's if not for that and Tina Charles her junior year. I think she was the most consistent UCONN player in history for her 4 years in Storrs.

Stewie - 4 NC's. Speaks for itself. BUT she was surrounded with the likes of Jefferson, KML, Hartley, Dolson, Faris, Tuck, Williams, Nurse, Samuelson and Collier. Obviously not all in one season, but her supporting cast is probably the best in the history of the game for her 4 years.

Maya accomplished the most "personally" for stats as a player. Stewie has those 4 NC's. BUT IMHO Dee won 3 NC's, and did it 2 years with far less than anyone else. She made everyone around her so much better. For me, she's my UCONN GOAT...

 

[Buzzyboy]

There have been Boneyard discussions on who the Uconn GOAT is over the years although a quick search didn’t pull up a poll on the subject. I’m talking about Uconn career, not including post-college performance. Include that and Taurasi wins hands down, end of discussion.

When just considering Uconn play, my impression is that Taurasi, Moore and Stewart are the acknowledged big three and Taurasi has the most support for Uconn GOAT. To satisfy my own curiosity I compared the Uconn career stats for all three, and added a couple of other greats in Lobo and Bascom.

The players were given points for both statistical categories and for major awards:

The five player’s career statistics were ranked against each other for the following categories:

Field Goal %, 3 Point Field Goal %, average points per game, average rebounds per game, total points scored. In these categories points awarded were 5 points for first in each category, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 for fifth.

Free throw %, average assists per game, average steals per game and average blocks per game. In these categories points awarded were 4 points for first in each category, 3 for second, 2 for third and 1 for both fourth and fifth. These categories were slightly less weighted as they, at least to me, seem somewhat less impactful over a season of games. In the case of steals, blocks and assists, the average number per game is low and the range between highest and lowest not as impactful as say shooting percentages. For instance: in assists per game the high was 4.5 (Taurasi) and the low 2.1 with one outlier of 1 (Bascom), in steals the high was 2 (Moore) and the low 1, and for blocks the high was 3.1 (Lobo) and the low 1, with an outlier of 0.2 (Bascom). For free-throw % the range was very narrow, with a high of 81.9% (Taurasi) and a low of 79.6%, with an outlier of 69.5%d (Lobo).

Honors included are National Championships, NCAA tournament MVP, AP first team All American and Wade Trophy. One point is award for each honor awarded during the player’s career. There are other honors bestowed on players but these seem to be the most important.

Non-collegiate activities such as WNBA or Olympics are not included in the ratings. GOAT is defined here as performance as a Uconn player only.



Bascom: Total Points 22. She ranked 2nd in rebounds per game and blocks per game, 3rd for total points, 4th for free throw %, rebounds per game and steals per game, and 5th for assists per game and blocks per game. She had no honors. Bascom played before Uconn became a women’s basketball power and had national visibility and so her opportunity for national honors were very limited.

Lobo: Total Points 25. She ranked 1st in rebounds per game and blocks per game, 3rd in field goal %, 4th in3 point %, assists per game, and points per game, and 5th in free throw %, steals per game, and career total points. Her honors included one each of National Championship, NCAA tournament MVP, AP first team All American and Wade Trophy recipient. All of the honors came during her senior year.



Taurasi: Total Points 28. She ranked 1st in free throw % and assists per game, 2nd in steals per game, 4th in blocks per game and total points and 5th in field goal %, 3 point %, rebounds per game and points per game. Her honors include 3 National Championships, 2 NCCA tournament MVPs, 2 first team All American, 1 AP player of the year and 1 Wade trophy.



Stewart Points 44 She ranked 1st in field goal %, 2nd in steals per game, blocks per game and total points, 3rd in free throw %, rebounds per game, assists per game and points per game, and 4th in 3 point %. Her honors included 4 national championships, 4 NCAA tournament MVPs, 3 first team All American, 3 AP POY and 2 Wade Trophies.



Moore Points 47 She was 1st in 3 point %, assists per game, steals per game, points per game and total points, 2nd in field goal %, and free throw %, 3rd in blocks per game and 5th in rebounds per game. Her honors include 2 national championships. 1 NCAA tournament MVP, 4 1st team AP All American, 2 AP Player of the Year and 3 Wade Trophies.



Based on just game statistics, Moore was 1st with 35 points, Stewart 2nd with 27 points, Bascom 3rd with 22 points, Lobo 4th with 20 points and Taurasi 5th with 19 points.



I’ve always thought that Maya was the best to ever suit up for Uconn, with Breanna a hair behind and then Diana. Based on the numbers that seems right, while granting that there are factors beyond the numbers that factor in. Diana’s swagger and big game mentality certainly bear consideration.

Bascom was last in points, but if only game stats are looked at she did well, third ahead of both Lobo and Taurasi, who was last. I was surprised at that.

So do the stats and honors tell us everything, or at least a lot about who the GOAT is or is there more to the story? I think there is Moore!

WHO is the GOAT?

That process seems to prove irrevocably what I've said multiple times here, we've had some amazing players in UConn women's basketball history but the best was Maya and from day one, she excelled. Others had learning curves and minute struggles but not Maya. Maya's coming to UConn was also the basis for ending what at the time was easily the best women's basketball rivalry in history, that between Tennessee and the Huskies. Pat Summit suggesting that UConn and Geno had done some illegal and unethical recruiting, which was pure nonsense but created that massive rift. There has never been anyone more gifted or more classy than Maya though many others were (and are) awesome in their own right in both those areas.

 

[and one]

Stewie is the greatest, then Maya and D.

The problem with the approach taken by the OP is that by simply awarding rank points, it doesn't account for when the differences are very great or very small.

One way to account for this and then total things across categories is to divide each player's total for a category by the best total for that category.

For example, for total points, Maya's total is the highest. You would divide her score by itself and get 1.00. Then you divide Stewie's total points by Maya's and get 0.9something and so forth.

You could then do that for each category. Then, total each player's scores. If you wanted to weigh stats, this would be the place to do it. For stats that you valued less, you could multiply those decimals by whatever you felt was appropriate. So, if you thought assists per game were worth 75% of points per game -- the thing you valued most highly -- you'd multiply each player's assists per game by 0.75 to get the weighted score. Then, total each player's weighted score.

Additionally, looking at career totals puts Lobo and Bascom at a serious disadvantage since they played far fewer games than the other three.

You might also consider including Tina Charles

Anyway, just my thoughts if you wanted to run the numbers again

I could have calculated the varience of the stats for each player in each category. For instance, in FG percentage the low percentage was 12.5 percent less than the highest. I didn't bother because most of the variences were small and wouldn't add much to the who is GOAT discussion unless the only criteria was raw stats, which is far from true.

The only stat I included that was a total number rather than an average was total career points. How much importance being 1st or 3rd or 7th on the all time scoring list means is in the eye of the beholder. I added it for what it is worth. This is the only number where games played (really minutes played) matters. For what it is worth, Bascom played in 154 games, Lobo 152 and the others in the 120s. For the career game average stats, the sample size of games was large enough to produce statistically significant numbers.

Yes, I could have included Tina or any of 20 other players that were standout UConn players. And in doing so, not one single person who thought Stewie or Maya or D were GOAT would change their mind. Tina was great, but GOAT? Nah.

 

[Buzzyboy]

I think it's becoming pretty much universally accepted that DT is the GOAT for Women's Basketball (ie. the pros - WNBA, Euroleagues, etc.). But as for who was the UCONN GOAT? IMHO there is one thing that separates each of the big 3 from everyone else:

Diana - sure she won a NC with Sue, Swin, Ashja and Tamika, but then she went on to win 2 more with starters of Conlon, Moore, Strother and Turner with Crockett and Battle off the bench. NO ONE in the history of UCONN has done more with less.

Maya - was the 2nd leading vote getter as a FRESHMAN to Parker, and would have won 4 NPOY's if not for that and Tina Charles her junior year. I think she was the most consistent UCONN player in history for her 4 years in Storrs.

Stewie - 4 NC's. Speaks for itself. BUT she was surrounded with the likes of Jefferson, KML, Hartley, Dolson, Faris, Tuck, Williams, Nurse, Samuelson and Collier. Obviously not all in one season, but her supporting cast is probably the best in the history of the game for her 4 years.

Maya accomplished the most "personally" for stats as a player. Stewie has those 4 NC's. BUT IMHO Dee won 3 NC's, and did it 2 years with far less than anyone else. She made everyone around her so much better. For me, she's my UCONN GOAT...

Respectfully, I disagree .... I think there are ebbs and flows insofar as talented teams nationally and I think that the teams that Diana faced in those two final championships was of a lesser quality .... I know all you could do is beat the team in front of you but as most people concede, year in and year out there are more and more quality teams than there ever have been in women's basketball. The one thing I do know is that UConn lost miserably to Notre Dame in Dee's freshman year when she put on easily one of the worst if not the worst performance in UConn final four history. Maya Moore never was close to having a night like that and the quality of women's basketball had already elevated substantially year by year because of the effect of UConn emerging nationally in the mid to late 90's and drawing more and more young girls into taking up the game

 

[j66kicker]

 

[and one]

Which is the better car, a 1985 Ford Escort or a brand new Porche? You may think the Escort is the better car, but there is a real answer here and it isn't the Ford Escort.

Take 3 great wines, same region and grape, each from a great vintage. Is one better than the others? It would come down to nuances of personal taste that might not even be definable. Or 3 great wines of different regions, grapes and styles. Is the great Bordeaux better than a great Reisling or great Champagne? A matter of taste. You'd be damn lucky to drink any of the three.

D, Maya, Stewie. If you had to pick one to start your team, you could pick one randomly and never have to look back to second guess yourself. For me personally I'd take Maya over D and it is a dead tie between Maya and Stewie. But man would it be sweet to have D on my team.

 

[EricLA]

Respectfully, I disagree .... I think there are ebbs and flows insofar as talented teams nationally and I think that the teams that Diana faced in those two final championships was of a lesser quality .... I know all you could do is beat the team in front of you but as most people concede, year in and year out there are more and more quality teams than there ever have been in women's basketball. The one thing I do know is that UConn lost miserably to Notre Dame in Dee's freshman year when she put on easily one of the worst if not the worst performance in UConn final four history. Maya Moore never was close to having a night like that and the quality of women's basketball had already elevated substantially year by year because of the effect of UConn emerging nationally in the mid to late 90's and drawing more and more young girls into taking up the game

Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion, right?! How blessed are we to be able to have this debate? No other program in the history of WCBB has such a plethora of incredible talent, and in a way it's like choosing between a ruby, sapphire, or emerald. Which is the best? Depends on your opinion. But how amazing to have all 3!!

I didn't mention a diamond because I'm selfishly hoping that Paige is that gemstone!!