Who starts next season?

[Carnac]

With Amari Deberry coming in the 2021 class, I don't think Geno would take Charli Collier even if she were available in the transfer portal. It would just interfere with Amari's and Piath's development.

Agreed. I don't think he will/would either. She had her chance, but chose to go elsewhere. She would have to seek us out, I would not contact her. If I'm Geno and she wanted to come to UConn, I'd take her, BUT.....................I'd make no promises, and I would tell her plainly and distinctly that she would be BEHIND Piath and Amari on the depth chart. Crap happens. You may have need of her services somewhere down the line because of injury or foul trouble. You can never have too much height.

 

[Ozimoto]

My dull and totally unimaginative response to this question is "whoever Geno decides." Since I won't be privy to practices I have no input on which to base such a speculation. That is where starters are determined, not based on high school performances or performances at other schools.

 

[HuskylnSC]

You guys need to stop drooling. My screen is getting soaked!

 

[Charliebball]

Way too early to know. IF Geno continues to start Kyla the rest of the year, I could see Paige starting next year. But I think that's unlikely. My starting 5:

Westbrook, Williams, Makurat, Walker, ONO

HUGE minutes off the bench - Griffin, Bueckers, Edwards, Muhl

6-8 MPG - McLean

Mop up time or possible redshirt (like Jess Moore - non medical), Gabriel.

People have asked "how do you keep everyone happy". My solution - not a single starter averages over 25 MPG. If the starters take up about 110 MPG, that leaves 90 for the remaining 7. With a group that large, I can almost guarantee there will be someone in the doghouse, injured, sick, etc. So that leaves 6.

20 MPG for Bueckers and Griffin, 16 for Muhl and Edwards. That leaves 14 minutes for McLean and Gabriel. Again, if someone is injured, sick, dog house, it will be easier. But Geno's first step is to get all the starters to buy into less minutes per game.

Lastly, how do you keep players happy if they are playing 12-18 minutes off he bench? IMHO, run up the score. Sorry opponents, but it's not our job to keep the score down. Geno will have a huge roster and that means letting the subs and reserves go out and play intense defense, full court press, fast breaks, etc. I seriously could see us averaging close to, or over 100, PPG next season and the season after.

I'd be really surprised if Bueckers doesn't start every game of her four year career starting with game one.....................I can't recall a more college ready back court player...........................she's a freshman in name only

 

[Kaizen]

Bueckers, Williams, Walker, ONO. Westbrook

Geno normally will not start a freshman but I think Paige is different.

 

[CocoHusky]

I'm finding this conjecture kind of interesting. Apparently, most everyone posting has a very high openion of Westbrook. Perhaps I would as well if I had been watching Tenn women's basketball. However they played so lousy I never bothered. Somehow a player is coming from there to UConn and is annoited as a starter next year in the BY.
I'm thinking that the next 4-6 years who starts my be a meaningless word/concept as to the role and value of the players to the program and winning.

Congrats seems like you just spent 87 words & two paragraphs on this meaningless concept. Thanks for posting.

 

[CocoHusky]

This is a good example of what I don't like about the BY. Enjoy the moment.

Yea I hate that too-when the BY forces you to read and respond to a thread.

 

[Mdoggie]

Dont know who starts but im looking forward to Aubrey at the high post where Kyla is now playing. I imagine the offense running through her. One big difference is she will be more of an attacker from that spot as she should be able to get to the rack much like Gabby. Her athleticism is gonna give defenders fits.

 

[Hayven]

I’m more excited about practices being more difficult than games

 

[JonathanXIV]

Bobcat, you may have missed it but Tonyc and plenty of others are posting extensively about this year’s team and very much enjoying the delevopment of this group of players. Speculating about what appears to be a very bright future is just another way of enjoying what Geno is doing. If you don’t like this thread just ignore it or you could start your own thread “Top 10 Reasons I Don’t Like the BY.”

Are we limited to 10?

 

[DEpup]

I’m more excited about practices being more difficult than games

I am most excited about Geno being able to send clear messages to players by benching them or not starting them to get maximum effort because the depth will be there....

 

[Zorro]

Exactly! Practices will be VERY competitive.

 

[Florida Fan]

Who will start? Experience starts while eveybody else learns the system. It would be like running a machine and one widget breaks and you dont have the right widget to replace it so you put a widget in that really doesnt fit and let the machine run which wont make it effficent but it will work ok. The freshman coming in have to learn the system, and have to learn how to execute within the system. Most likely they wont start. It wont matter much either because we will be so good with all our number 1 and 2 HS players and ONO. Geno will work everybody else in. I remember seeing an interview with Geno talking about playing 6 and how everybody would like to play more kids and then he said next season do you think I can play only 6. Ive got to play them all. We will be so dominate next season that there will be time to get everybody minutes. I think we will get a good taste of how good UConn is in February. We will be alot better then we are right now.

With the next 2 classes coming in and Im assuming Fudd comes too we are going to be so good at every position and so deep at every position and experienced at every position that this could be the winningest team in UConn history. Our record of 111 in a row could be broken. We have that potential with the players coming in.

Understand the rest of this season. We still need things to happen. What we have is a terrific passing team led by Kyla and Mak. With that said I would like to see both of them take the ball to the hoop a little more. We have great guard play and it will get better. CW is exactly where Meg was last season and she will get better. Geno will unlock the potential of this team and individually and by the time March comes we will be right where we're suppose to be.

A big change from will we make it to the post season to nothing to worry about and we'll kill everyone next year. Okay, an embarrassment of riches is certainly welcome, but, this season, a lot of questions have been answered by the bench, the veterans and the frosh, everybody rising to the challenge. Go Huskies.

 

[Triad]

Who will start? Experience starts while eveybody else learns the system. It would be like running a machine and one widget breaks and you dont have the right widget to replace it so you put a widget in that really doesnt fit and let the machine run which wont make it effficent but it will work ok. The freshman coming in have to learn the system, and have to learn how to execute within the system. Most likely they wont start. It wont matter much either because we will be so good with all our number 1 and 2 HS players and ONO. Geno will work everybody else in. I remember seeing an interview with Geno talking about playing 6 and how everybody would like to play more kids and then he said next season do you think I can play only 6. Ive got to play them all. We will be so dominate next season that there will be time to get everybody minutes. I think we will get a good taste of how good UConn is in February. We will be alot better then we are right now.

With the next 2 classes coming in and Im assuming Fudd comes too we are going to be so good at every position and so deep at every position and experienced at every position that this could be the winningest team in UConn history. Our record of 111 in a row could be broken. We have that potential with the players coming in.

Understand the rest of this season. We still need things to happen. What we have is a terrific passing team led by Kyla and Mak. With that said I would like to see both of them take the ball to the hoop a little more. We have great guard play and it will get better. CW is exactly where Meg was last season and she will get better. Geno will unlock the potential of this team and individually and by the time March comes we will be right where we're suppose to be.

Who starts? The players that play hard, has terrific talent, and practices hard. The best guess is to begin next season: Olivia, CW, Megan, Griffin/Ania and XXX. If Geno goes with his historic type of experienced line up. If the incoming talent won't b e denied it could become interesting quickly.

 

[Triad]

Who starts THIS season? (when it really counts)

Seems there are only 8 to choose from and 4 are nearly a given the question becomes who is the 6th player. Who become 7 or 8th . As you infer this season hasn't an established line up, and the season is young.

 

[CL82]

Quite a lever you got there, fella.

#quotesIdidnotexpecttoreadontheBYtoday

 

[JonathanXIV]

This year we have 4 set starters, and one of them graduates. That gives us 3 established starters for next year with 2 spots to fill. Competing for those spots (in rough order) are Westbrook, Bueckers, Makurat, Griffin and Edwards. My guess, Westbrook and Bueckers. Given the competition, however, whoever gets a starting spot will have earned it.

 

[Tonyc]

The way you make players better is make them compete against each other. One thing is for sure those coming in next season will need to be tweeked, some will need to be developed, some will need to re-learn the fundementals and they will all have to learn the UConn system. With that said we will and they will be going through growing pains making mistakes and thinking instead of reacting and that all comes from learning it Genos way. So with CD Kyla and Molly graduating and with 5 new freshman coming in all with tremedous potential I expect those who catch on the fastest will play more then those who need more time but all of them within time will be part of a NC team.

 

[JoePgh]

This year we have 4 set starters, and one of them graduates. That gives us 3 established starters for next year with 2 spots to fill. Competing for those spots (in rough order) are Westbrook, Bueckers, Makurat, Griffin and Edwards. My guess, Westbrook and Bueckers. Given the competition, however, whoever gets a starting spot will have earned it.

I agree with you for the most part, but the lineup that you suggest would have sizes of 6-5, 6-0, 6-0, 5-11, 5-10. That is definitely on the small size, even smaller than this year when Kyla or Anna is in the lineup. For that reason, I think that Aaliyah Edwards may break into the starting lineup ahead of Paige, just because of a need at her position. But everyone that you mention (along with Nika and to a lesser extent Piath and Mir) will get some significant playing time.

 

[bluedevil]

What if Meg skips her senior season for the WNBA..I think she is eligible

 

[JoePgh]

What if Meg skips her senior season for the WNBA..I think she is eligible

If she does leave, she will be the first UConn player to leave having neither finished her Bachelor's degree nor being four years out of high school. Unlike Azura and Morgan, she did not have an inactive year. For those reasons, I don't think she will leave -- but of course, anything is possible. I don't care to deal in hypotheticals until we know that they have some reality to them.

Note that Napheesa was in the same situation -- she could have skipped her senior year but chose not to. It worked out OK for her. I'm not sure anyone would say that it worked out well for Azura to leave early.

 

[JonathanXIV]

I agree with you for the most part, but the lineup that you suggest would have sizes of 6-5, 6-0, 6-0, 5-11, 5-10. That is definitely on the small size, even smaller than this year when Kyla or Anna is in the lineup. For that reason, I think that Aaliyah Edwards may break into the starting lineup ahead of Paige, just because of a need at her position. But everyone that you mention (along with Nika and to a lesser extent Piath and Mir) will get some significant playing time.

I expect a number of different starting lineups next year, given how young so many of the potential starters are - transfer, two freshman, two sophomore. And fully expect that the starting lineup at the end of the year will be different than the one in the beginning of the year.

 

[huskyd]

#quotesIdidnotexpecttoreadontheBYtoday

Here's another one: "Life is just an extension of high school." Leverage that . . .

 

[chrissaran]

Olivia, Megan, Evina, Paige and Aubrey

 

[Dokey]

We’re probably a quarter of the way through season so who knows how Mak and Aubrey will be playing by game 32. The only thing we know for sure is Dangerfield will be gone along with Kyla and Molly. I am not worried about who the five starters will be, I am looking forward to the strongest UConn bench in ages. There won’t be many, if any, 40 minute starters. Plus these players all have unique talents, just imagine being the opposing coach and coming up with a defensive strategy, asking your players to change strategy on a dime.