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Message: [QUOTE="oldude, post: 5156483, member: 7511"] I continue to see suggestions from my fellow BY’ers to the effect that Paige should have the ball in her hands more, or just about all the time. While that worked for CC and to some extent for JuJu, there are a bunch of reasons why it doesn’t make sense for Paige. First off CC & JuJu have had some abysmal shooting games when they became the only real scoring option for their respective teams, resulting in several ugly losses. Add the fact that CC in particular didn’t waste a lot of energy on defense and what we see is an all or nothing at all strategy by Iowa & USC respectively. The misconception stems from the idea that Paige should have the ball in her hands for 94’ every possession, bringing the ball up the court, initiating the offense and, more often than not, taking the shot. UConn has had a number of great players through the years. But that style of play has never been the way Geno coached the game. Even during Paige’s NPOY season, she shared the PG responsibilities with both E & Nika. Assume that Paige brings the ball up on every possession. First off, she will be dogged by the opposing team’s best defender. Once she gets to the top of the key and attempts to initiate the offense, opponents will double her, force the ball out of her hands, and the other 4 players will be “stuck” running the offense. Add the fact that Paige does more running on defense than any other Husky, and certainly more than CC. Not only does she guard her man, but she also drops down to double the post when the ball goes there and also flies out to the arc to close on open shooters when UConn is in “scramble mode” on defense. Take a look at Paige when there’s a stoppage of play. She’s in great shape. But when you see her in a closeup during a time out, she is often breathing deeply trying to recover from literally playing her butt off. The way to get Paige the ball is to let somebody else bring the ball up and initiate the offense. Get the ball to Paige with a dribble handoff, elevator screen, feed her in the low post, etc. The absolute key for Paige to be successful is for everyone else on the team to make more plays and hit their shots with a lot more frequency. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach