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Message: [QUOTE="NycUcWbbFan, post: 5156928, member: 13453"] As has been [URL='https://the-boneyard.com/threads/will-the-real-paige-bueckers-please-stand-up.204534/post-5154627']pointed out[/URL], Geno’s teams win championships the UConn way. For [U]timing expectations on evaluating[/U] UConn’s 5 incomers (JMASK: Jana, Morgan, Allie, Sarah, Kaitlyn &2) and 4 sophomores (KK, Ash, Q and Ice), it might be instructive to remember [U]Nika’s freshman season[/U]: [LIST] [*]Nika didn’t become Nika-[B]the-basketball-player[/B] until after the Nika-in-tears game on [U]January 19, 2021[/U] in her freshman season; [*]See: [URL='https://www.uconnwbbweekly.com/p/how-nika-muhl-escaped-the-doghouse-to-become-a-uconn-legend']How Nika Mühl escaped the doghouse to become a UConn legend[/URL] [*]Nika would become the starting PG on a #1 seeded UConn by the NCAAT; [*]Nika got injured in the first round of the NCAAT; [URL='https://www.courant.com/2021/03/31/nika-muhls-status-for-the-final-four-is-uncertain-why-geno-auriemma-thinks-the-uconn-womens-basketball-team-needs-her-back/']Geno[/URL]: “No, I’m not happy [with the rotation]. I’m not as happy as if we had Nika 100 percent,” he said. “If we had Nika 100 percent, we’re a different basketball team. Much different basketball team.” [/LIST] Geno and CD — coaches of 40 years — have a knack for producing the [B]best basketball player versions[/B] of the team for the postseason, and [URL='https://the-boneyard.com/threads/early-season-losses-a-look-back-at-lineups.204548/post-5155002']this year should be no exception[/URL]. Note that one of Geno’s highest compliments of a player is when he says that such player is a basketball player not just a player who plays basketball. Other than Sarah, each of the above-mentioned players have partly mentally-handicapped aspects to their game that is currently hurting the team with elite competition [U]through 13 of this season’s 31 regular season games[/U]. [LIST] [*]With enough seasoning, the number of such aspects, will diminish enough to produce UConn’s best possible postseason team; [*]This is based on a [B]belief[/B] that this team is just too talented, too together and too desirous &1 to succeed for each other and Geno and CD’s (particularly prior year) excellence will not allow for failure. [/LIST] I am of the camp that it is just a [U]matter of time[/U] before each and every major rotation player will round to form by the postseason. &1 Differently expressed than the molten “I want to hit something orange” aura of Diana, Shea, Jen and Nika. Some have somewhat criticized the demeanor in this regard by Paige, Azzi and Aubrey etc. when such demeanor is perhaps more the norm among Geno’s championship teams. &2 About being “unhappy” on [I]Geno’s decision[/I] to bring in Kaitlyn: [LIST] [*]It is Geno’s team, and he had a calculus in bringing in Kaitlyn which is probably [URL='https://the-boneyard.com/threads/where-uconns-starting-lineup-is-heading.203365/post-5112563']something like this[/URL]; [*]In addition, I would imagine he surmised that there was a great chance that only Paige and the four sophomores were the most experienced players for the bulk of the 2024-25 out-of-conference schedule and he didn’t want that; [*]And he loathed when he lost Nika to injury (above) and when Nika fouled out of games (such as the Notre Dame game) and probably when end-of-season fatigue affected play. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]

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