Williams and Nelson-Ododa raring to go | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Williams and Nelson-Ododa raring to go

LasVegasYank said:
I may be going out on a limb but, IMHO, CW and ONO will be one of the top recruiting classes of all time.

CW has already demonstrated her immense skill set against the best players in the country in her class and ONO has only begun to scratch the surface of her bucket of talent. There is no comparison between these two and last years class. CW alone is better than all of them combined.

CW will start sooner than later and ONO will see significant minutes early on.

Starting lineup early on - Crystal, KLS, CW, MW and Pheesa
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Today, June 2, 2018, I cannot argue your prediction. It makes perfect sense to me (at this time). We all remember the reserves as we last saw them in March. Hopefully all or most of them will have made that "leap" between the last game and the beginning of official team practice in mid October. From the video clips I’ve seen, and what I’ve read, Christyn appears to be one of those special talents that only comes along every 10-15 years (like Maya and Diana).

Nothing she does in the next four years will surprise me. She has a rare internal drive and desire to be great. Not just good.....but great. She's willing to put in the work and sacrifice to make that happen. I think the worse thing we can do as UConn fans is to assume that CW is your "average" incoming freshman point guard. She's anything but average. I don't think it will take her very long (during team workouts and drills) for her to make that known. I think between the two, CW will take the leap before ONO does. ONO however should not be too far behind.

So, for her to step into the starting lineup on day one would not surprise me. I'm not saying it will happen, only that it would not surprise me. This will only happen if last years reserves allow it to. Geno is going to put his BEST five players on his roster on the court in that first exhibition game in early November.

If she's one of the 5, so be it. No one can accurately predict anything this far out. I will root and cheer for whoever Geno has on the court at any given time. I have no preferences. I just want the team to win and be successful...........period!!!
 
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Bronx23 said:
It's pretty clear that the two freshman will play significant minutes probably from the beginning of the season. Except for MW, I think the remaining non starters from last year are at best role or support players, which is actually ok.

Assuming good health (hopefully), KLS and Pheesa I believe will each average 18-24 points a game. CD should add being one of, if not the best point guards in the country and 10-14 points a game. I expect MW to make a solid but not huge jump this year after having figured out what got in her way last year. Either she or CW will start and the other be the 6th player, with Ono needed to start providing size and inside play offensively and defensively.

I expect CW to have a much stronger freshman season than MW had, as I see her skill set and self confidence, perfectly complimenting CD in the back court. I also see two or three of the others continuing to improve and playing meaningful support roles. My guess is in this order they will contribute. Kyla is a solid, smart player who gets it, and is not afraid to get in there and just play. Boutaly hopefully will be healthy and help inside and be a bit of the enforcer most teams need. Coombs, also again with health concerns, but her quickness and defensive abilities might truly help at times.

The surprise player might be Lexie, who could become a solid backup point guard. Molly brings enormous effort and appears to be a great teammate. That I'm saying is after the first six they only need the remaining five to take turns adding a bit or more, here and there. I believe by mid to the later part of the season, they will be a solid FF contender.

A national championship while possible, will take many things falling into place, and someone becoming that go to player in serious crunch time in regional finals, semi finals and hopefully championship game. KLS assuming she will be and can remain healthy, might well become that player and then be NPOY. Pheesa right behind her. And CW becoming freshman of the year!
Bronx23
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I guess we can begin to refer to Crystal, Pheesa and Lou as "The BIG 3". We know what we'll get from them.
 
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Charliebball said:
certainly the best at transferring.....not at basketball
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AEH was able to get on the court and looked pretty sharp. Showed confidence and a nice shot. Too bad it did not work out with Geno. She was certainly on a trajectory to be the best freshman last year.
 
JustinesGuy said:
AEH was able to get on the court and looked pretty sharp. Showed confidence and a nice shot. Too bad it did not work out with Geno. She was certainly on a trajectory to be the best freshman last year.
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AEH had one good game where she drained 3- 3 pt shots. After that, her performance and trajectory steadily declined until her PT dissapeared and soon thereafter she was gone from the team. Through a series of ups and downs, MW, Mikayla & Lexi hung the whole season. Completing what you started counts a lot in my book.
 
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oldude said:
AEH had one good game where she drained 3- 3 pt shots. After that, her performance and trajectory steadily declined until her PT dissapeared and soon thereafter she was gone from the team. Through a series of ups and downs, MW, Mikayla & Lexi hung the whole season. Completing what you started counts a lot in my book.
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AEH was worlds ahead of the curve than Coombs and Lexi. I mean that’s not even debatable.
Yeah obvi it didn’t work out for AEH. She’s a young girl and it didn’t work out, no crime there. Sounds like Geno got rid of her rather than her quitting. Semantics I guess
 
JustinesGuy said:
AEH was worlds ahead of the curve than Coombs and Lexi. I mean that’s not even debatable.
Yeah obvi it didn’t work out for AEH. She’s a young girl and it didn’t work out, no crime there. Sounds like Geno got rid of her rather than her quitting. Semantics I guess
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MW was the only freshman that had any real impact on the season.......AEH may very well have become a contributor but for whatever reason it didn't work out
 
Kaizen said:
I will add Megan, Crystal, Pheesa and Lou as the core four ... this coming year.
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Kaizen my friend, I would love to add Megan to this group. Unfortunately, I have a small problem. I'm from "Missouri".
She's got to "Show Me" something first!!! I'm hoping she does. I've already gone out on a limb a month or two ago, and predicted that she will be promoted to a starter this coming season...........................but, before she can gain admittance into that prestigious club, she's got to play well at this level, and do it consistently!!! We're ALL pulling for Megan to have a break out season in the same fashion that Dangerfield did last season. :cool:
 
Charliebball said:
MW was the only freshman that had any real impact on the season..AEH may very well have become a contributor but for whatever reason it didn't work out
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Yeah that’s fair for sure. It’s too bad I really liked what I saw. Sometimes it’s not all about stats but I just liked what I saw. I felt she was ahead of the curve. I wish her the best.
 
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LasVegasYank said:
I may be going out on a limb but, IMHO, CW and ONO will be one of the top recruiting classes of all time.

CW has already demonstrated her immense skill set against the best players in the country in her class and ONO has only begun to scratch the surface of her bucket of talent. There is no comparison between these two and last years class. CW alone is better than all of them combined.

CW will start sooner than later and ONO will see significant minutes early on.

Starting lineup early on - Crystal, KLS, CW, MW and Pheesa
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We are going to get absolutely manhandled on the boards next year!
 
TitleTown said:
We are going to get absolutely manhandled on the boards next year!
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they may or may not be the case........if Camara returns to her best that should be helpful and if ONO gets playing time I think you will be pleasantly surprised.........additionally MW and CW should each be pulling down a minimum of five rebounds each if playing regularly.....
 
JustinesGuy said:
AEH was worlds ahead of the curve than Coombs and Lexi. I mean that’s not even debatable.
Yeah obvi it didn’t work out for AEH. She’s a young girl and it didn’t work out, no crime there. Sounds like Geno got rid of her rather than her quitting. Semantics I guess
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I tend to agree with you on AEH relative to Mikayla & Lexi, but I did go back and look at AEH’s stats, all in OOC games, just to gauge her progress or lack there of.

Stanford: 0-2, 0 pts
Cal : 0 pts, 1 A
MD: 2/3 from 3, 6 pts, 1 TO
UCLA: DNP
MSU: 3/5 (2-3), 8 pts
NV: DNP
ND: DNP
DePaul: 0/1, 0 pts, 2 TO’s
OK: 0 pts, 1 PF, 1 TO
Duquesne: 0/2, 0 pts, 1 PF, 1 St

Clearly she showed some shooting touch in MD & MSU, but after that, AEH did not play in two close games. When she did get to play in her last 3 games, she did not score, assist or rb. The only positive stat was her 1 steal in her last game as a Husky on 12/22.

My only comment on AEH is that she was a freshman who wasn’t ready, just like many other UConn freshmen. I wish she hung around and decided to put in the effort to see what she could have become as a Husky. Unfortunately we will never know.
 
For Freshmen, Geno awards playing time based on their performance & attitude in practice. My sense is Geno did not like what he saw from AEH, & AEH probably didnt agree with the process. Not surprised that AEH left if her goal was to play basketball as a career. I'm surprised more players havent left UConn over the years. Its a tricky balancing act for Geno in terms of recruiting.
 
TitleTown said:
We are going to get absolutely manhandled on the boards next year!
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Only against a few teams, like Baylor, in my opinion. Pheesa is a good rebounder. Lou has improved and is decent. Megan is a strong rebounder. Olivia can rebound. Christyn is one of the best rebounding guards I've seen. Look at her work in the Jordan Brand game. Batouly looks like a fierce rebounder.
 
BostonFan said:
Not surprised that AEH left if her goal was to play basketball as a career.
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If AEH’s goal was to “play basketball as a career,” there is absolutely no better place on the planet to develop the skill set required to do that than at UConn. IMO, her departure had more to do with an unrealistic expectation of PT as a freshman that developed into an attitude problem for Geno and the Huskies.

Hopefully, for AEH’s sake, she will bring a positive attitude when she suits up for MSU, because Vic Schaefer is every bit as demanding as Geno.
 
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oldude said:
If AEH’s goal was to “play basketball as a career,” there is absolutely no better place on the planet to develop the skill set required to do that than at UConn. IMO, her departure had more to do with an unrealistic expectation of PT as a freshman that developed into an attitude problem for Geno and the Huskies.

Hopefully, for AEH’s sake, she will bring a positive attitude when she suits up for MSU, because Vic Schaefer is every bit as demanding as Geno.
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But in the dinner recording, which I didn't see, he is supposed to have said it wasn't about PT.
 
Gus Mahler said:
But in the dinner recording, which I didn't see, he is supposed to have said it wasn't about PT.
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Of course we will never know for sure, but after the MSU game, her best, AEH sat in the 2 close games to Nevada & ND. The next game she played was vs DePaul, and she did not play well. After that AEH played very little in games vs OK & Duquesne, and showed little to distinguish herself.

I suppose there could have been any one of a number of problems, but when a player is not doing what they are supposed to be doing, and the coach is not happy with the player, the root cause is often PT.
 
Charliebball said:
they may or may not be the case...if Camara returns to her best that should be helpful and if ONO gets playing time I think you will be pleasantly surprised....additionally MW and CW should each be pulling down a minimum of five rebounds each if playing regularly.....
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While we're talking about willing and able rebounders, let's not forget about Napheesa Collier. She has already proven to be a willing and able rebounder. She's not afraid of contact, and has pulled down her share of rebounds in the last 3 years. :cool:
 
Geno plays freshmen who earn playing time in practice. That is it. Forget tendencies, opinions, tall-tales, etc. Since the 2000-01 season 56% of all freshmen played on average more than 15 minutes per game. That is 29 out of 52 freshmen. Sixteen freshmen averaged less than 10 minutes a game. Excepting Maria Colon, these players contributed as practice players and bench cheer squad. This does not bode well for Bent, Irwin, Gordon, and Coombs. All who averaged less the 10 minutes per game did so because they were not good players at least not at UCONN. Twenty-nine freshmen averaged more then 15 minutes per game which is the cut off for further success in the UONN program. See stats below.
upload_2018-6-4_16-48-53.png
 
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SVCBeercats said:
Geno plays freshmen who earn playing time in practice. That is it. Forget tendencies, opinions, tall-tales, etc. Since the 2000-01 season 56% of all freshmen played on average more than 15 minutes pregame. That is 29 out of 52 freshmen. Sixteen freshmen averaged less than 1o minutes a game. Excepting Maria Colon, these players contributed as practice players and bench cheer squad. This does not bode well for Bent, Irwin, Gordon, and Coombs. All who averaged less the 10 minutes per game did so because they were not good players at least not at UCONN. Twenty-nine freshmen averaged more then 15 minutes per game which is the cut off for further success in the UONN program. See stats below.
View attachment 31802
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Thanks for the info. I'd put the cutoff closer to 12-13 mpg, because these players were contributors, some to a substantial degree late in their careers:

Ketia Swanier 13.9
Kalana Greene 13.6
Kaili McLaren 12.5
Lorin Dixon 14.4
Kiah Stokes 13.4

Ketia, Kalana, and Kiah all were drafted and played multiple years in the W.

I agree, though, that Kyla, Molly, Lexi, and Mikayla are unlikely to be impact players. Mikayla may be the exception, because of her athleticism.
 
SVCBeercats said:
Geno plays freshmen who earn playing time in practice. That is it. Forget tendencies, opinions, tall-tales, etc. Since the 2000-01 season 56% of all freshmen played on average more than 15 minutes pregame. That is 29 out of 52 freshmen. Sixteen freshmen averaged less than 1o minutes a game. Excepting Maria Colon, these players contributed as practice players and bench cheer squad. This does not bode well for Bent, Irwin, Gordon, and Coombs. All who averaged less the 10 minutes per game did so because they were not good players at least not at UCONN. Twenty-nine freshmen averaged more then 15 minutes per game which is the cut off for further success in the UONN program. See stats below.
View attachment 31802
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if the two freshmen aren't getting at least 15 minutes playing time each, I'm not sure who's getting their minutes off the bench..........if Coombs is healthy and at UConn I believe she also still has much to offer
 
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Just a comment on Mikayla’s freshman season performance. Some symptoms of DVT include leg pain, leg fatigue and dizziness. If Mikayla was experiencing any or all of those symptoms, it’s not surprising that she did not become a major contributor last season. I for one am very anxious to see how Mikayla performs now that she has a clean bill of health.
 
oldude said:
Just a comment on Mikayla’s freshman season performance. Some symptoms of DVT include leg pain, leg fatigue and dizziness. If Mikayla was experiencing any or all of those symptoms, it’s not surprising that she did not become a major contributor last season. I for one am very anxious to see how Mikayla performs now that she has a clean bill of health.
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Good points!
 
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