Yanna is just happy to be playing ball again | The Boneyard

Yanna is just happy to be playing ball again

hoopsdiva said:
Technically she could apply for 2 redshirt years. It's up to her if she wants to request any or both of those years.
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Could she? Wouldn’t that be six years total to complete 4 seasons. I though that after the Covid exemption expired the limit reverted to 5 years.
 
Bone Dog said:
Could she? Wouldn’t that be six years total to complete 4 seasons. I though that after the Covid exemption expired the limit reverted to 5 years.
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I believe exceptions can be applied for (though there's no guarantee they will be granted.) And at the end of the day, it's up to the individual athlete to decide if she even wants to apply for additional year(s) or if she's ready to move on.
 
Bone Dog said:
Could she? Wouldn’t that be six years total to complete 4 seasons. I though that after the Covid exemption expired the limit reverted to 5 years.
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NCAA 6th Year of Eligibility

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My thoughts Yanna's playing time this year.

1. She looks healthy and strong. If the video snippets of her workouts provide any clues, the rust she discusses is not apparent. Game shape though is a different animal.

2. The problem is, it is a crowded position. If she plays the 4 or 5, she is competing with Sarah, Sareh, Ice, Jana, maybe CD, maybe Morgan and Gandy.

3. I would hope that she stays healthy, earns minutes when she can, gets rid of the remaining rust and commits herself to at least one more year after this.

4. Of course, it would not surprise me if she earned regular rotation minutes. She has that much ability.
 
victor64 said:
The problem is, it is a crowded position. If she plays the 4 or 5, she is competing with Sarah, Sareh, Ice, Jana, maybe CD, maybe Morgan and Gandy.
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I wonder how crowded it really is. There are quite a few 6’2” players. But they aren’t all equally power forwards, which is exactly what Ayanna is. Sarah seems like she is the primary competition along with Ice. Blanca and Morgan could cover the 4 in a pinch, but they look more like wings to me. Serah could play the 4, but I doubt we’ll see her spend much (if any) minutes not at the 5. And Gandy is not likely ever to play anything other than the 5. Jana too.

I realize these position numbers don’t exactly fit UConn. But if I can translate to something more suitable, Geno will play Ice and Ayanna in the frontcourt when he wants a big strong player to support Serah or Sarah. They can supply muscle and strength, rebounding and defense, rock solid screens. What they won’t provide and several other players can is abundant offense. They will function more or less like Kiah Stokes did in her time. So, their minutes will be situational. And of the two, Ayanna is quicker and runs the floor better than Ice.

Morgan and Blanca and Carol will be competing for a different category of minutes. We could call it the 3, or we could describe it situationally. When Geno needs scrappy perimeter defense, a feisty long armed player to anchor the press at midcourt, or sudden offense, slashing to the rim and double teaming opposing bigs, he will send one of them in. Of the three, Carol may be the savviest, Blanca may be the most talented at the present moment, and Morgan at her best has really dependable ball handling skills and knows how to scrap for the ball in the paint. I suspect this season Blanca will mostly win this competition.

In the end, though, I expect the February starting 6 to be KK Azzi Ash Blanca Sarah and Serah. Of the 200 minutes available, this group will probably take up somewhat more than 120. The minutes up for grabs among Ayanna Carol Ice Kayleigh Morgan Allie Kelis Gandy amounts to something around 75, five or take. I have a feeling Gandy and Kelis will see the least out of this group, but not nothing.
 
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Bone Dog said:
I wonder how crowded it really is. There are quite a few 6’2” players. But they aren’t all equally power forwards, which is exactly what Ayanna is. Sarah seems like she is the primary competition along with Ice. Blanca and Morgan could cover the 4 in a pinch, but they look more like wings to me. Serah could play the 4, but I doubt we’ll see her spend much (if any) minutes not at the 5. And Gandy is not likely ever to play anything other than the 5. Jana too.

I realize these position numbers don’t exactly fit UConn. But if I can translate to something more suitable, Geno will play Ice and Ayanna in the frontcourt when he wants a big strong player to support Serah or Sarah. They can supply muscle and strength, rebounding and defense, rock solid screens. What they won’t provide and several other players can is abundant offense. They will function more or less like Kiah Stokes did in her time. So, their minutes will be situational. And of the two, Ayanna is quicker and runs the floor better than Ice.

Morgan and Blanca and Carol will be competing for a different category of minutes. We could call it the 3, or we could describe it situationally. When Geno needs scrappy perimeter defense, a feisty long armed player to anchor the press at midcourt, or sudden offense, slashing to the rim and double teaming opposing bigs, he will send one of them in. Of the three, Carol may be the savviest, Blanca may be the most talented at the present moment, and Morgan at her best has really dependable ball handling skills and knows how to scrap for the ball in the paint. I suspect this season Blanca will mostly win this competition.

In the end, though, I expect the February starting 6 to be KK Azzi Ash Blanca Sarah and Serah. Of the 200 minutes available, this group will probably take up somewhat more than 120. The minutes up for grabs among Ayanna Carol Ice Kayleigh Morgan Allie Kelis Gandy amounts to something around 75, five or take. I have a feeling Gandy and Kelis will see the least out of this group, but not nothing.
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You detailed the situation perfectly. However, we come to the same conclusion. No matter how healthy she is, significant minutes, barring injuries, will be tough to come by. Possible because of her skills and physique but no matter what, it will take time to re earn Geno's trust.
 
To me, Ayanna has two major issues she, herself has to overcome:
  1. She fouled WAY TOO MUCH and that is a recipe for the bench
  2. She was “offensively challenged” and I don’t think 2 years of non basketball activities will have helped her develop that part of her game.
Now add in the position competition of Strong, Williams, Ice, Jana, Blanca, CD and Morgan (players who will have earned playing time) for post, power forward and wing, I just don’t see her garnering playing time unless injuries really hit this team.

I wish her well and hope she is healthy and happy and we shall see.
 
I really am of a different mind than the tenor of this thread. The great coaches coach the teams they have and if it means they have less really good, impactful players then you coach what you have to get the best results. Remember the Pheesa-Lou-Gabby years and no bench? He still got to the Final Four. If you have 9 such players like last year( after Aubrey came back and Morgan was hurt) you coach them and you devise offenses, defenses, game plans, and other things that your players can do , like small ball.

I don't understand the predilection to want to have a winnowed down number of players on this team getting the minutes or even why that matters. All it will do is tire out your top tier players when you have perhaps the deepest team in the history of women's basketball. It's not going to happen that way unless these players really underperform. The opposite is probably going to happen. With the competition in practice, the height, the power, the skill, you are going to see less minutes, even in February, for the top tier players because these other players are so good, so strong(think Ayanna) so hungry (think Ayanna and Caroline) that Geno will figure out a way to coach this team, not a smaller part of it.

We all need to just wait and see. Is anyone seriously suggesting that if Ayanna, Caroline, Ice, Jana,Morgan, Kayleigh, and/or Allie, are having strong seasons, that Geno will sit them because he has a built in number of maximum players who get a certain number of minutes? I really hope not. The players will decide who plays by how they practice and play. If it means you play 9 you play 9 if it means you play 12 you play 12. No opposing second team is going to want to be on the other side of our second string bench.

If anything, Geno proved last year how adaptable and lucid he is as a coach. He isn't changing his spots from last year. He will just grow new ones. Who knows what he will devise? Please bear in mind that he had a solid 8 player rotation last year, because he had a solid 8 players. If he has 10 this year you are going to see 10. Look what he did when he finally had a bench.

No limits on this team please. You may be seeing one of the best ever, including 2002.
 
BBallF said:
Is anyone seriously suggesting that if Ayanna, Caroline, Ice, Jana,Morgan, Kayleigh, and/or Allie, are having strong seasons, that Geno will sit them because he has a built in number of maximum players who get a certain number of minutes?
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I’m pretty sure no one is suggesting anything like this. It’s amazing how posts like this one proliferate this time of year. People are speculating about what might happen, not insisting that it will happen. It’s what fans do. You don’t have to try to shame people over it.
 
Not my intention. It's just that this notion that there is a magic Geno number of players and minutes is constantly resurfacing and it is dissembling in the sense that it does not recognize the very unique nature and potential of this extraordinarily talented and deep team. I for one can't wait to see what Geno will do with it.
 
Bone Dog said:
Could she? Wouldn’t that be six years total to complete 4 seasons. I though that after the Covid exemption expired the limit reverted to 5 years.
Expand ...
As pointed out, a player can apply for an exception to the five-year rule. The NCAA is more likely to grant an exception if the player is applying for a sixth year due to injuries as opposed to having missed multiple seasons due to transfers, academic problems, etc..
 
Ayanna will be relegated to a bench role, not a “first eight” position. Her skills were lacking beforehand. Two years away from competition will have further eroded her development.
 
Bone Dog said:
I wonder how crowded it really is. There are quite a few 6’2” players. But they aren’t all equally power forwards, which is exactly what Ayanna is. Sarah seems like she is the primary competition along with Ice. Blanca and Morgan could cover the 4 in a pinch, but they look more like wings to me. Serah could play the 4, but I doubt we’ll see her spend much (if any) minutes not at the 5. And Gandy is not likely ever to play anything other than the 5. Jana too.

I realize these position numbers don’t exactly fit UConn. But if I can translate to something more suitable, Geno will play Ice and Ayanna in the frontcourt when he wants a big strong player to support Serah or Sarah. They can supply muscle and strength, rebounding and defense, rock solid screens. What they won’t provide and several other players can is abundant offense. They will function more or less like Kiah Stokes did in her time. So, their minutes will be situational. And of the two, Ayanna is quicker and runs the floor better than Ice.

Morgan and Blanca and Carol will be competing for a different category of minutes. We could call it the 3, or we could describe it situationally. When Geno needs scrappy perimeter defense, a feisty long armed player to anchor the press at midcourt, or sudden offense, slashing to the rim and double teaming opposing bigs, he will send one of them in. Of the three, Carol may be the savviest, Blanca may be the most talented at the present moment, and Morgan at her best has really dependable ball handling skills and knows how to scrap for the ball in the paint. I suspect this season Blanca will mostly win this competition.

In the end, though, I expect the February starting 6 to be KK Azzi Ash Blanca Sarah and Serah. Of the 200 minutes available, this group will probably take up somewhat more than 120. The minutes up for grabs among Ayanna Carol Ice Kayleigh Morgan Allie Kelis Gandy amounts to something around 75, five or take. I have a feeling Gandy and Kelis will see the least out of this group, but not nothing.
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Ice is way better offensively than Kiah Stokes. As for Yanna, I guess we’ll have to wait and see but I’d have to say she’s probably better too. Of course, Kiah was a defensive monster compared to either.
 
Viet Vet said:
Ayanna will be relegated to a bench role, not a “first eight” position. Her skills were lacking beforehand. Two years away from competition will have further eroded her development.
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How do you know? A better statement would have been:

"Two years away from competition may have further eroded her development."
 
My view is Ayanna has a reasonable shot at being in the rotation as the backup 4 behind Sarah. If you look at the competition by their natural position, it is Ice vs. Ayanna for the backup 4. One will probably be in the rotation, but not both. Neither has done enough thus far to be a rotation lock, and both face possible additional competition if Geno goes small or big.

So the first question is who is better between Ice and Ayanna. Obviously Ice has an additional year of experience, but both had similar first year results that were generally less than anticipated by their recruiting rankings. In Ayanna's case I wonder how much her knee woes affected that first year. The reason I say that is her overall production was actually significantly better early in the year than later on, the opposite of what you might expect, particularly from a great athlete that was relatively raw regarding her basketball skills.

So one theory is she was playing hurt for most of the year, and those first year numbers should not be considered a baseline to estimate what she could be, and that we have not yet seen what a relatively healthy Ayanna can be. On the other hand, although she looks good in brief video clips, some of her comments I recall seem to suggest that Ayanna's dunking days may be over, and that at least pertaining to the knees, maybe we will never see the kind of athlete she was in high school. I don't know what the condition of the knees were her first year or now, but this year we will find out.

So while I view this mostly as a two way battle between Ayanna and Ice for 1 rotation spot, if neither performs at a high enough level Geno can use a 3 or a 5, going small or big and not use a regular 4 as a backup at all. Morgan, Caroline and Jana are all threats to the playing time of whoever emerges as the best between Ayanna and Ice. Morgan and Caroline could move over to the four, and in Jana's case she is a threat to the 4's not because she would play there, but because she and Serah could play together, with Jana at the 5 and Serah sliding down to the 4.
 
In my opinion, Ayanna has stronger hands and is a better rebounder than Ice, and her strength is playing close to the basket. Ice has a better shot but never seems to take many shots (nor does Ayanna). In any scenario involving either Ice or Ayanna, the other 4 teammates should supply plenty of offense. Thus, contributing with rebounding and defense may be their most important contribution. If Ayanna develops a 5-10 foot shot, I’d give the edge to her, especially for her rebounding. The recent practice video shows Ayanna driving to the basket- she’s like a train, not going to stop her- not sure Ice can do that. From what I remember, on defense Ayanna needed some work as she sometimes got too many fouls going for shot fakes or being too aggressive when in games instead of holding position. Then again, I wish Ice had quicker feet and could better stay between her opponent and the basket. Practice will clarify which is ahead of the other.
 
Ice ma
Cuango said:
Ice is way better offensively than Kiah Stokes. As for Yanna, I guess we’ll have to wait and see but I’d have to say she’s probably better too. Of course, Kiah was a defensive monster compared to either.
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Ice may have better offensive skills, but her actual point production per 40 is almost identical to Kiah’s.
 
BBallF said:
Not my intention. It's just that this notion that there is a magic Geno number of players and minutes is constantly resurfacing and it is dissembling in the sense that it does not recognize the very unique nature and potential of this extraordinarily talented and deep team. I for one can't wait to see what Geno will do with it.
Expand ...
Minutes are discussed because that is what motivates players. I can speak from D-1 experience, even “team-first” players want to play. Diluting the minutes per player can and will have an effect. The generic “ trust in the coaches” arguments don’t solve the quite real problem.
 

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