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Post by momandapplepie on Mar 24, 2024 18:28:07 GMT
The best one I see is Ajae Petty, who was a senior at Kentucky this season. She averaged a double-double for the year in a conference brimming with good teams and post players. She is also from Maryland, same as Q. Exploit that coincidence! With 5th year Grad Student Ajae Petty providing veteran experience for our young post players (Ice, Patterson, El Alfy) and Aubrey coming back, I think we would then have a front court worthy of our best-in-the-land backcourt next year. I do not include DeBerry in the equation as sadly, we have seen absolutely nothing from her for three years now so I don't think we should expect anything different in her senior year. www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/player/_/id/4704417/ajae-petty |
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Post by storygordon on Mar 24, 2024 20:44:41 GMT
Two questions: Does she fit Geno's model? Does she want to play at UConn? A "No" on either one means she's not coming.
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Post by momandapplepie on Mar 25, 2024 18:06:18 GMT
Two questions: Does she fit Geno's model? Does she want to play at UConn? A "No" on either one means whe is not coming. I do not know the answer to either question. Only Geno and his staff can make the first call. On the second, we can speculate. Where would a four-year veteran post player who has played for two different programs (LSU, Kentucky) without experiencing any tourney success and has one year of eligibility left want to go? My answer to that is to a program that (1) has a very good chance at winning the national championship in my last year of college ball, and (b) is losing a four-year starting post player to the WNBA draft that creates a hole in the post that needs filling. A tertiary factor might be proximity to my hometown so my friends and family can travel to see me play college ball before it is over. Petty was born and raised in Maryland. Baltimore to Hartford is a 5 hour drive....way closer than Lexington which is an 8 hour drive from Baltimore. Lastly, maybe icing on the cake is finding a home that already has a player on the roster from my home state so I can feel right at home. Q is from Baltimore too! Based on the factors outlined above, I am comfortable with predicting YES to the question as to whether or not Petty would want to come to UConn to play for the GOAT, where she can maximize her development and thus her potential for a pro career somewhere. But I only know of her numbers. I know nothing about her character or behavior. I just hope the UConn staff is at least looking into her background and doing an assessment to see if she is a fit. If so, I then hope they pursue her. If it comes to that, send Q to her house! |
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Post by jbb1985 on Mar 26, 2024 5:17:34 GMT
Two questions: Does she fit Geno's model? Does she want to play at UConn? A "No" on either one means whe is not coming. I do not know the answer to either question. Only Geno and his staff can make the first call. On the second, we can speculate. Where would a four-year veteran post player who has played for two different programs (LSU, Kentucky) without experiencing any tourney success and has one year of eligibility left want to go? My answer to that is to a program that (1) has a very good chance at winning the national championship in my last year of college ball, and (b) is losing a four-year starting post player to the WNBA draft that creates a hole in the post that needs filling. A tertiary factor might be proximity to my hometown so my friends and family can travel to see me play college ball before it is over. Petty was born and raised in Maryland. Baltimore to Hartford is a 5 hour drive....way closer than Lexington which is an 8 hour drive from Baltimore. Lastly, maybe icing on the cake is finding a home that already has a player on the roster from my home state so I can feel right at home. Q is from Baltimore too! Based on the factors outlined above, I am comfortable with predicting YES to the question as to whether or not Petty would want to come to UConn to play for the GOAT, where she can maximize her development and thus her potential for a pro career somewhere. But I only know of her numbers. I know nothing about her character or behavior. I just hope the UConn staff is at least looking into her background and doing an assessment to see if she is a fit. If so, I then hope they pursue her. If it comes to that, send Q to her house! Good thought and good pick. How tall? |
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Post by momandapplepie on Mar 26, 2024 17:46:25 GMT
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Post by ismhuskyfan on Mar 26, 2024 19:29:54 GMT
Something tells me Gino is going with what he has with Ice (hopes she develops) and the player from Egypt. I don’t think a big will come to UCONN if they think they won’t get playing time. |
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Post by momandapplepie on Mar 26, 2024 20:11:02 GMT
Something tells me Gino is going with what he has with Ice (hopes she develops) and the player from Egypt. I don’t think a big will come to UCONN if they think they won’t get playing time. During my military career, I used to hear over and over again "Hope is not a course of action". Ice is unproven. Indeed, she has shown little development against elite competition. El Alfy has never even stepped foot on a college court in a game. I do not think it would be wise to have a front count based on 'hope' to complement a killer backcourt consisting of two HS POYs and two sophomore backups who started their entire freshmen season. Yes, Geno has 11 nattys and I have zero. But I don't see any nail scars in his palms. He is human and thus subject to making mistakes like the rest of us. It is not as if he hasn't brought post help in from the portal before. Where would we have been if he did not bring in Dorka to complement Aaliyah after ONO left? I feel very strongly that he should do the same thing now to find an experienced veteran replacement for Aaliyah. We don't have to have a dominant front court next year. Our strength will be our backcourt. But we will need at least a competent one. I do not want to just 'hope' Ice and El Alfy fit the bill. I want us to hedge that bet by bringing in Ajae Petty or some other veteran help! |
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Post by storygordon on Mar 26, 2024 21:34:00 GMT
Something tells me Gino is going with what he has with Ice (hopes she develops) and the player from Egypt. I don’t think a big will come to UCONN if they think they won’t get playing time. During my military career, I used to hear over and over again "Hope is not a course of action". Ice is unproven. Indeed, she has shown little development against elite competition. El Alfy has never even stepped foot on a college court in a game. I do not think it would be wise to have a front count based on 'hope' to complement a killer backcourt consisting of two HS POYs and two sophomore backups who started their entire freshmen season. Yes, Geno has 11 nattys and I have zero. But I don't see any nail scars in his palms. He is human and thus subject to making mistakes like the rest of us. It is not as if he hasn't brought post help in from the portal before. Where would we have been if he did not bring in Dorka to complement Aaliyah after ONO left? I feel very strongly that he should do the same thing now to find an experienced veteran replacement for Aaliyah. We don't have to have a dominant front court next year. Our strength will be our backcourt. But we will need at least a competent one. I do not want to just 'hope' Ice and El Alfy fit the bill. I want us to hedge that bet by bringing in Ajae Petty or some other veteran help! True, Ice is unproven, but she is back from surgery and playing little until Aaliyah's broken nose, after which she played 80 minutes in two Big East games. She played 17 minutes yesterday and was +10 on the +/- box, the highest on the team. True, she didn't make the +10 happen in an 8 point win, but she was on the floor at the time. I remember when people were saying Nika shouldn't start. We see a couple of hours a game. Geno knows them. |
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Post by ismhuskyfan on Mar 27, 2024 2:26:46 GMT
The only negative on Nika is she continues to make stupid plays. She already is not an offensive threat unlike the freshmen. We need her to play smarter the remaining games to get us to the FF. I’m sure Coach was not as kind telling her that. Come on Huskies, we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
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Post by storygordon on Mar 27, 2024 14:31:57 GMT
The only negative on Nika is she continues to make stupid plays. She already is not an offensive threat unlike the freshmen. We need her to play smarter the remaining games to get us to the FF. I’m sure Coach was not as kind telling her that. Come on Huskies, we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. She is great, mostly, but when she loses it it's a disaster. Fouls 3, 4 and 5 in 33 seconds of PT, all in Q4. #3 @ 5:47, UConn up 63-53 #4 @ 5:24, UConn up 63-55. Fair makes 2 of 3 FTs #5 @ 5:16, UConn up 63-55 Game ends with both teams scoring 9 points. Better than ND when they cosed with a 22-8 run after Nika fouled out. |
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Post by momandapplepie on Mar 27, 2024 18:40:18 GMT
True, Ice is unproven, but she is back from surgery and playing little until Aaliyah's broken nose, after which she played 80 minutes in two Big East games. She played 17 minutes yesterday and was +10 on the +/- box, the highest on the team. True, she didn't make the +10 happen in an 8 point win, but she was on the floor at the time. I remember when people were saying Nika shouldn't start. We see a couple of hours a game. Geno knows them. Ice scored zero points and had 3 turnovers in 17 minutes. I'm sure her 4 rebounds helped with that +10 but in my opinion such a high number makes it look like she was more dominant on the court than her production numbers would suggest. That is why I take the +/- stat with a grain of salt. It reflects the result of 5 players' efforts, not one player's efforts. |
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Post by momandapplepie on Mar 27, 2024 19:02:26 GMT
The only negative on Nika is she continues to make stupid plays. She already is not an offensive threat unlike the freshmen. We need her to play smarter the remaining games to get us to the FF. I’m sure Coach was not as kind telling her that. Come on Huskies, we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Nika is actually shooting a higher % from the arc (.397, second on the team to Paige's .418) than Ash (.364) or KK (.354). Her overall FG% of .473 is right between Ash's .495 and KK's .460 too. I think she could score more if she wanted to but that is not her role of this team. She is our defensive stopper. We can get points from Paige, Aaliyah and the rest. What we need from Nika is defense on the other team's top back court scorer (everyone seems to have one too). Despite playing more minutes (1132) than any other UConn player this year, Nika is last among the starters on shot attempts with only 205 FG attempts all year. By comparison, Q has played 429 minutes and has taken 166 shots, only 19% less shots than Nika despite playing 62% less minutes. Maybe a better way of showing the difference - Nika takes a shot every 5.52 minutes on the court (1132/205). Q takes a shot every 2.58 minutes on the court (460/166)...more than twice Nika's clip. But Nika can't give us any defense when she fouls out. 3 fouls in a 31-second span in the 4th quarter vs Syracuse could have been a season-ender for us as Dyaisha Fair went off in the second half. She MUST control her fiery nature and play with discipline and control! Source for numbers: uconnhuskies.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats/2023-24?path=wbball#individual |
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Post by momandapplepie on Mar 27, 2024 19:28:54 GMT
True, Ice is unproven, but she is back from surgery and playing little until Aaliyah's broken nose, after which she played 80 minutes in two Big East games. She played 17 minutes yesterday and was +10 on the +/- box, the highest on the team. True, she didn't make the +10 happen in an 8 point win, but she was on the floor at the time. I remember when people were saying Nika shouldn't start. We see a couple of hours a game. Geno knows them. I've heard that Ice hits that mid-range jumper in practice all the time. Maybe that is why Geno is banking on her. But I am just a 'prove it' guy. Means zero to me if she hits 100% of her shots in practice and then shoots like crap in an actual game. Her overall FG% of .424 would actually be okay for a guard but post players get a lot of bunnies and put-backs that should yield a higher shooting %. Case in point - Aaliyah's is .593! And I cringe whenever Ice, she of the .227 (last among active players) 3pt FG%, jacks up a shot from the arc. Like I said before, Geno has 11 Nattys to my 0 but there is a reason for the old adage "even a blind squirrel stumbles upon an acorn every now and then". Maybe he is so devoted to his players, and knows inside that he is only a few years away from retiring, that he can't see the forest for the trees (last cliche...promise). He is the GOAT but for the reasons I have outlined in numerous posts I REALLY REALLY think we need to add an experienced veteran post player from the portal to solidify next year's team and give us a front court worthy of our backcourt. Another point - if we rely on Ice to carry the load next year and she gets injured, what then? We need more depth in the post too! |
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Post by ismhuskyfan on Mar 27, 2024 19:57:00 GMT
True, Ice is unproven, but she is back from surgery and playing little until Aaliyah's broken nose, after which she played 80 minutes in two Big East games. She played 17 minutes yesterday and was +10 on the +/- box, the highest on the team. True, she didn't make the +10 happen in an 8 point win, but she was on the floor at the time. I remember when people were saying Nika shouldn't start. We see a couple of hours a game. Geno knows them. I've heard that Ice hits that mid-range jumper in practice all the time. Maybe that is why Geno is banking on her. But I am just a 'prove it' guy. Means zero to me if she hits 100% of her shots in practice and then shoots like crap in an actual game. Her overall FG% of .424 would actually be okay for a guard but post players get a lot of bunnies and put-backs that should yield a higher shooting %. Case in point - Aaliyah's is .593! And I cringe whenever Ice, she of the .227 (last among active players) 3pt FG%, jacks up a shot from the arc. Like I said before, Geno has 11 Nattys to my 0 but there is a reason for the old adage "even a blind squirrel stumbles upon an acorn every now and then". Maybe he is so devoted to his players, and knows inside that he is only a few years away from retiring, that he can't see the forest for the trees (last cliche...promise). He is the GOAT but for the reasons I have outlined in numerous posts I REALLY REALLY think we need to add an experienced veteran post player from the portal to solidify next year's team and give us a front court worthy of our backcourt. Another point - if we rely on Ice to carry the load next year and she gets injured, what then? We need more depth in the post too! I’m starting to agree with you! Players, coaches, and fans maybe looking at just how loaded UCONN will be next season with all our players back. It’s crazy to think about what Fudd and Buckets will do on the floor together. We will definitely be preseason #1 2025 and hunting for another championship!!!!!!12!!!!!! |
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Post by putterguy on Mar 27, 2024 20:05:54 GMT
I think a lot will depend on whether the injured players fully recover. I have watched about 20 videos on Jana and if she is healthy I predict if she stays at UConn for 4 years she will be 2 time first time all/american. Geno has said her talent level is way up there . He was astonished at her quickly she picked up things when she came to UConn and practiced with team before her injury
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