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Post by bulkey on Feb 1, 2023 22:07:19 GMT -5
Looking at the box score, what jumps out to me is the bench. Taking Ayanna, Ines, and Amari together, they played 27 minutes...pretty much the equivalent of one starter. Here's the production in a close game against a not particularly great opponent:
0-2 shooting/ 1-2 foul shots/ no rebounds/ 1 assist/ 2 steals/ 2 turnovers/ 4 fouls.
This puts enormous pressure on the 5 who do start.
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Post by rukia on Feb 1, 2023 22:16:00 GMT -5
Yeah, it really is a reach to come up with anything the bench did well.
I agree that out of the three, I like what Ines offered the most. She made less mistakes than the other two. And at least seemed to be in the right position most of the time. Also, shot the ball when she was open.
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Post by swash on Feb 1, 2023 22:48:35 GMT -5
Yeah, it really is a reach to come up with anything the bench did well. I agree that out of the three, I like what Ines offered the most. She made less mistakes than the other two. And at least seemed to be in the right position most of the time. Also, shot the ball when she was open. They ate some minutes. If Amari and Ayanna can give up their fouls and make it tough on the other bigs ... that may be enough. If Ines can keep the ball moving and not turn it over much ... we will take that. Of course, we'd rather have Azzi and Caroline, but while we don't, a few not-so-terrible minutes is still valuable.
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Post by bulkey on Feb 2, 2023 8:05:45 GMT -5
Yeah, it really is a reach to come up with anything the bench did well. I agree that out of the three, I like what Ines offered the most. She made less mistakes than the other two. And at least seemed to be in the right position most of the time. Also, shot the ball when she was open. They ate some minutes. If Amari and Ayanna can give up their fouls and make it tough on the other bigs ... that may be enough. If Ines can keep the ball moving and not turn it over much ... we will take that. Of course, we'd rather have Azzi and Caroline, but while we don't, a few not-so-terrible minutes is still valuable. I agree. All three have noticeably improved and are not a minus any more in their play. But because they're not a plus either--not a threat to being offensively productive--when they're on the court, the defense can focus even more on the other UConn players. And what I noticed was that on offense, they really don't help run the offense, except that both Amari and Ayanna really like to throw picks. Okay, but UConn's plays are a lot more than that, so that effectively hurts ball movement.
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Post by bulkey on Feb 2, 2023 8:06:17 GMT -5
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Post by swash on Feb 2, 2023 8:51:08 GMT -5
They ate some minutes. If Amari and Ayanna can give up their fouls and make it tough on the other bigs ... that may be enough. If Ines can keep the ball moving and not turn it over much ... we will take that. Of course, we'd rather have Azzi and Caroline, but while we don't, a few not-so-terrible minutes is still valuable. I agree. All three have noticeably improved and are not a minus any more in their play. But because they're not a plus either--not a threat to being offensively productive--when they're on the court, the defense can focus even more on the other UConn players. And what I noticed was that on offense, they really don't help run the offense, except that both Amari and Ayanna really like to throw picks. Okay, but UConn's plays are a lot more than that, so that effectively hurts ball movement. Agreed. Amari is a bit more involved in the offense from the high post. That makes sense because she's been around longer. All three are a bit infected with the yips, clanking freebies and missing layups... which leads to being shy about taking the next shot. Defensively, all three essentially play instinctively, but often not part of the team structure. That opens up backdoor opportunities and may run defenders into each other. As a group with two starters, it is tough, but one at a time with four starters, they're good enough to give someone a break.
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Post by grrrrr on Feb 2, 2023 9:29:04 GMT -5
The shorter practices haven't helped these guys either, nothing you can do about that. Although, for all we know they are going up against the practice players without the starters participating.
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Post by grrrrr on Feb 2, 2023 9:40:45 GMT -5
This was also a classic trap game. Two big wins, then PC who you beat earlier by 45. Only human nature to be looking forward to South Carolina. The game after SC is another trap game. Going to Milwaukee 3 days after SC is going to be tough. Nova did crush Marquette last night but margin of victory doesn't seem to matter much from one game to the next in this league.
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Post by rukia on Feb 2, 2023 10:40:14 GMT -5
The shorter practices haven't helped these guys either, nothing you can do about that. Although, for all we know they are going up against the practice players without the starters participating. this might have something to do with why Ayanna isn’t further along. I have to say. I bought into the preseason hype. I heard about her athleticism. I heard how she was grabbing every rebound in practice. I saw that she was preseason freshman of the year in the big east. She seemed like she was ahead of Caroline in the rotation the first few games of the season. It hasn’t been what I thought. One thing I think is that bigs have a harder time coming in and contributing right away. And we have seen that with DeBerry, Gabriel, and now Patterson.
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Post by huskyharper on Feb 2, 2023 12:37:22 GMT -5
That concussion Ayanna got has set her back quite a bit. It's tough enough for a "big" in their first year, but to get injured really hurts them. Given another week or two of light practising and we may see more of what we saw at the beginning of the year. Ines has impressed with her guts as well as her skills. For a kid who never played before more than 200 people before, she's really done very well. Oh, how I wish Amari would make a major leap forward. She could be so much more for this team.
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Post by samanthabrown3 on Feb 3, 2023 15:18:50 GMT -5
The shorter practices haven't helped these guys either, nothing you can do about that. Although, for all we know they are going up against the practice players without the starters participating. this might have something to do with why Ayanna isn’t further along. It's the hair. She played a lot better with her old hairdo.
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