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Post by doggydaddy on Jun 20, 2024 10:15:52 GMT -5
Not sure what to think about SS after watching these games. I thought she'd be in starting lineup. You would think top HS player would be playing more. Of course that means nothing. She looks slow to me . Not sure where she fits in with Uconn. She likes the 3 pt . line She might like the three point line on offense. And she should since she is a really good shooter. To me it looked like that is where the coaches wanted her to play. She’s not slow. She’s efficient in her movements. She certainly isnt quick. But that is not her game. Are you really complaining about 4-5 minutes per game? She was 9th in minutes but the top 10 averaged between 14-20 mpg. And Geno might, I said might have asked that they limit her minutes. She did have recent knee soreness. She fits in perfectly with UConn where ever Geno decides to play her. A 3 or 4 that can shoot and rebound like she does and can pass so well? Fantastic. |
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Post by bulkey on Jun 20, 2024 10:27:15 GMT -5
Sarah led the team in ribbies yesterday. Seems like she must have been running fast enough and wasn't spending all her time at the top of the key.....
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Post by swash on Jun 20, 2024 11:12:28 GMT -5
Sarah observations ... a bit sleep-deprived from watching these games late last night...
1. Passing is as advertised. Both outlet passes and those within the regular offense
2. She rarely contested for any offensive boards, unless she was directly under the basket. The rest of the time she just started back, at times it looked like she was the fast-break stopper against Brazil
3. Hard to tell if she was playing up top on both ends quite often because that's where they wanted her. They didn't seem to re-direct her at any time
4. Catch and shoot three is smooth. Can shoot it off the dribble, too but not as efficient
5. Better 1v1 defender than I expected. Not outstanding, but not a major weakness
6. Team defense ... hung farther off her mark when the ball was on the other side. Swiped the ball away from a driver more than once
7. Geno is going to love the BBIQ, but may be less happy with the hustle. Though she was always in the right place at the right time on defense
8. May need to play in shorter bursts. Seemed to fade a bit at the end of her shifts
9. Willing to bang for rebounds. Has that early nudge for box out position to a science - ala Jamelle, who is going to love that
10. Nearly all of her shots were middle threes. Not many layups attempts. Rarely a three launched from the corner
All to be taken with a grain of salt. We haven't seen her against "real" competition, yet.
Watching others ... Heckel, Davidson, and Betts stood out. Edwards didn't impress me much. Macy played some good minutes from the third sub-group
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BJ42
Purebred Husky
Posts: 458
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Post by BJ42 on Jun 20, 2024 12:41:50 GMT -5
Sarah observations ... a bit sleep-deprived from watching these games late last night... 1. Passing is as advertised. Both outlet passes and those within the regular offense2. She rarely contested for any offensive boards, unless she was directly under the basket. The rest of the time she just started back, at times it looked like she was the fast-break stopper against Brazil 3. Hard to tell if she was playing up top on both ends quite often because that's where they wanted her. They didn't seem to re-direct her at any time4. Catch and shoot three is smooth. Can shoot it off the dribble, too but not as efficient5. Better 1v1 defender than I expected. Not outstanding, but not a major weakness6. Team defense ... hung farther off her mark when the ball was on the other side. Swiped the ball away from a driver more than once 7. Geno is going to love the BBIQ, but may be less happy with the hustle. Though she was always in the right place at the right time on defense8. May need to play in shorter bursts. Seemed to fade a bit at the end of her shifts 9. Willing to bang for rebounds. Has that early nudge for box out position to a science - ala Jamelle, who is going to love that 10. Nearly all of her shots were middle threes. Not many layups attempts. Rarely a three launched from the corner All to be taken with a grain of salt. We haven't seen her against "real" competition, yet. Watching others ... Heckel, Davidson, and Betts stood out. Edwards didn't impress me much. Macy played some good minutes from the third sub-group All the bolded remarks apply to my observation that Strong plays a very similar game to Larry Bird. She's way ahead of everyone her age in terms of court vision, instincts, and processing time. The better and more organized the competition is the better she'll play because in these frenetic scrums, no one on defense is where they're supposed to be. Defensively she knows exactly where she's supposed to be and doesn't have to break into wild sprints to get there. Blind hustle can be very misleading. As far as positioning on offense goes, it's always a good idea to have the best 3 shooter on your team spend a lot of time around the 3 line. At UConn she'll be an excellent traffic cop making quick decisions from that high post area and the D won't back off her, gum up the inside, and challenge her to shoot like they have against everyone UConn's had there since Stewart left. And regarding Betts, I don't see much there yet. She's mechanical, what primitive post moves she attempts are slow and methodical, and she has no idea outside of 7 feet. She's 6-3 and plays 5-11 by constantly bringing the ball down to her shoulders or trying to put the ball on the floor. I lost count of how many times she got tied up by smaller kids. Until she gets some competent post coaching she'll be a non impact college player. And how impressive was the shrewd strategy employed by Moren to be running a full court, trapping man to man D on these hapless teams with 70+ point leads? Great sportsmanship. USA coaches and senior staff should be embarrassed but they won't be. |
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Post by bulkey on Jun 20, 2024 12:43:18 GMT -5
Sarah observations ... a bit sleep-deprived from watching these games late last night... 1. Passing is as advertised. Both outlet passes and those within the regular offense2. She rarely contested for any offensive boards, unless she was directly under the basket. The rest of the time she just started back, at times it looked like she was the fast-break stopper against Brazil 3. Hard to tell if she was playing up top on both ends quite often because that's where they wanted her. They didn't seem to re-direct her at any time4. Catch and shoot three is smooth. Can shoot it off the dribble, too but not as efficient5. Better 1v1 defender than I expected. Not outstanding, but not a major weakness6. Team defense ... hung farther off her mark when the ball was on the other side. Swiped the ball away from a driver more than once 7. Geno is going to love the BBIQ, but may be less happy with the hustle. Though she was always in the right place at the right time on defense8. May need to play in shorter bursts. Seemed to fade a bit at the end of her shifts 9. Willing to bang for rebounds. Has that early nudge for box out position to a science - ala Jamelle, who is going to love that 10. Nearly all of her shots were middle threes. Not many layups attempts. Rarely a three launched from the corner All to be taken with a grain of salt. We haven't seen her against "real" competition, yet. Watching others ... Heckel, Davidson, and Betts stood out. Edwards didn't impress me much. Macy played some good minutes from the third sub-group All the bolded remarks apply to my observation that Strong plays a very similar game to Larry Bird. She's way ahead of everyone her age in terms of court vision, instincts, and processing time. The better and more organized the competition is the better she'll play because in these frenetic scrums, no one on defense is where they're supposed to be. Defensively she knows exactly where she's supposed to be and doesn't have to break into wild sprints to get there. Blind hustle can be very misleading. As far as positioning on offense goes, it's always a good idea to have the best 3 shooter on your team spend a lot of time around the 3 line. At UConn she'll be an excellent traffic cop making quick decisions from that high post area and the D won't back off her, gum up the inside, and challenge her to shoot like they have against everyone UConn's had there since Stewart left. And regarding Betts, I don't see much there yet. She's mechanical, what primitive post moves she attempts are slow and methodical, and she has no idea outside of 7 feet. She's 6-3 and plays 5-11 by constantly bringing the ball down to her shoulders or trying to put the ball on the floor. I lost count of how many times she got tied up by smaller kids. Until she gets some competent post coaching she'll be a non impact college player. And how impressive was the shrewd strategy employed by Moren to be running a full court, trapping man to man D on these hapless teams with 70+ point leads? Great sportsmanship. USA coaches and senior staff should be embarrassed but they won't be. Great post: thanks! |
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Post by linkster on Jun 20, 2024 13:29:40 GMT -5
Not sure what to think about SS after watching these games. I thought she'd be in starting lineup. You would think top HS player would be playing more. Of course that means nothing. She looks slow to me . Not sure where she fits in with Uconn. She likes the 3 pt . line I take it that this is your first look at her actually playing? When Geno saw her practicing at UConn his comment was that "we thought she was good and she's even better than we thought". |
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Post by magic on Jun 20, 2024 14:45:07 GMT -5
No, I've seen her play before. Maybe it's mediocre competition. Not trying to be negative. But, usually the great players I like just jump out at you, and I didn't see that. I was worried she's injured. I'm sure the coaches directed her to do axactly what she did.
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Post by swash on Jun 20, 2024 15:07:37 GMT -5
Sarah observations ... a bit sleep-deprived from watching these games late last night... 1. Passing is as advertised. Both outlet passes and those within the regular offense2. She rarely contested for any offensive boards, unless she was directly under the basket. The rest of the time she just started back, at times it looked like she was the fast-break stopper against Brazil 3. Hard to tell if she was playing up top on both ends quite often because that's where they wanted her. They didn't seem to re-direct her at any time4. Catch and shoot three is smooth. Can shoot it off the dribble, too but not as efficient5. Better 1v1 defender than I expected. Not outstanding, but not a major weakness6. Team defense ... hung farther off her mark when the ball was on the other side. Swiped the ball away from a driver more than once 7. Geno is going to love the BBIQ, but may be less happy with the hustle. Though she was always in the right place at the right time on defense8. May need to play in shorter bursts. Seemed to fade a bit at the end of her shifts 9. Willing to bang for rebounds. Has that early nudge for box out position to a science - ala Jamelle, who is going to love that 10. Nearly all of her shots were middle threes. Not many layups attempts. Rarely a three launched from the corner All to be taken with a grain of salt. We haven't seen her against "real" competition, yet. Watching others ... Heckel, Davidson, and Betts stood out. Edwards didn't impress me much. Macy played some good minutes from the third sub-group All the bolded remarks apply to my observation that Strong plays a very similar game to Larry Bird. She's way ahead of everyone her age in terms of court vision, instincts, and processing time. The better and more organized the competition is the better she'll play because in these frenetic scrums, no one on defense is where they're supposed to be. Defensively she knows exactly where she's supposed to be and doesn't have to break into wild sprints to get there. Blind hustle can be very misleading. As far as positioning on offense goes, it's always a good idea to have the best 3 shooter on your team spend a lot of time around the 3 line. At UConn she'll be an excellent traffic cop making quick decisions from that high post area and the D won't back off her, gum up the inside, and challenge her to shoot like they have against everyone UConn's had there since Stewart left. And regarding Betts, I don't see much there yet. She's mechanical, what primitive post moves she attempts are slow and methodical, and she has no idea outside of 7 feet. She's 6-3 and plays 5-11 by constantly bringing the ball down to her shoulders or trying to put the ball on the floor. I lost count of how many times she got tied up by smaller kids. Until she gets some competent post coaching she'll be a non impact college player. And how impressive was the shrewd strategy employed by Moren to be running a full court, trapping man to man D on these hapless teams with 70+ point leads? Great sportsmanship. USA coaches and senior staff should be embarrassed but they won't be. I hope you are right. I will point out a couple of concerns. On a hard hedge off a pick, for instance... she defended the smaller guard well, but took approximately ... for ... ev ... er to get back to her mark. That's a spot where hustle matters. Maybe that is a new wrinkle in her game knowledge, not a lot of HS bigs even try a hedge. Not sure I saw any other US big trying it either, come to think of it. On an OOB throw in under the USA basket, the ball receiver passed to the wing, the ball was stolen and advanced all the way to the paint, where there was a nice block and save by a US player, a turn and an outlet pass ... back to Sarah, who had not yet crossed half-court. I can picture Geno in hysterics over that film. That's not court vision and IQ, that's being gassed and getting lucky. Agree that her combination of shooting and passing can be deadly at the arc, but I do want to see some post moves, too. Especially on this team where the guard depth is so good and our frontcourt is very inexperienced until Aubrey gets back. I like that Sarah rebounds ... Strong ... like she really means it ... once she puts her hands on it, it is hers. I agree that she has a pile of talent and does a lot of good stuff that stats miss. She's going to be very good, but she doesn't have the same IT that Paige or Olivia Miles had in similar tournaments |
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Post by rockymtblue2 on Jun 20, 2024 15:40:25 GMT -5
A good part of the telecasts seems to be shot from the adjoining sports complex. I'm spending a lot of "who is that" time.
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Post by ucchamp on Jun 21, 2024 2:16:51 GMT -5
We can see why Sarah is going to be terrific. What's one thing UCONN needs desperately? Rebounding. And yet despite the fact she is playing offensively only from the perimeter and the little I saw she is defending smaller 3's outside and she is about 9th in minutes, she is leading the team in defensive rebounds.
Also, we can see why they put her on the perimeter – because she is such a good shooter. She is tied for 3pt shots made with 6 – 1st in attempts and shutting a respectable 37.6% from 3 while the team without her is at 33%. She is also passing the ball very well 2.7 – 1 a/t ratio. We have seen several times she is leading fastbreaks.
She does everything well. Team USA has taken away one of her strengths (inside scoring) because they already have a huge advantage in the post so they move her to the outside and she does it effortlessly well. She is going to be mostly a 4 at UCONN not the position Team USA has her playing now.
She is probably going to be a quicker version of Beers and that Iowa State kid only with a more explosive game in time .
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Post by grrrrr on Jun 21, 2024 7:38:59 GMT -5
All the bolded remarks apply to my observation that Strong plays a very similar game to Larry Bird. She's way ahead of everyone her age in terms of court vision, instincts, and processing time. The better and more organized the competition is the better she'll play because in these frenetic scrums, no one on defense is where they're supposed to be. Defensively she knows exactly where she's supposed to be and doesn't have to break into wild sprints to get there. Blind hustle can be very misleading. As far as positioning on offense goes, it's always a good idea to have the best 3 shooter on your team spend a lot of time around the 3 line. At UConn she'll be an excellent traffic cop making quick decisions from that high post area and the D won't back off her, gum up the inside, and challenge her to shoot like they have against everyone UConn's had there since Stewart left. And regarding Betts, I don't see much there yet. She's mechanical, what primitive post moves she attempts are slow and methodical, and she has no idea outside of 7 feet. She's 6-3 and plays 5-11 by constantly bringing the ball down to her shoulders or trying to put the ball on the floor. I lost count of how many times she got tied up by smaller kids. Until she gets some competent post coaching she'll be a non impact college player. And how impressive was the shrewd strategy employed by Moren to be running a full court, trapping man to man D on these hapless teams with 70+ point leads? Great sportsmanship. USA coaches and senior staff should be embarrassed but they won't be. I hope you are right. I will point out a couple of concerns. On a hard hedge off a pick, for instance... she defended the smaller guard well, but took approximately ... for ... ev ... er to get back to her mark. That's a spot where hustle matters. Maybe that is a new wrinkle in her game knowledge, not a lot of HS bigs even try a hedge. Not sure I saw any other US big trying it either, come to think of it. On an OOB throw in under the USA basket, the ball receiver passed to the wing, the ball was stolen and advanced all the way to the paint, where there was a nice block and save by a US player, a turn and an outlet pass ... back to Sarah, who had not yet crossed half-court. I can picture Geno in hysterics over that film. That's not court vision and IQ, that's being gassed and getting lucky. Agree that her combination of shooting and passing can be deadly at the arc, but I do want to see some post moves, too. Especially on this team where the guard depth is so good and our frontcourt is very inexperienced until Aubrey gets back. I like that Sarah rebounds ... Strong ... like she really means it ... once she puts her hands on it, it is hers. I agree that she has a pile of talent and does a lot of good stuff that stats miss. She's going to be very good, but she doesn't have the same IT that Paige or Olivia Miles had in similar tournaments Sarah has all the tools you ask for, no doubt. I think we all noticed the same thing about Betts, every time she get's an offensive rebound she brings the ball down and get's tied up. Wonder if Close will make her stand against a wall with her arms up like Tina Charles said Geno made her do. Don't get the effort to totally humiliate these other teams either, gotta call off the dogs at some point. Say's more about the U.S. coaching staff than the teams they are playing. |
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Post by semper on Jun 24, 2024 15:45:09 GMT -5
She didn't play hardly at all in the last game.
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Post by bulkey on Jun 24, 2024 15:56:29 GMT -5
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Post by swash on Jun 24, 2024 15:59:34 GMT -5
She didn't play hardly at all in the last game. But looked good in her minutes. Close game. Haven't seen a box score, but had some nice steals and assists. |
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Post by bulkey on Jun 24, 2024 16:02:36 GMT -5
She didn't play hardly at all in the last game. But looked good in her minutes. Close game. Haven't seen a box score, but had some nice steals and assists. Box score linked above. In 10 minutes, had 4 assists and 2 steals. Only took one shot and missed it. |
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Post by swash on Jun 24, 2024 16:04:34 GMT -5
Four assists and two steals in about a quarter, or 8 and 4 Per 40 ... we'd take that, no? |
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