Another Replacement Guard ?

[ucbart]

I haven't read this thread at all, but can you believe that we had the player(Anna Makurat) that we needed the most the last year and this coming year, but she decided to turn pro because she didn't think she'd get any PT? She would be a senior and probably vastly improved in all areas.

Anna, come back!! LOL

 

[Bald Husky]

Although Geno didn't think he would be looking for a walk-on, I think the possibility of trying one out is now on the table. As I said in an earlier post, all we need is a good ball handler to give depth to our guard corp. There are a lot of pretty good players that just aren't good enough for a scholarship coming out of high school, but there can always be that diamond in the rough that can fill the need we have. If Geno can't find someone willing to come here, this may be his only option.

 

[Zarathustra]

Wishing, and hoping, and thinking, and praying for a happy resolution to the both the UCONN team and
the BY team! Go Huskies! Go Boneyarders!
P.S. Did someone mention that the Spanish Guard (U18), Elena Buenavide Esteves (sp), had 36 points in
a losing effort to Lithuania on Sunday?? Juste Jocycte, 16 yoa player for Lithuania, had 28 points and was
MVP in the FIBA European Championship. 78 - 75.

 

[AmeriConn]

Although Geno didn't think he would be looking for a walk-on, I think the possibility of trying one out is now on the table. As I said in an earlier post, all we need is a good ball handler to give depth to our guard corp. There are a lot of pretty good players that just aren't good enough for a scholarship coming out of high school, but there can always be that diamond in the rough that can fill the need we have. If Geno can't find someone willing to come here, this may be his only option.

Geno recently stated neither option would be likely. He didn’t feel there were any good players left in the portal to fill a need for UConn and a walk on probably wouldn’t help. I think it’s too late in the game to convince a foreign player to come on board. Hoping for a miracle, but not likely.

 

[CocoHusky]

Wishing, and hoping, and thinking, and praying for a happy resolution to the both the UCONN team and
the BY team! Go Huskies! Go Boneyarders!
P.S. Did someone mention that the Spanish Guard (U18), Elena Buenavide Esteves (sp), had 36 points in
a losing effort to Lithuania on Sunday?? Juste Jocycte, 16 yoa player for Lithuania, had 28 points and was
MVP in the FIBA European Championship. 78 - 75.

 

[CL82]

While I absolutely agree that all of us should consider the possibility that players, their family and their friends might read our posts, considering how such posts are received before we hit send, this is not such a case imo. Not only did the poster attach a humorous emoji, but he also made a farcical trade proposal that was clearly intended to be humorous.

Lets not overly analyze one humorous post, that was taken out of context by one BY’er. This thread is about adding another replacement guard to the roster for the upcoming season, something that’s not going to happen anyways. Time to move on to other subjects. How about another GOAT debate?

I don’t know if it’s wise to extend this discussion by adding my own commentary to it, but I will say that, whether sarcasm or not, @veryolddog’s comment treads a little close on The Boneyard‘s transfer speculation prohibition. He is a good poster, and I’m sure it wasn’t intended as anything other than humor, but it seemed imbued with commentary, albeit unintended, about Amari‘s value to the team.

I do think that the poster who commented on his post was needlessly reactionary and inflammatory, regardless.

JMO

 

[Zarathustra]

This is an excellent highlight reel! Juste seems to hang back on defense.... I guess
she and her coaches know that she is essential in the fourth quarter. I really,
really like Elena B E. Look for that " euro" step, the steals, the defense. The
offense and defense of Spain reminds me of UCONN. Spain took down the
high scoring French with ease, and were within one point of Lithuania with less
than 30 seconds to go! One sloppy stretch in the fourth quarter and some
bad ball rolls cost Spain the championship. Lithuania could say like UCONN
would say: " We have Juste!" Next up, KK in the 3X3 in Hungry next week1

 

[Longtime fan]

With the devastating news on Paige, what are the remaining options? Last year we had 6 guards and that was not enough. We had several games where we had no backup guards. That kind of a rash of injuries at the same time is of course very unusual, but going into this season it looked like we had 5 good ones, and now we are down to 4. An injury to just one of those and we once again have no guard backups. That is eased somewhat by having Aubrey back, who I consider mostly a 4, but who for sure could handle the defensive and rebounding obligations at the 3.

So what are our chances of getting some help there at this late stage? The 2022 class has committed, and anyone entering the transfer portal now would have to wait a year. Are there any uncommitted players of value that entered the portal before the deadline to be eligible this year? I suspect very few, but maybe some of our star posters know of someone. It seems like the best of limited options is a foreign player. I think we should be pursuing the best of the eligible guards there aggressively, but also realize it complicates the role for future recruits and already committed ones.

What we really need most is the "rental player" concept, or a one year fix. A point guard or swing 1/2 type might be ideal for this year but how do you recruit a foreign PG for this year, if they know next year Paige and KK are coming not to mention the return of Nika. Maybe there is a grad transfer with a year of eligibility left who was leaning towards just pursuing a graduate degree, and not using that eligibility. The opportunity to spend a year in the Uconn program could be attractive to someone in that position.

If nothing happens on those fronts, I guess Geno should consider the best of the potential walk-ons, but if that happens, I suspect Geno would use three bigs in the lineup instead of a walk-on. The Paige news was a terrible blow, and the options for adding a guard at this stage are very limited, but I am still hoping for some good news in the near future. Going into a season with four guards is very scary. I'm curious what the troops think should be done and what our chances are of getting some help?

Sorry to tell you; the team is what you see. Geno and his coaches will figure out the best way to use the players he has. There will be no mystery signing, and there is no UCONN freshman who was 5 star rated from HS basketball who will, luckily, decide to walk-on and play.

 

[SoCalCanine]

Please don't confuse SoCals!!!! This SoCalCanine tries to avoid all arguments!

 

[ucbart]

Although Geno didn't think he would be looking for a walk-on, I think the possibility of trying one out is now on the table. As I said in an earlier post, all we need is a good ball handler to give depth to our guard corp. There are a lot of pretty good players that just aren't good enough for a scholarship coming out of high school, but there can always be that diamond in the rough that can fill the need we have. If Geno can't find someone willing to come here, this may be his only option.

I agree, we need a walk on-even if just for end of game blowouts to give the 3 guards we have a breather.

I don't particularly want Nika/Azzi out on the floor with 2 minutes left in a 40 point win over Providence.

 

[jchusky]

I don’t know if it’s wise to extend this discussion by adding my own commentary to it, but I will say that, whether sarcasm or not, @veryolddog’s comment treads a little close on The Boneyard‘s transfer speculation prohibition. He is a good poster, and I’m sure it wasn’t intended as anything other than humor, but it seemed imbued with commentary, albeit unintended, about Amari‘s value to the team.

I do think that the poster who commented on his post was needlessly reactionary and inflammatory, regardless.

JMO

agreed, that was my 1st thought too when reading. As long as a player has stated she is leaving, no need to even bring up scenarios like that. I admit maybe I'm hard on Deberry, but I know she's got real good potential. Just when you hear stuff like "effort" being the reason she is not getting playing time is discouraging.

 

[ctkaiser]

Wishing, and hoping, and thinking, and praying for a happy resolution to the both the UCONN team and
the BY team! Go Huskies! Go Boneyarders!
P.S. Did someone mention that the Spanish Guard (U18), Elena Buenavide Esteves (sp), had 36 points in
a losing effort to Lithuania on Sunday?? Juste Jocycte, 16 yoa player for Lithuania, had 28 points and was
MVP in the FIBA European Championship. 78 - 75.

I always liked that song!

 

[ctkaiser]

Sorry to tell you; the team is what you see. Geno and his coaches will figure out the best way to use the players he has. There will be no mystery signing, and there is no UCONN freshman who was 5 star rated from HS basketball who will, luckily, decide to walk-on and play.

You're probably right about no 5 star players and we all have a pretty good feeling that this coaching staff knows how to get things done.