Did Kelly Raise Her WNBA Draft Stock Tonight, Or What?

[Waquoit]

Great D, notwithstanding, Faris was pretty shaky on O I thought. Looking for a bounce back game Tuesday.

 

[Icebear]

Great D, notwithstanding, Faris was pretty shaky on O I thought. Looking for a bounce back game Tuesday.

???

 

[DobbsRover2]

???

Well she did only get 5 offensive rebounds. I was kind of hoping she'd get 6.

 

[EricLA]

ES, probably not good mojo to rank on Shoni with wrong stats prior to Tuesday night. She takes 13 shots a game for the Cardinals as usually their top option, while KML takes 12 a game for UConn in kind of a similar position. There are a lot of top and not-so-top players who shoot a lot more than that. It would be unwise for UConn to base their defense around a "trigger happy" impression of the 2013 Shoni, and I'm sure Geno won't. Last year was a different situation when LVille lost two of their top three players to injury, and Schimmel was asked to do more than they wanted her to do.

What the Cardinals can be blasted for is taking 666 3-pters going into Tuesday, a scary number though it is 167 less than UConn's total.

Ah thanks for that. I've not seen L'ville play much - only a few times this season. My impression was that she is more of a volume shooter.

Having said that, I wasn't discussing the defense I thought UCONN should play vs. L'ville. I was discussing Kelly's value as a player who is NOT a volume shooter. And if you are going to use stats, though, you might give ALL the numbers. KML takes 1 less shot per game but hits over 50% of them while Shoni makes under 39% of hers. Her FG % is almost identical to Hartley's and you never hear UCONN coaches or fans calling for Hartley to take more shots. Also, of L'ville's top 6 scorers, only Shoni shoots at under the 40% clip. Given those stats, it's fairly easy to argue she should take less shots in general and distribute the ball to players who shoot better than she does.

I will be very curious to see the defensive scheme that UCONN employs. L'ville plays Jude a lot of minutes even tho she comes off the bench. I could see Moriah matching up with her favorably when Jude is in the game if Geno decides to go that route, even tho her minutes were limited vs. ND as Geno used Bria much more in the 2nd half.

I have to imagine Kelly will spend much of the night on Shoni, unless he gives that honor to Bria, and Breanna will likely have the task of trying to stop Slaughter's 3 point barrage that helped win the last 3 games for L'ville. Either way I'm really excited and cautiously optimistic of our chances on Tuesday!!

 

[DobbsRover2]

Ah thanks for that. I've not seen L'ville play much - only a few times this season. My impression was that she is more of a volume shooter.

Having said that, I wasn't discussing the defense I thought UCONN should play vs. L'ville. I was discussing Kelly's value as a player who is NOT a volume shooter. And if you are going to use stats, though, you might give ALL the numbers. KML takes 1 less shot per game but hits over 50% of them while Shoni makes under 39% of hers. Her FG % is almost identical to Hartley's and you never hear UCONN coaches or fans calling for Hartley to take more shots. Also, of L'ville's top 6 scorers, only Shoni shoots at under the 40% clip. Given those stats, it's fairly easy to argue she should take less shots in general and distribute the ball to players who shoot better than she does.

I will be very curious to see the defensive scheme that UCONN employs. L'ville plays Jude a lot of minutes even tho she comes off the bench. I could see Moriah matching up with her favorably when Jude is in the game if Geno decides to go that route, even tho her minutes were limited vs. ND as Geno used Bria much more in the 2nd half.

I have to imagine Kelly will spend much of the night on Shoni, unless he gives that honor to Bria, and Breanna will likely have the task of trying to stop Slaughter's 3 point barrage that helped win the last 3 games for L'ville. Either way I'm really excited and cautiously optimistic of our chances on Tuesday!!

I would totally agree that Shoni should distribute the ball more (much like she did last night) if she had KML, and Stewie, and Stef, and a few other Huskies playing next to her, but she doesn't. She fills her role better than her critics are willing to admit to beat teams like Baylor that few other teams can manage.

We can all use stats to show up a player when we don't want to try to understand her position. You said she never saw a shot she doesn't like, and I just gave you the figure that says that it isn't so. She shoots 48% on two-point attempts, which isn't shabby, and I think Jeff or Geno would say they'd be pretty happy to have a player on their team with that percentage and that taking 13 shots a game doesn't make her a ball hog. Louisville does need to have a 3-point presence to keep teams honest, however, and though they take far less 3s than UConn, it falls to Shoni to plug away with 60% of her shots beyond the arc at a pedestrian 33.6% (though it's still much better than Stewie's, so perhaps you're asking her also not to shoot any 3s? And yes Bria did take 5 3s last night, so Geno still wants her shooting the 3s even if you and supposedly the rest of the UConn fans don't want her to shoot), which obviously brings her overall shooting down quite a bit. Would Slaughter be shooting at 36% from behind the arc if she got the attention that Schimmel gets as the recognized name on the Cardinals? Probably not.

Anyway, it looks to me like Shoni's doing a halfway decent job in her role this year with a Cardinals team that has far fewer resources than the Huskies. I'll check over on LVille board to see if their fans are complaining about her.

 

[EricLA]

I would totally agree that Shoni should distribute the ball more (much like she did last night) if she had KML, and Stewie, and Stef, and a few other Huskies playing next to her, but she doesn't. She fills her role better than her critics are willing to admit to beat teams like Baylor that few other teams can manage.

We can all use stats to show up a player when we don't want to try to understand her position. You said she never saw a shot she doesn't like, and I just gave you the figure that says that it isn't so. She shoots 48% on two-point attempts, which isn't shabby, and I think Jeff or Geno would say they'd be pretty happy to have a player on their team with that percentage and that taking 13 shots a game doesn't make her a ball hog. Louisville does need to have a 3-point presence to keep teams honest, however, and though they take far less 3s than UConn, it falls to Shoni to plug away with 60% of her shots beyond the arc at a pedestrian 33.6% (though it's still much better than Stewie's, so perhaps you're asking her also not to shoot any 3s? And yes Bria did take 5 3s last night, so Geno still wants her shooting the 3s even if you and supposedly the rest of the UConn fans don't want her to shoot), which obviously brings her overall shooting down quite a bit. Would Slaughter be shooting at 36% from behind the arc if she got the attention that Schimmel gets as the recognized name on the Cardinals? Probably not.

Anyway, it looks to me like Shoni's doing a halfway decent job in her role this year with a Cardinals team that has far fewer resources than the Huskies. I'll check over on LVille board to see if their fans are complaining about her.

Good grief i wasn't complaining about her. I think there are far more interesting and fascinating story lines than going on and on about this. How about giving it a rest?

 

[DobbsRover2]

Good grief i wasn't complaining about her. I think there are far more interesting and fascinating story lines than going on and on about this. How about giving it a rest?

Ah, ES, don't get hysterical, and a rest is fine. Just saying, you made a hit-and-run slam and threw out some semi-valid numbers which I understand that you don't want to dig into very deeply. UConn will be playing Schimmel and her team tomorrow, so I think we're all interested on what stands in the way of number 8, and it's not a trigger-happy Cardinal. Maybe that's what Baylor might possibly have thought, but UConn won't go down that road.

 

[DishNSwish]

No, she did not improve her stock.

Her stock was already in place.

The Phoenix Mercury have asked me for a mock draft. It will be up in the next few days. You'll see where Kelly is based on the coaches I spoke to.

 

[ChicagoGG]

No, she did not improve her stock.

Her stock was already in place.

The Phoenix Mercury have asked me for a mock draft. It will be up in the next few days. You'll see where Kelly is based on the coaches I spoke to.

I am a big fan of DnS - but I am telling you, Husky Nation will be waiting for you if we don't think Kelly is getting the love....

 

[EricLA]

Ah, ES, don't get hysterical, and a rest is fine. Just saying, you made a hit-and-run slam and threw out some semi-valid numbers which I understand that you don't want to dig into very deeply. UConn will be playing Schimmel and her team tomorrow, so I think we're all interested on what stands in the way of number 8, and it's not a trigger-happy Cardinal. Maybe that's what Baylor might possibly have thought, but UConn won't go down that road.

LOL... Hysterical? Seriously? I'm sure you can find bigger things to get your panties in a bunch over...

 

[Phil]

As is often the case, her stats, as nice as they are, don't tell the whole story. I want someone to put together a video montage of her great plays last night, it will have quite a few entries,

It's hard to pick a favorite, but there was one play where I saw the ball in the air, with about three ND players all trying to get the rebound – Kelly wasn't in the picture, and then she barges through and snares the rebound. The most impressive rebounds to me are when it seems clearly headed to one player, but another goes in and takes it away. She did that more than once.

 

[UConnCat]

A key stretch in the game was after ND cut the lead to 6 points (61-55) with 6:00 left. After a timeout, here's what happened:

Breanna Stewart missed two point jumper
Kelly Faris Offensive Rebound
Bria Hartley missed three point jumper
Kelly Faris Offensive Rebound
Stefanie Dolson made Free Throw
Stefanie Dolson missed Free Throw
Kelly Faris Offensive Rebound
Breanna Stewart made Two Point layup. Assisted by Kelly Faris

My thought after that sequence: Game over.

 

[McHuskyFan]

Kelly's first endorsement deal....

You beat me to it, Pap ... but I was going to suggest: