Geno wants his shooters to shoot. Case in point. In UConn’s Sweet 16 loss to tOSU, Azzi was 6/17. How does that compare with Hailey Van Lith? In Louisville’s loss to Iowa in the Tournament she shot 8/19. Not much difference there.
I guess a little insight on the shooting capabilities of the two players in question needs to be pointed out
Hailey Van Lith
in 2022-23 in 37 games was .418% from the floor and a dreadful .208 (58-198) from 3 point line or 5.35 shots per games
in 2021-22 in 34 games was .432 and .364 (45-124) or 3.64 shots per game
in 2020-21 in 30 games was .429 and .383 (49-128) or 4.26 shots per game
Azzi
in 2022-23 15 games was .456 and .340 (34-100) 6.67 per game
in 2021-22 25 games was .457 and .430 (58-135) 5.4 per game
So while Hailey Van Lith's shot percentage was actually pretty good her first two years, the seem to be limited to the flow of the offense as good shots. Whereas this year she hoisted quite a few more with much less accuracy and I would say was solely a volume shooter this year.
Azzi on the other hand, is a much better and noted shooter as shown by the percentages. this year was clearly a down year at .340 but IS SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER than .209 and warranted more shots.
Could Hailey actually fit into a more team oriented scheme, maybe but I suspect her ego may not let that occur as evidenced by her Umbridge at not being a 1st team All-American despite her teams struggles and her own less than stellar statistics.