Video of Jana

[Bone Dog]

I keep thinking of the folks who doubt Jana and I want to understand it in order to cushion myself from disappointment.

Her low post offensive skills are uneven, judging from the last FIBA games. And on defense her energy and focus wasn’t always there. And she did “home run trot” down the court sometimes and cost her team easy buckets on both ends. This is what the videos show. I could attribute it to the erratic quality of the FIBA games generally. But the best players don’t ever let up. I can only hope that the high level of competition in Geno’s practices will shake this out of her.

Phew! That was painful for me. Now let me turn to the positive things I saw in those same games.

• She plays tough against other bigs — you can really see this in the China and Canada games. She is regularly double teamed in the paint because of the weakness of the Egyptian guards but fights through anyway. In the China game, she went to free throw line a lot, and made a bunch of them. What is see is that she is not easily intimidated.
• She has a decent perimeter shot. It’s not perfect, but she can hit the 3.
• She likes to drive the lane and the baseline. This is really a sight to see, especially after she’s just “home run trotted” down the court. She’ll get to the arc late, receive a pass and drive into the lane, and she has excellent moves and handles for a big. Even other bigs seemed intimidated by this.
• She is a relentless rebounder when she’s “on.” She can lose focus on defense and let rebounds get away. But at her best no one gets the ball away from her.
• And she can run the floor when she wants to. In those same games there were a few cases where she took a steal or a rebound the length of the floor. I think she wasn’t always willing to trust her guards with the ball, even though an outlet pass would have been better. But it is wonderful (and maybe a little scary) to see someone this big charging down the floor. Picture having Stef or Dorka regularly running at the front of the break. This is what she can do.
• Her weakest moments seemed to be early in games. In the 3rd and 4th quarters she was much tougher. This typically meant Egypt had to come from behind to win, which is not optimal. But this wasn’t entirely her fault. Here again, the China game is a really clear illustration of this.

So, yes. There are rough edges and undeveloped elements of her game. But the core virtue, her feistiness, that seems really well developed. This is what Geno sees. He can’t teach that. He can teach the rest, but effort and heart the player has to bring with them. And Jana has those two in abundance.

 

[psconn]

I don't think "doubt" is the proper characterization for the attitude of people who aren't ready to anoint her UConn's "next big thing" until they have seen her play a couple minutes against D1 talent.

Few, if any, doubt she can make some contribution, I just don't know how much AND I prefer a "wait and see" posture (with fingers and toes crossed).

Apart from being kind of a fact-based person in general, it is also serves me as a great cushion against disappointment.