Best POY Candidate: Collier, Williams, or Samuelson?

[bballnut90]

If Plum passes Jackie Stiles, she'll sweep the national awards, as well she should. Connecticut players are victims of the success of the program to a degree, KLS, Collier and Gabby have all performed huge at various points on the biggest of stages but the overwhelming success of the program swallows their accomplishments. Stewie and Maya Moore were exceptions and DT3 was just the best ever to play. If KLS doesn't get sick and have a bad couple of games she would have been an AA, Gabby and Pheesa have stepped up in the biggest games, I just believe it's way too political , but the season Plum is having and her team is a contender in the tough PAC 12 makes her a shoo-in for everything....

That's not true at all about players being victims of the success of the program. UCONN has won NPOY awards in 12 of the last 22 seasons and has taken home probably two to three times as many All American honors as any other program in that time frame. Morgan Tuck, Renee Montgomery, Asjha Jones and Tamika Williams are all players who earned All American honors with less than stellar statistics in one season or another. Note--I'm not saying they weren't deserving, but on a statistical level, all of them would have been overlooked if they played on a team that wasn't as good.

When has Connecticut ever been victimized by its own success? What players haven't won awards during that time frame that should have?

 

[iamcbs]

That's not true at all about players being victims of the success of the program. UCONN has won NPOY awards in 12 of the last 22 seasons and has taken home probably two to three times as many All American honors as any other program in that time frame. Morgan Tuck, Renee Montgomery, Asjha Jones and Tamika Williams are all players who earned All American honors with less than stellar statistics in one season or another. Note--I'm not saying they weren't deserving, but on a statistical level, all of them would have been overlooked if they played on a team that wasn't as good.

When has Connecticut ever been victimized by its own success? What players haven't won awards during that time frame that should have?

You say they won 12 of the last 22 NPOY awards and that's true but misleading, when you dig a bit deeper, those 12 NPOY awards went to 3 or 4 Connecticut players, DT3, Maya and Stewie have 9 of the 12 between them. All of the players you listed as AA's would have had much better stats had they been at other programs, so they may not have been overlooked. That's what I meant....

 

[Kibitzer]

You say they won 12 of the last 22 NPOY awards and that's true but misleading, when you dig a bit deeper, those 12 NPOY awards went to 3 or 4 Connecticut players, DT3, Maya and Stewie have 9 of the 12 between them. All of the players you listed as AA's would have had much better stats had they been at other programs, so they may not have been overlooked. That's what I meant....

I wish we could re-compute the stats of Lou, Pheesa and Gabby by applying that ["what if"] 40-minute formula.

Pheesa just dropped 31 points in 29 minutes. Lou has watched several 4th quarters watching blowouts from the bench.

Ah, me. Wishful Boneyard fantasizing.

 

[mntncougar]

I'm not really choosing here, but I'll feel a little bad for Gabby if she doesn't get at least some recognition. A lot of her contributions are intangibles, and for some, the numbers don't tell the whole story. She is the best passer on the team. Of course she does get assists when the other end of the pass scores. But with the tic tac passes this team makes she often gets no credit, even when she started the play with a spectacular pass or even a spectacular play and then a great pass. She gets credit for rebounds. But not GREAT rebounds that most other players wouldn't have gotten a hand on.
With Pheesa particularly, I think Gabby has a large part in making her the spectacular player she is. Without her brilliant pin-point passes Pheesa couldn't score as often.

 

[dtbtbtb]

Part of what makes Collier, Gabby and Lou great is that all 3 have amazing hands so they catch even iffy passes and covert them to points

 

[Carnac]

So who gets coach of the year???

If Geno wins it all, with a young team and a short/inexperienced bench that was not suppose to do anything of significance, nor go deep into the tournament,
He has to get it. He will have done one of the best coaching jobs of his career. During the summer, many of the "informed" basketball pundits predicted that this would be the year some pay back/revenge would be the order of the day for teams that suffered blowout losses for years at the hands of Geno and his Huskies.

This team was suppose to be vulnerable. No returning All-Americans on this team. A team that featured only two returning starters. This would be the year that UConn was "ripe" for plucking. Teams lined up to get on UConn's OOC schedule this year, wanting to be the first to knock those dreaded huskies off their pedestal. Finally, they had UConn right where they wanted them. Then the alarm clock went off, and they all woke up.

 

[Charliebball]

How about the AAC Player of the year?

AAC Player of the Year race too close to call

 

[HuskyFan1125]

How about the AAC Player of the year?

AAC Player of the Year race too close to call

Hmmmm. Seems like a boneyarder brought this up!

 

[j66kicker]

I wish we could re-compute the stats of Lou, Pheesa and Gabby by applying that ["what if"] 40-minute formula.

Pheesa just dropped 31 points in 29 minutes. Lou has watched several 4th quarters watching blowouts from the bench.

Ah, me. Wishful Boneyard fantasizing.

Isn't that exactly what JRRRJ's spreadsheet does?

 

[Kibitzer]

Isn't that exactly what JRRRJ's spreadsheet does?

Yes, for us. But, unfortunately, not for AA or Wooden voters.

 

[Kibitzer]

After two recent solo winners, Pheesa leads team (and both Lou and Gabby) in Boneyard Badass Awards. (Not an official stat; thus ignored by AAC and AA voters.)

Status of Boneyard Badass Awards, after Temple, before USF (and Senior ceremony for Tierney and Saniya):

Pheesa - 13
Gabby - 12
Lou - 10
Kia - 5
Saniya - 3
Crystal - 1
Nat - 1
Geno & CD - 1
Team - 1​

 

[bballnut90]

You say they won 12 of the last 22 NPOY awards and that's true but misleading, when you dig a bit deeper, those 12 NPOY awards went to 3 or 4 Connecticut players, DT3, Maya and Stewie have 9 of the 12 between them. All of the players you listed as AA's would have had much better stats had they been at other programs, so they may not have been overlooked. That's what I meant....

No that's inaccurate.

DT only won POY in 2 years (swept all awards in 2003 and took home a couple in 2004.

Maya won 3 years but split with Charles in 2010.

Stewart took home almost all of the awards all three years.

So there have been 8 UCONN players (Lobo/Rizzotti/Wolters/Bird/Taurasi/Moore/Charles/Stewart) who've won POY awards in those 12 seasons. Actually, throw in Shea Ralph who actually won a couple over Catchings in 2000, and you have 9 different players in 13 years.

I do think all were deserving, but this shows voters did not victimize UCONN players due to less gaudy statistics or playing for UCONN. Of the POY award winners in the last 20 years, the winners with the lowest PPGs have all been from UCONN:
Rizzotti averaged about 11 per game when she won
Ralph averaged 14
Bird averaged 14
Taurasi averaged 16ppg and 18ppg

In fact, the only Connecticut player who won POY while averaging 20+ is Maya Moore. Everyone else was under 20ppg. Almost every other winner from a different program averaged 20+ points per game in the year they won: Beard/Holdsclaw/Augustus/Griner/Parker/Stiles/etc.

If you're arguing that Connecticut players would have better stats if they played for different programs, I agree 100%. No way Taurasi averages just 15ppg for her career at any other program, or that a player like Morgan Tuck would only average 11.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game for her career playing at a different program. That said, I don't think any players at Connecticut are overlooked despite having relatively modest statistics. Morgan Tuck did not have your typical AA caliber statistics last year, but was honored by almost all outlets as an AA and was a top 3 pick in the WNBA draft. No one overlooked her skills or ability as a player, but on paper her stats don't pop out at you.

Players coming to Connecticut know they aren't going to score 20ppg, but at UCONN they are in the national spotlight and do have a great shot of becoming an All-American if they are a top 5-10 kid coming out of high school and buy into Geno's system.

 

[jdubct]

Yes it's close. People have made excellent arguments for KLS and Williams. I choose Collier. She has done it all, including the biggest games. She plays like a smooth, controlled, quiet assassin.