Caroline Ducharme making strong first impression

[CL82]

Many here wrote off Muhl last year despite Auriemma‘s own comments regarding her; the same many continue to do so. Now Ducharme gets much the same treatment, the fact is she will either earn or not earn playing time based on her performance, as do all UCONN players.
As for PG, there was a reason Bueckers did not play point last year, the same reason she will not this year; it is not her best position at this level, either offensively or defensively.

I'd suggest that the reason Paige often played the 2 is that we needed her outside shooting and moving without the ball facilitated that. This year's incarnation will be less dependent solely on Paige for a three point threat, so the optimized strategy may be to have 2 players on the court who are high percentage shooters from deep. Just a thought.

 

[Cuango]

Many here wrote off Muhl last year despite Auriemma‘s own comments regarding her; the same many continue to do so. Now Ducharme gets much the same treatment, the fact is she will either earn or not earn playing time based on her performance, as do all UCONN players.
As for PG, there was a reason Bueckers did not play point last year, the same reason she will not this year; it is not her best position at this level, either offensively or defensively.

I have to disagree with you on Paige. She is certainly the best pg on this team and will likely be that throughout her UConn career. There may be strategic and personnel reasons for playing her at the 2 spot but it is certainly not because Nika (or anyone else on the current roster) is a better pg. I doubt you could find five better point guards in all of Div 1 women’s bball.

 

[Littlemin]

I have to disagree with you on Paige. She is certainly the best pg on this team and will likely be that throughout her UConn career. There may be strategic and personnel reasons for playing her at the 2 spot but it is certainly not because Nika (or anyone else on the current roster) is a better pg. I doubt you could find five better point guards in all of Div 1 women’s bball.

Well since she didn’t play PG last year, I am not sure your what you are basing your opinion on but you are more than entitled to it. I look at players play and then form opinions and in Bueckers I saw an extremely talented player that depended on picks and kick outs to get her shots off. She almost never broke down a defender in the half court and therefore showed me almost no ability to create her own shot. That is not a knock on her, it is a weakness or maybe better phrased, an area for improvement, in her game.
And by the way, that doesn’t mean she can’t add that to her arsenal but my belief, pure speculation, is that Auriemma WANTED her to do that, hence “hunting shots”, which she refused to do. I believe she lets the “game come to her” to a degree because of that deficiency. Again, she is a freshman and an absolutely terrific player but until she shows me that she can break defenses down I will stand by my position.
One last point, whether Muhl is a better point guard or not is completely irrelevant to whether or not the TEAM is better with her at point and Bueckers off the ball; obviously Auriemma thought so. This is a different year and a different team so we shall see.

 

[cferraro04]

This team has an overabundance of talent. This is advantageous if one of our key players gets injured...we can replace them with a quality player whose insertion into the line-up will not be catastrophic to the flow and chemistry of our starters. It will also benefit our players as the competition during practice will be crazy off the charts and that will translate to a better, more well-oiled team that eventually takes the floor as starters. It will also prevent our players from getting midseason to late season fatigue which can also lead to additional injuries.

Our coaches will have the flexibility to try many different combinations of players that will present more options to our coaching staff...and it will keep our opponents off balance not being able to effect match-ups to keep up with the all the different ways UConn will be able to score. Inside, outside, off the dribble, pull-up jumpers, good ball movement our team is going to be an absolute nightmare for most of our opponents.

With all that being said...what is there not to like about this team? Dorka a proven division one interior player, Olivia Nelson Odota - experienced senior, proven interior player, Amari DeBerry - a future All American Interior player; Aaliyah Edwards - a sophomore, olympic interior player with a very successful freshman year behind her. Piath Gabriel - a legitimate big, admittedly a work in progress, but poised to make a sophomore leap with plenty of bigs pushing her.

Aubrey Griffin - my favorite player...because I believe her ability is still untapped, we have seen glimpses of her ability and I think she still has the ability to perform as a starter, her one area that needs to improve is her consistency with the short range jumper. If she gets her shooting to improve there will be no stopping Aubrey.

Mir McLean - very athletic player with a tremendous upside...she could easily develop into a 6 point / 5 rebound type of player.

Then comes our swing / guards back court which I think is going to be the most exciting back court in women's college basketball. The fantastic five of Nika, Bueckers, Williams, Westbrook and Fudd is going to be ridiculously / scary good. I can't even imagine another back court as deep in NCAA Women's basketball. Throw in two sharp shooting three point shooters who have size like the 6'2" twins of Ducharme and Poffenbarger and you tell me...what coach in his right mind would want to face UConn a true juggernaut in the women's game?

 

[Cuango]

Well since she didn’t play PG last year, I am not sure your what you are basing your opinion on but you are more than entitled to it. I look at players play and then form opinions and in Bueckers I saw an extremely talented player that depended on picks and kick outs to get her shots off. She almost never broke down a defender in the half court and therefore showed me almost no ability to create her own shot. That is not a knock on her, it is a weakness or maybe better phrased, an area for improvement, in her game.
And by the way, that doesn’t mean she can’t add that to her arsenal but my belief, pure speculation, is that Auriemma WANTED her to do that, hence “hunting shots”, which she refused to do. I believe she lets the “game come to her” to a degree because of that deficiency. Again, she is a freshman and an absolutely terrific player but until she shows me that she can break defenses down I will stand by my position.
One last point, whether Muhl is a better point guard or not is completely irrelevant to whether or not the TEAM is better with her at point and Bueckers off the ball; obviously Auriemma thought so. This is a different year and a different team so we shall see.

As I said, strategic or personnel reasons. I have no argument regarding Paige playing off the ball for those reasons. My point was simply that she is the best pg on this team.

 

[CL82]

She almost never broke down a defender in the half court and therefore showed me almost no ability to create her own shot.

UConn WBB doesn't run a lot iso stuff so the fact that she wasn't trying to breakdown a defender is probably a good thing.

 

[Childhood]

All the articles shows me that Caroline Ducharme may get big minutes in her freshman year.

 

[JoePgh]

This is a reply to Littlimin's comments, in this thread and elsewhere, about Paige and the point guard position. He is too verbose to quote, but basically he is saying that PG is not Paige's best position because she lacks elite penetration skills, and that is why Geno had her at the 2 guard for most of last year. I think he is wrong on both counts.

To take the latter point first, Geno had Paige off the ball for one reason only, which was that she was the best jump shooter on the team, and he wanted to get her open for shots, which is easier to do if she is off the ball. That is obvious; defenders have a harder time keeping up with her if she can move all over the court while the defense is focused on stopping the ball.

The first point, however, is more fundamental. Where is it written that point guards have to be elite penetrators? Sue Bird was not; Sabrina Ionescu is not. Moriah and Crystal were, but that was an "extra" skill for them, which somewhat compensated for the fact that they were not always reliable jump shooters.

The basic requirements for the PG position are court vision and passing, and Paige's skills in those areas are beyond elite. Geno purposely chose not to maximize her use of those skills when he played her off the ball, because anyone she might have passed to would be less likely to score than she was. A PG's personal scoring skills (via either jump shooting OR penetration) need only be sufficient to deter the defense from neglecting her as a scorer and focusing on covering the passing lanes.

This year, with Dorka and Azzi plus another year of improvement for Christyn, Evina, and Alliyah, it should no longer be true that Paige's own jump shot is UConn's best offensive weapon. At that point, it will make sense to put her back at PG where she belongs.

 

[Waquoit]

All the articles shows me that Caroline Ducharme may get big minutes in her freshman year.

After that FF game last year, nobody owes anyone anything. Best players will play, I'm thinking she'll be one of them.

 

[victor64]

This is a reply to Littlimin's comments, in this thread and elsewhere, about Paige and the point guard position. He is too verbose to quote, but basically he is saying that PG is not Paige's best position because she lacks elite penetration skills, and that is why Geno had her at the 2 guard for most of last year. I think he is wrong on both counts.

To take the latter point first, Geno had Paige off the ball for one reason only, which was that she was the best jump shooter on the team, and he wanted to get her open for shots, which is easier to do if she is off the ball. That is obvious; defenders have a harder time keeping up with her if she can move all over the court while the defense is focused on stopping the ball.

The first point, however, is more fundamental. Where is it written that point guards have to be elite penetrators? Sue Bird was not; Sabrina Ionescu is not. Moriah and Crystal were, but that was an "extra" skill for them, which somewhat compensated for the fact that they were not always reliable jump shooters.

The basic requirements for the PG position are court vision and passing, and Paige's skills in those areas are beyond elite. Geno purposely chose not to maximize her use of those skills when he played her off the ball, because anyone she might have passed to would be less likely to score than she was. A PG's personal scoring skills (via either jump shooting OR penetration) need only be sufficient to deter the defense from neglecting her as a scorer and focusing on covering the passing lanes.

This year, with Dorka and Azzi plus another year of improvement for Christyn, Evina, and Alliyah, it should no longer be true that Paige's own jump shot is UConn's best offensive weapon. At that point, it will make sense to put her back at PG where she belongs.

As thin as Paige was last year, I think Geno feared she would get beat up more than she did. I think Paige can get to the basket anytime she wants but she is going to pay the price more so than many.

 

[oldhusky]

I'd suggest that the reason Paige often played the 2 is that we needed her outside shooting and moving without the ball facilitated that. This year's incarnation will be less dependent solely on Paige for a three point threat, so the optimized strategy may be to have 2 players on the court who are high percentage shooters from deep. Just a thought.

I largely agree with this. Paige is a great PG or SG. Nika is a PG, and not nearly as effective when in the game as a SG with Paige at the point. When she is teamed with Nika the pair is substantially better with Paige off the ball. As CL82 points out we needed her outside shooting. When Paige had the ball in her hands the passing options for three pointers was limited. Evina, Christyn and Nika are ok three point shooters, nothing more than that.

Considering what a high percentage Uconn as a team shoots on two's, and Paige's three point percentage, helping a-lot on Paige and giving up open threes to Evina, Christyn and Nika might be about the best most teams could do against Uconn. With Nika at the point she had at least one player (Paige) to pass to that the defense could not afford to leave open beyond the arc.

In some ways Christyn and Evina don't compliment each other. They both can score in midrange, but neither is a lockdown three point shooter. In general I think effective lineups with Paige should have at least one other very good three point shooter. Out of four likely wings pairing Christyn or Evina with one of the incoming shooters, Azzi or Carolyn, and the other with the other shooter might be more effective than Christyn and Evina together, largely because Paige needs a dangerous three point threat to pass to in the drive and kickout game.

 

[donalddoowop]

I largely agree with this. Paige is a great PG or SG. Nika is a PG, and not nearly as effective when in the game as a SG with Paige at the point. When she is teamed with Nika the pair is substantially better with Paige off the ball. As CL82 points out we needed her outside shooting. When Paige had the ball in her hands the passing options for three pointers was limited. Evina, Christyn and Nika are ok three point shooters, nothing more than that.

Considering what a high percentage Uconn as a team shoots on two's, and Paige's three point percentage, helping a-lot on Paige and giving up open threes to Evina, Christyn and Nika might be about the best most teams could do against Uconn. With Nika at the point she had at least one player (Paige) to pass to that the defense could not afford to leave open beyond the arc.

In some ways Christyn and Evina don't compliment each other. They both can score in midrange, but neither is a lockdown three point shooter. In general I think effective lineups with Paige should have at least one other very good three point shooter. Out of four likely wings pairing Christyn or Evina with one of the incoming shooters, Azzi or Carolyn, and the other with the other shooter might be more effective than Christyn and Evina together, largely because Paige needs a dangerous three point threat to pass to in the drive and kickout game.

You keep calling her Carolyn. Maybe it's just me but, I believe UConn fans owe it to the players to spell their names right if they are going to post about them. Her name is Caroline. jmo.

 

[BostonBay]

I'm hoping Caroline Ducharme can develop into a wing - can play either the 2 or 3. She's got the length, shot, & handle. What's unknown without seeing her in action is her quickness, lateral movement, & strength.

 

[Cuango]

This is a reply to Littlimin's comments, in this thread and elsewhere, about Paige and the point guard position. He is too verbose to quote, but basically he is saying that PG is not Paige's best position because she lacks elite penetration skills, and that is why Geno had her at the 2 guard for most of last year. I think he is wrong on both counts.

To take the latter point first, Geno had Paige off the ball for one reason only, which was that she was the best jump shooter on the team, and he wanted to get her open for shots, which is easier to do if she is off the ball. That is obvious; defenders have a harder time keeping up with her if she can move all over the court while the defense is focused on stopping the ball.

The first point, however, is more fundamental. Where is it written that point guards have to be elite penetrators? Sue Bird was not; Sabrina Ionescu is not. Moriah and Crystal were, but that was an "extra" skill for them, which somewhat compensated for the fact that they were not always reliable jump shooters.

The basic requirements for the PG position are court vision and passing, and Paige's skills in those areas are beyond elite. Geno purposely chose not to maximize her use of those skills when he played her off the ball, because anyone she might have passed to would be less likely to score than she was. A PG's personal scoring skills (via either jump shooting OR penetration) need only be sufficient to deter the defense from neglecting her as a scorer and focusing on covering the passing lanes.

This year, with Dorka and Azzi plus another year of improvement for Christyn, Evina, and Alliyah, it should no longer be true that Paige's own jump shot is UConn's best offensive weapon. At that point, it will make sense to put her back at PG where she belongs.

Agree with everything you said! I would add one more thing though, Geno was able to do this because he had another pg who while not at Paige’s level, was an elite passer and a tenacious defender. This allowed Paige to be more of a scorer without losing the offensive flow of the game (probably better with two elite passers) while at the same time improving the overall defensive level on the floor. I think we are going to see something special this year with the addition of Azzi, Caroline Ducharme, Dorka, and (hopefully) a focused, hungry, and improved CW, Liv, AE, Nika, a healthier Mama E, and possibly one or two surprise contributors from the rest. I get chills just thinking about the potential of this team!

 

[oldhusky]

You keep calling her Carolyn. Maybe it's just me but, I believe UConn fans owe it to the players to spell their names right if they are going to post about them. Her name is Caroline. jmo.

Sorry, duly noted, thanks!

 

[Littlemin]

So I offered opinions in this thread that obviously offended some people who chose, rather than comment, to attach a childish emoji to my post. No big deal, I coached basketball for a long time and learned to consider the source a long time ago.
In contrast, several posters commented with differing opinions, which is great. One in particular, from JoePgh, presented a well thought out, well written reply offering a very cogent rebuttal to virtually all of my points. Again, great, differing opinions and views is what makes the world go round and I have plenty of room for intelligent disagreement with any of my opinions. Mine are certainly no more valid than anyone else’s.
As for the posters I mentioned in the beginning of this post, let’s leave it with I am very thankful for the ignore feature, I already have young grandchildren.

 

[Mdoggie]

Lil min don’t be so uptight dude. Loosen up those coaching shorts and breathe. Your young grandchildren need you. Also try and emoji now and then. Don’t let the youth be wasted on the childish.
Wait one darn minute! Coach Jumper? Hmm.

 

[Littlemin]

Lil min don’t be so uptight dude. Loosen up those coaching shorts and breathe. Your young grandchildren need you. Also try and emoji now and then. Don’t let the youth be wasted on the childish.

Appreciate the reply but if I came across as uptight, I gave the wrong impression. Like a lot of the over 70 crowd, I just don’t get the rudeness and lack of basic respect for differing opinions that now permeates almost every aspect of our lives. But uptight, no, I said what I wanted to say and that’s that.

 

[Mdoggie]

Appreciate the reply but if I came across as uptight, I gave the wrong impression. Like a lot of the over 70 crowd, I just don’t get the rudeness and lack of basic respect for differing opinions that now permeates almost every aspect of our lives. But uptight, no, I said what I wanted to say and that’s that.

Well ok. So there. Don’t mind me, I try and find some levity in most things on our forum.

 

[Bald Husky]

Lil min don’t be so uptight dude. Loosen up those coaching shorts and breathe. Your young grandchildren need you. Also try and emoji now and then. Don’t let the youth be wasted on the childish.
Wait one darn minute! Coach Jumper? Hmm.

Close, VolBall09 LOL

 

[Littlemin]

Well ok. So there. Don’t mind me, I try and find some levity in most things on our forum.

Nothing at all to not mind, like I said, I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to reply. I certainly meant no offense in my reply to you. As for the levity, I find nothing funny about people being being rude; so maybe in hindsight I did come across as being uptight.

 

[MooseJaw]

Appreciate the reply but if I came across as uptight, I gave the wrong impression. Like a lot of the over 70 crowd, I just don’t get the rudeness and lack of basic respect for differing opinions that now permeates almost every aspect of our lives. But uptight, no, I said what I wanted to say and that’s that.

I always enjoy a good discussion, debate or differing opinion and there are plenty others on the BY looking for the opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts in a respectful way. Seems wherever we go there are some who don't play well with others on the BY we have the ignore someone option and are able to block them. Hope you have better experiences here from now on. There are really a lot of supper fans and great people that love UCONN WBB on the BY I hope you get to experience them soon.

 

[Mdoggie]

By far the best WCBB forum on the market! I didn’t even get upset when I went away for awhile and somehow my forum name was changed from Mdoggie to DMpuppy. I have no idea who would have to power or reason to do that?

 

[Alydar]

This team has an overabundance of talent. This is advantageous if one of our key players gets injured...we can replace them with a quality player whose insertion into the line-up will not be catastrophic to the flow and chemistry of our starters. It will also benefit our players as the competition during practice will be crazy off the charts and that will translate to a better, more well-oiled team that eventually takes the floor as starters. It will also prevent our players from getting midseason to late season fatigue which can also lead to additional injuries.

Our coaches will have the flexibility to try many different combinations of players that will present more options to our coaching staff...and it will keep our opponents off balance not being able to effect match-ups to keep up with the all the different ways UConn will be able to score. Inside, outside, off the dribble, pull-up jumpers, good ball movement our team is going to be an absolute nightmare for most of our opponents.

With all that being said...what is there not to like about this team? Dorka a proven division one interior player, Olivia Nelson Odota - experienced senior, proven interior player, Amari DeBerry - a future All American Interior player; Aaliyah Edwards - a sophomore, olympic interior player with a very successful freshman year behind her. Piath Gabriel - a legitimate big, admittedly a work in progress, but poised to make a sophomore leap with plenty of bigs pushing her.

Aubrey Griffin - my favorite player...because I believe her ability is still untapped, we have seen glimpses of her ability and I think she still has the ability to perform as a starter, her one area that needs to improve is her consistency with the short range jumper. If she gets her shooting to improve there will be no stopping Aubrey.

Mir McLean - very athletic player with a tremendous upside...she could easily develop into a 6 point / 5 rebound type of player.

Then comes our swing / guards back court which I think is going to be the most exciting back court in women's college basketball. The fantastic five of Nika, Bueckers, Williams, Westbrook and Fudd is going to be ridiculously / scary good. I can't even imagine another back court as deep in NCAA Women's basketball. Throw in two sharp shooting three point shooters who have size like the 6'2" twins of Ducharme and Poffenbarger and you tell me...what coach in his right mind would want to face UConn a true juggernaut in the women's game?

With more experience playing together Bueckers/Fudd/Mühl will become the best backcourt in wbb at any level.

 

[Alydar]

Well since she didn’t play PG last year, I am not sure your what you are basing your opinion on but you are more than entitled to it. I look at players play and then form opinions and in Bueckers I saw an extremely talented player that depended on picks and kick outs to get her shots off. She almost never broke down a defender in the half court and therefore showed me almost no ability to create her own shot. That is not a knock on her, it is a weakness or maybe better phrased, an area for improvement, in her game.
And by the way, that doesn’t mean she can’t add that to her arsenal but my belief, pure speculation, is that Auriemma WANTED her to do that, hence “hunting shots”, which she refused to do. I believe she lets the “game come to her” to a degree because of that deficiency. Again, she is a freshman and an absolutely terrific player but until she shows me that she can break defenses down I will stand by my position.
One last point, whether Muhl is a better point guard or not is completely irrelevant to whether or not the TEAM is better with her at point and Bueckers off the ball; obviously Auriemma thought so. This is a different year and a different team so we shall see.

Bueckers was moved to the 2 only because she was head and shoulders a better shooter and scorer than anyone else on the team. As a pg she was only a head above Mühl.
As for your opinion that she has "no ability to create her own shot" I am without words to describe how much I disagree with you.