Geno and his Brilliant Pupil

[eebmg]

Geno continues to strive for perfection riding Paige hard on how to set up
her screeners

Jeff Jacobs: Paige Bueckers, that kid who can bring UConn a national title this year

We can say this much. In a game between the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the nation,...

www.ctinsider.com

Bueckers said Auriemma has been really hard on her in practice to perfect setting up those screens.
She thanked her teammates for setting a “trillion” screens and wanted to publicly apologize
to them for causing some illegal-screen fouls that probably were her fault.
Faking one way and going the other, going back door, curl, flare off all those screens.
Yes, the professor is still working on his brightest star every day.

 

[Kaizen]

Let Paige to have a 4 straight 30+ points ....

 

[CocoHusky]

Copied from a prior post after the Providence game.

If they were giving out PHDs in the UCONN offense then they might as well award Paige a PHD right now. Remarkable growth in her understanding of the read and react UCONN offense and how to become a Shot Hunter Deluxe. As a benchmark it took KLS a full season to get to this level of understanding of how to hunt shots. The key to being a shot hunter in the UCONN offense is to be constantly working towards the ball.
This is how you draw it it up when teaching read and react, this is what you show kids about how to back cut when overplayed and post up when you have a size advantage or when to break off a cut because you already have the defense beat.

 

[Sanka541]

Let Paige to have a 4 straight 30+ points ....

given the opponents we have coming up in conference play if she hunts shots early and really wants to, she could have 7,8,9 consecutive 30 point games honestly.

 

[hoopsfan22]

given the opponents we have coming up in conference play if she hunts shots early and really wants to, she could have 7,8,9 consecutive 30 point games honestly.

I think we need to give Paige a little rest, but would be happy to see a lot more of Aubrey, Aaliyah, and even Mir. I think those three will play a critical role at some point in the tournament as we face teams with varying styles of play and you never when you're going to get into foul trouble like last night.

 

[CL82]

Paige, do you ever surprise yourself?

“Yeah, going 1-for-6 from three was pretty disappointing,” Bueckers said.

?

 

[huskyd]

It's interesting how the New Haven Register writers break down UConn. They separate Nika, Liv, and Aaliyah from Paige as well as the two "shooters" Evina and Christyn. The first group "holds the fort," plays aggressive D and sets screens for group 2, the shooters (especially for Buckets). Then, all things being equal, Minnesota Slim (coined by the Register) takes over, doing what is needed to get the win. Sounds too pat and it is.
Better for Liv to stop shooting from way outside. Better for Aaliyah to develop a 15 footer from the elbow. Nika is perfectly who she is: a bringer of energy and fight, a baby-faced assassin. If the drought continues for Christyn and Evina, we're in trouble. Williams has some kind of psychological block; Westbrook seems more than a little banged up.
As others have speculated, it just can't be Slim and the Rest.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

The other young ones got some ink this afternoon.

Paige Bueckers stole the show in UConn’s win over South Carolina. But don’t overlook Nika Muhl, Aaliyah Edwards and Aubrey Griffin.

It would be unfair to fixate solely on Paige Bueckers’ brilliance without acknowledging the cast of characters, mostly underclassmen, who helped carry UConn over the finish line.

www.courant.com

"The box score can’t truly encapsulate the effort that sophomore Aubrey Griffin and freshmen Nika Muhl and Aaliyah Edwards brought to the floor on Monday. Their grittiness on defense. Their scrappiness to come up with loose balls and rebounds, to dive all over the floor. Their fearlessness at times to take, and make, tough shots (they combined for 20 points, along with Bueckers accounting for 80 percent of UConn’s scoring). UConn coach Geno Auriemma leaned heavily on those three in the second half and overtime, Muhl and Edwards in particular playing north of 35 minutes."

 

[Bald Husky]

I love Nika, and always have. Last year I watched her interview video. She said that she had narrowed her college choices to four schools, and then, Chris Daily emailed her asking if she wanted to play for the Huskies. She said she cried, and her parents cried because Uconn was her favorite school. I felt bad for her earlier this year when she had such a poor start. I am proud of how she has come back and has become a very important part of our team. Now, she has work to do. She is so reluctant to shoot. She has to learn to shoot when the players play off her, and most of all, she has to take pull ups. She gets in the lane and always kicks it out. With new kids coming in next year, she has to contribute about 12 points a game. She is too valuable in all other areas to be dropped from the starting lineup.
Something to work on during the summer.