Replace Kia in the starting lineup with ........

[RunItUp!]

I know people are disagreeing with you in this thread but don't be discouraged. Keep posting!

Actually I am the type of person that when I played in the other team's arena, I wanted to shut them up and most of the time I has the best time ever in silencing the crowd, rather than being in my own arena and everyone cheering for my team. Some how I did not like all the cheering for us but the thrill was the opposition's silence as we took control in enemy territory. So if you have not failed in the opinion of others then you have not done anything BUT then they have not thought outside of the limited parameters of their thoughts so maybe they are more mentally crippled than they think but I am not judging them, just a fruit inspector of human reasoning and logic. Let all statements be uplifting because we are not getting paid for this, just voicing an opinion

 

[RunItUp!]

Stewie is as good a leader as any player to ever EVER EVER wear a UCONN uniform. If you really want to go there and compare her to DT just remember Freshmen DT came up short in the game previously referenced. Freshmen Stewie ripped the heart out of a Diggins ND team and ND has still not recovered almost 4 years later.

I don't mind going there but will it translate into anything but wasted time which I don't have. But thank you for your opinion Stewie is great, great and many games would have been lost without her

 

[UcMiami]

RunItUp - congrats on starting a thread at the start of your posting career that has generated so much heated debate.

I will grant that Kia's offensive production, especially given her summertime production, is not where most expected it to be at this point in the year - she seems a little out of sorts in her shooting decisions. That said, a few stats that bear appreciation:
Assist 53, Turnovers 29, A/TO 1.83 (and if you backed out offensive fouls from her TOs, she would be above 2.0
Playing most of the time with four other really good scoring options on the floor, those numbers are at least as important as her own scoring statistics.

And they compare to Gabby's 22 A, 22 TO, 1.0 A/TO statistics very favorably. Defensively Gabby has more steals, but also more personal fouls and fouls are more important this year than ever - they are both good defenders so I am not knocking either.

The other options - Samuelson and Chong are not as good defensively and defense drives this team. Offensively they have put up comparable assist and A/TO numbers and comparable or better shooting stats. But one has been available on a very limited basis this season, the other is a freshman.

And none of the three has the bloody mindedness of Nurse, a quality that is somewhat lacking in the rest of the team, and is a positive that doesn't show in any particular stats.

 

[Roundball fan]

Kia has been throwing up bricks for weeks now. Time for a change. You need another guard on the floor, either Chong or Samuelson. My vote is Chong. Like Geno said we know she can score points.
The thing Geno seems to forget is that you win games by SCORING more points than your opponent. If not constantly brow beaten Chong will score points in bunches.
Time for Kia to give the trowel and mortar a rest.

If you score you may win, if they don't score you will win.

 

[hoophuskee]

Wondering about something has never PROVEN anything in real life.
I am not well versed in UCONN lore as you are, for my main interests are end-time Biblical related, but I would have gone with a better option in the next game, and maybe won by a more comfortable margin and inserting the 0-11 player as a substitute in the game as needed.

coco gave you the 0-11 example which was Diana Taurasi. So you would have benched DT after the bad shooting game (it would have had to have been next year if so but question applies at anytime)? When and how does assists and assists vs turnovers go into your thinking of playing time? You would take athleticism any day over superior passing? Do you think passing makes others better? And you seem to have no issue critiquing Nurse's flaws. Yet Gabby's flaw of passing - to have only a 1 to 1 assists to turnover ratio on this team isn't good at all, do you agree? And passing is a fundamental of basketball. SO how is it that Gabby is making others better as much as Nurse? Just use shooting % as the only stat and supreme athleticism as the only fan enjoyment? If that is the case - I wonder how you would have though of Farris especially her 1st few years. How many players were "more explosive" than her?

In terms of comfortable margin. UCONN wins by an obscene average year-over-year. You think it important to win by more? If so, then you think maybe we should keep the starters in longer such as the core 3 Stewie and MoJeff and Tuck when they are healthy? You think Pulido and Lawlor should never play? All these would result in higher margins, right? Just wondering about your "more comfortable margin" comment.

 

[bags27]

Bags, just wondering why you choose to spell the coaches name the way you do. Again, just curious.

you mean "misspell" his name the way I do?

 

[warbler1055]

So much heated discussion about nothing. We are lucky that we have both Kia and Gabby. Who starts does not matter according to Geno, who knows a thing or two about his players and the match up in a particular game. When games were won by 40-50 points it's pointless to discuss who is a better player. I cannot even think there is a discussion about DT being the best ever or not. And of course there is the MoJeff-Sue Bird comparison. This is nuts!!!!

 

[hoophuskee]

So much heated discussion about nothing. We are lucky that we have both Kia and Gabby. Who starts does not matter according to Geno, who knows a thing or two about his players and the match up in a particular game. When games were won by 40-50 points it's pointless to discuss who is a better player. I cannot even think there is a discussion about DT being the best ever or not. And of course there is the MoJeff-Sue Bird comparison. This is nuts!!!!

Heated? Overall- nah.

 

[bags27]

Wondering about something has never PROVEN anything in real life.
I am not well versed in UCONN lore as you are, for my main interests are end-time Biblical related, but I would have gone with a better option in the next game, and maybe won by a more comfortable margin and inserting the 0-11 player as a substitute in the game as needed.

[Mod edit: Religious discussion can and should be by private message. For newer posters, you can start that process by clicking on the person's avatar or handle at the left side of a post, then on "Start a Conversation." Recipients of messages will see a red flag at upper right of their screen where Inbox appears.]

 

[huskyd]

What Geno seems to understand is that our defense wins games. Our offense decides by how much. Over the last three games, UConn, with Kia dragging the offense down like a rusty anchor, has averaged 99 per game, while giving up 52. I guess we are in deep trouble if we can't average 101. When we finally play the 1 or 3 teams that might give us a run, I guarantee you that we need the best defensive guards on the floor a much as possible. It's a guards game and if we don't control tte guards, we might have a problem against a good team.

If we can't out score a team with our players including Kia, it will be because our defense failed. It's why Stanford beat us last year. We scored plenty enough to have won, and wasn't that the game that made Geno rethink which guards should see the most floor time? We haven't won by less than 10 since.

Very interesting, Mr. Cohen. You've written here what Geno has said: Coach would rather play a team with good bigs than with good guards. (A perfect description of SC.) BOINK: sound of hammer striking nail.

 

[nd2tty]

Interesting, given this discussion, that Kia and Gabby are classmates. I would imagine - given their respective and different talents - in the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons they will do a whole lot of starting, playing, and leading together, not jockeying for starting or playing time between them.

 

[bags27]

[Mod edit: Religious discussion can and should be by private message. For newer posters, you can start that process by clicking on the person's avatar or handle at the left side of a post, then on "Start a Conversation." Recipients of messages will see a red flag at upper right of their screen where Inbox appears.]

Thanks, Moderator. I guess I thought that when we are talking basketball, we are also always talking religion.

 

[boontonbomber]

Forget about who starts, just get Gabby more minutes.

 

[carpe diem]

No slander here carpe diem as I see you are new to the sport. These are college aged women and throwing up bricks is something they use themselves I am sure. It is a common term for a ball that does not have proper rotation and usually clanks off the rim or misses it completely. Any shooter good or bad gets a small percentage of their shots simply from a shooters roll created by good ball rotation which often keeps the ball around the rim or bouncing up and falling through.
As you spend more time watching the game try to take in some of the many Geno shows and practices available. If you have a hard time here with someone using this term the players might read you are really going to have a hard time warming up to Geno. They are very personable and talented as you say but they are a heck of a lot tougher than you think. I don't agree with the poster but he or she has the right and do realize if someone goes over the line the Mods would step in. I like your bold stance though!

Thanks Woof . Growing up I saw Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson play in person (Russell at NCAA finals in Kansas City) so through the years have had some exposure to basketball. The point of my post was not for a discussion of "throwing up bricks" but rather that if Kia read the posts on this thread (which is probably unlikely) no matter her many accomplishments, it would sting. Critique and discussion are a part of sport, but despite her skill and maturity, she is still an adolescent college student who deserves age appropriate civility.

 

[bags27]

I know this thread is about done to death. But about minutes....it's clear that Geno is trying to give his top 9 players as close to 20 minutes each as possible. There was a podcast:
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/t...ts-and-the-possibility-of-jumping-to-the-nba/
around 25 minutes I think, where Geno admits that he may have miscoached the fabulous 2001 team because it was so deep and some of the great benchers didn't get enough time before the two devastating injuries. I think we need to appreciate what Geno's trying to do this year.

 

[hoophuskee]

Forget about who starts, just get Gabby more minutes.

Whose minutes will you drop? Gabby is getting close to 20 right now at 19.6.

 

[Fiftyish]

you mean "misspell" his name the way I do?

I was really trying to avoid sounding like the spelling police. They're frowned upon around here. Whatever works for you Bags is OK with me.

 

[bags27]

I was really trying to avoid sounding like the spelling police. They're frowned upon around here. Whatever works for you Bags is OK with me.

Thanks Fiftyish but that's an important one, so I really appreciate it! I'm getting old enough that these types of ticks just enter (whatever's left of) my intellectual skills and stay until someone (usually my schoolteacher wife) corrects me.

 

[boontonbomber]

Whose minutes will you drop? Gabby is getting close to 20 right now at 19.6.

Too late now, but if Morgan's minutes had been reduced a bit maybe her knee might not be aggravated. Don't understand why she was out there so much in the blowouts. I thought they might save her minutes( and knee) for the tournament. I think Gabby should be at 22-23 minutes. I guess I'd take some time from Kia and Napheesa. Give Kia a break a bit more often, and, everything considered, I think Gabby is more productive than Napheesa .

 

[easttexastrash]

Yes, tinker with the chemistry of this team that is on a 50+ game win streak, soon to be 60+. Wait, don't do that until right before you play Baylor in the National Championship game.

 

[boontonbomber]

Yes, tinker with the chemistry of this team that is on a 50+ game win streak, soon to be 60+. Wait, don't do that until right before you play Baylor in the National Championship game.

In how many of their games this year( won by an average of 39.1 points) do you think that "chemistry" was critical in the final results?

 

[UcMiami]

Too late now, but if Morgan's minutes had been reduced a bit maybe her knee might not be aggravated. Don't understand why she was out there so much in the blowouts. I thought they might save her minutes( and knee) for the tournament. I think Gabby should be at 22-23 minutes. I guess I'd take some time from Kia and Napheesa. Give Kia a break a bit more often, and, everything considered, I think Gabby is more productive than Napheesa .

You have to play your best players enough to get them ready - Morgan was coming off a full season without issue and a full summer of rest - no reason to suspect the knee would start acting up. She played the tough early schedule without any significant issues and then ... This is an experiment sitting her, to see if they can break the cycle of good and bad days that developed over the last 6 weeks by giving her a solid recuperative rest. If it doesn't work then they will likely go back to playing her when she feels good and sitting her when she doesn't for the rest of the year.

 

[hoophuskee]

Too late now, but if Morgan's minutes had been reduced a bit maybe her knee might not be aggravated. Don't understand why she was out there so much in the blowouts. I thought they might save her minutes( and knee) for the tournament. I think Gabby should be at 22-23 minutes. I guess I'd take some time from Kia and Napheesa. Give Kia a break a bit more often, and, everything considered, I think Gabby is more productive than Napheesa .

Huh? You said you would have taken minutes away from Tuck because of her injury issues, and now you also want to take from Kia and Napheesa too? If all you are going to do is add about 3 minutes to Gabby and you were concerned Tuck was playing 28.6 minutes vs 25.5 last year then you will probably be taking away minutes just from Tuck, and not the other two, right?

I'm only being that picky with this because the initial thread - the OP and or another poster who doesn't like Nurse's game much at all- wants Kia more-or-less benched until she hits her shots more. Which I don't agree with. And in regards to Collier- her shot facing the basket as a frosh is superior to what Gabby's was as a frosh. Therefore next year or maybe even late this year her shot will become more smooth - maybe next year with that "Soph jump." So why take minutes from her now- when you can drop Tuck's?

So in summary if you want Gabby at 22.5 minutes - add three to her and drop Tuck by three then keep the rest the same, right?

 

[CocoHusky]

In how many of their games this year( won by an average of 39.1 points) do you think that "chemistry" was critical in the final results?

All!

 

[Huskies Rule]

Replace Kia Nurse in the starting lineup? Kia ain't going nowhere!