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Congrats to Katie Lou, Napheesa and Gabby for their selection as Pre-Season All-Americans. They are the first players from one school to make the five person team. Congrats to A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Mitchell for their select as well.
The links in both the UConn link section and the WBCC link section have plenty of information on all the selections. But I would like to talk about it from another angle.
In any given season, having 2 pre-season AA's has almost always meant a National Championship for UConn. This team has three. Amazing. And there's more. A lot more.
This particular version has two other players that in another season, might have been pre-season AA's as well. Kia Nurse and Azura Stevens.
Remove the other three pre-season players and think of this team with Stevens and Nurse as the lead players. You don't think they would get pre-season votes? No doubt. Add in Dangerfield as a future AA along with a FOY candidate and you have a dynamo of a team.
I guess what I am saying is that your first 6 players on this team are All-American level. No other team has more than two.
It's really not fair. Hehehe.
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I watched the Tennessee/Carson-Newman exhibition game and there was some good, some bad and certainly some ugly for the Tennessee fans to chew on.
The freshman are terrific players. Westbrook has excellent court vision and is a tenacious defender. Hayes is very fast and was able to find lanes to the basket. Kushkituah is a load in the lane. But she won't be able to get her shot off against bigger defenders that Carson-Newman was able to offer. But the gem to me is Davis. She is a terrific athlete. She has LONG arms and can jump. Reminded me of Glory Johnson.
They scored 121 points. Always a good thing.
Tennessee had 16 steals that turned into a ton of points.
Tennessee made 52 of 91 shots.
Nared had 22 points and 9 rebound.
6 players had double digit scoring.
Tennessee gave up 76 points to Carson-Newman. That is more than 20 points than they have given up to C-N for as long as they have played.
They allowed C-N to take 23 threes. Many of them open.
Tennessee was only 16-26 from the FT line for 61%.
Russell had only 14 points and 4 rebounds. Several times she was easily blocked out for rebounds. She looks the same as last year to me and certainly not an AA candidate. Was she really a No. 1 recruit out of HS?
The main culprit for the low FT percentage fwas Russell who made only 4 of 10. And she looked terrible taking them. Hack-a-shack a possibility?
I saw ZERO semblance of an offense. If Tennessee didn't score off of a steal, fast break off a rebound or a 1-1 move by a player they rarely scored. They had only 19 assists on 52 baskets. That's 35.5% of their baskets being assisted on.
Holly Warlick's coaching is still the worst I have seen. A terrible offensive scheme. Actually, there was no scheme.
Nared was 0-4 on threes, and the team was 1-13.
I will be interested to see how this team does against decent (not even good) defensive teams. Can this team do better than the 12 and 14 loss teams of the past two seasons? I don't think so. In fact, they might do worse with the limited bench and the inevitable freshman mistakes.
It breaks my heart.......
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The Good
The freshman are terrific players. Westbrook has excellent court vision and is a tenacious defender. Hayes is very fast and was able to find lanes to the basket. Kushkituah is a load in the lane. But she won't be able to get her shot off against bigger defenders that Carson-Newman was able to offer. But the gem to me is Davis. She is a terrific athlete. She has LONG arms and can jump. Reminded me of Glory Johnson.
They scored 121 points. Always a good thing.
Tennessee had 16 steals that turned into a ton of points.
Tennessee made 52 of 91 shots.
Nared had 22 points and 9 rebound.
6 players had double digit scoring.
The Bad
Tennessee gave up 76 points to Carson-Newman. That is more than 20 points than they have given up to C-N for as long as they have played.
They allowed C-N to take 23 threes. Many of them open.
Tennessee was only 16-26 from the FT line for 61%.
Russell had only 14 points and 4 rebounds. Several times she was easily blocked out for rebounds. She looks the same as last year to me and certainly not an AA candidate. Was she really a No. 1 recruit out of HS?
The UGLY
The main culprit for the low FT percentage fwas Russell who made only 4 of 10. And she looked terrible taking them. Hack-a-shack a possibility?
I saw ZERO semblance of an offense. If Tennessee didn't score off of a steal, fast break off a rebound or a 1-1 move by a player they rarely scored. They had only 19 assists on 52 baskets. That's 35.5% of their baskets being assisted on.
Holly Warlick's coaching is still the worst I have seen. A terrible offensive scheme. Actually, there was no scheme.
Nared was 0-4 on threes, and the team was 1-13.
I will be interested to see how this team does against decent (not even good) defensive teams. Can this team do better than the 12 and 14 loss teams of the past two seasons? I don't think so. In fact, they might do worse with the limited bench and the inevitable freshman mistakes.
It breaks my heart.......
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I try to keep politics out of my blog but I thought this might be interesting to my readers.
By David in Naples!!!!!
Last time I checked, the 3 point line was not moved closer for the Ashland game. It was the same distance last Sunday, that it was a year ago, or will be a week from now. Against Ashland, the starting five Huskies made 7-11 three point shots. That is 63.6% regardless of who the team is playing. Two of the starters, Kia (4-4) and Gabby (1-1) made every three they tried. Lou added 1 of 4 and Crystal was 1-2.
If you subtract the three point totals, UConn made 42 of 54 shots from inside the arc. That is an amazing 77.7% for the whole game. Of course, many of those shots were point blank range against an undersized Ashland team. But still, 77.7%...?? Clearly, wide open layups are easier than contested 15-20 footers. The Huskies were so accurate, that according to my stats guru, Phil, they did not miss back to back shots until there were only 4 minutes left in the 3rd period. That is 26 minutes of fast paced basketball & includes threes and free throws. Amazing.
The strangest shooting stat from the night was the 8-12 results from the free throw line. That is 65.4% and is almost equal to the percentage from three point range. Maybe back up from the free throw line and shot from the arc?
Anytime a team scores 119 points, after taking their foot of the gas, they are a good shooting team. Straighten out that free throw issue and they will be even more amazing.
Go Huskies..!!
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If you subtract the three point totals, UConn made 42 of 54 shots from inside the arc. That is an amazing 77.7% for the whole game. Of course, many of those shots were point blank range against an undersized Ashland team. But still, 77.7%...?? Clearly, wide open layups are easier than contested 15-20 footers. The Huskies were so accurate, that according to my stats guru, Phil, they did not miss back to back shots until there were only 4 minutes left in the 3rd period. That is 26 minutes of fast paced basketball & includes threes and free throws. Amazing.
The strangest shooting stat from the night was the 8-12 results from the free throw line. That is 65.4% and is almost equal to the percentage from three point range. Maybe back up from the free throw line and shot from the arc?
Anytime a team scores 119 points, after taking their foot of the gas, they are a good shooting team. Straighten out that free throw issue and they will be even more amazing.
Go Huskies..!!
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UCONN LINKS
Trio Of Huskies Named AP Preseason All-Americans UConn Team Site
UConn trio headline AP women's hoops All-America team NY Daily News
Notebook: Huskies put welcome mat out Carl Adamec
WCBB LINKS
Why Stanford and Cal women have tough starts to season Mercury News
Stanford women’s basketball: Heralded freshmen will have to wait their turn SF Gate
OSU women's basketball: Kelsey Mitchell named preseason AA Columbus Dispatch
South Carolina's Wilson joins 3 UConn players on AP AA team Aiken Standard
Countdown to Columbus to Open the Season on ESPN ESPN Media Zone
Stanford women’s basketball: Heralded freshmen will have to wait their turn SF Gate
OSU women's basketball: Kelsey Mitchell named preseason AA Columbus Dispatch
South Carolina's Wilson joins 3 UConn players on AP AA team Aiken Standard
Countdown to Columbus to Open the Season on ESPN ESPN Media Zone
Women’s basketball prevails in exhibition Stanford Daily
Can Mississippi State's women's basketball team do it again? Jackson Ledger
Message Boards
UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!!
College Fans Only - WCBB board where no holds are barred
Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board
CockyTalk - The upstart South Carolina women's basketball board
CockyTalk - The upstart South Carolina women's basketball board
ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board
UCONN Information
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