Uconn BE Post season Awards
- Thread starter the Blades
- Start date
Paige Bueckers Big East Freshman and Player of The year!!!!!!
khalid, I didn’t watch Diana her frosh year. Compare her and Paige? Grassy!
Diana Taurasi's freshman year was not as good as Paige's. In particular, she was more erratic shooting the ball than Paige. Diana averaged 10.9 ppg, shot 38.6% on 3s (about 9% less than Paige), 44.4% FGs, and had 109 assists in 33 games. Now in fairness to Diana, she was playing on what was arguably the most talented team in UConn history, as you had the Fab 4 juniors who all got picked in the top 6 of the WNBA Draft (Bird, Cash, Jones, Williams) and you also had Abrosomova and Ralph who were senior All Americans. That team wins it all without any doubt if Shea and Svet don't get injured at the end of the season. ND, which UConn had beaten for the Big East championship, backed into that NCAA title and they were greatly helped by the fact that Diana, with more of a load due to the injuries, shot 1-15 in the Final 4 against ND in a cringe-worthy performance she never repeated after her freshman season. So Diana was deferring a lot to 6 great upper classmen as a frosh, until Shea and Svet both got hurt within a couple games at the end of the year. What I will say is she tended to shoot deeper 3s than Paige (often making them) and she was a bit bigger and stronger than Paige. Even at that time, I thought Diana played like a guy especially on her drives. She could do Eurostep and other crossover maneuvers I had not seen a female guard ever do. Taurasi's game was also a little bit wilder and more reckless than Paige's. Paige has similar talent and skills but as a freshman plays more mature and more in control than Diana did, doesn't take as many chances, yet at times is just as flashy. What Diana had was a little more size and strength on her drives to power through contact, although if you notice Paige is very, very good with Eurostep and other maneuvers to avoid heavy contact.
Diana as a freshman had 72 TOs in 33 games. Paige has 56 in 23 games. That's closer than I would have guessed but Diana did not handle as much as Paige does.
I see Paige as a very cerebral player. I think she is more like Sue Bird in some ways but with Diana's flair and flashiness.
Diana as a freshman had 72 TOs in 33 games. Paige has 56 in 23 games. That's closer than I would have guessed but Diana did not handle as much as Paige does.
I see Paige as a very cerebral player. I think she is more like Sue Bird in some ways but with Diana's flair and flashiness.
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Congratulations - great job! The thing I didn’t see coming was Tyler Polley as 6th man of the year, although I hadn’t really thought much about that award.
The thing about Bueckers is that she doesn't get sped up. Her court vision and basketball IQ lets her move at her own pace. In games it looks as if it is effortless. She can get her shot pretty much whenever she wants but prefers to hand out dimes. She's really special. It's too early to try to decide where she falls in the UConn WBB pantheon of greatness. Let's let her get through her first NCAAs before we start trying to rank her. She is a pleasure to watch.
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Bueckers basketball IQ is very high and she is seeing one or two plays ahead, unlike her teammates. Last night she had 2 TOs when her passes to teammates who she thought would cut to basket went out of bounds after the teammate didn't cut. In watching those plays, the teammate should have cut on both occasions, and had the teammate cut, it would have led to a score or a foul. Although it's too early to say exactly where she falls in WBB pantheon of greatness, it is not too early to say she is already in that pantheon. She just finished what was probably the greatest freshman season in UConn WBB history including Maya Moore's freshman season.
No ones putting Paige on any UConn lists just yet. I just wanted guys like Khalid to opine on her freshman season, in comparison to D. Since it’s been amazing.
im fairly new to watching the women regularly. i Started paying more attention during Briana, Jefferson and Tucks last year. Then watched pretty much every game since.
Yes, I’m the mush.
Hopefully Paige can change all that.
im fairly new to watching the women regularly. i Started paying more attention during Briana, Jefferson and Tucks last year. Then watched pretty much every game since.
Yes, I’m the mush.
Hopefully Paige can change all that.I have been watching the UConn women for 25 years and in that span of time the only freshman season that is even in the discussion with Paige's was Maya Moore's freshman season in 2007-08. One could argue Maya was better defensively as a freshman than Paige, and like Paige she won Big East freshman and Player of the Year and at that time, was the only player male or female basketball player in the Big East's history to win both awards. Maya has been joined by Paige, I believe, as the only 2 players to have swept the awards as freshman. Paige might still win National Player of the Year. She was the only freshman named to the Wooden Final 15. I thought the kid Caitlin Clark for Iowa might make the list after averaging 27 ppg for Iowa, but she didn't.
It should be noted that Sue Bird's freshman season was washed out due to an injury, and Taurasi, as already mentioned, came in as a freshman onto a team that was probably more loaded with high end talent than any team in UConn history 1 to 7. I think the top 7 players on that team were all 1st round WNBA Draft picks or 1st Team All Americans or both. Bueckers was able to start from day 1 which helped, but I think she would have started on any UConn team as a freshman except the 2001 and 2002 teams when Bird and Taurasi were the best backourt ever assembled in women's college or professional basketball history. As amazing as it seems, the entrance of Azzi Fudd next year sets the stage for a possible backcourt to match Taurasi-Bird.
It should be noted that Sue Bird's freshman season was washed out due to an injury, and Taurasi, as already mentioned, came in as a freshman onto a team that was probably more loaded with high end talent than any team in UConn history 1 to 7. I think the top 7 players on that team were all 1st round WNBA Draft picks or 1st Team All Americans or both. Bueckers was able to start from day 1 which helped, but I think she would have started on any UConn team as a freshman except the 2001 and 2002 teams when Bird and Taurasi were the best backourt ever assembled in women's college or professional basketball history. As amazing as it seems, the entrance of Azzi Fudd next year sets the stage for a possible backcourt to match Taurasi-Bird.
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No ones putting Paige on any UConn lists just yet. I just wanted guys like Khalid to opine on her freshman season, in comparison to D. Since it’s been amazing.
im fairly new to watching the women regularly. i Started paying more attention during Briana, Jefferson and Tucks last year. Then watched pretty much every game since.
Yes, I’m the mush.
The thing about lists for UConn WBB is that you have to win a NC as ante to the conversation.
I
Here is the issue with that, which is that in 2021 it is MUCH harder to win a national championship than it was in the years when UConn won its 11 national titles. There is a lot more parity. In the years between 1995 and 2010 it was UConn and Tennessee and except for a surge of dominance by Duke in the mid 2000s, there was a big drop off from UConn and Tennessee. Now you have 7 or 8 teams that are very competitive every year, a group that includes Baylor, Stanford, Louisville, South Carolina, Maryland, North Carolina State, and Texas A&M as well as UConn. Earlier this year Arkansas beat UConn, and Tennessee and South Carolina, which have very large and athletic teams, had highly competitive losses to UConn. So I think it's harder now to win 6 in a row than in past years. The current UConn team is much more talented than the 2003 and 2004 National Champions, but the 2003 and 2004 teams really only had to beat Tennessee. This year UConn will be tested from the Elite 8 game on, and possibly even the Sweet 16, as the last bracketology had them rematched against Arkansas, who beat them, in the Sweet 16. In past years UConn would never, ever face a team in the Sweet 16 that had either beaten UConn or was capable of doing so.
We are in a more competitive era of women's basketball. The reason why UConn failed to title 2017-2019 is that they lacked size and depth and those shortcomings got exposed in the Final 4. Those issues were addressed and they have better size and depth, but it will still be a challenge for this crew to win 6 against what will be a very good field.
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We'll see.
Or Maybe Paige will win 4 in a row. ( or 3 before she leaves early)
I agree, she has those qualities that you described, that only the great ones have.