I think this is going to end up being a surprisingly large loss. She really stepped up her role handling the ball this year when teammates were having trouble. Hit a lot of big shots as well.
GO HEELS!!
GO HEELS!!
Aarnisalo
- Thread starter BenSherman
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I agree with you completely. She will be a big loss. I am disappointed at the thought that this may have been her plan all along - to transfer somewhere for a year to get more PT while UCLA had a heavily-weighted upperclass roster - and then return to UCLA an improved player when the way was clear for more PT for her. As far as I've seen she did not even bother to post any goodbye message to the fans that embraced and supported her in Chapel Hill for a year.
We are going to miss Elina and Grant.
Thankfully we have the best PG in the nation coming in and I expect from what I have seen she will
the best PG we have had at UNC WBB. I just pray she can play at 100% good health.
Coach CB likes to play 2 PG's together. I was hoping that was going to be Elina and Kate but if
Reniya can return to 100% that has strong potential.
I hope Nyla Brooks can take over some of the ball handling under pressure that Indya Nivar did for us last season.
We also have Burrows and Clardy that we will have to wait to make judgement with this team but on film
they both looked good.
Bottom line we all hate Lanie and Elina are gone but we are still looking good for next years team.
Thankfully we have the best PG in the nation coming in and I expect from what I have seen she will
the best PG we have had at UNC WBB. I just pray she can play at 100% good health.
Coach CB likes to play 2 PG's together. I was hoping that was going to be Elina and Kate but if
Reniya can return to 100% that has strong potential.
I hope Nyla Brooks can take over some of the ball handling under pressure that Indya Nivar did for us last season.
We also have Burrows and Clardy that we will have to wait to make judgement with this team but on film
they both looked good.
Bottom line we all hate Lanie and Elina are gone but we are still looking good for next years team.
I think there is way too much risk in that as a plan. I think she just values playing time on a quality team and possibly money above all else. At UCLA there was no clear path to a starting role last year with the team getting deeper at point guard and at UNC there was no clear path this year with Harpring coming in and Kelly possibly getting healthy.
I will not judge her on what she does or does not post on social media. I don't see any grand good bye in her history towards UCLA either. I only have limited experience with Finnish culture, but they usually are not into elaborate social niceties. They value directness and silence over any platitudes. Not saying this is Elina's personality, I have no idea, but I bet their athletes don't often do a scripted goodbye in their own country.
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JimmyDaheel, I do not think so. Guards are dime a dozen. There are some many athletes out there in this world. You just have to do you do homework and find them. This is why people get paid to do their job like a GM, coaching staff, etc. Anybody can be replaced. The way you are sounding you think EA was the number 1 player coming out of Finland or something. We still have RK, KH coming in, and CC from Stanford. They can all play the point.
How about every FAN/poaser join the Rams Club and be a member and contributor. Maybe just the minimum, or more.
This player had zero chance of being better than Harpring. I presume Harpring will be our PG.
Talk on message boards is cheap. Better players send others searching for minutes somewhere else.
Will Toomey ever be better than tall and average?
All excellent points. I am guilty of being slow to accept the frequent movement between teams of players in this modern basketball world; hated to see all 4 players who entered the portal leave us. I just need to accept that this is the way that basketball is now and roll with the punches!
Yeah, it is a new ball game now. Every team is going to lose a few players unless the NCAA or some higher entity can make a rule change on the number of times an athlete can transfer or implement something that says a player will have to sit out a year after the first time they transfer out. Right now, it is like the wild wild west.
i agree. OBVIOUS:Y: "We need a true 5 if we want to go beyond the sweet 16." Some seem happy with nice team, fun to watch. IMO the last few seasons have offered mediocre bb and hardly worth watching. Top 20 basketball. Record it, yet find no reason to go back to play. I was there for Sylvia's intro and when she made the leap to a title. She came to CH pregnant, she made a visit to our office, she said what she planned to do, she later delivered her child, and delivered to our program. These last teams are not comparable to Sylvia's good teams. Do not know waht happened to Sylvia, teams eventually fell off the rails, to childlike helter-skelter pay that was laughable. But for a term she got it done. I believed in CB. I see no reason why she will make the leap from a 2.0 or 2.5 up to top 5 or even to a top 10. The money part stinks. But sunshine fans don't do anything for me. Maybe Harpring can make a difference. QUALITY SIZE INSIDE needed !!
FWIW, there are only about 8 teams in the country who are satisfied with their starting Center. It is by far the shallowest talent pool year in and year out in WBB. And as a consequences, there is huge competition for a C in the portal with almost no names that move the needle.
No one else would make this team better. So that was 2 true post players available in Crooks and Trygger, and both have some obvious holes in their game despite overall being very good players.
The best place to get a big is to recruit them out of HS or strike gold overseas, then manage to keep them on your team. Toomey and Thomas were both very highly ranked to that end.
- 6-3 audi Crooks went to OK State reportedly for well over $1 Million
- 6-2 Addy Brown played the 4 at Iowa State next to Crooks, she went to UCLA, will she play the 5? Probably not with Siemma Betts there. She has chosen teams constructed to let her play the 4.
- 6-2 NuNu Agara of Stanford is also more of a natural 4. we recruited her, she went to Maryland. She was my top want in the portal, we got Akot instead which is a very, very solid consolation prize.
- 6-6 Trygger went from NCSU to Washington. A bit of a head scratcher in terms of destination.
- 6-3 Mia Woofolk went to Vandy
- 6-3 Somfai went from Stanford to TCU, she is more of a stretch 4 than a true 5, very similar to Toomey, not an upgrade.
No one else would make this team better. So that was 2 true post players available in Crooks and Trygger, and both have some obvious holes in their game despite overall being very good players.
The best place to get a big is to recruit them out of HS or strike gold overseas, then manage to keep them on your team. Toomey and Thomas were both very highly ranked to that end.
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The women's game is mostly under-sized re center options. Most teams play with a center that is not a power player, not so tall. The players you note are generally not great basketball players fundamentally, only big/tall. Some are like BT, totally out of shape per condition. Have people viewed Crooks ? The challengers in the final four had talented inside presence, including the UCLA winner. Again we will see how the overall combination of talent and coaching shakes out here next season. A point is that within women's game a truly great talent may dramatically effect the team, one that does not have to be a tall player. Just a hell of a talented BASKETBALL PLAYER. Few block, almost none dunk, the women's game does not need be the equivalent of Alcindor, it just need be a tough inside presence that cancels the oponents center. That is if the balance at the other four positions can play.
Fundamentals and skill still has its place. I have been at the forefront of the men's teams here in CH since 1965. Maybe I am in error as expecting too much re the evolution of the in-game performance re the women's basketball.
I kind of agree, but only because there are few great bigs, so it is rare that you face one and get exposed. But when you do face one, it usually goes very poorly. A quality big is a key component of the large majority of dominant teams.
UCLA: 6-7 Lauren Betts NDPOY, 1st team A-A, 1st round in draft, Lisa Leslie award winner(top center)
UofSC 6-6 Medina Okot : 1st team All-SEC, 1st round in draft, Lisa Leslie Award finalist (top 5 center)
UConn 6-4 Serah Williams: B1G DPOY, 1st team, same in Big East as a senior, Lisa Leslie award nominee (top 10 center) drafted 1st round.
those are your three best teams by far, all with a prototypical, top 10 big In the country able to dominate the paint.
but there are only about ten such women each year, so I agree that if you do not have one of those ten, then you are trying to use a an atypical post player to fill that role as best as possible, or you are playing with a less skilled tall woman who provides a defensive presence but little else.
but when those teams face a Betts or an Okot then they get Exposed.
The bottom line is Blanca T. She is going to make or break us next year. I still believe in her. She must put the work in this off season in order for next year's team to reach is potential and ceiling. She is 6'5" or maybe 6'6". She has to want it. Nobody can teach that. It has to come from within. She will solve the 5 problem if she works her tail off including lifting weights and getting stronger. She needs to work on her vertical jump too. If she can jump just a little bit off of the floor that would help out a whole lot.
I agree on Blanca. She has size and talent. Maybe this season she can come in healthy and in top shape.
I also think Ciera Toomey who is now 6'5 according to Debbie Antonelli is going to take a jump in her second year as a true 5.
Lastly, I have no idea how Noelle Bofia is looking but from observing her on the sideline during games she is very tall and she appears to me to huge hands.
So between those 3 we should have the 5 position pretty good. Fingers crossed, JMO.
I also think Ciera Toomey who is now 6'5 according to Debbie Antonelli is going to take a jump in her second year as a true 5.
Lastly, I have no idea how Noelle Bofia is looking but from observing her on the sideline during games she is very tall and she appears to me to huge hands.
So between those 3 we should have the 5 position pretty good. Fingers crossed, JMO.