18 March 2012
Welcome to UConn Basketball
UConn, along with a few other elite teams (Tennesse, Stanford) have excelled for so long that anything less than a visit to the Final Four is considered a bad season. For most teams, of course, making it to the NCAA tournament is a big deal!
Tomorrow UConn continues to the second round where they will play Kansas State. Hartford Courant reporter John Altavilla enjoyed seeing the tournament from the Kansas State's coach's point-of-view:
"Kansas State Coach Deb Patterson put on a great show Sunday, especially when asked to give her impressions of UConn, its world and its players."
[UConn coach Geno Auriemma is very hard on freshman post player Kiah Stokes, saying she's not working hard enough and isn't ready for the big time like they need her to be.]
"Patterson smiled when asked about Stokes. 'Most of us in America would love to have Kiah Stokes on our team. no question. Her development as a young player in UConn’s program is very interesting to me. In classic UConn form, Geno’s primary post player is usually the one who seems to get, hmmmm, seems to get a lot of attention about needing to be better.
'I remember when Tina Charles was there. She came out an still continued to shoot 60 percent from the floor. [Stefanie] Dolson is quietly asked to get better every minute and she is shooting 57 percent from the floor. But when Kiah Stokes takes the floor, she is scoring the ball, keeping her team in offense, grabbing rebounds and making plays very much in the style you would expect from Connecticut players.
'I am telling you, Kiah is tremendous and very athletic. I think she is beginning to understand more about how hard Geno wants her to play, how smart he wants her to be and how she can pick her spots. She is a tremendous talent and player in a tremendous program.
'And the same goes for Stefanie Dolson, who a lot of people thought couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time. Now look at her; one of the most dominant posts in America.
'Welcome to UConn basketball.'"
Tomorrow UConn continues to the second round where they will play Kansas State. Hartford Courant reporter John Altavilla enjoyed seeing the tournament from the Kansas State's coach's point-of-view:
"Kansas State Coach Deb Patterson put on a great show Sunday, especially when asked to give her impressions of UConn, its world and its players."
[UConn coach Geno Auriemma is very hard on freshman post player Kiah Stokes, saying she's not working hard enough and isn't ready for the big time like they need her to be.]
"Patterson smiled when asked about Stokes. 'Most of us in America would love to have Kiah Stokes on our team. no question. Her development as a young player in UConn’s program is very interesting to me. In classic UConn form, Geno’s primary post player is usually the one who seems to get, hmmmm, seems to get a lot of attention about needing to be better.
'I remember when Tina Charles was there. She came out an still continued to shoot 60 percent from the floor. [Stefanie] Dolson is quietly asked to get better every minute and she is shooting 57 percent from the floor. But when Kiah Stokes takes the floor, she is scoring the ball, keeping her team in offense, grabbing rebounds and making plays very much in the style you would expect from Connecticut players.
'I am telling you, Kiah is tremendous and very athletic. I think she is beginning to understand more about how hard Geno wants her to play, how smart he wants her to be and how she can pick her spots. She is a tremendous talent and player in a tremendous program.
'And the same goes for Stefanie Dolson, who a lot of people thought couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time. Now look at her; one of the most dominant posts in America.
'Welcome to UConn basketball.'"
Labels: UConn basketball
# posted by mamurd @ 9:33 PM 
