CKG needs to keep her happy since Amiyah is returning to play this summer and the younger sister has committed. The last thing the coach should have to worry about is keeping kids happy but she’s created this for herself with sibling offers. Again, if siblings are top tier then who cares, go for it. But these aren’t. Unpopular opinion maybe, but the desire to have 3 sets of sisters as a marketing ploy now becomes a potential hindrance. Everything is “special” about it when you’re winning…. But when you’re losing everything gets harder. She best give Mila some minutes or it might cost her the future of two other players, her siblings. Again, there’s a reason no other college team has 3 sets of sisters. While it might get you some shoutouts and attention, it’s simply never a good dynamic for a program.
Purdue vs. PSU Thread
- Thread starter DubJellison
- Start date
Probably not Michael, however, 5 minutes a game is a small sample size. It’s tough getting into a groove playing 2 minutes a half or in garbage time. I’m not an expert on women’s basketball, I watched yesterday, not going to lie it was pretty brutal considering how well the men are playing. Smith looked horrible, no doubt about it, that could be transfer city, not going to give up on the others though.
Not a bad take really…I mean taking a sister that averaged 4 pts a game at Grand Canyon was odd to me, offer her a preferred walk on if she wants to play with her sibling, Layden I’m not sure, not going to judge a Frosh yet, too early. Reynolds was a highly ranked recruit I believe, perhaps top 50? I mean if she’s not hurt not sure what to make of her year as of now. Like I stated, pretty hard to believe at the least she can’t get 10-15 minutes a game spelling Harper.
Walk-ons are perfect options. Good point. Maybe Reynolds being coached by her dad didn’t help matters? Parents who coach often can position their kids to be on watch lists and create opportunities for their kids with rankings and committees, but sometimes those kids get to college, where parents have zero control, and they become exposed for what their true talent level is. Maybe that’s what’s happened here? I don’t know but one would think being at MD for a year (even tho she didn’t play much she practiced daily) that that experience might put her ahead of Harper Jr. in the line-up. When Harper Jr. gets in before you, the writings on the wall. Just feel CKG has put herself in a pickle here.
Certainly it is quite obvious that if you are recruiting multiple players from the same family there is a need to keep everyone happybut a coach can't sell his/herself to the debil just to do that. If a player isn't playing because they aren't good enough or they aren't putting out the efort that is needed for the team then so be it. If the family can't see that themselves then you have a problem, but many parents do realize that their daughter isn't playing because they aren't better than the other players, especialy one that didn't play at another school before she transferred. And they realize that their other daughter(s) are better players All depends on the parents mental makeup. No coach should sell their soul to keep a parent happy. It is a losing proposition over the long haul. As relates to Harper younger sister she may have been the best she could recruit at the time
We will know a lot more about the future of the team and Coach Geralds in 2 years. Hopefully it will be very positive.
We will know a lot more about the future of the team and Coach Geralds in 2 years. Hopefully it will be very positive.
I have no issues arm chair coaching against KG's substitution patterns, they often seem haphazard and completely unplanned. I also hate that she coaches very much like Versyp in she will put a player in from the deep bench and then yank them back out a minute later before they have even had time to settle into the game and make any kind of impact. I truly believe if a player goes in, they should stay in a minimum of 3 minutes to work up a sweat and get into the flow of the game. If they know they only have one or two possessions to earn more playing time, you get what we have seen, deep bench players jacking up bad shots to try and impress the coach before they get yanked again. Further its obvious she badly mishandled Ava Learn and I still think Hardin did not earn her minutes on the floor with her play, but I am softening on the latter as she may be what's missing from this years team. Something is certainly missing from the last two seasons as we are playing with little efficiency and not much heart. All that said, I have to believe KG is not so incompetent that players that are doing well in practice aren't being given significant minutes in games. IF I were to believe that, I would lose what hope I have left that KG will be the coach to turn us around and get us back to the top 1/3rd of the BT. And while several of the players at the end of our bench are often the recipients of those 1 minute and yank shifts, when they have gotten significantly more minutes against the bad teams we have played, they still have failed to impress me at all or make much of a dent on the box score. McKenna rebounds and takes care of the ball, but can't shoot for shit so far. Monson is hot and cold, but also has shown flashes of handling the ball decently. Alaina and Mila have shown virtually no skills at all. Mila's few bright spots have mostly come off passes from Jones setting her up. But even then, its not been enough to make me believe she will become a major contributor for us. Smith is a train wreck. Whatever skills she might have had are completely missing this season for the most part.
One other thing that caught my attention and is bugging me. There is a filler piece on the BTN about Purdue's 3 sets of sisters and how they all live int he same house. They interviewed the sisters as sets, nothing all together. Amiyah was bragging that they were the only sisters to win a state title. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't the Layden sisters win a title together too? Also the Reynolds sisters have erroniously been tagged as Purdue's first sisters playing together. McKenna signed in the fall, Mila, Amiyah, and Alaina all committed to Purdue the following spring. But it seems even living together the sets of sisters don't communicate with the othre sets much. Just my feelings after watchign the piece.
Oh, and as far as Smith not coming back and transferring, I don't think there is any chance Jayla and Alaina leave of their own volition. Both would struggle to get an offer from Valpo or Southern Indiana with their play to date. If they get their scholies yanked, I am officially off the KG train and will eagerly await her being fired. That kind of irresponsibly cruel shit of not owning up to your recruiting mistakes and working around them is why I don't care for Frese at UMd.
Her 2 sisters are top 50 kids. Ones a lead guard and the other is a post player. Two extremely hard players to land and always in demand. I don’t see Mila transferring anywhere but down. If she does. But she’s still a sophomore. Lots of posts don’t put it all together until their junior year. There’s still time for her at least be productive for us off the bench.
Pretty funny you say this considering Smith is one of the few Versyp recruits left on the roster. So she is not considered a KG recruiting mistake if she chooses to leave. Alaina was always meant to be a backup post that by the time she’s a junior or senior hopefully will be able to contribute if she puts it all together. She’s been here half a season.
But again don’t let reality get in the way of your shtick.
I agree. Just a balance CKG has to contend with. Your post also points to just how gifted MA is, as a freshman, when she plays inside. It’s possible too, that they didn’t realize how quick she would catch on as she can play the 4/5 well and this just bumps Mila farther down.
You could tell by the way the coaches were talking about MA in the preseason that she was going to play heavily. And thankfully she is producing at this level as a rookie or we’d be way worse than we are now. The coaches were pretty silent about Mila preseason. So you could tell she wasn’t exactly impressing. I was hoping that a combo of MA/Harper sisters/Mila was going to be an upgrade from last years post rotation but I’m sadly been proven wrong. Learn would be producing much more off the bench this year than Mila. She’s had a great year for Murray state so far. She’s also a junior and that’s when many posts begin peaking. she would not be playing 19 mpg for us tho. So I can understand why she left.
KG really really REALY wanted MA. She was a borderline top 100 kid. But KG didn’t care. This makes me hopeful that she is a good scout of talent. I also believe Swanson will be a really good player for us by the time she leaves campus. She also was not ranked highly. This makes me hopeful that our two incoming post players can really play. Even if their national ranking isnt great.
Jayla Smith was ranked in the 40s nationally out of high school. And a big aspect to rankings is the prospects “potential”. She has all the physical gifts a basketball player could want in the women’s game. She just has not put it together and sadly for her - time is running out.
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Here is my take on our season so far. Looking at the stats of our top 6 scorers and it’s everything I was wanting pre season (and honestly more). Had you told me that our rookies (MA, Spider and Swanson) would be averaging a combined 25 ppg heading into the meat of the big ten schedule. I would be over the moon. That was exactly what this team needed and boy have they delivered. I would simply not believe you if you would’ve said we’d be sitting at 9-8 (with very little injuries knock on wood).
Now if you had told me that the combination of Smith/Mila/JT would be averaging a combined 11 ppg. I would very much agree with the 9-8 record.
now - coming into the season - based on our schedule. I was expecting to be about 12-5 or 11-4. Losses at ucla, Notre dame, Iowa, and then either Maryland or PSU.
But - had we just got a combined 10 more ppg from the combination of smith/jt/mila. Again that is not asking for Ellis to magically turn into Caitlin Clark. That’s a very reasonable ask, that’s 5 more baskets per game combined for 3 ppl. Then we’d be sitting fairly pretty at 12-5 with some nice wins and on track for a bubble bid. But unfortunately we are not but we are not as far off as some here talk. Unfortunately your window is very tight and we may have passed that window of making the bubble.
We lost roughly 28 combined ppg from last year’s team with graduation and transfers. The newcomers have made all that up. But we are averaging about 2 ppg less from our returners. The newbies have delivered. The returners are the reason why we are where we are. That has to be rough for them to stomach given it’s their last chance for many of them.
Now if you had told me that the combination of Smith/Mila/JT would be averaging a combined 11 ppg. I would very much agree with the 9-8 record.
now - coming into the season - based on our schedule. I was expecting to be about 12-5 or 11-4. Losses at ucla, Notre dame, Iowa, and then either Maryland or PSU.
But - had we just got a combined 10 more ppg from the combination of smith/jt/mila. Again that is not asking for Ellis to magically turn into Caitlin Clark. That’s a very reasonable ask, that’s 5 more baskets per game combined for 3 ppl. Then we’d be sitting fairly pretty at 12-5 with some nice wins and on track for a bubble bid. But unfortunately we are not but we are not as far off as some here talk. Unfortunately your window is very tight and we may have passed that window of making the bubble.
We lost roughly 28 combined ppg from last year’s team with graduation and transfers. The newcomers have made all that up. But we are averaging about 2 ppg less from our returners. The newbies have delivered. The returners are the reason why we are where we are. That has to be rough for them to stomach given it’s their last chance for many of them.
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