MinotStateBeav said:
Really? Jason Kidd didn't look anything like her.
There is no one who looks like Jason Kidd. No one out there today. He is in a class by himself. He defined the position.
I was writing about reality, the here and now, and Sabrina Ionescu looks better playing the point than a lot of male point guards playing the game today in college. Certainly better at it in the women's game than anyone the Cal men put on the floor to play point guard in the men's college game. McNeill, Coleman, and Winston, could learn from watching Sabrina's game tapes.
One play from the Oregon-UCLA game was particularly instructive. Sabrina was out on a fast break, reached the front court, and when she saw too many defenders, she did what has become a very unusual thing: She didn't take a low percentages shot that had little chance of scoring. Instead, she slowed up and backed the ball out, waited for her teammates to catch up, and she started the Oregon half-court offense. Watch any men's college game and you see the player with the ball on the fast break approaching a couple of defenders ALWAYS try and put up a shot, no matter how low the odds are that he will score, perhaps hoping to draw the foul, even if the player is a 60% foul shooter.
The greatest point guard in my lifetime, Jason Kidd, would have pulled that ball back out, just like Sabrina did, because it was the higher percentage thing to do. The game today has more and more teams playing as fast as they can, and trying to play faster, irregardless of the players own speed limitations, and putting up a shot, instead of backing the ball out and restarting the offense. With Cal, it began a little under Montgomery, but Cuonzo took it to the next level where we take every thing to the rim as fast as we can. Wyking Jones has nearly the same, except that Darius McNeill, to his credit does back the ball out sometimes, and restart, but not often. It isn't just Cal. Most games today, I can't tell the difference between one team and the next, in terms of the fast break. They all play as fast as they can, and when they get to the other end, if there are no teammates with them, the take it to the rim or put up a three. I was taught to play the game to win, not to always play the game fast, putting up any shot, high percentage shot or not.
