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A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

First-year phenoms abound

With Oklahoma coming to the XL Center Monday night to face UConn, two of the nation's top freshmen guards will be on display.

Bria Hartley is third on the second-ranked Huskies in scoring with an average of 12.4 points per game while Aaryn Ellenberg of Oklahoma is averaging 17.1 points per game, second only to senior All-American candidate Danielle Robinson in scoring for Oklahoma. With Baylor's Odyssey Sims, Tennessee's Meighan Simmons, Duke's Chelsea Gray, Hartley and Ellenberg, it seems as if more top teams have been relying heavily on freshman guards than is typically the case.

"I haven't seen this many in a while," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "They all seem to be a little different too, you can't say that there are a lot of similarities other than they seem to play unafraid. I am glad I got the one I got.

Here's a look at freshmen guards who have made immediate impacts at some of the nation's best programs.
No. 1 Baylor: Odysssey Sims (second on team in scoring at 13.4 points per game, first with 43 3-pointers and second with 68 assists).
No. 2 UConn: Bria Hartley (third on team in scoring at 12.4 points per game, first with 48 3-pointers, fifth with 68 assists).
No. 4 Tennessee: Meighan Simmons (leads with team with 14.4 points per game and 71 assists
No. 5 Duke: Chelsea Gray (third on the team with average of 8.7 points per game, second on squad with 61 assists and 48 steals).
No. 14 Oklahoma: Aaryn Ellenberg (second on team with an average of 17.1 points per game keyed by a team-best 70 3-pointers).
No. 15 Kentucky: Bernisha Pinkett, Meagan Conwright and Jennifer O'Neill (fourth, fifth and sixth leading scorers with 43 3-pointers between the three of them).

The list does not include the nation's leading freshman scorer (Heather Butler of Tennessee-Martin), the top freshman scorer in the Big East (Shoni Schimmel of Louisville) or other key freshmen for teams who have been ranked this season like Chassidy Fussell of Texas, Maggie Lucas of Penn State and Ty Marshall of Georgia Tech.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous UHF said...

.
Ariel Massengale joins Tennessee in 2011-12 and she is better than Meighon Simmons.
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Assists/Turnovers Ratio
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Odyssey Sims 68/42
Chelsea Gray 61/45
Bria Hartley 68/70
Meighan Simmons 71/73
.

3:53 PM 
Anonymous Joe said...

I hope Bria's ankle heals completely soon. You can tell that she misses the practice time.

5:20 PM 

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