Whether it is fair or not, the body of work of every point guard to play at UConn will forever be compared to the gold standard set by Sue Bird.

So as I watched Moriah Jefferson's outstanding performance in Monday's win over Baylor, I began to wonder how her numbers compared to those put up by Bird during her sophomore season. While the players had different teammates, played against different competition and any simple statistical breakdown can never completely tell the story, what I found was worthy of highlighting.

Through 18 games the two point guards played nearly the same amount of minutes and scored nearly the same amount of points. Bird holds the edge from 3-point range and made the same number of free throws with six fewer attempts while Jefferson holds the edge in rebounds, assists, steals and turnovers.

Before the Baylor game I spoke with Jefferson's parents, who were sitting a couple of rows behind the UConn bench and what they have seen from their daughter is what they were accustomed to seeing from her.

"She has always played like that from the time she was in fourth, fifth grade, heck she was younger than that she played with the boys and always played like that so I am not surprised at all," said Lorenza Jefferson, Moriah's father. "What has happened is she is being herself."

Here are the numbers Bird and Jefferson put up through 18 games

               MIN FG-ATT  3PT     FT     PTS REB ASST STL TO
Bird        500  62-125      35-69 30-32 189     46     79    26     45
Jefferson 504  73-131      11-39 30-38 187     52     84    46     31

                     VS. RANKED OPPONENTS
                             MIN FG-ATT 3PT  FT      PPG RPG APG SPG TO
Bird (8 games)        30.1 29-61    14-33 19-20 11.4 2.5    4.8   1.5     2.6
Jefferson (6 games) 30.0 20-46     5-16    6-9     8.5 3.2    4.5   2.3    1.5