Natalie Butler To Make Debut Monday Night v. Chattanooga

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

The long awaited debut of sophomore 6'5" center Natalie Butler, the Georgetown transfer who was Big East Rookie of the Year two years ago averaging almost 14 boards a game, will occur tomorrow night against Chattanooga. Butler was not expected back until Christmas but evidently is way ahead of schedule.

D'Janae Boykin remains out with a sore achilles and it seems like she will not be back any time soon. Boykin, a highly rated freshman who was Maryland High School Player of the Year and is another awesome rebounder, looks a bit like Swin Cash - a lean and athletic 6'2".

I was at the game yesterday, an 88-46 win over Nebraska at the XL Center. Nebraska actually has a pretty good team and they will make the NCAA tourney and challenge Ohio State in the Big 10. They hung with UConn early but as the game wore on they just couldn't maintain their offense. They are not a very athletic team and they were beaten repeatedly with drives. Even Courtney Ekmark had a couple of blow bys.

There are some good games coming up this week- at DePaul and then home next Saturday night at XL Center vs. #3 Notre Dame!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dominicfrank]

With Butler this might be the deepest team in recent memory. These Freshman can really play and Butler SHOULD start at the 5 but we might not have to for a few games to let her get her feet wet and heck maybe she comes off the bench and spot starts against teams with a solid 5 player.

BYU still have the big girl at the 5?

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

The tallest girl on BYU's roster is 6'4" so, no, but BYU isn't on UConn's schedule.

I agree with you that once Butler and then Boykin come back, this is the deepest UConn women's team in memory. And the deep bench played very well against Nebraska Saturday. All of these bench players will see plenty of action in the blowouts we will see and these bench girls will have the ability to either maintain or extend the lead as they did against Nebraska.

The Chattanooga game tonight is being televised on SNY.

 

[the Blades]

I saw my first Women's game live in probably 10+ years, vs. Kansas St. I sat 2 rows behind Uconn bench and had a couple of observations being that close to the action. It's just amazing how much slower and lacking of quick lateral movement because of inferior muscle mass the women are compared to just average male athletes. And how much more advanced Stewart, Jefferson and a few upperclassmen were than the Frosh( at least in that game).... the youngin's kind of looked lost and timid compared to their upperclass team mates, but I'm sure Geno will turn that around quick !

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Butler did not make her debut tonight, but UConn beat Chattanooga by 48 at Chattanooga. Same Chattanooga squad that only lost by 2 at Tennessee. I assume Butler will maybe be back for the ND game. UConn is short 2 bodies because Boykin was left back in CT to rehab, and Pulido was left back due to excessive lab work she needs to finish and being that she is the absolute last girl on the bench, it was assumed she could miss these 2 road games in Tennessee and Illinois. Despite being short on bodies, the UConn defense was great tonight. Chattanooga played without their starting point guard who is injured. This is another NCAA team that just got waxed by UConn. I suspect DePaul and ND games Wed. and Sat. will be more competitive.