Geno Decides To Bring Caroline Doty Off The Bench

By On 2012/12/02 · 8 Comments

One thing Geno Auriemma will never be able to do is fit six players into five slots, especially when the players are all valuable and talented.

So in what he described Sunday as a “tough decision” he will replace senior Caroline Doty in the starting lineup with Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis beginning Monday against Maryland.

KML missed the Colgate game because of concussion she sustained at the Paradise Jam tournament. But she is back now and Geno decided she should start. The spot KML will take would have been either Doty’s or Breanna Stewart’s. And it’s hard to take your leading scorer [Stewart] out, especially when she is averaging 36 points every 40 minutes she has played.

Doty has started 98 of the 99 games she’s played in her career.

“Our players understand that we have legitimate starters on this team,” Auriemma said Sunday. “It’s not an easy decision. It was very difficult. Caroline did nothing to warrant not starting.”

 
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8 Responses to Geno Decides To Bring Caroline Doty Off The Bench

  1. Brenda says:
    2012/12/02 at 2:53 pm

    News reporters have become so dependent on Spell Check. Then they don’t re-read for cogent content

    • dude in New Britain says:
      2012/12/02 at 5:59 pm

      eh, what?

      • Big Jim says:
        2012/12/02 at 8:58 pm

        Have to agree with dude in New Britain: eh, what?

        Dear Brenna:
        This is a blog and there may be other blogs out there where your critique would be more revered.

  2. Nick says:
    2012/12/02 at 5:13 pm

    I don’t know what was so hard about this decision Stewart is the consensus #1 freshman and maybe very possibly an all-american as a freshman..this is one of the easiest decisions Geno has ever had to make in his life.. he’s just being loyal to a favorite of his.

  3. billnaples says:
    2012/12/03 at 8:31 am

    I read and I reread. The only “error” I see was first sentence, third paraggraph “because of concussion she…”. If that’s what Brenda was upset about I suppose you could insiste that there should be either “a” or “the” in front of the concussion. More important to the point of the starting lineup change, it always mattered more who was on the court at the end of close games. Caroline I am sure would like to be there for the opening tap but the reality is that the positions she could start in belong to Kelly Faris and Bria Hartley and they both should start in front of her. Lewis, Dolson, and Stewart across the front is a no brainer. Even if you have only seen them for 10 minutes.

  4. dude in New Britain says:
    2012/12/03 at 8:52 am

    I think this was hard for Geno. First of all, he normally doesn’t like to start freshmen. Heck, he didn’t even start Maya Moore (until someone got hurt), and he said at the time that he didn’t like to start freshmen and that he liked for the first substitute to make the team on the floor stronger when she came in. Second, Geno really likes Caroline and appreciates her work ethic, her talent, her perseverance (as we all do), and as he said, she did nothing on the court to deserve not starting. On the other hand, the only freshman in the lineup is Breanna Stewart, and Breanna and Caroline play completely different roles on the team. One’s a point player, one’s a guard. So, substituting Caroline for Breanna just didn’t make sense, even if Breanna is a freshman and even if bringing her in off the bench would make the team stronger, just as bringing Maya in off the bench made the team stronger in her freshman year. I can understand if Caroline doesn’t like not starting, and I suspect Geno would be disappointed and surprised if she didn’t dislike it, but really, I don’t know that he had much choice.

  5. HarryH says:
    2012/12/03 at 8:54 am

    I think this is a mistake but Geno has 800+ more victories than I do. I think you start Caroline even if she gets replaced at the first stopage. She has earned that and Stewart will be just as effective if not going in for 5 minutes – she would be that shock troop.

    But what a problem to have eh?

  6. Ugly Win But Still A Win says:
    2012/12/03 at 11:45 pm

    8 player rotation when it counts. 7 if Stokes panics early on. Against Maryland, Tuck and Jefferson got a taste of what to expect against Stanford, Duke, Notre Dame, Baylor, Sweet 16 and beyond.