The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Opening some eyes
Dangerfield starting to impress
CHICAGO — At the midway point of the first quarter there was no indication Crystal Dangerfield was on the verge of going where few if any UConn women’s basketball players had gone before.
Dangerfield had an assist 12 seconds into the road game against former conference foe DePaul, but no other tangible proof that she had an impact on Friday night’s game. When the sophomore guard’s night was over with 6:32 remaining on the clock, the numbers she put up in the 10369 victory were simply remarkable and unmatched.
UConn has had players hand out nine assists in a game before. Dangerfield did it twice as a freshman and was two weeks removed from registering a career-best 10 assists against Michigan State. Dangerfield joined teammates Katie Lou Samuelson and Kia Nurse and eight other Huskies by making at least five 3-pointers while shooting at least 85 percent from 3-point range.
Dangerfield shrugged off the fact that of all the great guards who have slipped on a UConn jersey, none of them accomplished what Dangerfield did on Friday by handing out nine assists while going 6 of 7 from 3-point range. Not Sue Bird, not Diana Taurasi, not Jen Rizzotti, not Moriah Jefferson.
“You have to pick your poison,” Dangerfield said. “They couldn’t stop anybody down low and they were leaving people open on the 3-point line as well
so it was pretty much a game for everybody.”
Coming into the season, there were a few questions surrounding the impact Dangerfield was going to have. If she wasn’t mentally prepared to be the starting point guard, the UConn coaching staff had the option of moving Nurse to point guard, Samuelson to shooting guard and allow Azura Stevens to start in the frontcourt alongside of All-Americans Napheesa Collier and Gabby Williams.
Eight games into the season all Dangerfield is doing is averaging 14.3 points and a team-leading 5.6 assists per game. She is shooting just a shade under 50 percent from the field, 53.5 percent from 3 and has 3.2 assists for every turnover she has committed. The UConn guards who have put up similar numbers to what Dangerfield currently is producing have their banners hanging thanks to their induction into the Huskies of Honor.
“Looking at her, she is a different looking basketball player from Year 1 to Year 2,” DePaul coach Doug Bruno said. “She buckled herself down, (willed) herself to have a great sophomore year, she has done the work and put herself in the position to be another one of the great point guards they have had at that size.”
UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who won his 999th career game, didn’t hold back when addressing Dangerfield’s role on the nation’s top-ranked team.
“There may not be anyone more critical to what we are trying to do than Crystal,” Auriemma said. “She makes shots. Right now we have Crystal, Kia (Nurse) and Lou (Samuelson) make shots, and that is tough for most teams to deal with. She sees so much, she has a great feel for the game and her instincts are good, so when the floor opens up like that, and she can have a lot of open spaces to work with, she is pretty dangerous.”
If anything surprises Auriemma about what Dangerfield is doing it is that she didn’t have more of these types of wondrous performances during her freshman season.
“Between the confidence, not just confidence, something inside that says, ‘I want to be able to play, I want to be able to be counted on and be able to do things on the floor whether things are going good or not going good,’” Auriemma said. “Last year everything was conditional. If I was feeling good I am going to play well, if I am not feeling good I am not going to play well, if I am not tired I will play well, it was almost like you can predict it. She has grown up a little bit and she’s putting it all together.”
CAMARA FINALLY GETS HER MOMENT
UConn used 11 different players in the DePaul game and sophomore forward Batouly Camara was one of two not to score a point. Still, after sitting out all of last season after transferring in from Kentucky and missing the first seven games of the season as she recovered from a knee injury suffered in the preseason., Camara had to be thrilled to finally see her first regular-season action at UConn. She had three rebounds in four minutes of work.
Barring any mishaps in the next week and half, the UConn coaches could have access to every player on its roster when the Huskies meet Oklahoma on Dec. 19 at Mohegan Sun Arena in the game when Auriemma goes after win No. 1,000.
Practice time will be a little sporadic during that time as the focus will be on the final exams but giving Camara a chance to see regular work in practice could help her shake some of the rust off.
“You are talking about somebody who sat out a year and then with the injury, she is not back to any part where she is going to be able to play for long periods of time,” said UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey, who along with assistant coach Marisa Moseley works with the post players. “Hopefully slowly she is gaining it and she will gain some confidence. I think she could provide a lot for us in terms of rebounding.”