[2006alum]

JJ Hones And Jeanette Pohlen were  very good point guards.   Thus we got to Final 4s with them.

True - but JJ battled injuries and then had an early exit from the team, while Jeannette had difficulties handling press defenses (which is more or less why we lost to Texas A&M in that heartbreaker of a semifinal in 2011) - that was why Tara would sometimes opt to bring Melanie Murphy in to handle the 1, because she was more fluid getting the ball up the court against the press. (Brown already seems to handle the press better than Jeannette did.) I always viewed Jeannette as a natural 2/SG who often had to play the 1/PG because we didn't have a "true 1" starter who was comparable to the rest of our starters - in that sense, her height made her more vulnerable to the press because short, speedy guards could poke the ball out more easily on her higher dribbles. At 6'0" and with terrific range on her three-pointer, she was a perfect SG.

Edited to add, from a 2010 Mechelle Voepel story on Pohlen:

"We all got thrown a curveball last year when JJ went down, because I was pretty much set at the 2 spot," Pohlen said. "JJ was doing a good job leading the team but then we had to adjust. The coaches made the decision to put me in the point guard position for the rest of the season.

"I had played it sophomore to senior year of high school, and I'd been playing it since a young age, too, even though I was tall. It gave me an advantage when I would get mismatches. In high school, you could do pretty much whatever. But I definitely didn't expect I'd be doing it here."

..."She is not necessarily a born point guard, like when I think of coaching someone like Dawn Staley or other guards out there," coach Tara VanDerveer said. "But she really makes our team go."

[2006alum]

JJ Hones And Jeanette Pohlen were  very good point guards.   Thus we got to Final 4s with them.

True - but JJ battled injuries and then had an early exit from the team, while Jeannette had difficulties handling press defenses (which is more or less why we lost to Texas A&M in that heartbreaker of a semifinal in 2011) - that was why Tara would sometimes opt to bring Melanie Murphy in to handle the 1, because she was more fluid getting the ball up the court against the press. (Brown already seems to handle the press better than Jeannette did.) I always viewed Jeannette as a natural 2/SG who often had to play the 1/PG because we didn't have a "true 1" starter who was comparable to the rest of our starters - in that sense, her height made her more vulnerable to the press because short, speedy guards could poke the ball out more easily on her higher dribbles. At 6'0" and with terrific range on her three-pointer, she was a perfect SG.

Edited to add, from a 2010 Mechelle Voepel story on Pohlen:

"We all got thrown a curveball last year when JJ went down, because I was pretty much set at the 2 spot," Pohlen said. "JJ was doing a good job leading the team but then we had to adjust. The coaches made the decision to put me in the point guard position for the rest of the season.

"I had played it sophomore to senior year of high school, and I'd been playing it since a young age, too, even though I was tall. It gave me an advantage when I would get mismatches. In high school, you could do pretty much whatever. But I definitely didn't expect I'd be doing it here."

..."She is not necessarily a born point guard, like when I think of coaching someone like Dawn Staley or other guards out there," coach Tara VanDerveer said. "But she really makes our team go."