I wouldn’t focus too much on her negatives. Rueck is very good at using his players in ways that maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Adding Jelena is only going to make us better and improve our chances for winning the Pac-12 and going far in the tournament. I just re-watched the video and several things come to mind:
1) Her moves in the paint are very good and she doesn’t look slow doing them. The two misses early in the game were not missed by much and involved good moves. Her little turn-around jumper in the second half was very nice and would be VERY difficult to stop.
2) As has been pointed out, her passing is very good. I loved her recognition of open outside shooters and the wide-open player down-court for an easy bucket. She sees the court well.
3) While she blocked four shots, there were far more times that she turned away players that would have gone to the hoop if a smaller player had been there. She makes a great rim protector.
4) Her team used her very effectively as an easy target for inbounding the ball (just as we used Grymek last year... though Jelena isn’t afraid to dribble the ball as Jo was).
5) While she may not be great at guarding the perimeter, there will be situations where she can still be effective given that the other team is likely to have at least one player that is not an outside shooter or nearly as slow as Jelena (the UW center, or Cal’s Chinese center).
Fair enough...no doubt she has skills. Against certain teams,she will be a nice addition. Against teams who bring her away from the basket,that will be a problem due to her lack of quickness. She can be a solid rim protector and passer when she gets fully healthy and in game shape.
