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Message: [QUOTE="JoePgh, post: 4978392, member: 1131"] To answer Visiting Cock's first question, in the past, Geno has definitely used rotations of up to 9 or 10, for example the 2000-2001 team before the late-season injuries to Shea and Sveta, or both of the Olympic teams in 2012 and 2016. If everyone on this year's roster is healthy or just misses a game or two for minor issues, I expect that will happen this year. BUT ... at this time last year, I would have said the same thing about the 2023-24 roster, but that one obviously did not stay healthy. I prefer to take an optimistic but (I think) realistic view of medical prognoses -- I think that Jana will be 100% from the beginning of the season (16 months after her injury), that Ayanna will be ready in November, and that Azzi will be ready for limited minutes in November and unrestricted minutes by early January. I think Aubrey will start playing in early January and gradually increase her minutes. Caroline is impossible to predict: she is either a 100% "go" or a 100% "no-go". If it is the former, I can imagine her as the starting 3, with Paige, Azzi (limited minutes), Sarah, and Jana as the other starters. If anyone gets in foul trouble or is playing poorly in a particular game, Geno will have his hook ready and will show no mercy. If anyone is lazy on defense, the same will be true. In fact, defense may well be what separates the chosen 9 or 10 from the others who go to the end of the bench. The players who are likely to get squeezed most for playing time are Q (who, in a medically optimistic scenario will have Caroline, Aubrey, and Morgan ahead of her at the 3 position), Ayanna (who will have to show a lot more than she did as a freshman to compete with Sarah and Ice), and Allie (who will have Azzi, Ashlynn, and KK ahead of her in back court slots, and who will probably have defensive deficiencies in her freshman year). I would almost rather than Raegan doesn't come to Storrs, so that Ice could get minutes as Jana's backup, and Sarah and Ayanna could split the minutes at the 4 position (most likely not equally, however). But if Raegan does come, then she and Jana will own the 5 position. and all the other forwards will have to find time at the 3 or the 4. [/QUOTE]

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