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Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 5039807, member: 9844"] I think there are several things that make pursuing multiple bigs on a consistent basis a desirable strategy, even casting aside for the moment the debate over size vs. smaller quicker more talented players. First they are very rare, and if we don't get them, one of our most serious contenders will. Second it is much harder to project or predict their success, because the high school competition doesn't offer a good measuring stick against much smaller competition. Only against similar size and skill competition do we get a better idea. My point is the variation of college performance vs. HS ranking is much wider than for the guards. It is more of an unknown, and you can't just assume you get a top 10 recruit and you are set at that position for the next four years. I get the arguments that assume Jana and Sarah will be real stars, Gandy will be a good contributor, we get Lara and Olivia and they meet expectations too, but the odds of all of that happening are far from certain. When you have maybe four proven high level bigs then you might back off going after additional ones, but we are nowhere close to that yet. After Amari, Ice and Ayanna, I can't assume high ranking equals sure thing college star. I am actually pretty confident about Sarah and Jana, but we need them to be real good from the beginning, and even if they are, we don't yet have proven quality behind them. Ayanna and Ice IMO are only quality backups if they show a huge improvement from their first year performance. I like our odds of getting both Lara and Olivia, and feel they will be the real deal too when they enter college, but there is uncertainty there too, both over getting them, and as to how good they will be. I also think the big options beyond Lara in 25 and Olivia in 26 are pretty limited. The downside if you miss on either is significant, although the portal could be plan B. Some of the championship contenders have had 4 or 5 very good bigs. They also generally had at least a couple of those proven and returning that they could count on. If all that we hope for happens with Sarah, Jana, Gandy, Lara and Olivia maybe we do too, but remember not one of those players has proven it yet at the college level, and two of them have not yet committed. Our roster is unusual in that we are very dependent on inexperienced players upfront being thrown into the fire and producing right away, which they probably will, but one of the top portal bigs would have been a major addition, and until our new bigs prove themselves the hunt for bigs should continue IMO. [/QUOTE]

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