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Message: [QUOTE="willtalk, post: 3153900, member: 1220"] To be realistic, the Sun has been operating under a few distinctive handicaps. To begin with, their location dictated via the locality near the Uconn Fan base. In honesty, if it were not for the level of the Uconn fan following no team would locate there. That brought with it an initial advantage in that there was a built-in fan following for Women's basketball. However with that also came potential disadvantages For one if the fan support was built around Uconn fans, then credence had to be paid to stocking as many Uconn players as possible. Now being that Uconn was a major resource for Pro ready players that at first was not that much of a disadvantage. However with time, deciding how much weight to give to marketing needs and how much to team needs would eventually create conflicts of interests. A team not so dependant on a single college fan base would not face such a conflict. The Uconn fan base pressure is an issue. We can see this by a fan stating that the one good thing about Chiney's trade is the added playing time for Tuck. If it were not for the Uconn fan base Tuck would not have been taken so high in the draft and created the need to trade Chelsea Gray to acquire Jones. The reality is that a large number of WNBA fans are drawn to a team that has the players that they followed as fans in college. Hey! I plead guilty to that as well. Then you add the isolated location in respect to players, and it does create the types of problems that seem to have manifest with Chiney and a few other players. It's a "Catch 22" situation. For most players the location is something they can do little about. However, when/if they become superstars the develop the leverage to be able to force their way out. To add one more thought to this post-- Fans need to realize that if teams play too much hardball with players, it has an impact on free agents signing with a team. It is not just about making a point with the player you are dealing with, but also the players you hope to sign as free agents in the future. If teams get too hard-nosed with players it certainly will discourage players from signing free agent contracts with such a team.because they might see themselves also in such a situation in the future. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach