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Message: [QUOTE="connie, post: 2314305, member: 7882"] Agreed, as to "the entire team", but not as to the starting five. [B]1. Leadership.[/B] "Leadership" is not an easy thing to measure. But in some respects, we know it when we see it. Comparing the 15-16 to 16-17 starting five . . . I'd say that Gabby was every bit as much a leader as Stewie the previous year (Stewie had more swagger; Gabby, more demonstrable passion). I'd say the same may be true when comparing Phees and Morgan (indeed, they are rather similar in temperament). Kia 16-17 was certainly no [I]worse [/I]a leader than Kia 15-16, and in truth was better. KLS was, without question, far more developed a leader in 16-17 than 15-16. That leaves Moriah vs. Saniya. I'll give the tip to Moriah. But that said, as the season wore on, Saniya exhibited solid leadership skills. You could see the difference on the floor when she would come back into the game for Crystal. All considered, I would be reluctant to insist that the 15-16 team had "more" or "better" leadership than the 16-17 starting five. [B]2. Size.[/B] The starting five in 15-16 had Stewie. 16-17 squad had Gabby, who was six inches shorter with nowhere near the wingspan. Remarkably, Gabby had [I]more [/I]O-Rebounds than Stewie in the same number of games, with Stewie holding a total rebounding edge 309 vs. 323. This is impressive, especially given the fact that (see below) 16-17 Phees far out rebounded 15-16 Morgan. (In other words, one reason why Stewie may have grabbed as many RBs as she did is because other Huskies on the floor did not.) Of course, Stewie had nearly 2 1/2 times as many blocks. And no statistic can quite capture the effect of Stewie in the low post. She was a terror! Stats can only tell us so much. As for the rest, in my opinion the "size" advantage goes to the 16-17 squad. Saniya was bigger than Moriah, and had more rebounds and only one less blocked shot, with significantly less playing time. Phees is listed as an inch shorter than Morgan (but she actually looks taller to me); but Phees is every bit as "big", with comparable footwork and quickness, better mobility, and greater durability. Phees [I]far [/I]exceeded Morgan in O-Reb, D-Reb, and total rebounds. Indeed, Phees had 336 total rounds on the season--almost [I]twice [/I]as many as Morgan (though Morgan played significantly fewer minutes due to injury). Phees also had 77 blocks, as against Morgan's 10. Advantage Phees. 15-16 KLS and Kia are each equal in size to 15-16 KLS and Kia (actually, KLS may have muscled up a bit more). Statistically, each had similar RB and Blks stats as compared to the year before. [B]3. Bench. [/B] No question that 15-16 had a bench (Saniya, Phees, Gabby, Butler); 16-17 did not (Crystal, Butler). But that says little about the starting five (though I concede that a strong bench may mean that the starting fives overall stats may suffer due to the luxury of less playing time). To be continued, perhaps in a new thread. [/QUOTE]

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