Congrats to Arizona...

[oldude]

Good post. I'll to go the first game to support your point: did you see Stanford had Brink, Belibi and Prechtel in the game at one point to combat Boston, Amihere and Saxton? That was tall and sturdy on both sides! And Beal vs. Jones was compelling.

Niele Ivey said she's going to be putting teams together of teams that have a few bigs fronted by players that all can play multiple roles. Think of Jess Shepard/Bri Turner fronted by three Jackie Youngs. Tall, athletic guards who can attack hard and rebound (Lexie Hull?). Paige, Clark all fit that mold.

While a McDonald-like player will find her place, you're right: games gettting taller and stronger. Stay tuned.

The other day in his presser, Geno talked about positionless basketball, and used the NBA as the model. While talented players like Crystal and McDonald will always have a place in WBB, the top teams will all be engaged in an “arms race” that will put a premium on size, strength & athleticism.

UConn’s 4 recruits next season are all 6’ or greater and they can all shoot it. The two commits for the following year are 6’2” & 6’3”, physical and athletic.

 

[Bama fan]

Congrats to the Wildcats. You were ready!

 

[Dillon77]

The other day in his presser, Geno talked about positionless basketball, and used the NBA as the model. While talented players like Crystal and McDonald will always have a place in WBB, the top teams will all be engaged in an “arms race” that will put a premium on size, strength & athleticism.

UConn’s 4 recruits next season are all 6’ or greater and they can all shoot it. The two commits for the following year are 6’2” & 6’3”, physical and athletic.

Ditto, Niele.
I think that's one reason why the competition for the Ayanna Pattersons of the world is so intense.
Next year, I'm virtually sure the plan is to get Maddy Westbeld (remember, 6'3"), Sonia Citron (6'1") on the floor in front of Nat Marshall (6'5") and Maya Dodson (6'3"). Luckily, our PG, Olivia Miles, is just a tinge away from the 6' mark herself.
(I'm a glass half-full kind of guy so I have hope this kind of approach will work....?

BTW, it's one reason why I think Jeff Walz jumped all over the chance to have Emly Engstler. 6'1" guard who rebounds, shoots three's, dives on floors. Most of the guards he set out against Stanford were 5'9" or smaller.

 

[XLCenterFan]

AZ was ridiculous good. Talk about a media bias...how was this team so under the radar? And Vegas had us as 14 point favorites!!

UConn returns everyone and adds talent. The ladies will remember how the end of this season felt. Next year will end better.

 

[VA Huskie]

Arizona reminded my of the old Rutgers teams. Relentless defense... a bunch of gnats!

 

[Dokey]

Here in Colorado we point to championship game with some pride because we beat Stanford and outplayed Arizona, narrowly losing “only” because we missed 11–count ‘em—11 free throws.

 

[Pinhead]

A non-UConn fan, not a UConn hater, more neutral, from Florida, a fellow Colorado alum, emailed me to say it looked like UConn had an easy game with Arizona. I emailed back to say Arizona had a super star and was battle tested in the toughest conference and this could be the classic trap game. UConn sailed through the Big East against competition that gave us a false sense of confidence and didn’t expose our weakness at the post.
With Arizona and Stanford in the big game, the PAC-12 shows why a strong conference prepares teams for the big dance. Stanford remains packed, Oregon will bounce back, UCLA is moving up. Colorado just got a boost when senior All PAC-12 pick Mya Hollingshed, projected to go in the middle of the second round of the WNBA draft, announced she would return for a fifth year. Colorado finished 6th in PAC-12 and would have finished second in Big East (I hear the sputters. Remember last night and with it).

Go Utes!