Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 4476267, member: 9844"] Agreed, and even if she didn't knock the rust off by the big Tennessee and South Carolina games, that certainly doesn't rule out a Final Four. It could affect our ratings and seedings, and affect the odds of getting to the Final Four to a degree, but the biggest determining factor to us getting to the Final Four will be how we are playing and if we are healthy by the second weekend or so of the NCAA tournament. By then Azzi's injury should be a non-factor, Dorka won't be worrying about her finger, Aaliyah might feel confident enough to take off the mask, and Caroline might resemble the player from last year. We could be a substantially better team by then, and even with a relatively late return for Azzi, a #2 seed is very achievable. In fact I think being ranked 5th or 6th is a pretty good goal, that might get you one of the first 2 number 2 seeds, which might keep us out of the same bracket as South Carolina or Stanford. If healthy I could see us actually being favored against the last two 1 seeds in that case because our overall rank would include the injury ridden stretch, and the odds makers would be looking at where are you now. When Azzi comes back can affect our interim and regular season ratings, but even the pessimistic estimates would give her plenty of time to be ready by tournament time. The bigger question is if our bad luck with injuries is over, but assuming we don't get any more major bad news, we look to be much stronger when it will count most. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach