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Message: [QUOTE="MilfordHusky, post: 2369571, member: 366"] To add to Eric’s points ... Kia Nurse is a 4-year starter and an Olympian. There aren’t many Olympians in WCBB. She starts. She has lost 1 game as a starter. As Eric noted, she has become an elite shooter, in the KML/KLS mold. I honestly think that the Core 4 are locks as starters, unless there is an injury issue. First-team AAs don’t get “demoted” unless they get in the doghouse. I expect that this group will stay out of Chez Bow Wow. Recall that Stewie got benched for 35 minutes in her junior year. That shows that almost anything is possible. The 5th starter is either Azura or Crystal. Both are good options. I don’t care who it is, but I think Crystal rounds out the team better. I put the odds at 60% Crystal, 40% Azura. I know she was only a freshman, but Maya didn’t start until Kalana got injured. Sure, Azura was a HM AA and has 2 years at Duke and 1 year of practice under her belt, but I’d argue that Maya as a freshman was better than Azura is now. Maya was a consensus/unanimous AA for her career and finished 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st in the AP POY voting. The only players to beat her out were Candace Parker and Tina Charles. They were and still are among the best of the best. Diana also didn’t start as a frosh until injuries hit the team. As Geno and Sue say, Dee was the best player on the team the minute she arrived on campus. If Dee (the GOAT) and Maya (could become the GOAT) don’t start, I think it’s plausible that Z doesn’t start. By and large, I think Geno rotates 6 players into and out of the lineup. Azura will play starters minutes. I think the average minutes per game will vary by only about 2 minutes among the top 6. One interesting question is: Who is player #7? If we have front court foul trouble, I think it will be Batouly. If we have backcourt foul trouble, it could be Meg or Mikayla. In the absence of foul trouble, I think the pecking order is Meg, then Mikayla, then Batouly, but I think they are very, very close. Kyla could sneak in there too. [/QUOTE]

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