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Message: [QUOTE="YoDore, post: 4652780, member: 12010"] Significantly better than Missouri, Florida, Kentucky and Auburn? No way. Better? Maybe. A decade worth of disappointment has made me very cautious about my expectations. I’ll white knuckle a 10-point lead with a minute left in the game. This could be coach Ralph’s best all-around team. Her first season she started with 10 players on a team that lost three starters to transfer before Shea was hired. Most of the players she inherited had actually played very little college basketball due to injuries and a season shortened to eight games because of covid. Taking all that into account, I’ve said what coach Ralph faced was more build than rebuild. I stand by that. This program was in dire condition. Year two she started with nine players (eventually eight with the loss of Williams), and this time it was a team that lost four starters to transfer (Brinae Alexander), and pre-season injury (Cambridge, Moore and Kaylon Smith). It’s not like rebuilding at a school like Vandy isn’t already tough enough. She faced some enormous and unexpected obstacles. I say all this just to demonstrate why I feel this could be her best team in her three-year tenure. For one thing, she has 13 players. For another, she finally will have some size with six of the 13 players listed at 6’2 or more. Also, and this is my favorite thing, she has some shooters. Some combination of Iyana Moore, Justine Pissott, Agata Makurat, Jada Brown and Ryanne Allen should be on target in any given game. I’m hoping that allows the coaches to be a bit more creative on offense. Questions abound. After yet another surgery (3 for ACL tears, 1 for torn achilles), Jordyn Cambridge will try again to play her final season of college basketball. Will she still have the quickness and strength to be a defensive stopper? Will Iyana Moore, an elite three-point shooter, return to form after missing all last season following ACL surgery. Nine of the 13 players are freshmen and sophomores. How will those youngsters fare against the physical specimens of the SEC? There is much to be settled, but I feel the true rebuild, in terms of personnel, can start this year. So, I have the tiniest seeds of optimism. Sorta. Kinda. Maybe. Please. [/QUOTE]

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