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Message: [QUOTE="Bone Dog, post: 4488887, member: 12088"] Thanks again [USER=267]@cferraro04[/USER] for a fine analysis. I have been hoping Mel Moore would bring something new to Xavier, but it's been a slow start. Perhaps that's inevitable, given where they were when she got there. If I recall correctly, she kicked the two best players off the team her first year. That had to be hard to do for a new coach. I wonder about one thing in your analysis -- you use the term "basketball IQ" to describe Aubrey, which may not be entirely apt. I love her game, so I have no criticism to offer about her. And if we think about defensive cleverness and resourcefulness, I'd have no hesitation to apply it to her in this sense -- she has a "high defensive basketball IQ." But the generic term seems mainly to highlight offensive talents like passing and moving with and without the ball, and especially ball handling, and in these areas, Aubrey is not who I mainly think of. On offense, Aubrey is a tremendous slasher in the lane, she's a good offensive rebounder, and she runs the court better than anyone in D1, and her outside shooting (and especially her willingness to shoot) is notably improved over previous years. But she is not an intuitive (that's my new term) passer or ball handler -- she often picks up her dribble without knowing what she means to do with the ball and then the offense stalls until someone comes to bail her out. As I said, I don't mean these as criticisms since Aubrey is a tremendous asset to the team. We shouldn't expect her to do things she's not good at. For example, I loved seeing Dorka sprint the length of the court with a steal, as she did against Butler, but this is not her primary skill and I wouldn't design an offensive set that depended on her being able to do that sort of thing. By contrast, our transition game can and should be based on Aubrey's ability to run the court with a steal or to get a long pass from Nika. This plays right into one of her signal strengths and no one else on the team can really do it as well... except maybe Aaliyah. I mean, obviously Azzi can, and we could probably ask Lou and Caroline to run the court on breaks, though it doesn't seem like the best use of their talents. Before Aubrey came back, Christyn was who mainly filled this role in the transition game. Aubrey will pose problems for Xavier (and most teams we'll face) because of her great strength and speed, her ability to score in the lane, her much improved outside shooting, and her disruptiveness on defense. As a result, when teams try to cope with her, others will be left open and the whole team will work better. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach