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INJURIES!!! We have talent! Talent cannot help when it is sitting on the bench! Two years ago he was good enough to coach one of , strike that, the greatest freshman season I’ve ever seen! I completely disagree about the recruiting but I do think Shea’s departure has affected our defense and our overall toughness. Can that be laid at Geno’s feet? Well, I suppose so, I think it’s possible he’s allowed himself to get too comfortable with his reliance on people that he’s been to war with over the years.Agreed. Has it occurred to any one else that Geno might be becoming the Bill Belichick of women’s college basketball? His recruiting doesn’t seem to keep up with other schools, and he doesn’t seem able to get the players he does have to play up to their potential.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that there has been a serious decline in many of the fundamental building blocks that helped fuel the dominant twenty+ year run that resulted in 11 championships. Even so, he’s managed to keep us among the top teams in the country even while suffering the worst string of injuries to key players I’ve ever seen!
Our last magical run ended in 2016. Since then, we have played seven seasons. One was knocked out by the pandemic so that makes six.
2017 we lost on a buzzer beater. 2018 ditto! I don’t think it’s unfair to say, if we had gotten to the finals both years (and we easily could have except for a buzzer beater!) we likely would have won at least one of those.
2019, we lost by five to ND in the Final Four. I’ll accept we deserved that one.
2020 canceled due to Covid! 2021 the beginning of the (ongoing) curse! We lost to an Arizona team we likely would have beaten if fully healthy. I don’t think a fair person would deny that we would have been favored against a Stanford team that barely escaped McDonald’s desperation three at the buzzer while scoring only 54 points!
2022, This is when the curse fully manifested itself and we lost a shorthanded final against SC without Dorka, and with a hampered Paige, no Azzi, and a less than 100% Caroline! This one many will say we would have lost even if healthy. Perhaps so, but we weren’t! I think it’s fair to say, we might have won with a fully healthy team.
2023, Here again, though we were handled by Ohio State, we were a mere shell of what we would have been fully healthy.
By my count, if we had been fully healthy since 2016, and had just a modicum of luck (perhaps one of the two buzzer beaters had missed), we likely would now be sitting on 13 titles and perhaps 14! Now, many will sneer, but my point is, we have been right there as recently as last year! It’s clearly not recruiting, it is injuries that have decimated this proud program for the past three years in particular, two of the other three were basically the flip of a coin! I appreciate that Williams and Ogwumike made great shots to win those games but the truth is, there’s a little luck in any buzzer beater situation.
Anyway, this rant is merely to point out that the sky is not falling and we are not that far away from what we have been! Let’s (hopefully) get healthy and I’ll take our chances against anyone!