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Message: [QUOTE="Bone Dog, post: 5167578, member: 12088"] I keep thinking about that USC game. We got thumped by ND. Part of the problem was King got away with a couple of obvious over the back fouls, but that didn’t make the difference. The fact is Hidalgo Miles and Citron were too much for us as constituted at the time. And having Azzi back might not have changed anything. This might change over the next two months. But ND will be a tough matchup if we meet them again. USC beat us badly in the first half of that game and we beat them very nearly as badly in the second half. In my mind, this game was a draw [B]for forecasting purposes[/B]. And I think the loss of Azzi after Louisville was decisive. I don’t think they’d have been able to play such aggressive on-ball defense in the first half with Azzi on the floor, and that defense was key to the big lead they built. This is why I suspect a second meeting would go rather differently if there is one. On the whole, then, I agree that we are currently ranked pretty accurately. We have a shot at the title, and at least one upset will likely be required. But we are also still an unknown quantity as a team since more is likely to change in out rotation than for the rest of the top ten. [B]If[/B] all the unknowns turn out in our favor — [B]if[/B] Aubrey comes back strong, [B]if[/B] Jana becomes a consistent force down low, [B]if[/B] Azzi and Paige stay healthy, [B]if[/B] Morgan and Allie develop well on O and D — we will be obviously better than all but the top 3 or 4 teams. But none of these can be known yet. This is the same frustrating uncertainty that has become so familiar over the past four years. Our optimism may well be important to sustain ourselves as we wait to see what fate has in store for the team. [/QUOTE]

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