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Message: [QUOTE="Bone Dog, post: 5310983, member: 12088"] I don’t disagree with any of what you’ve said. You seem to have laid it out with considerable care and insight. I paused at Blakes, but without Khamil supporting her, I think you have to be right. Vandy simply won’t go far enough. But I’d like to make the case for Sarah and Azzi just as a thought experiment, even though I think your assessment is probably right. For [B]Azzi[/B], in her sophomore year, after Paige went down for the season Geno challenged her to be “the best player in D1” every game and she accepted that. And she came out of the gate like gangbusters, practically on fire in the first two games against Texas and NC State. She cooled off slightly in the following 4 games until she was injured. But these were all solid games, including a head-to-head matchup with Clark that she won. The two of them were regularly mentioned as favorites for the NPoY. We don’t really know even now if Azzi can sustain that sort of production for an entire season. But if she can, and if UConn has a juggernaut of a season, she’ll be hard to ignore. Those are some big IFs, so really anything could happen. For [B]Sarah[/B], the formula is a bit different. She’s coming off a tremendous season in which she was instrumental in a dominating NC run. Plus her game is very well-rounded and generally perceived to be so by all the pundits. That’s bound to garner a lot of attention. She loses a tremendous partner in Paige, but if she can drive the bus to another dominating season — for example, if they go undefeated and are ranked #1 for most if not all of the season — she’d also be hard to ignore. I’m just trying to picture Sarah with a ‘sophomore leap,’ and with an even deeper supporting cast with Serah and Blanca added on. The oddest aspect of such a season could be that Azzi and Sarah turn out to be the chief rivals for the award and cancel each other out. Then Betts or Hidalgo could slide into it almost be default. [/QUOTE]

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