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Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 5262516, member: 9844"] To answer the original question, yes I am nervous. Can we compete for another championship without any more additions? Sure, but we are in a much better position if we add Williams. There is no reason to believe the backcourt will be better next year. Still good, but not better. All the returnees improving a bit and adding Kelis doesn't come close to making up for the loss of Kaitlin and more importantly a superstar like Paige. Upfront we could be better, Sarah in her second year, although I am hard pressed to figure out what she can improve on, maybe Ice a little better and Jana hopefully significantly so. Maybe Ayanna and Gandy add something to the mix, but the bottom line is only Sarah has shown herself to be a high level big, at least by Uconn's very high standards. With Williams, both the floor and the ceiling are raised substantially. A superstar at the 4 and a very very good starter at the 5, with backups of Ice at the 4 and Jana at the 5 that would be ok, but not great at last year's level. That is the floor, great starters ok backups. The upside is we get great backup play too, maybe a bump from Ice and/or Jana, or Ayanna shows that if healthy she is way better than she showed her first year, and perhaps Gandy is so good even initially as a rebounder/defender that she can help right away. but none of those four can realistically be expected to be as productive or anywhere close to it, as Williams next year. We will be a contender regardless, but the potential difference is substantial, as it would have been if we had acquired Beers, Iriafen, or Betts in prior years. I'm not sure if we were even seriously in the running for the later two, but we know we were the second choice for Beers. True difference makers are really hard to find for teams that are already contenders. They have few holes in their lineup, and only the best of the portal entrants can really improve their position. One reason why I am a little nervous with Williams is I don't see a good plan B. The next tier of bigs that might have been possible, but also might not have been an improvement, are already gone, namely Smith, Cunningham, and Koval. It is pretty much Williams or ride with what we have at this point, at least up front. [/QUOTE]

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