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Message: [QUOTE="Bone Dog, post: 5056311, member: 12088"] I’m totally with you on this. The days of undersized frontcourts are over. I may not be a “true” fan, so I won’t claim Jana is going to be great right away. There’s going to be a learning curve. But she really wants to be great. You can’t miss this about her. And she wants everyone else to be great too. Your post made me think of SC in Boston’s first two seasons — before Kamila — and nobody thought they were undersized. And their frontcourt consisted of Boston at 6’5” and Saxton at 6’2”. Amihere at 6’4” was really a wing not 4 or a 5. Boston and Saxton were strong and couldn’t be outmuscled. That’s what made them big and not merely being tall. This season, as Jana learns her craft, Geno will have her at 6’5” along with Ice at 6’3”. That’s plenty big enough. Add in a bunch of strong 6’2” players and Geno has a lineup that’s as big as it needs to be. They aren’t all as strong as Jana and Ice, though Ayanna surely is, and they have a lot offensive craftiness. The first time Jana pulls out her up-and-under move in the low post, I predict we’ll all be left gasping. Or barrels down the lane on a layup. Or rips a rebound away from an opposing big. Or scares the living daylights out of an opposing guard on a high hedge. Paige and KK and Kaitlyn and Sarah are going to love finding creative ways to get her the ball in the half court offense. Cameron Brink was pretty good as a freshman but she was great as a sophomore. Part of her success was due to how good Stanford’s perimeter shooters were. As Rebecca Lobo commented at the time, “she always has a clean lane.” Picture Jana with a clean lane. This is why I predict Jana will start in November. She’ll make a ton of mistakes, get lots of fouls called on her, miss defensive switches, struggle with her outside shot. In January, once the conference schedule is underway, she’ll have lots of opportunities to find her confidence and hone her skills. Geno has 80 minutes to give to Jana Ice Sarah and Ayanna. I predict that by March Jana will regularly get 30 of them. He’ll want her on the floor not merely because she’s big. It will be like with Nika: “the team is better with her in the lineup.” He’ll want to have her fire out there as much as possible. [/QUOTE]

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