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Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 4670657, member: 9844"] I think it is possible to view this from two different perspectives. I notice most on the Boneyard qualify their optimistic projections with "if healthy", applying that to the team overall. If, however, you look at each player with a potential injury issue individually as a separate question mark, then we have quite a few including Paige, Azzi, Caroline, Ice and Aubrey. We have a lot of injury question marks because we had so many injuries over the last two years. Those injuries are both a concern and a reason for optimism. Whatever we get out of Paige and Ice this year is more than we got last year, it is like adding two more recruits to the rest of our incoming class. But the difference between getting Paige like she was the first 6 games of her sophomore year, and her post injury return is huge so how close to 100% of what she was is a pretty major issue. Azzi is in a similar position. Her first 6 games last year were All American level, but her drop off after coming back from injury was even more dramatic than Paige's. Caroline too, do we get the freshmen version of her or what we saw as a sophomore, and it is not just the concussions, the hip surgery apparently set her back quite a bit last year as well. So we do have many injury question marks because we have so many comeback stories. Case by case I think most are pretty optimistic. I suspect Ice will be fine and Aubrey will not have recurring back issues, I think Caroline one more year removed from hip surgery should be better regarding that issue, but the concussions could be an ongoing issue, and the biggest question is if Paige and Azzi can still be the players we have seen at their best, or has their ceiling been lowered due to multiple injuries. Good news on all or most of those fronts and we are loaded. As far as Lou and Dorka are concerned, one is easily replaced and the other has talented but unproven prospects as substitutes. Lou was a great pickup but even a healthy freshmen level Caroline could match her, and a healthy Paige or Azzi would be a major improvement. The odds are high that we will actually upgrade Lou with playing time from someone better. With Dorka we could take a step backwards. In terms of how good Ice or Jana might be by their senior year, I might consider Ice and Jana roughly equal to Dorka, but in their first year that would be a pretty high bar to match, and of course both are unproven. Our questions are mostly health related and how good our prospects will be at the 5, the only position where we need production right away from a newcomer. LSU has far more fit questions with both big portal additions probably playing major minutes at something other than their best position, or resulting in an existing player moving away from their best position. Kim accepted major talent and major challenges with those moves. Maybe she can make it work, maybe not, time will tell. [/QUOTE]

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