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Message: [QUOTE="diggerfoot, post: 5271933, member: 1673"] I often have played devil’s advocate, both in regards to length of rotation and newcomers starting. There are times when a #30 ranked recruit starts right away, as with Dolson, and when a #1-2 ranked recruit does not, as with Sales, Ralph, Taurasi and Moore. The difference seems to be more in terms of position of need than the ranking. Even in a positionless offense there is a lead guard who specializes in leading the offense and a Center who anchors the defense. These are the positions where newcomers are most likely to start right away if the need is there. The portal has added a new wrinkle to “newcomer,” in that they may only be here for one year. When that is the case we have seen those newcomers starting so far, a la Chen and LLS. When they have more than one year available they have not, a la Stevens and Juhacz. While no one is guaranteed playing time, I expect that any accomplished player with just one year left would be reluctant to transfer in unless they thought their opportunity to start in their last year would be favorable. Those with more than one year ahead would be receptive to not starting, considering that even nonstarters in our program have gone on to WNBA careers. S. Williams transferring in always made sense. While I think El-Affy has shown she can be a competent Center for us, she is still an underclassman with more years ahead to show she deserves to be our starting Center of the future. S. Williams can and likely will start with no adverse affects. I previously argued against Kneepkens because she only had one year left and would need to start over guards who were now upperclassmen that had proven their championship worth. I did not think much good would come from Kneepkens joining us. However, Heckel as an underclassman is different. Transferring in but not starting still makes sense for her, just as it made sense for Stevens and Juhacz or, for that matter, the highly ranked recruits of Sales, Ralph, Taurasi and Moore coming in as freshmen. Plus Fudd will be gone next year and that spot open in the future for a determined guard. Starting five prediction based on these factors: Arnold Fudd Shade Strong Williams [/QUOTE]

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