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[QUOTE="jake0414, post: 4805680, member: 10619"]
UCLA Coach Cori played her freshmen quite a lot last season because she really had no choice.  Rice and Jones played over 20 mpg.  Jaquez and Sontag played 17mpg and Iwuala got 12 mpg.  I remember several instances where four and sometimes five freshmen were on the floor together.  UCLA had some tough losses - to Arizona at home after relinquishing a big lead late and close defeats at Colorado and Utah.  The experience the freshmen, now sophomores, gained made them a better team at the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments and has clearly made the overall team much stronger this season (admittedly getting Lauren Betts helps a lot).

With freshmen comprising four of its eight core players UConn will likely benefit by taking a similar approach.  UConn's tough non-conference schedule might make it difficult for the coaching staff to let the freshmen learn from their freshmen mistakes in close games.  It will accelerate their growth, however, and make the team more robust and not reliant solely on Paige and Aaliyah come March.
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