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Message: [QUOTE="#12in21, post: 4164981, member: 10763"] I would go with Nika, Caroline, Christyn, Evina and Olivia as starters. The last couple games we have had fast starts on offense and great defensive intensity. I believe we need Nika on the floor to push the intensity and get her teammates rolling. Evina brings the ball up much slower and we won't have that jump to disrupt Oregon on both Offense and Defense if she is running point and Nika is watching from the bench. We want Oregon to be uncomfortable from the get go. Nika is our best player to lead in that. And based on the noted comments by Culmo and one of our posters ( sorry don't recall who mentioned witnessing it live at the last game), Nika is our best communicator, constantly talking on offense and defense. At the same time, if we want to get a fast start, we need players on the floor that can get shots up quickly before the defense gets set. Caroline is best at that with Evina and Christyn very good as well. If they are all shooting well we should be able to get into our offense quickly make solid passes to find the open player. A key will be following strongly for offensive rebounds to get put backs on misses ( we may really miss Dorka for that if the guys on the floor aren't aggressively following up on misses). On defense I think this unit can also pressure the ball and switch well. If Oregon comes in with two bigs and we are having problems with that we will need to counter quickly by subbing in Dorka or Aaliyah. If the pace of the game is slow, half court offense primarily we have major problems winning. We need to push pace and maintain the focus and intensity we've shown against the last two, decidedly lesser opponents. IMO our best shot to do that is to come out with this line up and then react to how best to maintain pace and counter any advantages Oregon is showing. Obviously we will need to play much of the game with two bigs on the court as no matter how well the four guard lineup is playing we have no backups to come in to give players a breather or if someone gets into foul trouble. If we establish the pace of the game to our liking and are hitting on all cylinders we should be able to transition to 3 guards with 2 bigs, rotating in players to keep everybody fresh. This would be a great game for Aaliyah to explode back to the dominate player we saw that she can be. Piath and Amari contributing would be a huge plus as well. If the refs are calling touch fouls on the outside that could really hurt us this game but if they are allowing some contact and physical play outside we should be okay, conversely if they are allowing the bigs to bounce each other around inside that may cause us some issues unless Aaliyah's beast side is back. All we can hope for is fair handed and consistent reffing and for our players to adjust to however the game is being called. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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