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Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 4325430, member: 9844"] My take on the injuries vs. roster size issue is that like Coco I think we had the talent last year, but an unusual level and concentration of injuries did us in, and like Hoop Huskie I thought it was a great season considering what they had to endure. I remain a little nervous about 11 for a couple of reasons, but realize that at this point that is likely what we are going with. Last year we had by my definition 6 very capable guards/wings and in anything but a very unusual year for injuries, that is enough. Unfortunately we had a very unusual year for injuries, and it was even worse when it was concentrated in the guards and three out of the six were unavailable for several games. During that stretch we had no guard backups, the three we had needed to play close to 40 minutes, and the only relief was playing Aaliyah for a few minutes out of position at the 3. That was a disaster when we had six guards. That happening again is very unlikely, but this year we go in with 5. If one is out we can manage with four guards pretty well, but if two are injured at the same time it would be a big problem again, but not quite as bad as last year, because at least defensively Aubrey and Ayanna are available to help out there, although IMO they are better at the 4. The bigs are different, we have plenty of potential good players (6) for two positions, but many question marks. Dorka is close to a sure thing but even she is recovering from surgery, Aaliyah probably nails down another rotation spot but if she doesn't return to freshmen Aaliyah, nothing is guaranteed with new competitors, Aubrey is proven if healthy, but back surgery is serious, Amari appears talented but has shown little so far, and of course Ice and Ayanna look like very good prospects, but with freshmen who knows. Personally I think the odds are very good we can get at least a very good 4 big rotation out of that group, but there are many unknowns regarding health and development. There is a little bit of a risk with the guards on numbers, and the bigs with who can we count on with this roster of 11. If we have more average luck on injuries we are probably OK, but anything like last year and we will wind up wishing we had a couple more capable players IMO. Maybe we are due for some good luck! [/QUOTE]

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