When I saw Breanna play the private schools here in Albany for the NYS title she pretty much hit every free throw she had, so I was genuinely surprised she missed as she did twice. I don't think she'll see as hostile an environment in the tournament as she saw against ND, so if it had to happen, better now. Saniya's range on the 3 is amazing. I've been trying to figure given how we're losing Kelly how much worse we will be next year. Given Griner and Diggins are leaving, we may not have to be better. We just can't be much worse.
Given that Kelly is an elite defender, we're just not going to be able to replace that 1 for 1 next year so in some respects we'll certainly be worse. She came in strong as a frosh and just got stronger on D as her career wore on. She's that good. Players like BB (when healthy) and MoJeff should improve, but losing Kelly is still a huge loss when it comes to pressuring the other team's top player(s) directly.
The good thing is, we should be able to make up for this somewhat with an improved back line defense. The keys here are Stewart and Stokes. Stef is a pretty good 'lane cop' but her best D is played straight up, IMO. She does not patrol big chunks of space as well as the other two can. We'll need that because opponents are going to get by our 1-3 players more often without Kelly on the floor.
With Morgan as a starter, we will have a harder time providing that kind of backstop but we will score more points on our end. If Stokes is in at the 4 alongside Stef, we may score less but we'll have a stiffer back line. With
Stewie, if she takes a big jump her sophomore year.......we could have.......
both......
