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Message: [QUOTE="Plebe, post: 3246627, member: 6927"] I'm a bit more charitable to Kim for the "failure" of "only" winning one championship in the Griner era. First of all, back-to-the-basket post players are, just by the nature of the game, much more dependent on teammates than perimeter players are. Players who can handle the ball and shoot from at least mid-range are able to take over a game by the force of their own will in a way that an interior-only player simply can't. Also, most of the multi-championship-winning "greats" had strong supporting casts around them. Cheryl Miller was on a stacked USC team that included the McGee twins and Cynthia Cooper. Holdsclaw, Parker, Moore and Stewart were all surrounded by other great players in their championship years. Perhaps the exception was what Taurasi was able to do in carrying UConn in 2003 and 2004, but even then I think her supporting cast was stronger than Griner's was in 2011 (Strother and Turner would go on to be 2nd-round picks in 2006). The 2013 loss to Louisville was obviously a stunner, but it was a bit of a lightning strike. Walz adopted a "puncher's chance" philosophy and successfully gambled that (1) the officials would allow overly physical play against Griner; and (2) they would bomb away from 3 and make enough of them to stay with Baylor. And outside of Griner and Sims, Baylor really wasn't terribly talented. Yes, they were senior-laden and experienced, but of the supporting cast of Pope, Williams, Madden and Hayden, I believe only Pope (in the 3rd round) was taken in the draft. [/QUOTE]

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