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Message: [QUOTE="hoophuskee, post: 4032570, member: 3535"] When it comes to Azzi (and Nika) - the position and minutes she will play comes down to Evina's health, Dorka's ability to knock down free throws and possibly Liv's offense. In regards to Dorka-- if she can't hit her free throws - you have to rely more on small-ball. If she is bad at f/t’s then it means that you can't give her the ball late in close games. UCONN doesn’t play to try to win games 55-54. Their style of play is to try to score. So her and Liv (or Griffin) on the floor in which UCONN is getting limited offense puts way too much pressure on the perimeter to have to perform. And I highly doubt Geno is going to coach in a manner to build his team around defending SC and Stanford. Instead, imo he is going to build his team around playing his best players with at tops only one limited offensive player. Last year the 2 teams that beat UCONN were small teams. Geno is going to prepare his team with the best possibility to beat any team-- not just two tall teams. Asa result, Nika will be tied to how well Dorka can score (hit f/t’s). If she’s a scorer then Nika is not only competing with Paige and Evina - but Azzi too for pg. UCONN needs to give Azzi at least 25 mpg and Paige 30.. And CWill is going to get at least 25. If Dorka is scoring and shows the important ability to hit free throws- it means less time for Evina to play PF. Add in CD- the minutes at guard and sf will get squeezed. This means Azzi will also get minutes at PG thus taking away time from Nika. Now if Dorka and AE can be relied upon to score and hit free throws-and if Liv (and Griff) don't improve quite a bit on their offense- then that opens more minutes for small ball. Liv and Griff won't get benched- but one or both will have minutes significantly reduced. ****As UCONNCAT posted a podcast a while back-- Geno had said you have to be able to score. **And the better the frontcourt plays offensively – then UCONN won’t need Azzi to play near 30 minutes and can better rest Evina too meaning more minutes for Nika but maybe less in tight games. This year is crazy!!!! Who knows??!!! So many questions. [/QUOTE]

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