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Message: [QUOTE="Bone Dog, post: 5055574, member: 12088"] I would temper this judgment. I think once opposing teams saw what Ash is capable of she got a lot more defensive attention. She didn’t disappear. They saw that to contain Paige required containing Ash. This was discussed extensively in the game threads last season. I doubt it will be so easy to contain her this season. Here, too, I would temper this assessment. By February, Ash played good defense in the sense that she was not often out of position, switched crisply, and kept her player in front of her. This was one thing Q still needed to work on at that point. But Ash was also often matched up against taller players. I’ll wait to see how she does this fall before I criticize her defense. With a deeper, much larger roster behind her, I doubt she’ll be stuck in so many mismatches. If the lineup changes each game, continuity and teamwork is bound to suffer. The reason Geno tends to 5+2 or 5+3 by tournament time with a stable core 5 from early on is to build that continuity. Geno’s great teams succeeded by executing crisply rather than merely by being bigger. This is why it’s a fascinating question whether Geno will play a traditional 3-2 featuring Jana and Ice or Sarah, or small ball with only one big and 4 guards. A 3-2 is slower, but stronger and the speed problem can be mitigated with quicker guards. Who would they be? Paige, of course, and I’d expect to see KK and Azzi. This lineup would give Geno three perimeter shooters to discourage packing the paint around Jana. A small ball lineup is quicker and this favors a lineup like Sarah along with Paige Azzi Allie and Ash. This lineup isn’t super speedy but it packs a heckuva punch offensively. And Aubrey or Ayanna could take Sarah’s spot for even more speed. [/QUOTE]

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