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Message: [QUOTE="Moose, post: 3137998, member: 1785"] My opinion is that having players transfer out shouldn't be seen as such of a failing, but more of the pursuit of a mutually agreed upon path for a better experience. I think a lot of posters seem to think that it is obvious where a player is going to fall on the depth chart before they join a team, but I don't think that's easy to know at all. Courtney Ekmark was getting all the press for that incoming recruiting class - should Kia and Sadie have concluded that they would fall lower on the depth chart and chosen other schools? I think all of those players Kia, Gabby, Sadie and Courtney believed in themselves that they'd be the ones to rise up and be starters. And of course they should back themselves, if you don't try, how will you know? Part of it is that coaches are realizing that their best chance to win is to only play their best 5 players. The best 5 should be well conditioned enough to play the entire game. That means that the players rated 6-8 on the depth chart might not even be much worse than the player at 5, but from 5 to 6 on the depth chart sees a big drop off in playing time: from 40 mins/game to 0! Therefore, I could see that Geno might say to player like Ekmark, you're great, but I don't think you'll crack the starting 5 here, you only get to play college ball once, I don't want to take that chance away from you. The players give it 2 years because they believe in themselves and want to take a shot, but UCONN starters are probably the 1% - so you fall in the 1.1%, you can still achieve success on your terms at a P5 school. With all these transfers, I see two parties doing what is best for them. It's not clear these players leave on bad terms, and I prefer to think that they don't. There was incomplete information on how things would pan out initially, now we have a better idea, make a new decision. I think the coaches are indirectly driving this transfer shift as a consequence of the 'play only your best 5' strategy (which in my opinion IS the winning strategy). [/QUOTE]

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