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Message: [QUOTE="JB123, post: 2676512, member: 7203"] You make many smart points, as usual. But here's the key thing: In order to be much better than #8, UConn doesn't need to get the kind of improvement next year that it got from KLS and Collier two years ago. Two years ago, UConn needed that improvement because all its best players were graduating: Stewie, Moriah, and Morgan. No one who returned had yet shown any sign of being one of the nation's best players. But now, we have two players returning who are [I]already[/I] among the nation's best players. The primary reasons that the 2017 team went 36-1 -- KLS and Collier -- are still around and two years more developed. I know we lost Gabby and Kia, and it's reasonable to think that those losses will make us less good than in 2017, even with the improvement of KLS and Collier. But Crystal Dangerfield is a major mitigating consideration. And I just don't think it's realistic to expect nothing from Megan, Christyn, ONO, Batouly, and Coombs. If even one of those five becomes really good, or if two of them become solid contributors, then the team looks as good as the 2017 team or at least similar. And that's before we even mention Geno's track record: Only once in the past 25 years (2004-05) has one of his teams been as bad as you're predicting, and that team's roster returned no one who had played at all like KLS or Collier, let alone both of them. [/QUOTE]