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Message: [QUOTE="FridaFriend, post: 2681003, member: 8582"] This off-season reminds me of 2014. UCONN had lost its leaders, Dolson and Hartley, to graduation. Stephanie was the big presence inside, with her rebounds and assists, and Bria ran the point and the offense. Brianna Banks was thought by many to become a great player and starter, after many injuries in the 2013-14 season, but she left UCONN before the fall of 2014. So the questions were: Could Kiah Stokes become a post presence, learn to play offense, and become a senior team leader? Could KML play healthy after missing 1/3 of her games in 2013-14 due to injury and illness? Could she leave the perimeter and become an inside presence and post up? Could Moriah come out of Bria’s shadow and become the real full-time point guard? Could she become a good defender and could she learn to control her speed? Could Stewie play in the post? She played with the US team in the late summer of 2014. While she played well in the exhibition games, she had difficulty dealing with the physical play and she played poorly during the actual tournament. Stewie was skinny and could not bang bodies around under the basket like Dolson. Could Saniya make a big sophomore leap and learn to defend? Could Morgan Tuck recover from her knee surgeries and play a positive role in the season? Other than these six players, UCONN had four freshmen: Ekmark, Edwards. Nurse, and Williams. Williams had just been cleared from her own knee surgeries and wasn’t ready to play immediately. Could she ever contribute? Ekmark had issues with her foot and was out for the fall. Nurse and Edward were unknowns. UCONN lost the second game of the year to Stanford with a starting lineup of Stewart, Mosqueda–Lewis, Jefferson, Stokes, and Chong. Nurse and Tuck fouled out. Stokes never developed her offense and Chong did not make the leap, but the team did OK the rest of the year. So I have great hopes for next year with Collier, Samuelson, and Dangerfield as returning starters. I agree with those who suggest that Batouly and Megan will join them as starters, but Nelson-Ododa and C Williams will play big roles quite early in the season, as Nurse and G Williams did in 2014. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach