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Message: [QUOTE="TheFarmFan, post: 4542760, member: 9403"] Indeed. In theory, we have all the pieces we need for a championship run: solid ball handling (Lepolo), creating off the dribble (Jones and Nivar, Bosgana), perimeter guard defense (Emma-Nnopu), shot blocking (Brink, Prechtel), three point shooting (Jump, Demetre), and reliable scoring ability and rebounding in the paint (Iriafen, Belibi, Betts). The problem is that we don't have all those attributes in the same 5 players. Assuming Jones, Brink, and Jump are locks, you need better perimeter and guard defense than either Jones or Jump can provide, but if we go with any two of Lepolo, Emma-Nnopu, Bosgana, or Nivar, that leaves no room in a starting rotation for a second big, and that leaves an insane amount of talent (Iriafen, Belibi, Betts, and Prechtel) to come off the bench. And that's to say nothing for Demetre, who is a great shooter and distributor but neither fast enough to guard speedy guards nor physical enough to post up on defense. I've kind of just come to acceptance that there's no way to fit these puzzle pieces together in a way that forms a reliable lineup, so Tara just has to McGyver her line-ups from game to game depending on the personnel on the other side -- notice that our two weird losses, to U$C and Washington, both came in the second games of the weekend, when there was less time (from Friday late night to Sunday morning) to practice defense based on a scouting report. That approach could very well get us to the final four, but I honestly just don't think we have the right personnel to make a championship run. Kind of the definition of "the total is less than the sum of the parts." C'est la vie... [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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