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Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 4306316, member: 9844"] I suspect you are right, because my list of potential difference making bigs has dried up, with only Angel Reese left, and for many reasons we might not have been interested in her anyway, or her in us. The uncertainty of who comes thru or who doesn't is huge, but the number of potentially very good players makes the odds pretty good. If one or two of those players are not yet ready for primetime so to speak, but the others are ready, we are probably ok. Last year we had a short 3 big rotation with Liv, Dorka and Aaliyah. For a few games when Liv or Dorka was out that was problematic, as all of the backup big minutes had to come from playing small ball with Caroline or Evina at the 4. Then of course that short rotation killed us when Dorka got injured in the Final Four and Liv played the championship game with a groin injury. Next year I think Dorka is close to a sure thing, I am not anticipating any problems in her recovery, and she probably will be playing more exclusively at her more natural C position. Many would include Aaliyah as a lock in the big rotation, but I would not, at least not yet. If Aaliyah has a dedicated offseason and returns in top condition, I see no reason why she cannot duplicate her freshmen year and if she does that she should start. If instead we get sophomore Aaliyah, then maybe someone else can do better. Geno probably knows far more than we do about Aubrey's progress. Hopefully that is good because if she returns close to her former self we have another solid rotation member. If Aubrey and Aaliyah can return to form of two years ago, with Dorka, we have a big rotation similar to last year (3), without any meaningful contributions from Amari, Ayanna or Ice. I think the odds of one of those three being ready to make the rotation, expanding it to 4 bigs is very high, and having 4 provides at least some cushion for injuries. If Aaliyah disappoints or Aubrey can't go, then we need two of those three to come thru to achieve a solid 4 big rotation. They all have the ability to do just that, and I wouldn't bet against them, but while we have much uncertainty, there are many candidates that could be great solutions. The remaining portal prospects (except Angel) would not in my opinion be an upgrade on paper for any of our 6. [/QUOTE]

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