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Message: [QUOTE="jdote33, post: 4177946, member: 11252"] Love this thread. I can worry with the best of them. jk. I agree with a lot of the points that have been given. My number 1 concern is health. I remember early on in the season, many people were concerned with the over-reliance on Paige and whether we would be a top 20 team without her. Of course she's not the only one that went down this season and we did sustain losses to most of the ranked teams that we faced on our schedule thus far. That being said, I think the team we saw earlier this week vs DePaul can be a very good team, for sure a top 20 team in the nation. However, I think it would be really hard to be a top 8 team or a final 4 team without Paige. We are now less than two months away from the start of the tourney. I see her pretty active and mobile on the sidelines, but of course she still has a brace. Then again Ayoka Lee dropped 60 in a brace so looks can be deceiving jk. A close second concern which is related to the first (I saw nicely it put in an earlier post) is confidence and continuity. I live close to Boston, and I feel like Bill Belichick and Doc Rivers constantly championed being a star in your role. But with the way this season's been, everyone's role has constantly changing. So the injuries put players in roles that they may not have been ready for but were forced to embrace. And on the flip side, with everyone getting back healthy, how do you keep players confident and feeling important when their role is being diminished. I remember Geno saying that they had no depth earlier in the season, perhaps after the road Seton Hall game, and making it clear that players needed to prove themselves to get on the floor. Then I remember him saying after the UCLA game that Dorka should be aiming to get a double double every game (which sounds extreme but she averaged it last season, and if she got more shots she'd probably be close to it). Now does she see less time with everyone healthy, and trying to play more 4 guard lineups. And if she misses a couple shots, or misses a box out does she still get the minutes and remain confident. I remember prior to the season CW had a video, and talked a bit about making this last year count, almost as if she felt that in her previous 3 she did not live up to expectations. EW also had a video, which discussed her decision to come back, at the expense of being a projected lottery pick. Inevitably, if the team ends up getting to where they want to go, I'm sure both will play a major role. But in a close game with 3 minutes left with everyone healthy, does Geno have either on the court, and how does that feel for them. I remember also prior to the season starting, Geno and other coaches were praising CD. But when the season started she was mostly on the bench and pulled super quick. Over the past month she's shown she's one of the best players on the team and has evolved as the player you want with the ball in crucial moments. But before the final 4 minutes Wednesday, she had ~ 8 shots with 4 minutes left to go in the game. And this is without Paige. So what happens when PB gets back. That's the dichotomy, gift and curse of having a really talented team.The curse being that you're sort of tailoring players roles to fit the team. You are not letting an individual go crazy and reach for the stars, you're making calculations from the perspective of 'what is going to be best for the team'. Like AE is a prime example. I'm not sure she was put in position to go from 11 and 8 last year to like 16 and 8 this year. It's always been sort of an interesting thing to me. The sacrifice everyone always praises never really is scrutinized when it results in the detriment to the team. Lastly, I think this sort of came up last year, and you can probably say it every year, but I worry about fast, athletic, defensive teams. Arizona shut down UConn last year. I know some players were even injured last year, but when I look AZ's team they have a bunch of really strong, athletic, defensive players. I think a team like Texas is very similar. Obviously Georgia Tech caused a lot of issues in their game with us this season. I think we will have to get through one of those type of teams in the post season and I'm not looking forward to it. Geno's press conference last year talked about the te. am needing to mature, and even this season, when they get jumped on, them needing to be able to respond. Will they have the mental toughness to outlast a team like that, when they have not been able to really establish any much continuity thus far. [/QUOTE]

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