Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 4330715, member: 9844"] Agree completely on Dorka. IMO she is likely to get the third highest minutes on the team. There are three players with a clear path to high starters minutes. Paige, Azzi and Dorka. It would be a shock if they didn't start, and on paper they don't have serious challenges to that starting position. Everyone else among the bigs has at least some questions that are more serious than Dorka recovering from her wrist injury. Ice and Ayanna are freshmen, look very promising but who knows, Amari is in some ways like a freshmen too in that she has not yet earned meaning-full play time, Aubrey has proven to be a very good player, but back surgery is a major injury, and Aaliyah has had two very different seasons, her first very impressive, and last year by Uconn standards very mediocre. I am hopefull but until she shows it, i don't know what version we get this season. So for me Aaliyah's minutes are far from certain. If we get "freshmen" Aaliyah she probably starts and gets major minutes. If we get last year's version it is possible Ice, Ayanna and Aubrey could be better than her. In fact the battle for minutes at the 4 could be by far the most competitive if the freshmen are the real deal and Aubrey is healthy. With 11 players I expect at least 1 to be DNP coaches decision in big games. If I had to guess who that would be I would say Amari. With the competition at the 4, her best chance at playing time would be to secure the role of backup to Dorka. I hope she earns that time, but she will probably get serious competition from both Ice and Aaliyah who could handle that role as well. Another key question is the 3 position. If Caroline wins that battle with Lou, she could easily get 30 minutes a game and be the third highest scorer, ahead of Dorka, but I think at this point Dorka's starter minutes are baked into the cake and Caroline needs to beat out Lou, which I consider probable but not certain. Beyond that Nika should get all of Paige's backup minutes, the loser of the starting battle at the 3 should get almost all the backup minutes there (occasional spotting of Aubrey or Ayanna there), and who backs up Azzi is more in play, depending on if you want passing and defense (Nika) or more perimeter scoring and size (Lou or Caroline). Regardless if Nika and Paige are on the floor together with Azzi out, Nika plays the point and Paige the SG. Much to be determined but that is how I see the playing time and related PPG battles playing out. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach