81, all good points. And I agree that Dodson is being primed to be our five long-term. My only thought re: Fingall is that Smith can also play the five pretty well, and we can really break down a zone if we have two bigs, either of whom can get inside to the Elbow and either shoot or pass inside to the low post. Kayl had some nice feeds from the elbow to Smith at the low post from time to time, and she was killer on screens, but because she didn't like to shoot from there the 2 inside zone defenders could sag off of her and prevent the pass to low post. With Fingall able to take (and make) that shot, and because Smith can do the same, it keeps our offense much more fluid. I don't remember seeing Dodson try to do much outside the paint, so I'm not sure what her jump shot is like, but as this is Smith's final season, getting Fingall some experience at the four would also pay dividends for the following year where our two bigs will basically have to be Fingall and Dodson, because we have none coming in next season and even if we got someone like Amihere, they'd be starting only in Fingall's senior year. And because Dodson is a much more natural five, we will either need to play stretch four with Jerome or a Hull or, when we need to match up against teams like Texas, Baylor, and Notre Dame, all of whom will have multiple dominant bigs, need Fingall at the four. Moreover, since we'll most likely need to have two of Dodson, Fingall, and Smith on the floor most of the time, Fingall at four and Smith at five makes more sense to me than the other way around. Smith is much better at boxing out and making back to basket plays, and Fingall is actually a pretty good sharpshooter for a big.
I missed the Louisville game entirely because I was traveling that weekend and will confess I had no desire to go back and watch it by the time I got home, so I didn't notice how little time Sniezek got. That's interesting and ill foreboding with so much pressure at the 1-3 positions coming in, so you're right, it's possible a Williams-Carrington-Wing-Smith-Dodson lineup could be in the offing. I guess I'd just prefer to see Carrington more in McPhee's old role than at the two, because Carrington is a wild passer, and that's where she generates most of her turnovers. She actually has great ball handling skills, but I think she thinks everyone else on the team has superman reflexes and movement!
And yeah, I don't know what we do about the glut of players we have who can fill the 1-3 (or stretch four). The Princeton is designed to handle having only one big on the floor and it's especially effective when you're the smaller team, so it's possible Tara was thinking ahead and will be fine running stretch four Princeton offense with far better outside shooting than we had this season. I loved your stat pack update and the fact that we had both the most made threes ever and also the lowest shooting percentage ever tells us everything we need to know about what we had to rely on and how reliably that worked... The fact that McPhee is the first guard to average 15+ points in a season since Wiggins suggests we have not been a strong three point shooting team in quite a long time. And when I think back on it, the Samuelsons have been our only sharpshooters, and teams knew to key in on them and limit their opportunities. It's been ages since we've had multiple legit outside shooting guards on the floor at once, and if we can get that with some combination of Williams/Wilson/Brown/Hulls/Jump, then all the better. We just really, really need a top big in our next class...!
I missed the Louisville game entirely because I was traveling that weekend and will confess I had no desire to go back and watch it by the time I got home, so I didn't notice how little time Sniezek got. That's interesting and ill foreboding with so much pressure at the 1-3 positions coming in, so you're right, it's possible a Williams-Carrington-Wing-Smith-Dodson lineup could be in the offing. I guess I'd just prefer to see Carrington more in McPhee's old role than at the two, because Carrington is a wild passer, and that's where she generates most of her turnovers. She actually has great ball handling skills, but I think she thinks everyone else on the team has superman reflexes and movement!
And yeah, I don't know what we do about the glut of players we have who can fill the 1-3 (or stretch four). The Princeton is designed to handle having only one big on the floor and it's especially effective when you're the smaller team, so it's possible Tara was thinking ahead and will be fine running stretch four Princeton offense with far better outside shooting than we had this season. I loved your stat pack update and the fact that we had both the most made threes ever and also the lowest shooting percentage ever tells us everything we need to know about what we had to rely on and how reliably that worked... The fact that McPhee is the first guard to average 15+ points in a season since Wiggins suggests we have not been a strong three point shooting team in quite a long time. And when I think back on it, the Samuelsons have been our only sharpshooters, and teams knew to key in on them and limit their opportunities. It's been ages since we've had multiple legit outside shooting guards on the floor at once, and if we can get that with some combination of Williams/Wilson/Brown/Hulls/Jump, then all the better. We just really, really need a top big in our next class...!