[2006alum]

However the competition shakes out for the 1 through 4 I am ok with it.  I thought the position we really suffered at last night was the 5.  Neither Coffee or Dodson seemed willing to step in front of the driving ND player and take the charge.  Coffee in particular simply backed off and gave up the layup.  More than anything next year we need a physical, tough player at the 5.  I don't think we need to expect significant scoring. We will have plenty of other players who can do that.

Your observation is very astute. This year I thought Dodson was a net liability on offense — when you’re one of the tallest on the court and your layups are SHORT and don’t clear the rim, something is wrong. At the same time Coffee was frustrating to watch on defense —- boxing out well and holding position against bigs, but playing matador against driving guards.

Reading your post and others, I think 1-4 next year can be the equivalent of a 4-guard offense with a lot of options and scoring styles, and we just need to be at least 2-deep in enforcers at the 5.

Agree all around. Fingall was the compromise in the middle: better on offense than Dodson but better of defense than Coffee. Losing her really hurt us, and it was especially apparent last night.

One thing that's great about Belibi is that she's solid on both offense and defense - she blocks well, rebounds well, and drives to the basket well. She's only listed at 6'1", but she has a higher vertical leap than DeMarcus Cousins, and a greater wingspan than Steph Curry. She's also freakishly athletic, which I think will make her defend more like a 6'3" or 6'4" post player rather than a 6'1" forward. She'll need to work on boxing out, but I could see a universe where she defends mostly in the paint, especially if she can get help-side defense from Prechtel and eventually Brink.

[2006alum]

However the competition shakes out for the 1 through 4 I am ok with it.  I thought the position we really suffered at last night was the 5.  Neither Coffee or Dodson seemed willing to step in front of the driving ND player and take the charge.  Coffee in particular simply backed off and gave up the layup.  More than anything next year we need a physical, tough player at the 5.  I don't think we need to expect significant scoring. We will have plenty of other players who can do that.

Your observation is very astute. This year I thought Dodson was a net liability on offense — when you’re one of the tallest on the court and your layups are SHORT and don’t clear the rim, something is wrong. At the same time Coffee was frustrating to watch on defense —- boxing out well and holding position against bigs, but playing matador against driving guards.

Reading your post and others, I think 1-4 next year can be the equivalent of a 4-guard offense with a lot of options and scoring styles, and we just need to be at least 2-deep in enforcers at the 5.

Agree all around. Fingall was the compromise in the middle: better on offense than Dodson but better of defense than Coffee. Losing her really hurt us, and it was especially apparent last night.

One thing that's great about Belibi is that she's solid on both offense and defense - she blocks well, rebounds well, and drives to the basket well. She's only listed at 6'1", but she has a higher vertical leap than DeMarcus Cousins, and a greater wingspan than Steph Curry. She's also freakishly athletic, which I think will make her defend more like a 6'3" or 6'4" post player rather than a 6'1" forward. She'll need to work on boxing out, but I could see a universe where she defends mostly in the paint, especially if she can get help-side defense from Prechtel and eventually Brink.