[81alum]

Anything could happen with such a young team.  I could see us dropping some games that we ought to win--we already have nearly done that--but also winning a game or two we might not be expected to.  Such is the nature of young teams.  Tara I think almost prefers to have a loss early in the season if it identifies weaknesses and motivates the team to improve.  Obviously she hates losing at tournament time.

But if we improve every week, if the freshmen continue to gain experience and begin to play defense more like seniors, if our players get healthy, if we have just a smidgen of luck on a road trip to Oregon, then the sky is the limit.  The talent level is there for a national championship, but a lot of other things have to go our way for us to have a chance of realizing that possibility.

At this point our greatest challenge may be the difficulty in settling on a rotation.  It is great to have depth, and Tara may go with a larger rotation than her customary 7 at tournament time--but the team also needs experience and cohesiveness playing together and that won't happen if we keep rotating 12 or more.  For the life of me I don't know who is going to be in that year-end rotation.

In other news, Gonzaga is proving that it is for real.  It beat undefeated Purdue on Sunday to win its tournament, and moved up 4 spots. 

Since Buffalo's losing California trip it has won twice.  It has no more top flight games on its schedule but I could see it winning out over the lesser competition.

Massey computer rankings:
Louisville 1
Connecticut 2
Baylor 3
Oregon 4
Stanford 5
Mississippi State 6
Oregon State 7
South Carolina 8
UCLA 9
Maryland 10
Indiana 11
Gonzaga 12
Arizona 18
Tennessee 25
Cal 38
Arizona State 42
Syracuse 49
Ohio State 55
Buffalo 78
Texas 90
USF 122
N Colorado 160
Cal Baptist 193
E Washington 261

[81alum]

Anything could happen with such a young team.  I could see us dropping some games that we ought to win--we already have nearly done that--but also winning a game or two we might not be expected to.  Such is the nature of young teams.  Tara I think almost prefers to have a loss early in the season if it identifies weaknesses and motivates the team to improve.  Obviously she hates losing at tournament time.

But if we improve every week, if the freshmen continue to gain experience and begin to play defense more like seniors, if our players get healthy, if we have just a smidgen of luck on a road trip to Oregon, then the sky is the limit.  The talent level is there for a national championship, but a lot of other things have to go our way for us to have a chance of realizing that possibility.

At this point our greatest challenge may be the difficulty in settling on a rotation.  It is great to have depth, and Tara may go with a larger rotation than her customary 7 at tournament time--but the team also needs experience and cohesiveness playing together and that won't happen if we keep rotating 12 or more.  For the life of me I don't know who is going to be in that year-end rotation.

In other news, Gonzaga is proving that it is for real.  It beat undefeated Purdue on Sunday to win its tournament, and moved up 4 spots. 

Since Buffalo's losing California trip it has won twice.  It has no more top flight games on its schedule but I could see it winning out over the lesser competition.

Massey computer rankings:
Louisville 1
Connecticut 2
Baylor 3
Oregon 4
Stanford 5
Mississippi State 6
Oregon State 7
South Carolina 8
UCLA 9
Maryland 10
Indiana 11
Gonzaga 12
Arizona 18
Tennessee 25
Cal 38
Arizona State 42
Syracuse 49
Ohio State 55
Buffalo 78
Texas 90
USF 122
N Colorado 160
Cal Baptist 193
E Washington 261