[76lsjumb]

I think Tara was in a more difficult position than you're allowing for. I don't think it's easy to tell a player who busted her butt in practices all through the fall, sorry, none of that means anything now that Kristin's back. And it might not have have played well with other members of the team, either. I know football/baseball two-athletes miss spring practice, but there's some distance between that and when the season starts. And those guys are out there during the really grim part of practice, the two-a-days.

Those are cetainly legitimate arguments, but they're very similar arguments to those made in situations we saw just this season, if you make the following substitutions: Nunes [or Alex Smith] for the unnamed "player who busted her butt...", Hogan [or Kaepernick (sp?) for Folkl, and, of course Shaw [or Harbaugh] for Tara.  On the whole, you would have to say it worked out pretty well for the substituters this season, those arguments notwithstanding.

Moreover, it wasn't as if Folkl had spent the off-season lounging on the beach sipping mai-tais.  I'm pretty sure she was working just as hard before and during volleyball season as the b'ball players were.

Finally, Folkl was an all-around pretty nice person.  We got to know her a little bit at Stanford and, fortuantely, got to talk with her quite a bit again at the St. Louis Final Four.  There may have been some resentment among other players regarding her playing [although I never heard of it], but, if I were on a b'ball team that has a chance to win it all, it seems to me that I could find a way to support the best shooter and rebounder on the team getting a little more playing time [and, indeed, even starting].  Unfortunately, none of those women's b'ball teams ever did win it all.

Finally, I don't think the Tara bias against volleyball players crossing over to b'ball was limited to Folkl.

[76lsjumb]

I think Tara was in a more difficult position than you're allowing for. I don't think it's easy to tell a player who busted her butt in practices all through the fall, sorry, none of that means anything now that Kristin's back. And it might not have have played well with other members of the team, either. I know football/baseball two-athletes miss spring practice, but there's some distance between that and when the season starts. And those guys are out there during the really grim part of practice, the two-a-days.

Those are cetainly legitimate arguments, but they're very similar arguments to those made in situations we saw just this season, if you make the following substitutions: Nunes [or Alex Smith] for the unnamed "player who busted her butt...", Hogan [or Kaepernick (sp?) for Folkl, and, of course Shaw [or Harbaugh] for Tara.  On the whole, you would have to say it worked out pretty well for the substituters this season, those arguments notwithstanding.

Moreover, it wasn't as if Folkl had spent the off-season lounging on the beach sipping mai-tais.  I'm pretty sure she was working just as hard before and during volleyball season as the b'ball players were.

Finally, Folkl was an all-around pretty nice person.  We got to know her a little bit at Stanford and, fortuantely, got to talk with her quite a bit again at the St. Louis Final Four.  There may have been some resentment among other players regarding her playing [although I never heard of it], but, if I were on a b'ball team that has a chance to win it all, it seems to me that I could find a way to support the best shooter and rebounder on the team getting a little more playing time [and, indeed, even starting].  Unfortunately, none of those women's b'ball teams ever did win it all.

Finally, I don't think the Tara bias against volleyball players crossing over to b'ball was limited to Folkl.