[BillBradley]

One of my biggest concerns is not point guard play, or offense, or even having players who are athletic enough to defend.  The place I am most concerned is rebounding.  There were signs of weakness last year, and one of our best rebounders (Jones) is gone.  Brink can't do it all, and if she tries she will foul out.  Iriafen needs to become a rebounding monster, and perhaps one of the freshmen will show themselves capable.

At this point, I would not be surprised if we wound up 4th in the Pac 12.  I could see us doing better than that if the puzzle pieces come together well.  And Tara may be able to solve the puzzle better next year than she was able to last year--less of that constant niggling concern about rotating so many players to try (and fail) to keep everyone happy.  It looks more straightforward to me, which may help the team to build cohesion and focus.  That is the hope.

But UCLA, USC, and Utah all look like strong teams for next year.  And some of the other conference teams--like Washington and even Arizona State--will improve.  It will be a brutal conference. 

I certainly won't go into the season expecting that we will contend for a natty, as I did a year ago.  How much of that is my new found realism, and how much of it is simply a psychological defense mechanism, will only be apparent after seeing us play.

Echo your concern on rebounding. Our bigs (incl Demetre) should hold their own, but we aren't deep. Jump has to get a handful of boards every game and Bosgana will need to rebound her tail off.

A 4th place finish is as good a guess as any, but ever the optimist I still think we could win the conference. I've already posted on the strengths of our team next year so I won't repeat. I see Utah as the clear favorite. Great guards, experienced, P12 POY, ...but they are so reliant on the long ball they could stumble a few times. Playing at places like AZ, Ore, OSU, WA, WSU - they aren't gimmes. UCLA and USC have obvious talent, but seen a lot of teams loaded with talent over the years who never amounted to much. It's all about the music they make. Plus, 18-19 year olds only go so far. The vaunted Kiki Rice logged 1 basket, 1 assist, and 2 turnovers in her 25 minutes on the biggest stage last year. She had some good games, but was also pretty unimpressive in many. I'm going to wait to see the finished products before dishing out accolades to either of the California BIG-10 teams :>

[BillBradley]

One of my biggest concerns is not point guard play, or offense, or even having players who are athletic enough to defend.  The place I am most concerned is rebounding.  There were signs of weakness last year, and one of our best rebounders (Jones) is gone.  Brink can't do it all, and if she tries she will foul out.  Iriafen needs to become a rebounding monster, and perhaps one of the freshmen will show themselves capable.

At this point, I would not be surprised if we wound up 4th in the Pac 12.  I could see us doing better than that if the puzzle pieces come together well.  And Tara may be able to solve the puzzle better next year than she was able to last year--less of that constant niggling concern about rotating so many players to try (and fail) to keep everyone happy.  It looks more straightforward to me, which may help the team to build cohesion and focus.  That is the hope.

But UCLA, USC, and Utah all look like strong teams for next year.  And some of the other conference teams--like Washington and even Arizona State--will improve.  It will be a brutal conference. 

I certainly won't go into the season expecting that we will contend for a natty, as I did a year ago.  How much of that is my new found realism, and how much of it is simply a psychological defense mechanism, will only be apparent after seeing us play.

Echo your concern on rebounding. Our bigs (incl Demetre) should hold their own, but we aren't deep. Jump has to get a handful of boards every game and Bosgana will need to rebound her tail off.

A 4th place finish is as good a guess as any, but ever the optimist I still think we could win the conference. I've already posted on the strengths of our team next year so I won't repeat. I see Utah as the clear favorite. Great guards, experienced, P12 POY, ...but they are so reliant on the long ball they could stumble a few times. Playing at places like AZ, Ore, OSU, WA, WSU - they aren't gimmes. UCLA and USC have obvious talent, but seen a lot of teams loaded with talent over the years who never amounted to much. It's all about the music they make. Plus, 18-19 year olds only go so far. The vaunted Kiki Rice logged 1 basket, 1 assist, and 2 turnovers in her 25 minutes on the biggest stage last year. She had some good games, but was also pretty unimpressive in many. I'm going to wait to see the finished products before dishing out accolades to either of the California BIG-10 teams :>