81, thoughtful analysis as always. I agree with your points and I do think, as of now, a lineup of Marta, DiJonai, Britt, Alanna and Kaylee seems most plausible with Wilson and Nadia getting significant time off the bench.
Tara has rotated between Bri and Marta, giving them both a lot of time, either by themselves or together. Unless Marta develops a propensity to become more aggressive offensively and hit more jumpers next year, I think Anna and/or Kiana will have a chance to play major minutes as well. Plus, maybe Romano will improve and challenge for more playing time.
With the seniors' graduation this year, 3-point shooting will be a big question mark next season. Losing Karlie is obviously a major blow to our long-range prowess, but you can argue Bri is our second best consistent three point shooter. Without the two of them in the lineup, teams won't have to worry as much guarding the perimeter unless we can show more consistency from downtown.
Now we have players who can shoot the three (Brit, Alanna, Wilson, DiJonai, Brewer), but they either haven't shown it consistently (Brit and Alanna are both shooting around 25%) or they haven't had a chance to do so (Wilson, DiJonai and Brewer have a combined 40 three point attempts between the three of them). Establishing new go-to perimeter shooters will help our offense next year.
In the post, I feel that as underclassmen, Alanna and Nadia have shown more offensive potential than Kaylee as she enters her last year. Kaylee's defense and rebounding prowess are not in question, and at times, she looks a little smoother around the basket, but she would be overmatched against any elite post defender. Having Alanna and Nadia develop under-the-basket consistency is crucial. Hopefully, what Nadia showed during non-conference (>60% shooting) is more indicative of her ceiling than the (<50% shooting) in the last few weeks. Also, it will be interesting to see if Coffee will have the opportunity to get serious minutes. She's our most pure post player and I'm not sure whether that 3-pointer at the end of the Utah game was more of a fluke, but with the need to fill the gap for inside offensive production without losing defense or rebounding ability, there might be a chance there.
Going into next season, Brit will obviously be our go-to player and defenses will be trained on her with opposing teams' best defenders assigned to her. The questions are a) can she continue to improve and get better over the summer to adapt and beat the gameplans designed against her? and b) will she have enough help around her to draw defenders off of her? Her strength is her aggression, but to get to the next level, worthy of All-American watch lists or more, she will need to continue to finish her amazing acrobatic drives to the basket, draw more fouls, convert more free throws (62.5% this year) and develop more consistency off the jumper (shooting 26.5% from 3-point range). If she can nudge her overall shooting percentage to around 50%, drain one-third of her 3-pointers and convert 70-75% of her free throws (all while going up against even tougher defenders), she will be very tough and worthy of the accolades she will receive.
It would be a bonus if Alanna, when she presumably get a starting role and around 30 minutes a game, can complement Brit. Then we will have two very versatile, difficult-to-defend players who not only have the strength and ability to attack the basket, but the range and shooting prowess to drain long range shots and that will be something to look forward to!
Tara has rotated between Bri and Marta, giving them both a lot of time, either by themselves or together. Unless Marta develops a propensity to become more aggressive offensively and hit more jumpers next year, I think Anna and/or Kiana will have a chance to play major minutes as well. Plus, maybe Romano will improve and challenge for more playing time.
With the seniors' graduation this year, 3-point shooting will be a big question mark next season. Losing Karlie is obviously a major blow to our long-range prowess, but you can argue Bri is our second best consistent three point shooter. Without the two of them in the lineup, teams won't have to worry as much guarding the perimeter unless we can show more consistency from downtown.
Now we have players who can shoot the three (Brit, Alanna, Wilson, DiJonai, Brewer), but they either haven't shown it consistently (Brit and Alanna are both shooting around 25%) or they haven't had a chance to do so (Wilson, DiJonai and Brewer have a combined 40 three point attempts between the three of them). Establishing new go-to perimeter shooters will help our offense next year.
In the post, I feel that as underclassmen, Alanna and Nadia have shown more offensive potential than Kaylee as she enters her last year. Kaylee's defense and rebounding prowess are not in question, and at times, she looks a little smoother around the basket, but she would be overmatched against any elite post defender. Having Alanna and Nadia develop under-the-basket consistency is crucial. Hopefully, what Nadia showed during non-conference (>60% shooting) is more indicative of her ceiling than the (<50% shooting) in the last few weeks. Also, it will be interesting to see if Coffee will have the opportunity to get serious minutes. She's our most pure post player and I'm not sure whether that 3-pointer at the end of the Utah game was more of a fluke, but with the need to fill the gap for inside offensive production without losing defense or rebounding ability, there might be a chance there.
Going into next season, Brit will obviously be our go-to player and defenses will be trained on her with opposing teams' best defenders assigned to her. The questions are a) can she continue to improve and get better over the summer to adapt and beat the gameplans designed against her? and b) will she have enough help around her to draw defenders off of her? Her strength is her aggression, but to get to the next level, worthy of All-American watch lists or more, she will need to continue to finish her amazing acrobatic drives to the basket, draw more fouls, convert more free throws (62.5% this year) and develop more consistency off the jumper (shooting 26.5% from 3-point range). If she can nudge her overall shooting percentage to around 50%, drain one-third of her 3-pointers and convert 70-75% of her free throws (all while going up against even tougher defenders), she will be very tough and worthy of the accolades she will receive.
It would be a bonus if Alanna, when she presumably get a starting role and around 30 minutes a game, can complement Brit. Then we will have two very versatile, difficult-to-defend players who not only have the strength and ability to attack the basket, but the range and shooting prowess to drain long range shots and that will be something to look forward to!
