Thanks, gentlemen. (I couldn't find the place where one creates a thread anew, so I'm happy that one of you guys did the honors.)
As to this year's team, from too-early observations.
1. We have four starters back from a very good (at the season's end) team.
2. BUT, we still lost three of our four best defensive players (our GREAT defensive center plus Peoples and Prohaska.)
3. The only proven outstanding defender we have left is Sonja Citron, who will stay all year in others' shadows until the world notices that she stuffs the stat sheet plus defends plus hustles eternally plus puts a stop to other team's runs. She is our second best player to her super-sister, Olivia Miles. I believe that Miles will add outstanding defense to her game this season to go along with being close to the best player in the nation.
4. Coach Ivey is hoping that two transfers plus one oft-injured vet can fill the gap at center. Ebo (from Texas) seems a good candidate to do that, but at a minimum, we should have 15 "fouls-to-give" from physically strong players at the Five position (plus give Maddy Westbeld some rest.) In the game vs Northern Illinois though, the leading rebounders were Miles and Citron.
5. Dara Mabrey has been playing here since the last century and still is. She not only gives Ivey a serious three-point threat but, more importantly is a second point guard on the floor. And she is a VERY serious player, so, good leadership. Miles should become a real on-court leader this season too --- last year was too soon, and Citron showed leadership beyond her age late last season.
6. The biggest issue for me this season is: How much does Maddy Westbeld "want" it? She was uncharacteristically brain-dead on the court for a good part of last year. Ended up playing to her standards (nearly) but very puzzling. Perhaps she'll get a role she really likes, gets in shape, and runs and rebounds hard. If Westbeld gets back to her freshman year levels, this team with Miles, Citron, Mabrey, and herself will be fielding four players challenging for all-ACC honors. Westbeld along with Miles are already on watchlists.
7. Backing up our three superguards will be the third transfer and our lone freshman. The frosh SHOULD be really good as she integrates with the vets --- comments have been upbeat.
8. All of that gives us four bigs and five guards to rotate and find combinations. Sonja Citron, as usual, can herself fill a gap at power-forward if we want to go "small ball." We also lost Gilbert to transfer--- a good talent, but one that Ivey couldn't find the right fit for. The fourth transfer was Brunelle --- a VERY soft player who could not play defense nor rebound even when she wanted to. Fans should not immediately discount the loss of Peoples and Prohaska --- those two were savages on defense regardless of offensive limitations. I predict a good year for Peoples wherever she went.
9. This is also a good test of Ivey. She is still light-years from replacing Muffet, but OK who could have? Still, some of her coaching left me cold last season --- maybe the girls (especially Westbeld) didn't all buy in --- note we have had four transfers, two (maybe three) of whom would have played a fair number of minutes. I also didn't like her being absent from team practice during the NCAA tournament (going to watch her son play at Purdue) --- yes, I am a too-serious grump on that, but THE job is still THE job. All will be well if this team rolls. And, if we get anything solid out of the centers, and no serious injury problems, this team should really roll.
As I mentioned: The girls play California on live TV this Saturday, and Northwestern on next Wednesday. Two tough opponents and early, but should be good for us.
