AP Preseason WCBB Poll is out

[Coach Jumper]

I'd say the main thing missing here is a proven go-to player. Coming into last season, we knew that Mercedes and Jaime could carry the team offensively. This allowed Rennia and (to a lesser extent) Evina/Annie to have less pressure to score. They knew that Mercedes and Jaime were option 1a and 1b. Coming into this season, all eyes will be on Rennia and she will be the focus of the opposing defenses. No open looks from double/triple teams on Mercedes, or the best perimeter defender fixated on Jaime. Gameplans will be designed to stop her, and time will tell if she will be able to carry the team. Like I said on a previous post, the emergence of an inside game is key. Cheridene may give it all on every play, but she's not as talented as Mercedes, doesn't have her size and will not command double/triple teams. Mercedes was a "Get Out of Jail Free" card and Tennessee won a lot of games they were in a position to lose because of the mismatch she creates. They will not have that luxury next year, so spacing and offensive movement will be crucial...not just dump the ball inside and let Mercedes go to work.

This team has a lot of question marks. It probably would have been to their benefit to have a lower preseason ranking to reduce pressure on the team to live up to their ranking.

The cool thing with this group is each of them has a particular type of game.
Last year they all tried to be alike.
This year they seem to be given allowance to be themselves.

A dominant center is a luxury and a necessity, but not essential, if you play the ones you got to their strength. I'd hi-post Cheridine and teach her how to find the open looks/cuts/opportunities. Give me that kid for a summer and I would "Karl Malone-clone" her. A masterful passer who can shoot the elbow, or get there on a drive. Her playing the high post opens the backdoor for cutters like RD. or to kick out to a spotup, feed a cutter, and with a go-to move of a power-drive and a reverse-pivot-fade/away to "counter"it. . . ...All we would need then is Stockton.

Nah, a Center is a good thing, but for this group, a Power player is much better for them. If you play CG at the high-post it also sets her up for the longer rebounds of a "3".

Just a thought