After looking at the recently posted Michigan women's basketball roster, here is my best guess at a starting lineup for 2005-06:
PG: sophomore Krista Clement
G: sophomore Jessica Starling
F: junior Kelly Helvey
PF: sophomore Ta'Shia Walker
C: freshman Stephany Skrba
Jessica Minnfield (a freshman) may end up starting at the point right away, but I am thinking we'll go with the more experienced Clement at first and then go with Minnfield when she has gotten some experience. Starling impressed me at times last season and I think we want her in the starting lineup somewhere. Freshman Melinda Queen is also a possibility here and also perhaps Helvey. I have Helvey at the smaller forward spot but as I say above she could also start in the backcourt. She is our most experienced player and has gotten ample PT in the past so I can't see her not being a starter...the question is at what position? Walker did a fine job under last season's difficult (to say the least!) circumstances and I think she has earned a starting position. She could also play center but is a bit short for that position...which brings me to Stephany Skrba. Given her height and great potential, it is going to be very hard to keep her out of the starting lineup. An alternative would be to start Walker at center and sophomore Katie Dierdorf at power forward or vice versa. By the way...how is Katie doing health wise??? Will she be ready to play at the start of this season? A pair of freshmen, Carly Benson and Ashley Jones should also challenge for PT at center and power forward. We could get away with not starting any frosh this year, but it will be hard not to start Skrba, and Minnfield also will likely be hard to keep on the bench at tip off time.
This is still a relatively young team (no seniors...thanks to the six would-have-been-seniors who decided to be quitters instead of fighters!, one junior, five sophomores and five frosh) but there will be a larger group of experienced veterans on this years team (six) than there was on last year's team (three). Two of last year's frosh have decided not to return. There were two walk-ons last year (Lindsay Sklar and Jessica Wynne) but I have not heard if they plan on trying out again this year. The team could use them to add to their total numbers.
Some idiot on a Purdue WBB message board (which I cannot seem to post to) recently made an ignorant remark about how much more of a "free pass" should Coach Burnett get at Michigan since she has not done any better with "the team that got (former coach) Guevara fired." Well, thanks to the aforementioned quitting players (not just this seasons would-have-been seniors but also half of last year's as well) Coach B really has not exactly had "the team that got Guevara fired" to work with. She has done her best under VERY difficult circumstances, which I guess the spoiled fans of a frontrunner like Purdue would never understand. Coach Burnett will quiet such critics soon enough, and I am eagerly looking forward to paying back Purdue (and Penn State, and Ohio State, and Michigan State, etc) and their arrogant fans.
posted by Jerrybear54 @ 1:41 PM
4 Comments:
CB will have people looking over their backs by the end of this year if my instincts are right. Gotta have patience and persist. She will. So must MU fans.
Hi, Andy!
Thanks for the reply, and please keep posting! I take it you might be a Phish Phan by your username?
Are you also a Southwest Missouri State WBB fan...or just otherwise familiar with Coach Burnett and her career?
Not to be too nitpicky, but it is U of M (University of Michigan) not MU!
Yes, I am very optimistic about the Wolverine's future. This coming season's team will still be somewhat young (five frosh, five sophs, one junior and no seniors) so I am thinking if they can just get to 8-8 in the Big Ten and at least a few games over .500 overall that would be progress.
The next season we will have one senior and five juniors so then I see a more serious challenge for the Big Ten title and more success at the national level.
The next season after that is when I expect Michigan to be where our instate rivals in East Lansing are currently...at the top of the Big Ten and solid NCAA contenders.
I just get a little cranky with the frontrunners sometimes...then again Michigan is the frontrunner in many other sports so I guess I should know how it feels to be on the other side!
Actually I was a GD fan and I enjoy Phish, just never put the time into getting that well acquainted with'em, my last name is Salmon, so I got an entendre or something going with that and yes, I'm a Missouri St U fan and have faith in what CB can accomplish. People better believe that there's method to what she is doing.
A side-story: one time in the early-mid 70's I was hitching from Montana back to New Jersey and got picked up by a guy who ran the lights at the Santa Monica Auditorium. He was working there when the Dead played in LA and said that they practiced harder than any band he ever dealt with as they readied for their concerts. The Dead were known, of course, for their seemingly free=wheeling excursions, but their ability to do that came from the unreal practicing they did, esp in their early development. Nothing musically ever compared to Jerry spinning out his rotation of notes when he was on. The honesty of the Dead is what grabbed me most of all.
I've been lucky enough to have driven back from Arkansas at night in a full-blown rain storm with the Dead busting away after trashing those Gary Blair-led Razorbacks in their Bud Walton Arena. Hard to beat a mix like that.
I, too, have heard about the Dead's and especially Garcia's dedication to practicing...I guess as they say Practice Makes Perfect! See one of my latest postings on my favorite NFL team (Green Bay Packers) and their 1960s dynasty led by Vince Lombardi. There, too, what seemed to come so easy on Sunday was the result of running the Power Sweep and other plays over and over on the other days of the week, to the point where the players probably could have run them in their sleep!
Seems strange that anything would have connected a straight laced old school football coach like Vince Lombardi and a free wheeling hippie rocker like Jerry Garcia, but as it turns out they may have had more in common than either probably ever realized! They were both very dedicated to being the best they could be at their chosen craft...and they both were!
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