What is a workable roster size for next season?

1,782 Views | 7 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by Brian Ethridge
Adriacus Peratuun
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The NCAA allocates WBB programs 15 scholarships. Some programs use all, some not.

Obviously, depth is nice. Illness, injury, foul trouble, defections, etc. can make depth necessary.

Realistically, 15 players could not receive meaningful playing time. On the other hand, depth to rest starters during blowouts is a huge plus. Helps to avoid injuries and to have fresh legs in the post season. Many times fans focus solely on minutes in a particular game and ignore cumulative impact. Cumulative impact is real. It is the reason almost every NBA rookie has a significant decline in statistical output after the All Star break.

While teams practice against one another pre-season and early season to build conditioning, after a few games practices are almost always against a Dream Team thereafter to help save legs. That said, fewer players can mean more reps [especially for odd numbered rosters like 9 or 11].

Right now the WBB roster looks like it is close to reaching 9 [4 interior, 5 perimeter.....using those labels in the most general sense]. One more perimeter player would be REALLY nice. 200 minutes per game divides nicely. Ideally we can keep starters around 1,000 minutes for season.
baylor1984
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10 or 11. Hopefully bench players will see more minutes this year. It's always nice to have at least enough players for a 5 on 5 scrimmage.
DanaDane
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10.

8 for the rotation who get meaningful minutes.


2 as emergency replacements in case of injury or a weird game with excessive fouls called.
Polarbear
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For next season, 10.

In a normal season, optimal would be 11-12, and 2-4 of those would be Freshmen who are developing.

In 2018, we had a roster of 10, but 4 of those players were Freshmen (D. Richards, M. Ursin, T. Oliver, A. Morris). Our core rotation of 6 was Final Four worthy (K. Brown, L. Cox, D. Cohen, J. Landrum, N. Chou, K. Wallace). They finished the regular season 31-1, with the only loss at UCLA without Cox or Mulkey. When injuries hit and we lost Oliver, then Chou, then Wallace, it was a fatal blow to that team's aspirations.

Next year's team won't have any Freshmen, and only 1 Sophomore (Andrews). With such a construction of talented, veteran, competitive players, it feels like we can manage the grind of the season and potential injuries with a roster of 10.
DFW Bill
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In a perfect world, a coach would bring in three players a year, total of twelve. Geno often was close to this at UConn. Since we don't live in a perfect world and now have transfers eligible immediately, players on the move in general, plus graduate transfers it is much more difficult to have an ideal number every year. Minimum of 10, hopefully all healthy, maximum of maybe 13. Each year will present a new and sometimes unique set of circumstances for Division 1 WBB teams.
Adriacus Peratuun
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Next Season: 10. Catching 3 quality "gets" this late in the process is a Home Run.

Go Forward:

11-12 "now/develop" players
1-2 culture players [women that build the program without necessarily playing, don't want every hard message delivered by coaches]
1-2 spots open for high quality transfers

Occasionally leave a scholarship unused to save money [those once every four years pre-season foreign trips are expensive]
SSadler
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Somewhere in this thread there should be a "Norman Dale" allusion.
Polarbear
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Yes, Norman Dale! "This is your team".

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechhoosiershuskerintro.html

Is Jimmy Chitwood still wandering around campus? Is he enrolled for the fall semester?
Brian Ethridge
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Staff
Need 12 to 14 for 2021/22.
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