Coaches earn their money by developing players and by assessing their personnel--who should play, at what position, for how many minutes. Warlick and her staff have to figure out what the best starting five is, who are the first three players off the bench--and then work to build chemistry and cohesion.
My bet is that Holly would start:
Massengale at Pg (1)--veteran point guard, good handle, best perimeter shooter we have, mediocre defender
Carter at 2 guard: excellent athlete, best perimeter defender, bit of an inconsistent shot
Jones at 3: excellent athlete, decent shot, with Carter one of the two best man defenders on the team. Too many turnovers last year but had a good game last night and said to be improved.
Graves at 4: good rebounder, good athlete; not sure of her 1v1 defensive skills--decent, maybe; not good with the ball--weak to mediocre passer and few offensive skills; bit of a liability on offense
Harrison at 5: more of a power forward than a center, but she plays center. Nice all around game, good intensity, but doesn't match up well with big, physical centers.
I'm sure we'll see Reynolds and Middleton spell the starting guards, Moore sub in for Harrison, and Nared play in the 3/4 spot.
I would reduce Burdick's minutes. Good intensity; has a pretty good spot-up shot--but doesn't seem to have a natural position at which she can excel. I'm not sure I'd be playing her much.
Massengale has to play well and play tough for this team to be good. She was BAD last night. In 31 minutes, she was 4-13 from the floor with 2 assists (1 turnover). That's a terrible performance from your senior point guard. We will not beat anybody good with that kind of play from her. You are a PG: if your shot is not falling, then create good shots for the other players.
Warlick has got to do a better job of handling players. Why did Moore play only 11 minutes last night? Warlick made a comment after the game about Moore losing her head early in the game after missing a layup and then playing badly. Fine, take her out for a spell--but you don't leave the team's best player in the first four games on the bench for the rest of the game! She didn't play well, or much; Graves wasn't good--5 turnovers; Massengale was horrid; and not enough good passing/assists--only 9 for the game. That, and letting another player go off on us, adds up to loss.
