Star Players

Something got me thinking.

Butler is 12-2 after a big win over East Meck last night. Their only losses are to West Charlotte (ranked #5 in 4A) and Bishop McGuinness (ranked #1 in 1A). They have played very well, despite the loss of their star Junior point gaurd, Jessica Freeman.

In addition, they have played the last three games without another guard, with two of their best 4 gaurds out with injuries. I think this is pretty strong!

I do not want to debate who is the better team and have this get ugly, but I would like to know what other teams would look like without their star player. How would Freedom be without Ford? How would McDowell be without Washington?

I can say this, West Charlotte would still be very strong with one injury. They have two major contributors with an excellent support staff at other positions. There are others that could step up and pick up the slack. I would still predict them as a major force.

And goodness knows, this is not intended to wish injuries on anyone! Hopefully, just an interesting topic.

 

I've been thinking about this one for a while so I'll give my two cents worth...

First off let me say that I am really impressed that Butler has played well without Freeman. If I heard correctly she's now done for the season. I think a lot of credit goes to the girls for stepping up while losing their best player and credit goes to the coach for keeping the kids motivated at a time when they could have dropped off.

Anyway...the loss of Washington and Ford from their respective teams would be very significant. I think for the Lady Titans it would take away a lot of their patented transition game but on the other hand it would require them to focus harder on their half court game. It would require players like Hamilton or Ward to step up their game. It would also hurt significantly in rebounding because Kurie gets in there and leads the team on the boards.

Meanwhile if you took Ford out of the equation at Freedom it would be 10x as bad. The entire offense is based on her. You would lose your best shooter, ball handler and best slasher on the team. They have no inside game, their tallest player out there is Chelsea Connelly and she's a slasher/shooter like Ford is.

 

I agree with you 100% BigDan. A good example was at Freedom last Friday,1-18-08, McDowell lost Washington on a couple of cheap fouls early in the 1st quarter and still went ahead of the lady patriots by double digits at the half. I believe if Freedom had lost Ford they would have trailed by 25 at the half.