while landing a special player to build the team around is always important — w the women it's an even bigger deal, imo.

Frankly, before Shaylee — we hadn't had that sorta player since Jen Hamson. I've been following ladies bball for over 20 years now, & I've seen plenty of evidence that in the ladies game in particular — landing a special marquee player makes the talent of the surrounding cast increase in ways that are hard to explain. To me, it seems that players who play with such good players just figure out what it takes to get to that level of play — & put in the work accordingly.

I do believe that we saw big jumps in Paisley Harding & Tegan Grahams games — because of their association w Shaylee. Both of those girls were already talented players — but I think they learned from Shaylee how to take their games to another level.

And unfortunately those three girls lacked a quality enough big to go as far in the Tourney as they probably should've.