Cam - wow you are on a roll with these posts!
And I agree that position and timing and teammates are all essential to the legend of Diana and her incredible success. But it happened and she was the central character, just as it didn't quite happen for Maya her freshman or senior years. I actually think in her more quiet way, Maya may have even more effect on her teammates and their ability to win than Diana. Look at MN pre and post Maya - there is a different attitude to each player on that team, an assurance and expectation of winning that didn't exist pre Maya and I think is more important to the team than Maya's contributions on the floor.
As for Stewart - at still an incredibly young age, their are already a number of important games she has played where her team is struggling and she has transformed into an assassin not unlike Diana, just more quietly. She did it for five games last year. She did it in an all-star game, she did it in a team USA vs team USA scrimmage game, she has done it in a few international medal competitions and I am sure she did it a few times in HS. She can be drifting along playing well but unassertively and at the 12 minute mark someone maybe mentions that her team could lose the game and in the next eight minutes she scores 20 points with five rebounds and three blocked shots and two steals and the game has been put to bed and she can return to that peaceful place she was at during the first half.
Because she is not a guard, she probably can't instigate offense the way Diana could, but her passing this year has been very good, and her movement and presence on the court is opening things up for all her teammates because of the focus she demands from the defense.
For Uconn I doubt anything can ever replace DT and how she fit her time and where she took this program.
You have Lobo, Wolters, and Rizzotti for the arrival
Sue and Sveta and Shea for the confirmation
And DT for kicking down the door and announcing we are king of the hill and if you don't like it try and knock us off.
Maya and Tina to become the benevolent dictators
And maybe now Stewart and KML are to become the constitutional monarchs?
Diana so suited that period where Uconn had already established it was one of the best programs in the country and was now serving notice that either you better up your game or we are leaving you in the dust.
