The coaching staff have discussed playing Maglio through six rotations. They mentioned familiarity to the rest of the team and what they thought the team was comfortable with. They opted for
familiarity in the first few matches and ultimately against UCLA.

It’s the willingness of the coaching staff to try her out in a variety of roles and whether or not that will pay dividends down the road. There are lots of moving parts to the puzzle and the strength of the middle players definitely play a factor on whether or not they can move her.

The emergence of the freshman middles may allow a chance to develop Maglio further (beyond what they are already seeing in practice) for multiple rotations.

With any changes there are risks. Will the middle be okay with her movement? Will the benefits outweigh the risks long term? UH has taken risks on developing Nicki Taylor playing all around and on Granato playing in the back row (and is still developing there) and those risks I think paid off. I personally like the “risk”.

I like the idea of giving her development because it will hopefully pay off as we face bigger and better teams (and hopefully in our tournament run). Potentially we add more diversity to the offense, some back row attacks and give one of the best (and I think she is earning that), most consistent hitters more time on the floor. I thing there is a higher ceiling for this team if we take some early “risk” and really go for it.

I also like giving Castillo more reps on either left or right as she also has a higher ceiling than some of the other outside hitters.

Lots of teams especially in the Big conferences take the risk with developing some of their big (tall), good players. They may go through some growing pains early but they get the reps in there to become effective. it often pays off come their post season runs. “Low floor, high ceiling”. Just my opinion.

Somewhere down the road this will pay dividends when the Whine play contenders. Don’t get me wrong, Mags has to earn that 6 rotation spot and she has yet to do so. It just seems to be an option to play teams with a better outside block. Mags will also have to prove herself in the back row defensively and as a backhoe hitter. This may be the hold on moving forward with the 6 rotations from the coaching perspective right now.

Having Mags and Castillo playing power is a nice option to have.