Your mistake for thinking this is a showcase. It’s a championship tournament. Play the best to win. Cut roster down to 20 and 2 weaker players are gone. Makes everything easier. You play to win the game. The Grizzlies did.
It is a showcase. There really should not be a championship. It’s the last chance girls get to impress college coaches before September. That why people pay $700+. How would you feel if you laid out all that money and your daughter was benched because the coach wanted to win a game, and the coach of the college she wanted was sitting on the sidelines? Now you are correct that Grizzlies play to win, they did last year too, and brought their whole ‘23 group who are all committed back to do it again. I believe the joke is on them because they paid ridiculous money to win a tournament that doesn’t matter for them. Maybe that money could have better spent to help a worthwhile charity than to win a tournament nobody cares about. Many regions including LI didn’t even have a ‘23 group because it was a total waste of money. Now for the 24s, the black team was virtually all YJA, so you really can’t complain that the Connecticut won because they had their whole Grizzlies team because LI did the same thing, they just were not as good. It really doesn’t matter who won AS. Only thing that matters is how your daughter played in front of the coaches. Good luck on September 1!
