Alabama will surely feel the sting of losing Lauren Beers and Carley Sims in 2017, but the sheer number of routines this team trotted out last season provides us a fairly clear and comfortable projection of how these lineups stay hearty in the new season, bolstered by this freshman class.

Let’s start with fastidious bun’s Maddie Desch. The mystery of what exactly Maddie Desch’s college career will look like has confounded scholars for near months. Such is often the case when a former elite directly connects her college career out of an extended injury layoff.

Desch obviously has the skills and ability across all four events, four routines that were largely equal during her elite career. That’s exactly what got her the alternate spot in 2014. She’s more or less the prototypical Martha alternate, someone who could step in and give a perfectly normal prelims 14.000 routine on any event as needed.

Desch’s elite skill set included a DTY on vault, a whip-double Arabian on floor, and a stalder-thon of a bars routine. Beam was always a nail-biter (I’d put Desch closer to the Brenna Dowell school of GAGE beam than the Courtney McCool school) but essentially right there with the other events. Of note on bars, Desch is among the select few who can do a shaposh 1/2 with her legs together the whole time, making it a very appealing option for NCAA construction. All things being kittens, you’d throw her into three/four events without much of a thought. Continue reading 2017 Freshman Preview: Alabama →