Sierra Calhoun to Duke

[UConnCat]

I think Geno needs to really rethink his recruiting stratagy. With the conference break up and all, players are not just going to come to Storrs because of what they have done. The ACC has taken Womens College Basksetball by storm in forming a super conference. Uconn would have been better off doing what Notre Dame does in football and thats to become an independent. Play a super schedule. Think about it.

Who's going to play them Jan-Feb? Very, very few teams schedule out of conference in Jan and February. Think about it.

 

[Tonyc]

Tony here is your EXACT QUOTE WORD FOR WORD. "As far as an outside deep outside shooter maybe not yet but that can be developed too, much like Tina and Stef."

that was ment to mean outside meaning Tina and deep outside meaning Stef. Stef makes treys, Tina dosnt as often. Sorry for me missing outside and deep outside shooter.

 

[Icebear]

Hoopsking, Stanford is central coast in California not southern CA and is generally called northern CA.

 

[Icebear]

Hoopsking officially declared a troll.

 

[Icebear]

If A'ja Wilson stays in SC to play for Dawn Staley then she is making a huge mistake. Staley has no real record of developing WNBA quality players. She was a WNBA great but being and coaching up players are vastly different tasks. Staley should not even be on the short list of a kid like A'ja. UCONN, Duke, ND, Stanford, OSU, Oklahoma, and others would all be ahead of SC. The only draw there is being near home. Dawn does not recruit the best players nationally and 6 are in state and the rest mostly regionally. Her best seasons have been 2 25 win seasons and most of the rest are near .500. Her record at Temple no better. So if A'ja is interested in maximum player development by a staff that has handled numerous #1 players in the country and helped all to win championships and have the broadest skill sets possible in preparation for the WNBA she will not stay in SC she'll come to UCONN and if not UCONN she will still look out of state.

 

[UConnCat]

If A'ja Wilson stays in SC to play for Dawn Staley then she is making a huge mistake. Staley has no real record of developing WNBA quality players. She was a WNBA great but being and coaching up players are vastly different tasks. Staley should not even be on the short list of a kid like A'ja. UCONN, Duke, ND, Stanford, OSU, Oklahoma, and others would all be ahead of SC. The only draw there is being near home. Dawn does not recruit the best players nationally and 6 are in state and the rest mostly regionally. Her best seasons have been 2 25 win seasons and most of the rest are near .500. Her record at Temple no better. So if A'ja is interested in maximum player development by a staff that has handled numerous #1 players in the country and helped all to win championships and have the broadest skill sets possible in preparation for the WNBA she will not stay in SC she'll come to UCONN and if not UCONN she will still look out of state.

Candice Dupree did play for Dawn at Temple and she's had a very nice WNBA career. As Tonya Cardoza has discovered, recruiting and winning at Temple is not an easy thing to do.

I agree that Dawn's accomplishments at SC have been disappointing (considering her salary), but SC won 25 games in each of the past 2 seasons and I'm sure she's selling Wilson and others on the momentum the program now has.

I've heard and read interviews with Wilson in which she identifies lofty personal goals (AA, Olympian, Nat Champion), but I'm sure she believes she's good enough to accomplish those goals at schools other than UConn. Kids and their parents don't always think like UConn fans.

 

[baggerbob]

Can't believe conference strength would be a factor, for choosing a school in WCBB. At the most you have 15 schools capable of winning a National Championship, and that is the prime goal for any great player. No- one brags as a Professional I won 4 conference championships, the 1st question would be, how did you do in the tournament? Skylar won the Big East tournament, but no doubt wanted the big prize instead, and would have traded all the 7 wins over UConn for 1 National Championship.

 

[Icebear]

Candice Dupree did play for Dawn at Temple and she's had a very nice WNBA career. As Tonya Cardoza has discovered, recruiting and winning at Temple is not an easy thing to do.

I agree that Dawn's accomplishments at SC have been disappointing (considering her salary), but SC won 25 games in each of the past 2 seasons and I'm sure she's selling Wilson and others on the momentum the program now has.

I've heard and read interviews with Wilson in which she identifies lofty personal goals (AA, Olympian, Nat Champion), but I'm sure she believes she's good enough to accomplish those goals at schools other than UConn. Kids and their parents don't always think like UConn fans.

Yes, Cat, Dupree is 1 (one) player. Any number of colleges have had a player or even 2 or 3 make it to the WNBA. 1 or 2 is not anything I would call a track record. Certainly not comparable to a program like UCONN or TN that has had as many as a dozen at one time. It is not clear that the SC program has momentum it may simply be a plateau. We will see with the next couple of seasons. They still need to win their first conference regular season championship and tournament title. Doing the things you suggest by yourself is a foolhardy risk when as a #1 player in the country you can all but guarantee it at UCONN. She will be great wherever she goes but whether she will be the very best she can be at SC is certainly open to question. 25 win season are OK but whenStaley has 2 30 win season in a row then something special may be happening. At the moment not so much. And it is, also, important to remember that Staley had already looked to move on to Ohio State.

 

[Paul1969]

Uconn just lost out on yet another recruit in Lynee Belton who committed to Duke. It's very doubtul Uconn will be able to get Aja Wilson out of the State of South Carolina and away from Dawn Staley.
Let's be perfectly honest, the breaking up of the Big East will come back to haunt Uconn and definitely hurt their recruiting. The new conference they are in is pretty pathetic talent wise. Geno has failed to land a really big time recruit in the 2014 class. You Uconn fans need to start worrying just a little because it's going to get a lot worse going forward for you Husky fans.

Debby downer. We still have two number one players of the year coming out of High School on the team. We are not worried.

 

[HuskyFan1125]

Hoopsking officially declared a troll.

From his entries I believe he/she is a Tennessee fan in disguise!

So truly, the lowest form of a troll! The dreaded Vol-Troll......

 

[JRRRJ]

Stanford has offered Rooks from what my sources tell me, so Geno better get on the ball because there's nothing like being in Southern California. "IT NEVER RAINS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA"

Stanford is not in southern California. It is cold, damp and foggy in the close San Francisco area.

Just makes it even easier to ignore the inaccuracies in your other posts.

 

[Huskyfan23]

Hoopsking officially declared a troll.

Yeah he definitely hangs out under bridges.

 

[meyers7]

Hoopsking officially declared a troll.

Didn't even spell "skiing" correctly.

 

[Alydar]

Are there any "power conferences" in wcbb? What is the definition? Is it the number of teams in the tournament? I say no. The only reason half the teams in the NCAA make it is because they need 64 teams. This isn't the men's game where a team like UConn finished the regular season in the bottom half of the conference and won the tournament. That simply doesn't happen anywhere in the women's game. So which are the "power conferences".
Last year, outside Duke and Maryland the rest of the ACC was mediocre. Where is the power in the B10? I see none. The SEC is Tenn & Kentucky. LSU got hot late but outside those 3 where was the power? Cal has a good team once every 5 or 6 years but outside that where are all the power teams Stanford plays in conference?
.
While the AAC may be an overall weak conference, so are the rest. Maybe it could be said that those other conferences have more mediocre teams than the AAC but I don't see that as a claim to being a power conference. Next year the ACC will have Notre Dame, Duke in the top 10. Power conference?

The fact is that there are maybe a dozen "power" programs in the entire country and zero power conferences.

 

[UConnCat]

Yes, Cat, Dupree is 1 (one) player. Any number of colleges have had a player or even 2 or 3 make it to the WNBA. 1 or 2 is not anything I would call a track record. Certainly not comparable to a program like UCONN or TN that has had as many as a dozen at one time. It is not clear that the SC program has momentum it may simply be a plateau. We will see with the next couple of seasons. They still need to win their first conference regular season championship and tournament title. Doing the things you suggest by yourself is a foolhardy risk when as a #1 player in the country you can all but guarantee it at UCONN. She will be great wherever she goes but whether she will be the very best she can be at SC is certainly open to question. 25 win season are OK but whenStaley has 2 30 win season in a row then something special may be happening. At the moment not so much. And it is, also, important to remember that Staley had already looked to move on to Ohio State.

I think you're judging Staley too harshly at this point. She did a remarkable job getting Temple to the NCAAs 6 out of her 8 years there. That's not an easy accomplishment; ask Tonya. She's been at SC for 5 years and her team and her record has improved every year. It's not like she doesn't have anything to sell home-state recruits. She was an WNBA all-star and champion, an Olympian, an asst Olympic coach and is in the running to be the next HC of the WNT. I'm not a Dawn Staley fan (I find her public persona to be a bit sour) but, again, I do think she has a decent story to tell recruits at this time. I agree she does need more success in the next few years, but it's too early to reach any conclusions on her coaching acumen.

I don't believe she was serious about the OSU job, but used it to nail down an extension. I know of at least one other high-profile coach who used it with similar success.

 

[meyers7]

Are there any "power conferences" in wcbb?
The fact is that there are maybe a dozen "power" programs in the entire country and zero power conferences.

Well it's all relative. You can call them "power" conferences or "major" conferences (vs mid-major). Whatever, doesn't change the reality. The AAC is going to be the worst "major" conference out there, below Big12, SEC, B1G, ACC, and PAC-12 (RPI speaking). Unless you consider BE-Catholics as a "major" conference. We will be pretty close to them, but just above them.

 

[Icebear]

I think you're judging Staley too harshly at this point. She did a remarkable job getting Temple to the NCAAs 6 out of her 8 years there. That's not an easy accomplishment; ask Tonya. She's been at SC for 5 years and her team and her record has improved every year. It's not like she doesn't have anything to sell home-state recruits. She was an WNBA all-star and champion, an Olympian, an asst Olympic coach and is in the running to be the next HC of the WNT. I'm not a Dawn Staley fan (I find her public persona to be a bit sour) but, again, I do think she has a decent story to tell recruits at this time. I agree she does need more success in the next few years, but it's too early to reach any conclusions on her coaching acumen.

I don't believe she was serious about the OSU job, but used it to nail down an extension. I know of at least one other high-profile coach who used it with similar success.

Only one of those I believe was without winning the automatic conference bid in a less than stellar conference.

 

[UConnCat]

Only one of those I believe was without winning the automatic conference bid in a less than stellar conference.

Temple won the automatic bid (A10 tourney winner) 4 times; it received an at-large bid the other 2 years. It may be a less than stellar conference but success at Temple does not come easily.

 

[Icebear]

Temple won the automatic bid (A10 tourney winner) 4 times; it received an at-large bid the other 2 years. It may be a less than stellar conference but success at Temple does not come easily.

Completely disagree Temple is as good as anyone was in that conference.

 

[Suebird10fan]

Duke has done tremendously well on the recruiting circuit and while they may not be there yet, they are creeping up on Uconn. Uconn needs to land a 5-Star recruit. As of now, they will win as they still have a tremendous nucleus. However, Dolson and Hartley are going after this season and they need to retool.

I love Stef and Bria, but if you think UConn isn't going to be the odds-on favorite to win the NC in 14/15 and 15/16--with out without Wilson--you're smoking something.

 

[Hoopsking]

I'm going to be on this board like a rash lol. I'm not going anywhere. I may look like a troll, but I can roll with the best. Uconn is in trouble in years to come if they don't find a way to attract higher caliber recruits going forward. The conference affiliation is definitely a turnoff to recruits. Geno needs to rethink his recruiting strategy in order to maintain a strangle hold on college basketball supremacy.

 

[UConnCat]

Geno needs to rethink his recruiting strategy in order to maintain a strangle hold on college basketball supremacy.

What do you suggest he do?

We hope you're on the board to enjoy the upcoming season. Look forward to your posts on the play of Stewart, KML, Tuck, Hartley, Dolson, etc. Enjoy.

 

[CL82]

I'm going to be on this board like a rash lol. I'm not going anywhere. I may look like a troll, but I can roll with the best. Uconn is in trouble in years to come if they don't find a way to attract higher caliber recruits going forward. The conference affiliation is definitely a turnoff to recruits. Geno needs to rethink his recruiting strategy in order to maintain a strangle hold on college basketball supremacy.

lol, Kind of tough to make this argument against the reigning champs don't you think?

 

[VAMike23]

I'm going to be on this board like a rash lol.

In that case -

Mods: please apply liberally to the BY as needed. Use only as directed.

 

[Suebird10fan]

I'm going to be on this board like a rash lol. I'm not going anywhere. I may look like a troll, but I can roll with the best. Uconn is in trouble in years to come if they don't find a way to attract higher caliber recruits going forward. The conference affiliation is definitely a turnoff to recruits. Geno needs to rethink his recruiting strategy in order to maintain a strangle hold on college basketball supremacy.

Thanks for letting us know that the end is nigh for the UConn dynasty. That will make the next three years of UConn dominance that much sweeter. And I guess we can ignore the coming wave of articles questioning whether UConn is bad for WCBB, lol.