"We don't have a recruiting problem"
I respectfully disagree. Over the past few years, I feel both Kim Mulkey and Dawn Staley have proven to be more effective recruiters. Face facts. Kim Mulkey took a dormant LSU team, and in two years made them Nationl Champs. South Carolina had their starting five drafted by the WNBA, and yet they haven't missed a beat, rising to number 1 again this year.
Now, if Geno had been able to get Cardoso from Syracuse, or Morrow from Depaul, we might be looking at a different scenario, but we didn't.
Once again, since Geno and Chris first came here, they have recruited a certain type of player. They look for players who are highly skilled but also that are high character and who are willing to forgo individual play for the good of the team. Even their families are a big part of whether UConn will recruit them. This has resulted in great success both on the court and off the court. However, it has eliminated many great players from being considered by UConn. Some will see this as good, some bad. I support their approach wholeheartedly.
Now, as for the two players you mentioned, as far as I know there were no character issues or anything like that but there were other aspects that I believe led to both of those players being passed over. First, Cardoso became available
after we had just signed Dorka. Geno was not going to recruit over a girl he had just signed. I am pretty sure that eliminated Cardoso from consideration.
I believe he passed on Morrow mostly because she was playing for his best friend, Doug Bruno. I have no proof of that but from what I’ve seen of Geno, he would have seen it as completely inappropriate to take a star player from his best friend and then turn around and use her in an already wildly unbalanced series between the two schools. I believe this to be true even if Bruno personally told him it was OK. I think the fact that there was obviously some friction between Bruno and Morrow made t even more unlikely that Geno would take her. It’s simply not in Geno’s character to do this. Of course, it’s obviously also possible that they would not have come to UConn anyway!
So, basically the reason these two were not (apparently) considered by UConn was simply timing in one case, and circumstance in the other. Obviously, this is just my read on the entire situation but I believe it to be reasonable supposition based on the facts as I know them. Cadoso was never going to be taken after Dorka and Morrow was likely nver under consideration at all. IMO!
Finally, I would remind you that there is yet another way we could be looking at a “different scenario” and that is
if our players had stayed healthy! If SC or LSU had suffered the same number and severity of injures to comparably critical players on their teams, I promise you, there would almost certainly be different champions for the past two years! The fact that we actually played in the championship game two years ago was due to both the indomitable will of our players and one of the great coaching jobs in history!
Just as we continually hear about the cumulative effect of concussions though, I think we are seeing (finally) the cumulative effect of all these injuries now. I think the team is feeling overwhelmed and discouraged and Geno is going to have to reach down and find a way to rebuild their confidence if we are to have any chance to reach some of the yearly goals for this team!
And so it goes, our timing was off! Yet another example of how seemingly simple circumstances/decisions can have monumental consequences! She would have hugly elevated our chances for #12! (and perhaps #13 as well)
