I will try to present a middle ground here. First I have indicated that Gorka could be an interesting addition for one year. Do we need her badly, no! Is it likely she would come here even if Geno was interested? Probably not, but following Uconn on social media suggests there might be a chance. Do we already have a problem keeping lots of very good players happy with playing time? Yes. If bringing her for one year caused another very good 4 year player to leave, would that make it a mistake? Probably.
I was very wrong on Evelyn, not just based on her stats, but knowing they were from low level competition, and after seeing some video on her as well. So I will probably be forever a skeptic on big numbers from lesser programs. But Gorka's were from a Power 5 conference. Does that make me think Gorka is Azura 2.0? No, but I suspect much closer to her than Evelyn. Do I think Gorka would be a stretch 4 at Uconn? No, and I would not consider her a serious threat to the playing time of Liv or Aaliyah.
I think the best potential role for her would be Liv's principal backup, with some time but not much at PF. Now I think Amari will probably be a very good backup to Liv her freshmen year, but there will still be learning pains. Dorka would still have to beat out Amari for that role and maybe she wouldn't, but as a senior who has succeeded against good competition, I think her chances against a freshmen, even a very talented one, are pretty good. As for Amari's future, this would be like a one year rental that could raise the floor of how good our backup center will be during Amari's learning year. Whether it be Gorga or Amari, knowing that we would have a big maybe of the Prechtel level at Stanford coming off the bench even if Amari takes a while to get there. Amari's Uconn future after this year would still be bright.
Now there are many reasons why she would not want to come here, even if we wanted her. Her playing time probably would be cut dramatically. So why could she even consider it? Would it hurt her professional aspirations? Possibly, but if she performs very well even in limited minutes at Uconn, scouts will see plenty of you. Another factor is maybe she wants to see what a year of Uconn coaching does for her game. She might be better after that, and she would be going against players like Liv, Aaliyah and Amari every day in practice. In addition some may want to be part of the Uconn experience. Tons of exposure, in the limelight all the time and with a team that will probably make the final four and could easily win the championship.
So there are reasons why she may not want us, and visa versa, and I worry about the overloaded roster as much as anyone. Maybe we shouldn't pursue her because of that, but the odds would seem to be pretty good that Gorka as a proven senior, could be better than Amari as a freshmen for the role of backup C for next year.
