For sure!
Why would I do that if we are talking about 2019?
Well Stanford seems to be an elite level team being ranked #1. If I go by your previous statement: "Stanford will have 4 challenging games IN CONFERENCE."
I actually agree with you. Haley was probably parroting what she was likely told. But then again she might have just have read the rankings and come to those same conclusion. Conclusions which you seem determined to ignore:
In 2019 the Pac 12 is a significantly more challenging conference than AAC.
In 2020 the Pac 12 is likely to be a more challenging conference than BE.
In the first place we aren't talking about 2019. Jones appears in the 2021 season and plans on being at Stanford for 4 years so the timeline is a lot longer.
Second, the play of Stanford is irrelevant if we are talking about their challenging conference schedule, in fact the better they are the less challenging will be their schedule.
Third, as I said and you seem to agree is that there are (at this time) 2 schools in the PAC12 that will offer Stanford a challenge in 4 games this year and one of those teams will no longer have most of their stars next season, when Jones arrives. Stanford is on an upswing while Oregon will most certainly go through Ionescu withdrawals. Graves is a great coach and he has a great class coming in but they won't be anything like this year's team until at least the 23 season. If Jones really was looking for a challenging conference she would have kept an ACC team as her alternative to Stanford, but it was UConn, undoubtedly in the weakest and least challenging conference among the elite teams she was considering. The fact that they were considered up till the end only supports my premise that she was parroting, which was really my only reason for my initial post.
And third the challenge of the PAC12 to a No 1 team like Stanford has absolutely nothing to do with UConn and the Big East unless you want to examine UConn's record as a perennial top team against the PAC12. As an example of what challenge the PAC12 minus Stanford has offered UConn over the last 20 years. UConn's all-time record vs the teams that are going to challenge Stanford? 34-9. Seven of the losses were to Stanford (Three were prior to 1995). But against the rest of the PAC12 UConn is 23-2. The losses?
Cal The loss came in 1991
ASU The loss came in 2004 - that's one for the "challenge" side
Now I'll admit that some of the wins were likely close, but 2 losses in 35 years is hardly a challenge. Against that you say they have 4 of the top 10 in December of the year before Jones will play for Stanford.
Now let me be clear. Jones made what was for her the best choice. I'd guess that the prestige of the university was a factor and the coach was another. Both are excellent reasons. Again, my "guess" is that the conference schedule was a convenient way to show Stanford ahead of UConn in an obvious way and was a planned response to the "why not UConn" question. In no way is she different from many UConn recruits who parrot back that "
UConn will challenge me to be the best I can be". Sounds like an Army recruiting phrase.
Stanford has a number of great young players and I hope Tara has regained the courage to schedule UConn after "begging off"* a few years ago. (kind of like Mulkey does) UConn likes a challenging schedule and winning their conference became a "near-certainty"** decades ago. UConn is playing Graves this year and next, and I hope they can schedule OSU, the (Rodney Dangerfield of wcbb). Geno likes to keep it to 2 games/conference) but at least in the near future it would be nice to play all three.
* - as reported in the media
** - a nod to the teams that won it back in the day.
I think I've beaten this topic enough. As I stated my intent was not to pick on Jones nor the PAC12 but a response to "announcement statements" in general.
