Chasing Kiki Rice -A waste of UConn's time? | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Chasing Kiki Rice -A waste of UConn's time?

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oldude said:
Obviously I cannot read KiKi’s mind, but I would be amazed if she is worried about playing time in college. She is that good and I suspect she knows it.

In case I wasn’t clear with my post, I absolutely expect her to compete for PT and a starting spot as a freshman if she comes to UConn.
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I would expand your thought and say that most Top10 players are focused on winning the National Championship. Playing time is something the second tier of players are concerned with.
 
I hate to be the Debbie Downer but if we expect to use "winning a NC" as criteria for coming to UConn, we NEED to end the drought this season!!!
However, we would still be the front runner if the criteria is "multiple NCs during your college career".
 
Given academics gap, Stanford is going to win out every time. The recent top women’s basketball players to come out of Colorado and head west, Belibi and Betts, were classroom as well as basketball standouts, though the fact that Colorado and Stanford are in same conference meant friends and relatives would be able to watch them once a year.

Speaking of academics, there are currently three private high “schools” in Colorado that are essentially basketball academies with ten to twenty enrollees. Classes are designed around up to three practices a day. So far it is men only and it has attracted top talent, both domestic and abroad, including a potential No. 1 recruit. College scholarships are a gimme so the real goal is eventually the NBA. I am waiting to see when and if similar academies are established for women. This is not a pretty picture.
 
oldude said:
Not saying that Rice will be among the top professionals, but between overseas earnings and endorsements, top WBB players can earn 7 figure incomes. In 2014 when DT skipped the WNBA season to focus on playing professionally in Russia, her estimated salary for that season was $1.5 million. Stewie has earned a comparable salary to play professionally in China.

Again, that’s not to suggest that Rice will have a similar earnings potential, but between the W, Overseas & endorsement deals most star NBA players have the ability to earn a healthy 6 figure income.

Best of all, players are getting paid to play a game they’ve been playing since they were kids, a game they love. That sure beats dressing up and sitting in an office all day.
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Yes top players can make big bucks with foreign contracts and endorsements probably being far more important than their modest WNBA salaries. From a potential non star standpoint, my best guess is she ultimately has a long WNBA career, but more likely as a versatile role player than a big star. Modest endorsements and a WNBA salary, even combined is not that great, but American players abroad make considerably more.

Quite a few players can get contracts in foreign leagues even if they are not good enough for the WNBA, and have a modest career playing the game they love, and combine it with a part time job here in the off-season. Kiki is very likely to be able to make a way above average income, at least if she is willing to play abroad, even if she is a middle of the pack WNBA player, which might be her floor.

The NIL scenario will be interesting too. For a player like Kiki, would she have more opportunities as say a star bench player on Uconn, or as a starter on Duke as a hypothetical comparison? This will be a factor for some recruits. How far down a roster will those opportunities be? For Uconn's sake I hope it is pretty far.

Maybe one unique example from the past is the "Super Bowl Shuffle" Chicago Bears. That team completely captured the imagination of a nation, not just the Chicago area, and of course they had lots of very interesting characters as well. During that season and for some time afterwords, it seemed like there was 15-20 players getting endorsement deals. The big names of course got the national deals but many players got local deals.

I know that is different from NIL opportunities, but if a team is famous enough, the opportunities can extend way past the top players. I hope that happens for us.
 
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NY Fan said:
My first statement was "Kiki is certainly the real deal, and I'd love to see her select UConn." Fool's Gold referred to the recruitment not to her ability. As for negative opinion of UConn, I'm writing this note and am able to view a framed picture of the team after it's 1000'th victory (over Oklahoma) along with a picture of Geno and CD sent after a {for me} sizable 4-figure donation to UConn and more than I donated to my Ivy alma mater. I wish I could have afforded more. So kindly disabuse yourself of any notion that I have negative opinions of or troll UConn. I love UConn and am grateful for the sheer pleasure of following them and watching them play.

Geno and CD are right up there with Nick Saban in my pantheon of coaches whose approach and contribution to their programs and the players they graduate is beyond the game itself and sending them to the pros! But Saban doesn't get every one he recruits, and neither does Geno. I won't go through the list of years past, but more recently we've lost Haley Jones, Cameron Brink, and Lauren Betts to Stanford, and Boston to SC. I don't ignore past successes starting with Rebecca, and including Diana, KML, and Lou to mention but a few west coasters.

The point though is players have more options each year to win championships than they did in the past. Perhaps most threatening for me to UConn's long-term position was in Lauren Betts's announcement selecting Stanford wherein she said that Stanford was in the PAC-12, which she said was the thoughest league and she would be facing the best competition every game - or words to that effect. THAT, THE BIG EAST. sadly is UConn's handicap in recruiting. Geno and CD do a fabulous job despite that, and year in and out prove it is the most successful WBB - AND ARGUABLY THE MOST SUCCESSFUL TEAM SPORT - program by far!
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Did you read your title? Here it is "Recruiting Kiki Rice - Chasing Fool's Gold". It is definitely a simile construction that compares recruiting to chasing and Kiki Rice to fool's gold. Regardless of your intentions, you compared Kiki Rice to fool's gold.

Extol you high opinion of UConn all you want but I did not speak to your opinions for they were not clarified in the post.

Why would you let your opinion of Lauren Betts statements affect your understanding of Kiki's intentions? Kiki is a different person with her own evaluations to make and I do not know if Lauren Betts' opinion matters to Kiki. Did it not occur to you the counter to Lauren's comment is, "Playing in a game against the best will help, but not as much as practicing against the best every day."

I accept your word that you are not a troll and do apologize. Seeing that it takes 3 extensive paragraphs to explain your original post, perhaps you did not clarify your position very well.
 
JonathanXIV said:
What is this "washing" you speak of?:confused:
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Bath Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
 
oldude said:
It is likely that Christyn & Evina will be on to the W next year. If KiKi Rice doesn’t believe she can compete for PT and/or a starting spot next season at UConn, she’s not the competitor we all believe her to be.
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With Westbrook and Williams leaving, I’m sure she sees that she can step in early with playing time so there’s nothing to be worried about, it’s actually almost basketball wise a perfect scenario for her.
 
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oldude said:
I understand that in addition to a full scholarship, Duke is offering KiKi a lifetime supply of donuts from Carolina Glazed Donuts in Durham

It’ll be hard to turn that down……
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I was thinking you were just making a joke and that there was no such place called Carolina Glazed Donuts. Then I hit Google.. And saw pics.. And saw the location... :oops:. I should have never looked.
 
NY Fan said:
if I've missed something, or there's error in my logic, no doubt BYers will let me know.
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Thank you for the invitation to point out a gaping hole in your…ermmmm…logic.

Ms. Rice, like other young ladies Geno recruits, is highly intelligent. Her lineage and interest in selective schools offer confirmation.

Ms. Rice recently attended UConn's First Night.

If she were not giving UConn very serious consideration, why would a highly intelligent young woman expend the time and effort to pay UConn a visit?

I suspect she is still gathering and processing information in the course of coming to a final decision.

You write as if you live in her head, and have intimate knowledge of how she weighs basketball, academics, and all the other factors that will guide her decision.

Newsflash! You don't; she does.
 
I will try a theory that has me thinking Stanford isn't quite the favorite like so many want to conclude. My reason for that is Duke being in the mix. Kiki said she wants to go to a school were she competes for a national championship every year. Duke may achieve that status in a few years, but is not there yet. If it has to be one of the best schools in the country and a consistent contender for a championship, Stanford would appear to be the only school that could meet both requirements.

I have not heard anything from Kiki saying it has to absolutely be a very top level school academically, although we have every reason to believe that is important to her as well. But maybe a good but not great school is enough. Based on what has been expressed, it appears that being a contender is the more important criteria of the two. If so, good for us.

So why does Duke being in the mix make me think something is a negative for Stanford? Because if the academics and contender are both required, why do you need to look past Stanford. Perhaps Kiki might prefer a younger coach, but otherwise her interest in Duke has me thinking she doesn't want to go that far away from home, and if she doesn't want to do that Stanford could be a long shot instead of a favorite.

If it is between Duke and us, Kiki would have to decide does she want great academics and a good basketball program in Duke, but not really a championship contender, or a great annual contender that is also a pretty good school. Who knows I am just speculating but the apparent serious interest in Duke has me thinking she doesn't want the west coast, and that Stanford is not our biggest contender for her services.

.
 
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Sifaka said:
Thank you for the invitation to point out a gaping hole in your…ermmmm…logic.

Ms. Rice, like other young ladies Geno recruits, is highly intelligent. Her lineage and interest in selective schools offer confirmation.

Ms. Rice recently attended UConn's First Night.

If she were not giving UConn very serious consideration, why would a highly intelligent young woman expend the time and effort to pay UConn a visit?

I suspect she is still gathering and processing information in the course of coming to a final decision.

You write as if you live in her head, and have intimate knowledge of how she weighs basketball, academics, and all the other factors that will guide her decision.

Newsflash! You don't; she does.
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At the outset I categorically hope my"emmmm" logic turns out to be wrong and Kiki comes to UConn. You are of course correct with the newsflash that I don't live in her head, but respectfully, Sir/Madam, the points you made are all answerable with that same emmmm logic and don't refute the conclusion I reached.

We agree she is intelligent, and her attendance at UConn First Night could be attributed to tourism as has been said about other recruited high schoolers. Also, she would be heightening the excitement for her brand and final choice. Without being in her head, it would be utter foolishness for her to ignore a visit to UConn and throwing away the (in my opinion) advantages to doing so. Of course her visit and not declaring thus far might indicate her real choice is UConn, I truly hope so! I give it low probability, that's all I've ever said and still think so. It's an opinion, my own, but it seems to have strayed from some people on the BY's orthodoxy!
 
oldude said:
It is likely that Christyn & Evina will be on to the W next year. If KiKi Rice doesn’t believe she can compete for PT and/or a starting spot next season at UConn, she’s not the competitor we all believe her to be.
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At first, I thought getting Kiki was fools gold just because of our depth at guard. But since she is a PG combo guard, I think its possible.

Next year I see a Nika, Azzi, and Paige starting guard line up and Kiki could easily get good minutes subbing in for Nika.
 
My previous post being said, I still think the betting money is on Kiki just flirting with us like Boston and Jones did but end up going to Stanford or Duke..
 
In the latest U.S. News rankings, Stanford is #6 (tied), Duke is #9 (tied), and UCLA is #20. UConn is #63 (tied) and Arizona is #103 (tied). The major outlier appears to be Arizona. I think their strength is Adia Barnes and their recent success.

Don't count out UCLA based on their academics. They are now the #1 public university in the nation. There is not much difference between UCLA, Stanford, and Duke.

UConn, of course, has Geno and the status as the #1 program. It also has former players who have GOAT status and others who are the best player in the world (Stewie), a Naismith Hall of Famer (Rebecca), and the current best player in WCBB (Paige). If Kiki wants to go to Yale or Oxford, she can still do that at the graduate level.

I think it comes down to Duke and UConn. Yes, Kara Lawson played HS hoops in the DMV, but so did Jamelle--plus Saylor, Mir, and Azzi.
 
FWIW there’s no discernable dropoff between Sidwell Friends and St John’s College, where Azzi went. So citing Rice’s attending Sidwell as a possible reason she won’t attend UConn doesn’t hold much water.
 
MilfordHusky said:
In the latest U.S. News rankings, Stanford is #6 (tied), Duke is #9 (tied), and UCLA is #20. UConn is #63 (tied) and Arizona is #103 (tied). The major outlier appears to be Arizona. I think their strength is Adia Barnes and their recent success.

Don't count out UCLA based on their academics. They are now the #1 public university in the nation. There is not much difference between UCLA, Stanford, and Duke.

UConn, of course, has Geno and the status as the #1 program. It also has former players who have GOAT status and others who are the best player in the world (Stewie), a Naismith Hall of Famer (Rebecca), and the current best player in WCBB (Paige). If Kiki wants to go to Yale or Oxford, she can still do that at the graduate level.

I think it comes down to Duke and UConn. Yes, Kara Lawson played HS hoops in the DMV, but so did Jamelle--plus Saylor, Mir, and Azzi.
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UCONN is in the top #25 in public universities #23 (tie with Rutgers and Penn State. It's also a tier 1 research university right in there with other top Universities. The Business School has the prestigious AACSB accreditation like Duke and Stanford Yale too-it has maintained accreditation since 1957. An athlete interviewed on another huskies team said recently this ranking was one of the deciding factors to attend UCONN. I think in the end it depends on what the recruit is looking for and that we won't know.
 
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with all due respect to Connecticut and North Carolina, California just has endless opportunities that the other 2 just don't offer. Also I hear people saying location will play a factor, really? From what I saw 2 of her top 5 were Arizona Ucla + Stanford. Why would someone that doesn't want to leave close to home consider those 3? Also I found it interesting out of all the visits, in her IG she put her in a UCLA jersey. Don't count them out at all because I really think we are seeing Cori Close become one of the best closers in recruiting, follow that up with her recent success in the U 19.
 
jchuskie said:
with all due respect to Connecticut and North Carolina, California just has endless opportunities that the other 2 just don't offer. Also I hear people saying location will play a factor, really? From what I saw 2 of her top 5 were Arizona Ucla + Stanford. Why would someone that doesn't want to leave close to home consider those 3? Also I found it interesting out of all the visits, in her IG she put her in a UCLA jersey. Don't count them out at all because I really think we are seeing Cori Close become one of the best closers in recruiting, follow that up with her recent success in the U 19.
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No saying it (Kiki to UCLA) might not happen but hopefully Kiki and her family are smart enough to figure that Cori is not going to be the coach to get her to a situation of competing for national championships or even a conference championship for that matter. Holly Warlick has accomplished more with less talent than Cori Close has in her tenure as UCLA coach which is approaching a decade now. BTW that U19 wasn't especially well coached either.
 
jchuskie said:
with all due respect to Connecticut and North Carolina, California just has endless opportunities that the other 2 just don't offer. Also I hear people saying location will play a factor, really? From what I saw 2 of her top 5 were Arizona Ucla + Stanford. Why would someone that doesn't want to leave close to home consider those 3? Also I found it interesting out of all the visits, in her IG she put her in a UCLA jersey. Don't count them out at all because I really think we are seeing Cori Close become one of the best closers in recruiting, follow that up with her recent success in the U 19.
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Good point. I thought the same thing with the UCLA post myself. In one of my previous post I said that Uconn has an outside chance (can't discount that BB pedigree) and that Kiki will make an obvious pick or one that we never saw coming. She's playing it close to vest- intentionally. We just have to wait and see- just how she wants it.
 
It come down to what she wants. If its basketball UConn is the place. She will be a star at UConn with all that goes along with a star. Playing beside Paige and Azzi will only help her development. UConn is the dream school if your a female BB player looking to get to the next level and to become better. The attention to detail that Geno instills along with the discipline only reinforces the skills needed for the next level and beyond. Most importantly Geno takes care of his girls after they graduate.
 
I say all this speculating is moot as I stated in an earlier post on the recruiting thread the top list was a smokescreen- she knows where she's going already-the visits were for formality and feel out her choice. She probably finds all the speculating amusing. Just saying.
 
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