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Message: [QUOTE="Orangutan, post: 3116069, member: 4946"] I have a thesis on this: what wins National Championships is not only size but [I]skilled[/I] size. Look at the recent national champions. Stewie's Huskies, Wilson's Gamecocks, Shepard's Irish and now either Cox's Lady Bears or a repeat for the Irish. What's the commonality between Stewie, Wilson, Shepard, and Cox? They're all 6'3+. They all can score inside, score outside, rebound, and pass. So that's the kind of player you need to recruit. The problem is that there is an incredibly small number of people with those qualifications. Maybe one per recruiting class. That's why Delle Donne was a #1 recruit, Stewie was a #1 recruit, Wilson was a #1 recruit, Cox was a #1 recruit, and Shepard was a #3 recruit. And you can't control where these kids grow up. Wilson, Cox, and Shepard (initially) all chose to stay close to home and those homes where nowhere near Connecticut. The good news for UConn is that ONO has the potential to be this kind of player by the time she graduates. She has the physical ability and a great coaching staff. I've always thought about this because prior to last year's national championship Irish fans would bemoan a perceived inability for ND to recruit post players. After all, the one national championship the Irish had won featured Ruth Riley, right? As if it were that simple to just find another Ruth Riley... ND got to Final Fours with 6'3 Achonwa and 6'1 Braker. UConn got to a final four with 6'1 Collier and 5'11 Williams in the post. You can still be really, really good if you have to sacrifice size for skill. I think it's harder to do it the other way around. It doesn't work to just recruit 6'6 stiffs. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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