Seriously though, I think the recruitment of Anna and Nika has opened up an area where Uconn has a very distinctive advantage. In Anna's case it was somewhat out of necessity as we missed out on a couple of US targets that year.
In Nika's case we were very lucky. She had already picked her four finalists before Uconn showed any interest at all. South Florida was one of those schools, but perhaps more importantly Louisville and Oregon were among her finalists as well. I suspect Uconn concluded if Louisville and Oregon are recruiting this girl, maybe we should check her out. They joined the party at the 11th hour and because of Uconn's legendary status she added one to her list.
While officially saying the usual things, soon after Uconn entered the conversation it was over and she made her choice. There are quite a few very good women's basketball programs that can compete with us for recruits, with a good legacy, famous coach, pretty big crowds and decent media coverage.
To many young girl's in foreign lands, they may know very little about some of those major US competitors, but they all know Uconn and Geno. My point is we have competitive advantages here, where there is more and more competition, but Uconn's relative fame compared to other programs is probably even greater abroad. To the point where a kid that has already named a final list of four will add a name to it if Uconn shows an interest even if it is late.
I think foreign recruitment should move from more of an afterthought or game-plan B to the front burner, because we would appear to have more advantages there than we even do domestically. Keep the Mule train running!
In Nika's case we were very lucky. She had already picked her four finalists before Uconn showed any interest at all. South Florida was one of those schools, but perhaps more importantly Louisville and Oregon were among her finalists as well. I suspect Uconn concluded if Louisville and Oregon are recruiting this girl, maybe we should check her out. They joined the party at the 11th hour and because of Uconn's legendary status she added one to her list.
While officially saying the usual things, soon after Uconn entered the conversation it was over and she made her choice. There are quite a few very good women's basketball programs that can compete with us for recruits, with a good legacy, famous coach, pretty big crowds and decent media coverage.
To many young girl's in foreign lands, they may know very little about some of those major US competitors, but they all know Uconn and Geno. My point is we have competitive advantages here, where there is more and more competition, but Uconn's relative fame compared to other programs is probably even greater abroad. To the point where a kid that has already named a final list of four will add a name to it if Uconn shows an interest even if it is late.
I think foreign recruitment should move from more of an afterthought or game-plan B to the front burner, because we would appear to have more advantages there than we even do domestically. Keep the Mule train running!
