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Message: [QUOTE="JoePgh, post: 4276339, member: 1131"] I think that every single one of your points is wrong. [LIST=1] [*][I]"Did you see how many bench players SC had? They must have played 14 or 15." [/I]Check the box score. SC had 5 players who played only the last 1 minute of the game and did nothing (except for one player who committed one turnover and picked up one foul). They had five bench players who played a total of 42 minutes and scored a total of 8 points. UConn, on the other hand, had 4 bench players who played 61 minutes and scored 18 points -- and this is with Dorka and Aubrey not being available. Whose bench was more productive? [*][I]"I wish he would recruit potential instead of solely stars." [/I]Really? What about Piath Gabriel, Mir McLean, Saylor Poffenbarger, AEH, Molly Bent, and Kyla Irwin in recent years? Nika Muhl might also fit in that list, except that she has actually fulfilled her potential in short order, unlike the others. [*]And then there is AgStatesman's post: [I]"I feel there are posts out there that maybe cannot score at all but can defend and rebound and block some shots. He has never given a player like that a second look." [/I]That actually sounds to me like a perfect description of Olivia Nelson Ododa. She was fine against Cameron Brink and Fran Belibi but came up short against Boston. (If the test is whether Geno or anyone can find a recruit that can neutralize or outplay Boston, that list is going to be very short if not zero in length.) Behind Liv, there is Piath, who illustrates the limitations of your approach -- if you recruit at that level, you are going to get many more Piaths than Stef Dolsons (and Stef was ranked much higher coming out of HS than Piath), and the great majority of them are never going to be more than end-of-bench players for UConn. [/LIST] I think the whole complaint about recent UConn recruiting amounts to the fact that Geno didn't reel in Aliyah Boston. If he had, there would have been 1 or 2 more NC's, and this thread wouldn't exist. This, combined with SC's other recent recruiting successes, demonstrate that Dawn Staley really is a new force in the world of WCBB -- she can recruit a group of players that are very talented and can offer them all the things that UConn can: a chance at an NC every year, a proven road to success in the WNBA and overseas, a rabid local fan base, and plenty of exposure to national media. So for many players, it will come down to a cultural and personal issue: would they rather spend 4 years playing for Geno or for Dawn? That will be different for each recruit, and may come down to a coin flip in many cases. I'm not sure that anyone has presented that kind of a personal matchup to Geno as a coach since Pat Summitt was in her prime: not Muffet McGraw or Jeff Walz or Kim Mulkey or Tara Vanderveer. All of them had niche appeal to a certain brand of recruit, but not the same broad-based appeal that Dawn and Geno now have. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach