Highly Ranked Recruits & National Championships.

[Drumguy]

Though we struck out on Paris and Waner, I was happy with that class. Renee and K-Bear had nice careers.

I thought the issue with the Paris twins for geno was he wanted one and couldn't guarantee the other playing time and iirc it was geno who suggested they talk to Sheri.

 

[baggerbob]

Kia Nurse in ESPN moved from unranked at 90 to a 5 star, number 33 at 97. If she played in the US she would probably have been top 5.

 

[HuskyNan]

Not a great class.

BlueStar had
1. Courtney Paris - Oklahoma
2. Abby Waner -Duke
3. Erika Ararrian - Texas
4. Kia Vaughn - Rutgers
5. Marissa Coleman - Maryland
6. Crystal Goring - Richmond
7. Angel Robinson - Georgia
8. Ashley Paris - Oklahoma
9. Kristi Toliver - Maryland
10. Devanei Hampton - California

UCONN recruited 18) Kalana Greene, 21) Renee Montgomery, 63) Tahirah Williams and NR) Casey Kerns that year.

Kia Vaughn would have been a superstar if she'd come to UConn. RU hasn't shown that developing big girls is a strength. I don't think Rutgers has really had a dominant center since Tammy Sutton-Brown. Kia has awesome abilities that I feel we never got to see completely unleashed.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I thought the issue with the Paris twins for geno was he wanted one and couldn't guarantee the other playing time and iirc it was geno who suggested they talk to Sheri.

The Paris family was looking for a package deal. I think Geno was less interested in Ashley.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Kia Vaughn would have been a superstar if she'd come to UConn. RU hasn't shown that developing big girls is a strength. I don't think Rutgers has really had a dominant center since Tammy Sutton-Brown. Kia has awesome abilities that I feel we never got to see completely unleashed.

We got to see her for the Mystics last night. She'll be sharing PT with Stef. I hope it becomes a good tandem. Mike T. should be able to help Kia. Physically, she is rather imposing.

 

[feste]

Swish Appeal Article: http://www.swishappeal.com/2014/5/1...1-or-2-recruit-guarantee-an-ncaa-championship

1. Brittany Hunter is a special case. While she fits the description of a 1-or-2, by the time she arrived at Storrs, she'd suffered an injury which diminished her effectiveness. There was talk that her care in Durham was sub-par. Too bad she wasn't a Husky from the start of her college career.

2. The worst weekend of my life: The only Final Four I ever went to was 2001 at St. Louis. And Bowman says ND defeated UConn in the championship game. Not so. It was the "National Championship of Indiana" as the Irish edged Purdue, a team led by Katie Douglas, who missed a three-pointer at the final buzzer. The Final Four was also notable for the end of Jackie Stiles' college career.

 

[Geno-ista]

Big difference between getting highly ranked players (Top 10 or even McD AA) and consensus #1's though. After DT graduated, UCONN didn't make a F4 till they got Charles/Moore. They had Strother and Houston, and both were top recruits out of HS. But I do agree that Geno gets the most out of players, and develop them the best.

Take a team like Kentucky. They have a load of McD AA, but only Linnae Harper was a consensus Top 10 kid (and maybe Walker?). and not even a Top 5 kid. Most were rated in the Top 15-30 (Goss, Stallworth, Epps, Thompson, Oneil). There is a HUGE difference in talent from a Stewert/KML/MoJeff than a Goss/Epps/Oneil. I remember Glen Nelson, from HG, said getting a Top 5 kid is compared to getting a franchise level talent in the NBA. You really need a "franchise" level recruit to contend for NC. Obviously, there are outliers. Sophia Young was not recruited/highly regarded, and she won a NC (though she turned out to be one of the best players in her class). TA&M is another interesting case. I don't think any of their players were that highly rated, but they had Danielle Adams. The Maryland team with Toliver/Langhorne/Coleman, while young were all Top 10 recruits.

Cal really hasn't recruited THAT well. There top 2009 class were mainly kids in the Top 15-30. I guess Hartman was rated high, but injuries have limited her. Reshanda Gray was a Top 20 recruit. Brittany Boyd was a Top 20-30 recruit. Gabby Green is rated highly by many services though.

I appreciate your response- and these are all great points. Duke has/had Eliz Williams and the Pt Gd Gray - both #1 at their positions w/ a bucket load of HS All Americas and did very little. I went back and looked at N Dame's best teams-Nat Novasell, Br Mallory, and Achonwa were in the high 20's -40's from some of the history I saw. My point is there are a lot more top 5 & top 10 players going somewhere else, than to UConn- and those teams just don't seam to do nearly as much with their talent. I don't think our talent comes to UConn 19-25 pts better than the other top 10-15 teams in college basketball. This is not arguing with your points. It just astounds me sometimes!