A few things. I said so then that neither of these two would receive the level of coaching necessary to fulfill their potential. I said then that neither of those colleges would be able to surround them with the players and off court training they would need. I also said at the time that when each of these players failed to make the NCAA's their may be additional attitude issues. I noted this before the coaching issues at Illinois. I continued to note how each of these young women never appeared to be in good basketball shape. I frankly thought Shepard was going to leave after her first year. What surprised me was how much White wanted to remain at Illinois and finally seemed to grudgingly accept the fact that that program had tanked. I've always given a bit of a side eye to those that give some colleges a home town discount. Not that there is anything untoward going on, and yeah, this often the hardest decision these young ladies have ever had to make. I would just like some of them to be a little more patient and invest a little more time in their decision, and not just go to mom and dad's school.
Jordy: A few questions on/comments resulting from both your comments.
- Chartrice White entered Illinois in 2014 and transferred after the end of the 2015-16 season. Jessica Shepard entered Nebraska in 2015 and announced her decision to transfer after the 2016-17 season. I followed the Illinois and Nebraska situations pretty closely last spring as they unfurled; in part because ND had been involved with White during her initial recruiting and then again as a transfer. And the Connie Yori situation caught my attention because a fairly successful program and its coach seemed to be caught up in a lot of "he/she/they saids" in which no one comes out ahead.
- I started reading the Boneyard throughout 2015 and joined in November of that year, so I didn't see whatever comments you may have made on White prior to that.
- And I must have missed the same on Shepard because I would've questioned it. Connie Yori is the most successful coach in Nebraska Women's Hoops and her teams were pretty steadily making the WNIT or NCAAs. Shepard committed early...before her freshman year in HS....and during that time Yori's team made the Sweet Sixteen and second round of the NCAAs.
When she joined her frosh year, she was playing with two pretty good guards in Rachel Theriot and Natalie Romeo and in 2016 two more Hoopgurlz 100 guards were going to join in Mi'Cole Cayton (now at California) and "Miss Basketball - Illinois," Kathleen Doyle (now starting for Iowa).
So, my question on Shepard is how did you know that was a bad situation for her from the get go? She grew up in and around the Lincoln area so her commitment to the Cornhuskers seemed to be as much cultural as anything else. And the end game seems to be another result of several connected situations going bad....
- As for Illinois, that seemed unstable from the very get go with player defections and lawsuits. You're right, I do remember Chartrice White and her father sticking with and supporting Bollant when no one else seemed to, but she saw the very plain writing on the wall.
BTW, I've seen White play a lot this year and still don't feel as if she's expanded/made her game more efficient since the transfer to FSU...until the last game against S.Carolina, where she looked challenged and started making some effective post moves and grabbing some strong rebounds against Carolina's bigs. Hope to see more of that next year.
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