Kiki commits to UCLA

[CL82]

Huge peanut gallery here

 

[RockyMTblue2]

All this magnanimous stuff in this thread ... anybody have a few Tums you can spare?

 

[RockyMTblue2]

That has to be sarcasm. Come on everyone would love it if she came here.

An attempt at humor. Needed an emoticon I guess.

 

[noirwestern]

Never was crazy about having a Kiki on the team.

Agreed. This is more of a Kia kinda burg.

 

[cohenzone]

But Stanford >>> UCLA in academics and women's basketball. The decision is surprising because she didn't pick the best basketball school, nor the school with the best academics, nor the school closest to home.

If you are lucky enough to be someone who has great choices or have kids who have a lot of solid college choices, they can surprise you Two of my kids picked schools I thought they might but weren’t what I thought would be my first choice. But their decisions made them comfortable and they both have had great success in the working world. Elite athletes have additional considerations.

 

[MilfordHusky]

But Stanford >>> UCLA in academics and women's basketball. The decision is surprising because she didn't pick the best basketball school, nor the school with the best academics, nor the school closest to home.

There is no 100% meaningful ranking, but here's what US News says:

Stanford #6, tied with Chicago.

Duke #9, tied with Cal Tech, Hopkins, and Northwestern.

UCLA #20, ahead of Berkeley, Emory, Georgetown, Virginia, NYU, Carnegie-Mellon, et al.

I don't see a huge difference.

 

[CL82]

There is no 100% meaningful ranking, but here's what US News says:

Stanford #6, tied with Chicago.

Duke #9, tied with Cal Tech, Hopkins, and Northwestern.

UCLA #20, ahead of Berkeley, Emory, Georgetown, Virginia, NYU, Carnegie-Mellon, et al.

I don't see a huge difference.

At Stanford should be going to a national championship contender. At UCLA, that’s far from a certainty. That’s the difference, and it’s a huge one.

Still, I’m happy with her choice and I wish her the best. If she couldn’t come to Connecticut I’m glad she didn’t go to one of our closer contenders.

 

[mhshuskies]

Then desire for an NC was just a faint?

 

[Charliebball]

But Stanford >>> UCLA in academics and women's basketball. The decision is surprising because she didn't pick the best basketball school, nor the school with the best academics, nor the school closest to home.

these days if a recruit makes a mistake it doesn't take long to rectify it.......

 

[Cuango]

Had she played for the UCLA coach before?

 

[HGN]

I for one wish her the best. She was well sought after and will help any team.

Bottom line , we can't get them all. And I am happy with the ones we did get.

GO HUSKIES.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Had she played for the UCLA coach before?

On the USA Basketball U-16 team in 2019, I believe.

 

[Alydar]

I'd rather hit 2023 hard just for spacing and I said that before Rice's decision. The 2023-24 season would be the senior season for Paige's class, so the freshman will get a year to learn from the best and get their feet wet, and then when they take the sophomore leap would have lots of playing time after the graduation of about 5 players. The 2023-24 team would be anchored by a senior Fudd (assuming she doesn't/can't go pro early), and sophomores Ice and Ayana which is a pretty good core to build around.

The 23-24 team would be anchored by seniors Bueckers, Mühl, Edwards Gabriel and McClean.

 

[MilfordHusky]

At Stanford should be going to a national championship contender. At UCLA, that’s far from a certainty. That’s the difference, and it’s a huge one.

Still, I’m happy with her choice and I wish her the best. If she couldn’t come to Connecticut I’m glad she didn’t go to one of our closer contenders.

Yeah, I agree that there's a decent-sized gap in terms of hoops. Not so much in academics.

 

[CL82]

Yeah, I agree that there's a decent-sized gap in terms of hoops. Not so much in academics.

So if the academics are a wash, why not go for the better program?

That’s rhetorical. It doesn’t matter to me one way or the other now that it’s not Connecticut. Wish her well though.

 

[Zinethar]

It is one more example how coaching the international game (under 19, Olympics, etc gives you a leg up on recruits.

 

[Happydad745]

That has to be sarcasm. Come on everyone would love it if she came here.

Me too...good/great PGs are hard to come by.

 

[hoopsfan22]

The 23-24 team would be anchored by seniors Bueckers, Mühl, Edwards Gabriel and McClean.

Oh yeah good catch I meant 24-25 the season after they would have graduated.

 

[Dokey]

She apparently saw something in UCLA that she liked. And I hope she has a great four years. There might be an academic department there that appealed to her and she’ll still be able to play elite basketball, though championships might be out of reach. My wife is an UCLA grad and though it wasn’t the school she wanted (her parents weren’t willing to pay the tuition for her first choice. I never thought guard heavy UConn was in the picture and given that it wasn’t in the same caliber as the competing schools, it might well have been at the bottom of her list. UConn coaches are probably happy with her choice because it wasn’t Stanford. From UConn’s point of view this was the best outcome. Go Kiki, do your thing. Your bloodline suggests the best is yet to come.

 

[Lurker]

...I have a general sense of ambivalence about her choice.

... Rice is not going to hurt us playing basketball in Westwood.

...It’s time to move on to the next recruit.

Absolutely!

Seems like kind of a non-event. Wasn't there something of significance to us that was supposed to happen at 6:00 ?!?!? Sure doesn't feel that way. Maybe we should just go back to an exciting and interesting topic to talk about. How about who starts...

 

[Cornell Lt]

Kiki will be very successful both on the court and off. That being said I don't feel like her not coming to UConn makes that much of a difference.

UConn will be on the short list of almost every high end guard in the foreseeable future.

 

[Plebe]

I'm sure Tara was prepared to lose her, but not to another PAC12 team.

I don't believe Tara sees it that way. Tara is happy that the Pac-12 as a whole has ascended and it's no longer just Stanford and the 9 dwarves. Rising tides and all. It wouldn't be a highly competitive conference if no one else could recruit a kid.

 

[Stymie]

I’m feeling the same. I think this opens it up a little more for the top 2023 guards to come to us. Losing her to UCLA doesn’t really feel like a loss IMO. Maybe I’d be having a different tune if she was going to Stanford.

Absolutely.

 

[Boreifs]

So, in an interview last spring, Geno said they had a third commit and possibly a fourth. Was Kiki the third or the fourth? Question of the day.

 

[Alydar]

I don't believe Tara sees it that way. Tara is happy that the Pac-12 as a whole has ascended and it's no longer just Stanford and the 9 dwarves. Rising tides and all. It wouldn't be a highly competitive conference if no one else could recruit a kid.

Sure. Any coach would say the same but not at their own expense.

My memories of UCLA are mostly of them getting their backsides whipped in the regionals in Bridgeport however Close seems to attract a stream of top recruits.

 

[Rudy1927]

never with a chance to win a title. Puzzling. Good luck and I’ll never post about you again. That I promise.

 

[Charliebball]

It is one more example how coaching the international game (under 19, Olympics, etc gives you a leg up on recruits.

agreed.........I don't think current DI coaches should be coaching players of high school or college age, especially with the new transfer rules..........plenty of ex college coaches, pro coaches or high quality high school coaches that could do the job just fine......

 

[Plebe]

Sure. Any coach would say the same but not at their own expense.

My memories of UCLA are mostly of them getting their backsides whipped in the regionals in Bridgeport however Close seems to attract a stream of top recruits.

A stream? How many other top 10 recruits have gone to UCLA since 2015? Only one -- that was Onyenwere, #10 in 2017, who became an All-American.

There isn't a coach alive who wants to be handed the conference championship by default just because all the other teams suck. Wasn't/isn't that the UConn fans' chief complaint about the AAC/Big East? I guarantee that if Rice didn't go to Stanford, Tara is happy another Pac-12 team got her.

And if those are your main memories you should watch more basketball in the past 4 years. They were at Bridgeport a total of 2 times: as a #3 seed in 2016 (lost to Texas by 8) and as a #4 seed in 2017 (lost to UConn by 15). For reference that same UConn team then beat Oregon by 38 in the next game. And the following year they did reach the Elite 8 where they lost to an excellent Mississippi State team that was a bad call and a missed layup from winning the national title.

 

[Charliebball]

Sure. Any coach would say the same but not at their own expense.

My memories of UCLA are mostly of them getting their backsides whipped in the regionals in Bridgeport however Close seems to attract a stream of top recruits.

and why not........great academics, vibrant sunny Los Angeles........what place could be better for a college student........

 

[Purchase1]

So, in an interview last spring, Geno said they had a third commit and possibly a fourth. Was Kiki the third or the fourth? Question of the day.

He never said anything about a third commitment, what he did say (paraphrasing here) is that “we have a least one more that I know about (meaning a commitment)and a couple of others were looking at” the at least one more,he was speaking of was Ayanna Patterson a day before she committed to us, we had already received a commitment from Ice Brady prior to that.