Rachel Chooses Rutgers

[doggydaddy]

Somewhat surprised at her choosing Rutgers. Seems like Tenn. would have been a more natural fit for her. They have need for post players and Tenn is closer to her home.

Have to wonder if Pat's announcement is beginning to have an impact on recruits who haven't previously announced their intentions to attend Tenn. Will be interesting to see what their 2013 class looks like. It did start off with a bang, will they be able to fill in the pieces?

There's no doubt that recruits are being told, Pat won't be the coach of the Lady Vols for the duration of your college career.

By whom?

 

[tennfanatic00]

@ pasteurize, thanks for the encouraging response. JUCO is enigmatic for sure...we'll just need someone to hold the 5 spot down in 2012-13 so that we can get a top post recruit in 2013.

I think waiting so long for Elizabeth Williams' decision has come back to haunt the LV coaching staff. Had we brached out a bit more, we could have alnded a post player in this year's freshman class that would be ready to contribute in 2012. Oh well...

And, @ Husky1964...While Parker was the star of the 07-08 teams, we wouldn't have won either title without Bobbitt running the point. She was the motor of the team in both years. Ice is right, we need a Parker type game-changing recruit to land in K-town. I don't think 2012 had one of those players (at least that considered us anyway) 2013 is another story. There seems to be 3-4 kids out there that could be incredible players.

 

[triaddukefan]

Almost a year to the day, Elizabeth Williams picked Duke over Tenn.... and now this. Wow.... Looks like they might have to play small ball in 2012-2013 if they cant land a Juco.

 

[Tonyc]

I think the peception at TN is hurting their recruiting. For what ever reasons kids have been leaving. Now Pats illness and not replacement and no word on how long she may have left. If she has 5 years or 5 months people need to know. This disease is prominent in my family I am very familiar with it, and its my greatest fear. TN needs to make some decisions and imo they are waiting way to long. It will be interesting to see what happens to the players TN is looking at and where they end up. TN needs a coach who can attract players to TN. Having someone by Pats side could help. This is a very delicate situation. Pat has built this program and she should be allowed imo to stay as long as she can. With that said you cant just sit around and let the program die. You need to maintain your position in WCBB at the top not the bottom. To do that TN needs to make some tuff decsions on getting a coach to work with Pat while keeping Pat on board.

 

[Vowelguy]

Not to be a downer, and I hope I'm wrong, but posts take longer to develop than guards. The most successful former JUCO players in Div I are generally guards for a reason.

Plus I'm only guessing here, but I'd imagine that a 6'4" kid is more like to end up at a D-I school out of HS. Since you can't teach height, I figure all the big kids end up somewhere. Would seem easier for a guard to fall through the cracks but improve her stock at JUCO.

Or is JUCO just dominated more by academic non-qualifiers than players who were overlooked?

 

[bruinbball]

Yes they needed a guard from JUCO to get the ball to Parker, now they have a couple of guards with potential but they need to find a Parker out of JUCO. HUGE difference.

Per Glenn Nelson, it looks like Sykes has removed herself from PSU and chose to verbal at Syracuse instead.... ouch for them.

 

[Coler]

Woohoo! Couldn't be more happy, we are getting more and more pieces. We really needed her to have a good matchup for UConn next year. Now if only Ariel Butts would choose us, we'd be set.

 

[doggydaddy]

Woohoo! Couldn't be more happy, we are getting more and more pieces. We really needed her to have a good matchup for UConn next year. Now if only Ariel Butts would choose us, we'd be set.

Congrats to you and my home state's University!!!

 

[dtbtbtb]

I love seeing UT fans being all bitter.

Between RU and TN i'll always root for RU! Congratulations!

 

[MilfordHusky]

They won 2 titles not because they had 2 Jucos, but because they had Parker. Not the same talent in KXVille these days.

While Parker was obviously the key, I believe Tennessee won some Final Four games because of big contributions from Bobbitt and Anosike. Parker alone would not have gotten the job done.

 

[connboy77]

I'm anxiously awaiting more info on 2013 recruiting. We think that Chris went the whole way to the West Coast because Mercedes was still open. I hope so.

I'm also anxious to hear about Diamond, Reimer, Mavunga, Tucker, and Samuelson, plus any surprises. A class of 2-4 would be nice.

I think that since we missed out on the X girl Geno will take at least 3 maybe 4 in the 2013 class.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Up until Pat's announcement Tenn was not hurting in recruiting. They will have a Top 4 recruiting class for 2012. Bashara Graves should be ranked higher then 5th. I don't think she is as good as Breanna Stewart is, but they are close in talent.

They're off to a good start for 2013 with the verbal of Kaela Davis. The question is will they fill in the missing pieces.

 

[connboy77]

Connboy, I am not really surprised that Hollivay chose Rutgers at all. I felt that it would come down to Tenn. and Rutgers> Two great programs and 2 great coaches. Rutgers has always brought in at least one top 20 player every 1-2 years. 2012 will be no different. Plus, I think Rachel looked at playing in the BE as a challenge. I am not that thrilled to have to play against Hollivay for those next 4 years but I think GA and staff will figure it all out and stock the UConn cupboard will talent to combat the threat.

As has been mentioned by other posters, UCONN is already stocked with enough future talent to more then match any team in the country.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I think that since we missed out on the X girl Geno will take at least 3 maybe 4 in the 2013 class.

CD has said, in an ideal world, we have clases of 3, 4, 3, and 4. That sums to 14, which seems to be more than UConn historically has had. However, if we can get Russell, DeShields, Reimer, and Tucker, that may rate above our great recruiting classes the prior 3 years. After last year's lack of depth, I too like a class of up to 4 next year.

 

[sarals24]

I think that is the ideal class size because there will always be injuries, transfers, etc. So I seriously doubt any team of Geno's will have 14 players ready to go at any given time. Just in the past four years we've had EDD and Samarie transfer, Caroline's knee, Kaleena's knee...etc, etc, etc. I think those class sizes are more for insurance purposes.

 

[HuskyFan1125]

Great pickup for Rutgers!

 

[MilfordHusky]

I think that is the ideal class size because there will always be injuries, transfers, etc. So I seriously doubt any team of Geno's will have 14 players ready to go at any given time. Just in the past four years we've had EDD and Samarie transfer, Caroline's knee, Kaleena's knee...etc, etc, etc. I think those class sizes are more for insurance purposes.

Yep, and prudent folks have insurance.

 

[doggydaddy]

Up until Pat's announcement Tenn was not hurting in recruiting. They will have a Top 4 recruiting class for 2012. Bashara Graves should be ranked higher then 5th. I don't think she is as good as Breanna Stewart is, but they are close in talent.

They're off to a good start for 2013 with the verbal of Kaela Davis. The question is will they fill in the missing pieces.

Graves should be higher than 5? Better than who? Jones? Loyd? Jefferson?

WHy do you say that? And close to Stewart? You're kidding, right?

 

[MarieM]

Or 6'7".

breanna stewart tweeted that she was 6'4 and not 6'7 she sounded angry lol

 

[MarieM]

i don't think it was the connection between Sykes and Hollivay, Hollivay won't ever play with Sykes in a RU uniform since Sykes is a senior

 

[EricLA]

Up until Pat's announcement Tenn was not hurting in recruiting. They will have a Top 4 recruiting class for 2012. Bashara Graves should be ranked higher then 5th. I don't think she is as good as Breanna Stewart is, but they are close in talent.

They're off to a good start for 2013 with the verbal of Kaela Davis. The question is will they fill in the missing pieces.

you couldn't be more off base with that comment. what on earth are you basing that on? not only is Graves nowhere near as good as Stewart, she's not even as good as Morgan Tuck. the past two years in the USA national teams, Stewart has had monster stats, better than kids a year ahead of her.

Tuck's stats have always been better than Graves. while not the be all or end all, i can't believie you think Stewart and Graves are remotely comparable. as i said, Tuck is better than Graves and she's much "less" heralded.

 

[VAMike23]

you couldn't be more off base with that comment. what on earth are you basing that on? not only is Graves nowhere near as good as Stewart, she's not even as good as Morgan Tuck. the past two years in the USA national teams, Stewart has had monster stats, better than kids a year ahead of her.

Tuck's stats have always been better than Graves. while not the be all or end all, i can't believie you think Stewart and Graves are remotely comparable. as i said, Tuck is better than Graves and she's much "less" heralded.

I have no idea about Graves' overall level of basketball talent, though to be #5 or whatever she is, I'm sure she's very good. However I did see somewhere (can't find it now) a list of players who had been put through a pretty sophisticated battery of tests involving speed, explosiveness, agility, etc., and with the scoring system employed she rated out with highest score, and IIRC there were some familiar names on the list. (Her vertical leap is insane, just as one example.) Note that this is not meant as a comment either for or against her current rating--but it would be interesting to see her play, particularly against someone like BStewart. Think I'll try to track down that list.

EDIT: My mistake - the player I was thinking of, with off-the-charts athleticism--was Draya Carter. (Graves is still very athletic.) It would be interesting to see how how Breanna would make out on the same test (SPARQ test)

 

[DaddyChoc]

i don't think it was the connection between Sykes and Hollivay, Hollivay won't ever play with Sykes in a RU uniform since Sykes is a senior

worked for a while with Tamika Williams & Samarie Walker (10-15yr gap)

 

[DaddyChoc]

Just in the past four years we've had EDD and Samarie transfer, Caroline's knee, Kaleena's knee...etc, etc, etc.

Kalana's knee
(mis-spelling of the name could cause problem down the road)

 

[bbsamjj]

CVS has never had a problem reeling in the quick, athletic, talented guards, but elite posts have been few and far between. This is a huge get for RU because after next year (Redshirt senior Lee and senior Oliver), the post was pretty much bare. It seems like the RU staff is going after additional posts as well, which is good news.