Recruiting Recruiting Recruiting

[Wbbfan1]

The lack of Compete Recruiting Classes has caught up to UConn. No Longer are Freshmen able to come off the bench for a year while an All American Caliber player is starting. The last complete recruiting class Geno had was Breanna Stewart's class consisting of Breanna, Morgan Tuck, Moriah Jefferson and Briana Pulido. Since then these are Geno's classes.

2013 Saniya Chong
2014 Kia Nurse, Gabby Williams, Courtney Ekmark (XFR) Sadie Edwards (XFR) Obviously Kia and Gabby were great, No PF or Center
2015 Napheesa Collier, Katie-Lou Samuelson De'Janae Boykin (XFR) Good class, but needed Boykin to Pan Out to make it a Great Class.
2016 Crystal Dangerfield, Kyla Irwin and Molly Bent One Starter out of the Class.
2017 Megan Walker, Mikayla Coombs, Andra Espinoza-Hunter (XFR) Lexie Gordon (XFR) Class Underachieving based on ranking, One Starter. No size despite a four player class.
2018 Christyn Williams Olivia Nelson-Ododa. Time will tell, looks promising but needed a 3rd quality player.
2019 Aubrey Griffin Needed a couple of more quality players.

Geno has gone Six Years without signing a Good Starting Power Forward and Five Years without getting a Post player until Olivia Nelson-Ododa in last years class. ND besides playing better down the Stretch, won the game because of their Offensive Rebounding due to the teams lack of Size and Power up front.

Not saying Geno and Staff aren't working hard to get the quality recruits, but for what ever reason they've come up short these last few years. Had high hopes when Batouly Camara transferred in as she would be the power up front that Geno wasn't able to sign. She's been a disappointment due to injuries and other issues. Needed Stevens this year, but sadly she only played the one year.

 

[veryolddog]

I do think that the best class of players that did not win the NC was Gabby, Kia, Pheesa, KLS, and Crystal. And before that with Saniya and Crystal. I still think that he needs an 8 foot center. Listened to Mulkey last night at half time. She said she would take any 6 5 or 6 7 big in the country and we will find a way to get you the ball. I agree. They will stop ND.

 

[BroadwayVa]

The lack of Compete Recruiting Classes has caught up to UConn. No Longer are Freshmen able to come off the bench for a year while an All American Caliber player is starting. The last complete recruiting class Geno had was Breanna Stewart's class consisting of Breanna, Morgan Tuck, Moriah Jefferson and Briana Pulido. Since then these are Geno's classes.

2013 Saniya Chong
2014 Kia Nurse, Gabby Williams, Courtney Ekmark (XFR) Sadie Edwards (XFR) Obviously Kia and Gabby were great, No PF or Center
2015 Napheesa Collier, Katie-Lou Samuelson De'Janae Boykin (XFR) Good class, but needed Boykin to Pan Out to make it a Great Class.
2016 Crystal Dangerfield, Kyla Irwin and Molly Bent One Starter out of the Class.
2017 Megan Walker, Mikayla Coombs, Andra Espinoza-Hunter (XFR) Lexie Gordon (XFR) Class Underachieving based on ranking, One Starter. No size despite a four player class.
2018 Christyn Williams Olivia Nelson-Ododa. Time will tell, looks promising but needed a 3rd quality player.
2019 Aubrey Griffin Needed a couple of more quality players.

Geno has gone Six Years without signing a Good Starting Power Forward and Five Years without getting a Post player until Olivia Nelson-Ododa in last years class. ND besides playing better down the Stretch, won the game because of their Offensive Rebounding due to the teams lack of Size and Power up front.

Not saying Geno and Staff aren't working hard to get the quality recruits, but for what ever reason they've come up short these last few years. Had high homes when Batouly Camara transferred in as she would be the power up front that Geno wasn't able to sign. She's been a disappointment due to injuries and other issues. Needed Stevens this year, but sadly she only played the one year.

Let us face it, Geno isn't getting the players he needs for a number or reasons
1. Uconn/Geno isn't for most. (Everyone is too broad)
2. Players and parents certainly more tuned into what or what not they can demand and some coaches will allow a lot of demands--NOT Geno.
3.Nike isn't helping as much on the Women's side as they are on Men's.
4.Then, the obvious--some players just don't want to come to Uconn.
5. The interesting thing about this NCAA season: Every team in the FF mix looked very beatable---this of course includes ND (Uconn led them, no domination) and Baylor--if the game was 2 minutes longer Sabrina and company may have won.
6. CW was a Junior Freshman most of this year, she made big shots as did Walker. Next season without NC and KLS they will not be deferring both have shown they can score and dominate. ONO, her game in the FF shows she is a presence and an offensive and defensive force--when she was in ND had a much tougher time. She was pulled because Turner was going to use her to get Foul shots, not next year. If All that is written about Aubrey Griffin is half true she will fill lots of the wholes mentioned. Walker plays 4 inches taller than her height.

 

[JonathanXIV]

I think your description of the recruiting classes is overly harsh. If we got a class of a 2x and 3x AA every year we would take it. And it’s unrealistic to expect a 6’5” player every year. Our recruiting “problem” is that a couple of thin classes have not been offset by a large recruiting classes of top quality players. Let’s hope the 2020 class is such a class.

 

[Geesworld]

Let us face it, Geno isn't getting the players he needs for a number or reasons
1. Uconn/Geno isn't for most. (Everyone is too broad)
2. Players and parents certainly more tuned into what or what not they can demand and some coaches will allow a lot of demands--NOT Geno.
3.Nike isn't helping as much on the Women's side as they are on Men's.
4.Then, the obvious--some players just don't want to come to Uconn.
5. The interesting thing about this NCAA season: Every team in the FF mix looked very beatable---this of course includes ND (Uconn led them, no domination) and Baylor--if the game was 2 minutes longer Sabrina and company may have won.
6. CW was a Junior Freshman most of this year, she made big shots as did Walker. Next season without NC and KLS they will not be deferring both have shown they can score and dominate. ONO, her game in the FF shows she is a presence and an offensive and defensive force--when she was in ND had a much tougher time. She was pulled because Turner was going to use her to get Foul shots, not next year. If All that is written about Aubrey Griffin is half true she will fill lots of the wholes mentioned. Walker plays 4 inches taller than her height.

Great Post!!!

 

[BroadwayVa]

I do think that the best class of players that did not win the NC was Gabby, Kia, Pheesa, KLS, and Crystal. And before that with Saniya and Crystal. I still think that he needs an 8 foot center. Listened to Mulkey last night at half time. She said she would take any 6 5 or 6 7 big in the country and we will find a way to get you the ball. I agree. They will stop ND.

While I think an 8 ft Center is a bit tiny, your point is well made. Mulkey wasn't as accurate as she may not to have liked. If she has a 6 ft 7, what makes her think others won't have a more agile, athletic, talented, Center/forward (ONO). Using two bigs with good size forwards and guards with talent make it hard to beat her but Oregon came within a minute or 2 of beating all her height. This could be another NC for ND.
One more point, if you will allow: Gabby et al were .1 second from winning on an outstanding almost fluke shot. Same for the ND game circa 2018. Both games were toss ups at the end. I too can find a lot to no like in the last 3 FF's but it is not like UConn wasn't in those games to the last second--this FF was the most profound and loss loss, no last second antic;s. My feeling is had ONO stayed in the outcome may have been better for Uconn.

I think your description of the recruiting classes is overly harsh. If we got a class of a 2x and 3x AA every year we would take it. And it’s unrealistic to expect a 6’5” player every year. Our recruiting “problem” is that a couple of thin classes have not been offset by a large recruiting classes of top quality players. Let’s hope the 2020 class is such a class.

 

[Bigboote]

Don’t forget we had a true post in Natalie Butler. That didn’t work out out, giving weight to B’way’s first point. And Camara is a true 4. Geno’s crystal ball somehow didn’t show that she’d have severe knee problems.

 

[Geesworld]

The lack of Compete Recruiting Classes has caught up to UConn. No Longer are Freshmen able to come off the bench for a year while an All American Caliber player is starting. The last complete recruiting class Geno had was Breanna Stewart's class consisting of Breanna, Morgan Tuck, Moriah Jefferson and Briana Pulido. Since then these are Geno's classes.

2013 Saniya Chong
2014 Kia Nurse, Gabby Williams, Courtney Ekmark (XFR) Sadie Edwards (XFR) Obviously Kia and Gabby were great, No PF or Center
2015 Napheesa Collier, Katie-Lou Samuelson De'Janae Boykin (XFR) Good class, but needed Boykin to Pan Out to make it a Great Class.
2016 Crystal Dangerfield, Kyla Irwin and Molly Bent One Starter out of the Class.
2017 Megan Walker, Mikayla Coombs, Andra Espinoza-Hunter (XFR) Lexie Gordon (XFR) Class Underachieving based on ranking, One Starter. No size despite a four player class.
2018 Christyn Williams Olivia Nelson-Ododa. Time will tell, looks promising but needed a 3rd quality player.
2019 Aubrey Griffin Needed a couple of more quality players.

Geno has gone Six Years without signing a Good Starting Power Forward and Five Years without getting a Post player until Olivia Nelson-Ododa in last years class. ND besides playing better down the Stretch, won the game because of their Offensive Rebounding due to the teams lack of Size and Power up front.

Not saying Geno and Staff aren't working hard to get the quality recruits, but for what ever reason they've come up short these last few years. Had high homes when Batouly Camara transferred in as she would be the power up front that Geno wasn't able to sign. She's been a disappointment due to injuries and other issues. Needed Stevens this year, but sadly she only played the one year.

Your right, Geno hasn't gotten another big and it hurt us this year.
Pheesa and Stevens was a great combo last year mixed in with Gabby's athletic ability. But none of them were enforcer type.
Emphasis next two years should be find 1 mobile Big and 1 stabilizer big to play along side ONO for her last two years.

 

[Geesworld]

While I think an 8 ft Center is a bit tiny, your point is well made. Mulkey wasn't as accurate as she may not to have liked. If she has a 6 ft 7, what makes her think others won't have a more agile, athletic, talented, Center/forward (ONO). Using two bigs with good size forwards and guards with talent make it hard to beat her but Oregon came within a minute or 2 of beating all her height. This could be another NC for ND.
One more point, if you will allow: Gabby et al were .1 second from winning on an outstanding almost fluke shot. Same for the ND game circa 2018. Both games were toss ups at the end. I too can find a lot to no like in the last 3 FF's but it is not like UConn wasn't in those games to the last second--this FF was the most profound and loss loss, no last second antic;s. My feeling is had ONO stayed in the outcome may have been better for Uconn.

I agree...maybe stay with ONO late just because she brought a defensive element to the game. Plus I think we looked to go inside more when she was on the court. We were three point happy when she was off the court.

 

[TheFarmFan]

I think the recruiting is fine. In terms of height, you had 6'4" ONO, 6'3' KLS, and 6'2' Pheesa on the floor at the same time. That is not a heigh-challenged lineup, in my opinion. And all six of the players on the floor last night showed glimpses of what made them top 1-6 recruits (seriously, think about that: the lineup was #1, #1, #1, #3, #4, #6, and 6 was Pheesa!).

To me, the problem was twofold: one, UConn lacks a super reliable point guard at the moment. CD can have flashes of brilliance (IMHO, her 4th quarter take over is the only reason UConn escapes UCLA), but last night she didn't add much of anything and I didn't see her facilitating on offense very much. Nor does she get the kinds of steals that Mo could and that would disrupt the opponent's offense.

But the single biggest factor is that none of this set of players has that extra gear, that will to win and take over a game because I WILL NOT LOSE. DT had it. Maya had it. Stewwie had it (though she rarely needed to use it!). CW channeled it back in December in South Bend. No one had it last night, and no one's had it much this entire season. Arike has it. In the 4th quarter, she basically just wasn't going to lose to y'all, and if she needed to, she'd take over 1-on-1 and make things happen. UConn had no answer, because right now, UConn has no such equivalent player. Systems are great, but in a pinch, you need someone who will just take over and lead the team down the stretch.

The good news? Bueckers has it. Y'all got a real good one there. I'm not sure what next season holds, but I think 2020-2021 will be the beginning of the next chapter of Huskie Greatness.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Thn

I agree...maybe stay with ONO late just because she brought a defensive element to the game. Plus I think we looked to go inside more when she was on the court. We were three point happy when she was off the court.

Thanks, I agree. I have never been capable of reading Geno's mind, but when Turner made a quick turn into ONO and foul was call, at a critical time--Geno must have thought this is trend in the making. Let's stop it before it's too late.
Who know's --obviouly, no one--what would have happened had Walker taken the defense of Turner and ONO helping out and stopping Shepherd on the boards. The score changed without ONO.

 

[Geesworld]

I think the recruiting is fine. In terms of height, you had 6'4" ONO, 6'3' KLS, and 6'2' Pheesa on the floor at the same time. That is not a heigh-challenged lineup, in my opinion. And all six of the players on the floor last night showed glimpses of what made them top 1-6 recruits (seriously, think about that: the lineup was #1, #1, #1, #3, #4, #6, and 6 was Pheesa!).

To me, the problem was twofold: one, UConn lacks a super reliable point guard at the moment. CD can have flashes of brilliance (IMHO, her 4th quarter take over is the only reason UConn escapes UCLA), but last night she didn't add much of anything and I didn't see her facilitating on offense very much. Nor does she get the kinds of steals that Mo could and that would disrupt the opponent's offense.

But the single biggest factor is that none of this set of players has that extra gear, that will to win and take over a game because I WILL NOT LOSE. DT had it. Maya had it. Stewwie had it (though she rarely needed to use it!). CW channeled it back in December in South Bend. No one had it last night, and no one's had it much this entire season. Arike has it. In the 4th quarter, she basically just wasn't going to lose to y'all, and if she needed to, she'd take over 1-on-1 and make things happen. UConn had no answer, because right now, UConn has no such equivalent player. Systems are great, but in a pinch, you need someone who will just take over and lead the team down the stretch.

The good news? Bueckers has it. Y'all got a real good one there. I'm not sure what next season holds, but I think 2020-2021 will be the beginning of the next chapter of Huskie Greatness.

Great Post.

Your assessment on CD is spot on. Not a great overall tourney from her. I think she got worn down having to expand so much on defense against other teams top player. Would like to have seen Coaches add Mikayla to the mix to help CD get physical and mental rest. I think Geno, could Put CD in few pick and roll situations to get her going and get better spacing for her to create. Geno used to play players solely because they brought defense and a toughness to the table. I hope he gets back to that.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

This isn't exactly like it, but Connecticut's last big drought came after Diana Taurasi arrived in Connecticut. From that point until Tina Charles arrived, we went through, what, four years of subpar recruiting.

We've had some good players over the past three years, but not a great, and not an excellent post player, let alone several front court players. Yes, we've recruited one good player for next year. Yes, we've recruited an excellent guard for the year after that. But for UConn to get back to the very top, as we have for years, we need a great post player and three or four strong, big forwards over a couple of years.

Baylor is loaded with talent, especially in the front court. And sitting on the bench is a team that could easily be Top 10 on their own. This year Notre Dame had a team that was tremendously talented at every position, and will get guaranteed top talent at least for the next year.

It's not rocket science. Great talent wins championships. Coach Geno took this team as far as it could logically go, perhaps even further. But for the dynasty to continue we'll need big, talented front court players, and lots of company from the classes of '20 and '21.

Fingers crossed waiting for recruiting news this fall. Those months will be telling.

 

[Blakeon18]

This spring is a critical recruiting period....as to eligibility for next year. Get a solid guard who can play the 1 and 2....get a big even if she is here s a 5th year grad for one year.
Fantastic start for 2020 with Paige...get a big....and a wing and we are off and running.
Next year OOC schedule is fantastic....thankfully many are at home. No signings in the spring for next year...might be kinda strenuous.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Unless there's an influx of Transfers, Crystal is likely to be the First UConn player in a long time to not get a National Championship during her stay at UConn. I think I'm right that you have to go back to the disaster 2003 class of Liz Sherwood, Kiana Robinson and Kia Wright who all transferred as the last Recruiting Class not to win a National Championship during their tenure at UConn.

 

[pspr11]

We have been spoiled. NC's are all we want and that's ok. But consider what we did this year with what we had. It was a great year for Geno and the team.

 

[Go/huskies]

Unless there's an influx of Transfers, Crystal is likely to be the First UConn player in a long time to not get a National Championship during her stay at UConn. I think I'm right that you have to go back to the disaster 2003 class of Liz Sherwood, Kiana Robinson and Kia Wright who all transferred as the last Recruiting Class not to win a National Championship during their tenure at UConn.

Houston, Swanier, Thomas.

 

[Sonny44]

The lack of Compete Recruiting Classes has caught up to UConn. No Longer are Freshmen able to come off the bench for a year while an All American Caliber player is starting. The last complete recruiting class Geno had was Breanna Stewart's class consisting of Breanna, Morgan Tuck, Moriah Jefferson and Briana Pulido. Since then these are Geno's classes.

2013 Saniya Chong
2014 Kia Nurse, Gabby Williams, Courtney Ekmark (XFR) Sadie Edwards (XFR) Obviously Kia and Gabby were great, No PF or Center
2015 Napheesa Collier, Katie-Lou Samuelson De'Janae Boykin (XFR) Good class, but needed Boykin to Pan Out to make it a Great Class.
2016 Crystal Dangerfield, Kyla Irwin and Molly Bent One Starter out of the Class.
2017 Megan Walker, Mikayla Coombs, Andra Espinoza-Hunter (XFR) Lexie Gordon (XFR) Class Underachieving based on ranking, One Starter. No size despite a four player class.
2018 Christyn Williams Olivia Nelson-Ododa. Time will tell, looks promising but needed a 3rd quality player.
2019 Aubrey Griffin Needed a couple of more quality players.

Geno has gone Six Years without signing a Good Starting Power Forward and Five Years without getting a Post player until Olivia Nelson-Ododa in last years class. ND besides playing better down the Stretch, won the game because of their Offensive Rebounding due to the teams lack of Size and Power up front.

Not saying Geno and Staff aren't working hard to get the quality recruits, but for what ever reason they've come up short these last few years. Had high hopes when Batouly Camara transferred in as she would be the power up front that Geno wasn't able to sign. She's been a disappointment due to injuries and other issues. Needed Stevens this year, but sadly she only played the one year.

Agree, we lost from lack of rebounding giving away many second and third chances. Hxxl, we almost lost to Buffalo for the same reason!
As I've said so many times the biggest and best of the bigs are coming out of the south. We haven't been able to figure out how to get them to leave family and friends and come north. I don't know if there is an answer.

 

[jonson]

But the single biggest factor is that none of this set of players has that extra gear, that will to win and take over a game because I WILL NOT LOSE. DT had it. Maya had it. Stewwie had it (though she rarely needed to use it!). . . . Systems are great, but in a pinch, you need someone who will just take over and lead the team down the stretch.

This seems to me the key insight in a post full of them. My version of the "extra gear" is that, unlike last year's loss, the game had a "waiting for the inevitable" feel, with--for the first time in more than a decade--the waiting having to do, not with a UCONN team that's not playing very well finally getting its act together and putting away a lesser opponent, but with the team in the other uniform.

 

[cohenzone]

But the single biggest factor is that none of this set of players has that extra gear, that will to win and take over a game because I WILL NOT LOSE. DT had it. Maya had it. Stewwie had it (though she rarely needed to use it!). CW channeled it back in December in South Bend. No one had it last night, and no one's had it much this entire season. Arike has it. In the 4th quarter, she basically just wasn't going to lose to y'all, and if she needed to, she'd take over 1-on-1 and make things happen. UConn had no answer, because right now, UConn has no such equivalent player. Systems are great, but in a pinch, you need someone who will just take over and lead the team down the stretch.

The good news? Bueckers has it. Y'all got a real good one there. I'm not sure what next season holds, but I think 2020-2021 will be the beginning of the next chapter of Huskie Greatness.

I agree on this year’s team. I think Williams has it. She’s only a freshman and she and the team generally looked to the senior AAs down the stretch. I think Williams will be more assertive next year . Was Arike taking over games her first year? It’s true that the team overall lacked an obvious killer instinct, but they only lost 3 games to excellent teams, two of which they also beat.

 

[Lawrence]

Stop whining...

 

[Ouremblem]

Amari DeBerry is roughly 6 hours from Storrs out in Buffalo. She would be a huge get. 6’5”. Considers Breanna the goat. On her twitter page she has Paige’s announcement. Reason to hope? Didn’t she attend our game with Buffalo?

 

[cohenzone]

Amari DeBerry is roughly 6 hours from Storrs out in Buffalo. She would be a huge get. 6’5”. Considers Breanna the goat. On her twitter page she has Paige’s announcement. Reason to hope? Didn’t she attend our game with Buffalo?

She would be great. Buffalo, though, is closer to 8-9 hours by car. I think she’d be flying.

 

[hjoerring]

I will say that contrary to the many, this was a lost that I was comfortable having. We played very good basketball from the AAC tournament on. It is difficult to beat a team x2, especially when you are more or less even-- give or take one or two things. (Ask LV!) Crying about such a lost only shows the unreasonableness of some people. Minutes add-up during a season and it showed with this team and, the lack of a Big meant that players were forced to play bigger than they are. Even Oregon with very good and mobile post players played extremely well but were worn down by those big girls of Baylor. They too had a lead going into the last few minutes.

And yes, we will come to miss the seniors-- 4yrs always do that; but, we re-group and others step forward. This is not to say that the old priorities are not there- they are, and the staff is doing their best to fix it-- why wouldn't they! Are we (anyone) a final 4 team for the coming season? Unlike many,I have never had a crystal ball-- it keeps me free from disappointments set in motion long before the first ball enters the basket.
My thoughts have turned to our 2 seniors and the upcoming draft.

 

[Orangutan]

The good news? Bueckers has it. Y'all got a real good one there. I'm not sure what next season holds, but I think 2020-2021 will be the beginning of the next chapter of Huskie Greatness.

I had the terrifying thought this morning that Williams and Bueckers are going to overlap for two years. Even if Bueckers has the traditional difficult first year at UConn, she will be a sophomore when Williams is a senior.

Good freakin' luck guarding those two in the same backcourt!