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Message: [QUOTE="diggerfoot, post: 3209933, member: 1673"] I was never keen on Prince coming here, though it has to do with our situation, not her personally/professionally. I would never express reservations about an active recruit or player, knowing that at least some of them read the Boneyard, but I have no problem expressing my reservations now. First, as a general principle, I believe in chemistry over insurance for building long term success. Sure, if you do not recruit for insurance, then for any particular year an injury or unforeseen circumstance can wreck things. If ONO gets an injury this coming season, then not having another big like Prince might prevent us from even making the FF. However, that's just one season and it means little more than bad luck will occasionally bite us just as it does every program. But insuring against every possible stroke of bad luck, if done perpetually, perpetually will undermine chemistry. 4-5 insurance players on a roster every year will not escape that notice and the chemistry will not be as great, nor will the much needed repetitions for any particular nonstarter. I believe chemistry, not insuring against bad luck, contributes more to why Auriemma has built a dynasty. That does not automatically mean that Prince would be bad for chemistry, but I think she would be through no fault of her own. If she is eligible immediately that creates a logjam with three seniors, one with more experience and success with college basketball, two with more experience with the UConn way. Considering Conlon could be made a starter on a championship team, none of those three's weaknesses are so glaring that they could not be groomed for success if given the repetitions a player like Conlon received. Having a freshman with a high ceiling but immediate question marks and inexperience would have been damaging to chemistry in the short term if she was immediately eligible, plus there is no guarantee she could add much if ONO remains healthy and gets 30+ minutes at center. But what about the long term? That may have worked out, and the "bird in the hand" philosophy is a little different than the insurance philosophy, but in the best of all recruiting worlds I would take a genuine, talented rising freshman over Prince. What about the injury? What about leaving early? There are some other factors that concern me as well. I prefer someone like Cardosa being ONO's understudy rather than Prince. We could strike out again like we did with Boston, I suspect that was totally unexpected, but laws of average will work themselves out and Auriemma also proves to be an adaptable coach in recruiting. Hey! Bad things happen to good programs, but if you define success by any metric besides who won the last championship, we are still the most successful program in WCBB. Also, our current "downturn" is currently more successful than any of our other "downturns" in the past. [/QUOTE]

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