Stanford's Incoming Class

[Fightin Choke]

You're responding to my post by quoting "VG"?

That is classic isn't it? You know what they say about making someone eat their own words. But seriously, I know who the authorities are on this site. Who else would I quote? DD is too busy being polite to say anything of note.

I don't know who that dude is but he sure sounds brilliant. And stunningly handsome.

He's kind of a dog.

 

[sivad40]

Johnson, their lowest rate recruit, may be their best. She is out of Wyoming and didn't get a ton of exposure. I saw her play three times and I feel like she could have been top 20 or 30 at least.

They have Anna Wilson as well for 2016 and that could help them land some solid frontcourt players.

Erica McCall and Kailee Johnson will be very good for them imo. Both are former McDonald's AA's and for good reason. McCall has all the ability in the world to become as good as the Ogwumikes and Johnson has great versatility.

Stanford will continue to hold strong.

side note: they will have two Kailee Johnsons on their roster for the next three years. Can't wait for the announcers confusion from that.

Kailee Johnson SO, Kaylee Johnson FR. I agree with you about the announcers confusion with their names.

 

[willtalk]

Confused by McCall. Supposed to be really good but she was non-existent this past year. Not sure what to expect.

I thought she was over rated. There were much better players in Cali. that didn't get the exposure she got. Playing for the right AAU team was everything for California players then. Duke's Odom went from the mid thirtys to an invite to the national team because she changed AAU teams and got exposure. Once she made the team she went to top ten. Now there are far more Nike teams that get national exposure. McCall is not even close to Chineys ability. She is a better than average post.

 

[JellyBean]

Stanford is certainly not going to fall off the map and I haven't heard anyone say that, but Chiney was a huge part of their success last year (and was a huge success as a rookie in the WNBA.) I think #10 is probably a good estimate of where they are likely to be ranked by the end of the year. They have good talent and a very good coach, but they have run out of 'O sisters' to lead them. And they are likely to face stiffer competition in the Pac so they will likely have a few more losses so their ranking will suffer some.

I agree. I don't see Stanford falling off like some experts are predicting. Some rags have Stanford 15-20. I just don't see them falling off that much. They have a great coach with some pretty solid talent around them. Erica McCall will be the key, as well as Amber Orrange and Lili Thompson. I think Stanford is going to surprise a lot of people.

 

[cannon]

I thought she was over rated. There were much better players in Cali. that didn't get the exposure she got.......

Who were those much better players?

 

[Icebear]

I think some of those folks are talking about Stanford this year, not long term. I do expect this to be a transitional year.

 

[UcMiami]

Stanford is certainly not going to fall off the map and I haven't heard anyone say that, but Chiney was a huge part of their success last year (and was a huge success as a rookie in the WNBA.) I think #10 is probably a good estimate of where they are likely to be ranked by the end of the year. They have good talent and a very good coach, but they have run out of 'O sisters' to lead them. And they are likely to face stiffer competition in the Pac so they will likely have a few more losses so their ranking will suffer some.

Nice analysis, except when you turn it around and look at Uconn - Uconn played a total of six players in the FF with four others averaging 1 minute apiece, and the sixth player averaging 16 minutes and 6.5 points. And Uconn was winning those games by 20+ points for most of the second half. You play your best players as long as they can go when you are losing or when the score is tight, so ...
Edit - it is not surprising that the Stanford bench was very short in the final two games, tat is what happens in the NCAAs.

 

[sofrito]

I'm not sure where Stanford ends up but I do agree that recruiting has taken a dip. ND and Louisville (and of course UCONN) seem to be recruiting consistently the best the past few years. Probably the next level down is South Carolina, UCLA, Duke, Tennessee, and Texas.

Actually in hindsight, I'd have to put L'ville in the 2nd tier as they only got one boffo class from 2015, prior to that it was average. Looking at the teams with the # of consensus top 10 kids in the past 4 years...

UCONN - 6
Duke - 6
Texas - 5
ND - 3
Tenn - 3
UCLA - 2
South Carolina - 2

And there are a bunch who have only 1 obviously as there are a grand total of 40 top 10 kids in 4 years and I only accounted for 27...

I agree that the teams that get the elite players will generally be most likely to compete for the FF/Championship. However, my cut off would be top 3 or top 4 rather than top ten. What I do not understand is how you got your numbers. I interpret consensus to mean that some set of the rating services all agree that a particular player is of top ten status. Over the past 4 years(2011 thru 2014 inclusive), the most recognizable services with publicly available data were ASGR, BS and HG. If you look at Duke, only one player fits that definition (E Williams) now that Alexis Jones has transferred. Also, I only count 3 for CT (KLM, BS and MJ). Also during that time frame, there were only 23 or 24 (rather than 40) consensus top 10 players once again using my definition of consensus. Of those, at least 4 will not play this year (Forthan, Jones, De Shields and Russell).