The Bad For The Game Drumbeat Begins

[Ozimoto]

As for the article, Mr. Hertzel could have done a bit more research and not taken Coach Carey's statement at face value about the spread of talent in the women's game, but he's no spring chicken anymore and he is more of a guest columnist than a hard core sports journalist at this point in his career. Many of the same arguments are being made in the sports bars (if not the media) about Alabama and college football. Most people believe that Alabama is going to win the title most years until Coach Saban retires.

Usually dynasties in college sports end when transcendent coaches retire. Alabama had down years when Bear Bryant retired. Notre Dame's dominance ended when Frank Leahy retired. UNC basketball suffered a drop off when Dean Smith retired as did UCLA when John Wooden moved on. On the women's side, you will see the same thing as Geno, Muffet, Kim, and Tara retire. It will be extremely difficult for those schools to maintain their "dynasties" when those coaches retire. And, how quickly people forget that in the NCAA women's tournament last year only one of the four top seeds made it to the final four. I don't think we are at the point where that will be a regular occurrence just yet, but I think it is a harbinger for a growth of parity in the sport.

 

[CL82]

Players are flocking to Waco for the beautiful landscape and the mild summers.

Ever see that husband wife renovation team show that's out of Waco? (Just googled it, they are Chip and Joanna Gaines/Magnolia Homes.) That show is like an ad for Waco.

 

[CocoHusky]

How about Maryland, UCLA, Ohio St, Duke, North Carolina, Washington, Mississippi St, Tennessee, and others. Carey's response is such a load of *#&@!. Some programs have better coaches than others and coach them to an elite level. How about the year when Saniya was the only recruit?

Calm down. The statement was: "Right now, Carey notes, UConn, Notre Dame and Baylor are cornering the market on Parade All-Americans."
He did not say Parade All-Americans were not going to other schools. Regardless of how you measure it (by total numbers or by most impactful) it is an accurate verifiable statement. Player development was not addressed in the article but if you want to go down that route Carey did a very nice job of developing Connecticut's own Bria Holmes & Saniya was also Parade All-American.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Geno agreed with reducing scholarships from 15 to 13. Many of the other College coaches that coach elite teams did not. With most Colleges using Male Practice players IMO there's not reason to have 15 players on scholarship. The two scholarships could be used for other Sports that females participate in. (Soccer, Swimming, Softball etc.)

Why does he not talk about reducing the number of scholarships from 15 to 13?

 

[UcMiami]

As far as elite talent goes, there are clearly a few years every decade when an 'elite' talent distances themselves from the pack of HS talent:
Candace Parker, Maya Moore, EDD, and Breanna Stewart were all those players, but in other years, even when there is a consensus #1 talent in HS the distance between them and the rest of the top ten is not significant. I did not include DT or BG in that list because coming out of HS they had not distanced themselves from other HS talent - Kelsey Bone and BG traded #1 and #2 positions throughout HS, but BG stayed at one school that designed its whole program around her talents for 4 years, Kelsey changed schools and suffered for it in her development - the same is happening for her as a pro. DT was certainly a prized recruit but there were a couple of others her year as well, and she and Beard traded honors through their college years.

And in terms of #1 recruits - Duke, TN, SC, UNC have all had them in the last half decade or so.

Uconn, Baylor, and ND get a lot of talent, but generally their talent lives up to or even exceeds the HS ranking, while some of the other schools consistently fail to nurture the talent they get. There really is a lot of raw talent out there in WCBB - OSU and Maryland are absolutely loaded, TX and Louisville are as well. And other programs that have recruit boatloads of talent have driven most of it away, into the arms of programs like FSU, and SC, and Baylor and yes Uconn.

The reality in the women's game is that you only need to get 2.5 good recruits per year because you get them for 4 years - so if you coach them up and retain them, and match the recruits you sign to the needs of your program, getting one top 10 and one top 30 recruit each year is sufficient to needs for an elite program. That leaves a whole lot of other talent available for other programs. Getting a Dolson or a Faris or a Kia is just gravy.

And all you need to do is look at last year's final four to understand that 'talent' is not the issue in competitive equality - ranked on talent, three of the FF teams should probably have exited at the round of 16, and a couple were lucky to get out of the round of 32.

 

[meyers7]

So, if I hear you folks right you don't want this kind of thing brought to your attention? But if I stumble on a good furniture bargain ....

 

[meyers7]

NBA Minimum Salary: $874,636
WNBA Maximum Salary: $107,000

NBA TV contract - $2.67 Billion per year
WNBA TV contract - $12 Million per year

 

[meyers7]

Ever see that husband wife renovation team show that's out of Waco? (Just googled it, they are Chip and Joanna Gaines/Magnolia Homes.) That show is like an ad for Waco.

My wife loves that show. And them.

 

[vtcwbuff]

My wife loves that show. And them.

Mine also. Now that they are successful and getting a lot of attention, they have been catching a lot of crap about being Christian and the way they choose to raise their kids. No cell phones or TV for the kids.
They make them play outside and encourage them to get dirty! Can you imagine.

 

[baggerbob]

How about Maryland, UCLA, Ohio St, Duke, North Carolina, Washington, Mississippi St, Tennessee, and others. Carey's response is such a load of *#&@!. Some programs have better coaches than others and coach them to an elite level. How about the year when Saniya was the only recruit?

The previous year had Stewie, Moriah, and Morgan possibly the greatest class ever.