UCONN Commitments -- Blue Star Report (2012-2019)

[CamrnCrz1974]

Boneyarders (and Lurkers):

Since there has been a lot of discussion of recruiting rankings in recent weeks/months/years, I put together the following chart of Blue Star Report's rankings for UConn players, covering 2012 through 2019. I think this will be helpful to an analysis of one recruiting services' ratings and rankings for UConn commitments/signees across eight recruiting classes -- and it will also be good for reference, when posters have discussions about player evaluations, recruiting services' rankings, etc. in the future!

Enjoy -- and please let me know if I have missed any UConn commitments!

BLUE STAR REPORT RANKINGS

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#1	Breanna Stewart	2012
#2	Moriah Jefferson	2012
#9	Morgan Tuck	2012

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#30	Saniya Chong	2013

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#6	Gabrielle (Gabby) Williams	2014
#9	Sadie Edwards	2014
#10	Kia Nurse	2014
#13	Courtney Ekmark	2014

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#1	Katie Lou Samuelson	2015
#5	Napheesa Collier	2015
#9	DeJanae Boykin	2015

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#3	Crystal Dangerfield	2016
#44	Kyla Irwin	2016
#110	Molly Bent	2016

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#1	Megan Walker	2017
#8	Mikayla Coombs	2017
#10	Andra Espinoza-Hunter	2017
#21	Alexis (Lexi) Gordon	2017

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#2	Christyn Williams	2018
#5	Olivia Nelson-Ododa	2018

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#27	Aubrey Griffin	2019

@EricLA , @HuskyNan , @vowelguy , @ucbart , @triaddukefan , @CocoHusky , @Fairfield Fan
(tagging people with whom I have had countless discussions about recruiting rankings and UConn commitments/signees)

 

[CTtoSanDiego]

who was ranked ahead of CW on Blue Star?

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

who was ranked ahead of CW on Blue Star?

@CTtoSanDiego , one-time UConn commitment Charli Collier was ranked #1 by Blue Star for the HS Class of 2017.

 

[Vowelguy]

Consolidated with a few columns added....

 

[baggerbob]

Right now outside of Stewie, Kia is the best WNBA player. It seems in college she was the glue, but deferred too often to her teammates.

 

[eebmg]

Right now outside of Stewie, Kia is the best WNBA player. It seems in college she was the glue, but deferred too often to her teammates.

I think Kia's game at UConn simply grew steadily and she contributed her fair share of what she could handle at the time. She had weaknesses in her offensive game that just got better over time. I just love how she keeps finding new levels to improve. I think her mid range game for example is the best it had ever been and her driving to the basket continues to improve.

 

[Moose]

Ag

I think Kia's game at UConn simply grew steadily and she contributed her fair share of what she could handle at the time. She had weaknesses in her offensive game that just got better over time. I just love how she keeps finding new levels to improve. I think her mid range game for example is the best it had ever been and her driving to the basket continues to improve.

Agree. Kia keeps steadily improving. She had a good season in Australia and she's been able to keep the momentum going into the WNBA.

 

[UcMiami]

Bottom line ... not a bad recruiting haul.

 

[JordyG]

Right now outside of Stewie, Kia is the best WNBA player. It seems in college she was the glue, but deferred too often to her teammates.

I said it when she graduated and I'll say it again. Kia's aggressive style suits the pro game far more than the college game. 6 fouls and they often let the ladies play. 'Nuff said.

 

[bballnut90]

I think Kia's game at UConn simply grew steadily and she contributed her fair share of what she could handle at the time. She had weaknesses in her offensive game that just got better over time. I just love how she keeps finding new levels to improve. I think her mid range game for example is the best it had ever been and her driving to the basket continues to improve.

She has improved leaps and bounds offensively as a pro. Her release is much quicker than it was in college and offensively she's become much more than a catch and shoot player which is what we primarily saw at UCONN. Also isnt a 4th or 5th option offensively and is playing in a less structured offense that may suit her better. She might be UCONN's best pro player this season.

 

[uconnfan68]

I said it when she graduated and I'll say it again. Kia's aggressive style suits the pro game far more than the college game. 6 fouls and they often let the ladies play. 'Nuff said.

She still likes hockey. Plays like sometimes.

 

[01Neaggrad02]

Williams as a 2???? Aren't these the same Morons who said Taurasi was a 2?

 

[MilfordHusky]

Kia continues to develop, but I wouldn't put her ahead of Tina. Though Kia's numbers are better so far this year, I'm not sure I'd put her ahead of Tiffany either. Plus, Stewie, Sue, and Dee will be back at some point. In any case, Kia Nurse is one heck of a player. Drafted far too low!

 

[MSSportsGuy]

That's a pretty compelling list. Way way back when Blue Star was really the only rankings out there I remember seeing their list a few times and most of their highly ranked players wound up having very good college careers. I believe they did rank Ashley Robinson ahead of Diana Taurasi so clearly they weren't perfect.

 

[Lwrc]

Boneyarders (and Lurkers):

Since there has been a lot of discussion of recruiting rankings in recent weeks/months/years, I put together the following chart of Blue Star Report's rankings for UConn players, covering 2012 through 2019. I think this will be helpful to an analysis of one recruiting services' ratings and rankings for UConn commitments/signees across eight recruiting classes -- and it will also be good for reference, when posters have discussions about player evaluations, recruiting services' rankings, etc. in the future!

Enjoy -- and please let me know if I have missed any UConn commitments!

BLUE STAR REPORT RANKINGS

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#1	Breanna Stewart	2012
#2	Moriah Jefferson	2012
#9	Morgan Tuck	2012

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#30	Saniya Chong	2013

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#6	Gabrielle (Gabby) Williams	2014
#9	Sadie Edwards	2014
#10	Kia Nurse	2014
#13	Courtney Ekmark	2014

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#1	Katie Lou Samuelson	2015
#5	Napheesa Collier	2015
#9	DeJanae Boykin	2015

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#3	Crystal Dangerfield	2016
#44	Kyla Irwin	2016
#110	Molly Bent	2016

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#1	Megan Walker	2017
#8	Mikayla Coombs	2017
#10	Andra Espinoza-Hunter	2017
#21	Alexis (Lexi) Gordon	2017

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#2	Christyn Williams	2018
#5	Olivia Nelson-Ododa	2018

RANK​	PLAYER​	YEAR​
#27	Aubrey Griffin	2019

@EricLA , @HuskyNan , @vowelguy , @ucbart , @triaddukefan , @CocoHusky , @Fairfield Fan
(tagging people with whom I have had countless discussions about recruiting rankings and UConn commitments/signees)

I don’t know if I’m considered a “boneyarder” or “lurker” yet? I’m still a newbie, so probably a Lurker!

I love all the detail and stuff! Thanks for sharing all this. I know this info/thread was pushed out off some comments in another thread about rankings. Thought I would just post in here instead of the other thread.

I think we all agree that rankings for high schoolers is a tricky thing and everyone will have a certain percentage of misses on players. So I think assessing the scouting services is more about percentages and how often players are over ranked or under ranked once their college careers play out. Of course, as mentioned, college careers can be significantly influenced by opportunity and other factors. Mikayla Coombs might be an example of that. Just not enough PT for her with the stable of players of UConn. But I could see her excelling to a top 10 (for her age) level as a college player elsewhere. A player like Hunter also was victim to her situation with Geno. But she’s an example of scouting services not taking into account attitude, character and coachability. Same with Gordon. I referenced this in another post but I think Reese is a good example. Ranked too high because of serious attitude and coachability question marks. Not a loss for UConn in my opinion. She would be Espinoza-Hunter part 2!

I know you like CGBR but it just seems there is alternate agendas, missing logic, and a lack of support system relative to the other services. Most “college only” pay services utilize multiple staff and are accountable to the college coaches only. The public posting and ESPN backing for CGBR I think adds an agenda and less accountability. Same with PN which adds not only public posting but also has a “pay for tweets” program that can create a terrible connection allowing players to basically pay their way into rankings.

I know this won’t go over well in a UConn forum (I am a fan), but it does seem like Dangerfield was over ranked by many. ESPN/CGBR had her ahead of Inescu and Jackie Young. Once again, small flashy guard getting higher rankings than deserved. This is the missing logic I think many services whiff on at times, but CGBR most often. Shorter players with lots of flashiness have to bring far more to the table than flashiness in college. And almost all (few exceptions) end up being one dimensional (albeit needed for every team) PGs that run offenses well. Dangerfield. Great at her role but not a top 10 player in her class.

I am sure that Dan Olson is a great guy and he does countless hours assessing girls basketball. And I am thankful there are guys like him out there helping promote the women’s game. And I’m sure there are times that Olson hits a home run with his assessment/ranking. As I mentioned it’s more about consistency and structure. I do see the helpfulness of multiple reports coming after every scout. But I would still prefer ASGR or Bluestar over CGBR

 

[Go/huskies]

Only 4 post players, and still a lot of success, can’t be to mad at that.

 

[hoophuskee]

wbbfollower: I don't agree with your view on Coombs. I wish her well. But I just don't see what you see.

 

[UcMiami]

I don’t know if I’m considered a “boneyarder” or “lurker” yet? I’m still a newbie, so probably a Lurker!

I love all the detail and stuff! Thanks for sharing all this. I know this info/thread was pushed out off some comments in another thread about rankings. Thought I would just post in here instead of the other thread.

I think we all agree that rankings for high schoolers is a tricky thing and everyone will have a certain percentage of misses on players. So I think assessing the scouting services is more about percentages and how often players are over ranked or under ranked once their college careers play out. Of course, as mentioned, college careers can be significantly influenced by opportunity and other factors. Mikayla Coombs might be an example of that. Just not enough PT for her with the stable of players of UConn. But I could see her excelling to a top 10 (for her age) level as a college player elsewhere. A player like Hunter also was victim to her situation with Geno. But she’s an example of scouting services not taking into account attitude, character and coachability. Same with Gordon. I referenced this in another post but I think Reese is a good example. Ranked too high because of serious attitude and coachability question marks. Not a loss for UConn in my opinion. She would be Espinoza-Hunter part 2!

I know you like CGBR but it just seems there is alternate agendas, missing logic, and a lack of support system relative to the other services. Most “college only” pay services utilize multiple staff and are accountable to the college coaches only. The public posting and ESPN backing for CGBR I think adds an agenda and less accountability. Same with PN which adds not only public posting but also has a “pay for tweets” program that can create a terrible connection allowing players to basically pay their way into rankings.

I know this won’t go over well in a UConn forum (I am a fan), but it does seem like Dangerfield was over ranked by many. ESPN/CGBR had her ahead of Inescu and Jackie Young. Once again, small flashy guard getting higher rankings than deserved. This is the missing logic I think many services whiff on at times, but CGBR most often. Shorter players with lots of flashiness have to bring far more to the table than flashiness in college. And almost all (few exceptions) end up being one dimensional (albeit needed for every team) PGs that run offenses well. Dangerfield. Great at her role but not a top 10 player in her class.

I am sure that Dan Olson is a great guy and he does countless hours assessing girls basketball. And I am thankful there are guys like him out there helping promote the women’s game. And I’m sure there are times that Olson hits a home run with his assessment/ranking. As I mentioned it’s more about consistency and structure. I do see the helpfulness of multiple reports coming after every scout. But I would still prefer ASGR or Bluestar over CGBR

Enjoyable post with some thought and interesting takes on specific players not all of which I agree with.

I think you underestimate the specific college coaching/team environment which HS players enter. While I believe the WCBB coaching quality has dramatically improved in the last 20 years it is still quite spotty and the rated HS players continue to be less than efficient from their basketball future perspective in making their college choices.

And as every professional league draft process shows every year, evaluating talent is an operation fraught with glaring errors of judgement, and that is a process where the player evaluation is not dependent on a recruiting process that puts the power into the hands of the 'talent'. And the professional teams have basically unlimited money and personnel with which to perform their own player evaluations focused specifically on their own criteria.

I do not think 'agenda' of women's HS evaluations is as important as levels of competition/exposure and coaching available at the HS level and the exposition quality of AAU - it is not quite as bad as all-star game play but with little practice falls short of what even poor college coaching achieves in terms of team play.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

I know this won’t go over well in a UConn forum (I am a fan), but it does seem like Dangerfield was over ranked by many. ESPN/CGBR had her ahead of Inescu and Jackie Young. Once again, small flashy guard getting higher rankings than deserved. This is the missing logic I think many services whiff on at times, but CGBR most often. Shorter players with lots of flashiness have to bring far more to the table than flashiness in college. And almost all (few exceptions) end up being one dimensional (albeit needed for every team) PGs that run offenses well. Dangerfield. Great at her role but not a top 10 player in her class.

Blue Star also had her ahead of Ionescu and Young.

If you go back and look at the rankings, I think you'd be hard pressed to say Dangerfield hasn't been a top-10 player in her class.