First of all I did not post the picture, only commented and made a observation. That picture and the other information listed in this post, about our past teams recruiting, justified my observation. The numbers do not lie. As for accusing Coach Staley, who I and a big fan of, I did not. I was just just stating the obvious. She cannot say make statements on diversity and not practice what she is preaching. It kind of nullifies your message, that’s all.
I asked this question of another poster who was going down this rabbit hole, but for whatever reason neither he/she nor anyone else responded: how many White players are typically on the rosters of teams coached in Division 1 by Black head coaches? I would think if the numbers are similar elsewhere, it may point less to a practice or attitude of the coaches and more of an attitude of the players and their families.
In the last NCAA basketball tournament, other than the Gamecocks, there were eight programs helmed by Black coaches. Here is the number of White American players on each roster (I am not including foreign born players because they are raised under different cultural circumstances and because there were only a few additional players anyway.):
Western Kentucky: 1 of 15 (this is an edit; didn't realize two players were Egyptian and was incorrect about one the first look-through)
Cal-State Northridge: 2 of 15
Buffalo: 2 of 15
Syracuse: 2 of 15
Grambling St.: 0 of 15 (no surprise as an HBC)
Elon: 1 or 2 of 15 (was hard to determine one of players from photo)
UGA: 3 of 15
LSU: 2 of 15
Aggregate: 15 of 120, or 12.5 percent, and that's including the one player who may have been multiracial.
We can agree to disagree on the significance of this, but given that the players choose the school and not the other way around, I think those numbers may very well reflect a reticence on the part of White players to play for Black coaches more than a bias toward recruiting Black players by Staley or any other Black coach.
Stated a little differently, I think probably 9.8 times out of 10 a White player offered by Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley is going to pick UConn (I'd hazard a bet that, in practice since Staley has been a head coach, the number has been 100 percent). If a Black player is offered by both coaches, I think it's a pretty safe bet that our odds are considerably better. Is that Dawn Staley's fault? Does it harm her credibility to speak on issues of diversity because she's recruiting the best players available to her?
I don't think it does.