Recruiting has been, is and always will be an inexact science. There is no way to know how a teenager will respond away from home, how they will respond to this level coaching compared to being the "star" in high school. Are they still growing? Are they still working since they got to this level? You really never know. So many "star" players in high school have faded out. Go back and look at the top 100 for all sports for last 10 years or so. They are WAY more misses than hits. We have a team of 5 star players that struggled to beat teams with mostly 3 & 4 because they didnt play as hard or have not worked as hard. You just never know. I think Dawn has recruited great but look at the misses. Most of them just didnt like the situation. Kelsy Bone was to far from home and also didnt like Dawn coaching her so hard. Kaydra Duckett came in way out of shape and never got it going. thought she had made it before getting here. Jatari White didnt like being on the bench although this year she would have played a very significant role. Cuevas Moore, not fully sure of reasons but just was ready to go. Thats 4 different 5 star players that didnt pan out here but every school has them. Dawn is doing fine I think.
We are not scrambling for transfers... Like all the major programs, UConn included we are looking for ways to improve... Transfer season happen s every year.. It's a big part of recruiting... Would Notre Dame be champions without transfer ShepardOn the one hand, I hate to see us scrambling for transfers, as I think it highlights a troubling trend of recruiting misses.
On the other hand, if we can get a couple of transfers in that can contribute the way Davis and Gray did year before last, well, then, that's a good thing!
Recruiting still is concerning to me. I really thought coming off of a national championship that we would be able to rake in the top recruits. That doesn't seem to have been happening; Maybe I'm being greedy.
Exactly.. Two of the transfers Coach Staley is looking at visited UConn last week... One is at Miss St this weekend..
Dawn took over a program that was depleted of talent but not the dumpster fire FM inherited. She had to recruit leftovers and JUCOs. She built the program on toughness and D.
We have lost those recruits to UT UCONN, Louisville, Baylor, ND. All programs with a higher profile, long term success, and national championships. We are the new kid on the block.
We only a year ago won the national championship and are currently the mainstay at the top of the SEC. Our coach is a hall-of-fame player and is the current mentor of our national women's team. Those things should qualify us as pretty high-profile. I'm not the one typing exclamations and interjections, so I'm not the one screaming. Time will either confirm or dismiss my concerns.
You're an idiot... National Championship, 2 final fours, 4 elite eights, 5 SEC championships, 4 SEC tournament titles and you have the audacity to offer "we will see"??? Every player that contributed to the great success was recruited by Coach Staley.. It's one thing to be ignorant.. It quite another to be douche
We have gotten our share... We will continue to get our share..Any team is the product of 4 classes not1.. The 2019 class will determine if we stay on top of have a lapse like nearly all programs do... Notre Dame just won its first title since 2002... UConn hasn't won in 3 years... What on earth are our fans beefing about... Our fans are not spoiled.. Some are just ignorant... Glad you are not one of the stupid
you don't have a point... The success speaks for itself... You are just being a tool for some reason only you know
We are high profile but the programs I mentioned would be considered long term perennial mainstays. Compared to them We are the up and comer. You can quote everything we have done and those programs have been doing it 15-30 years longer than we have
We are a currently prominent program - yes or no? We have one of the most respected female basketball figures in the history of the women's game leading our program - yes or no? If the answer to those essentially rhetorical questions is "yes", then our infrequency in closing the deal with many of the premier high school prospects we actively recruit is grounds for some questions to be asked - yes or no? Now, if we haven't been among the nation's elite long enough to compete in recruiting with schools who aren't UConn, then how long will it be before we can expect to pull even with the Baylors or the Notre Dames?
See post #20 above and address it. Do you think we are as good now as we were a year ago? Two years ago? Is our overall talent at that level? If not, is our current recruiting on pace to get us back there? Those are legitimate questions, and your casting negative aspersions in my direction doesn't answer the questions.
What the bleep are you talking about? Tiffany Mitchell, Alaina Coates, Alisha Gray,Kaela Davis, A'ja Wilson, Ty Harris, Destanni Henderson, how many great players do we list before the bull shit ends.. She doesn't sign the number 1 player in the nation each year.. No school does... But Coach Staley has signed top 10 classes very year.. The recruiting rankings have been verified by results on the court... Yet we browse this thread loaded with incompetent garbage from people knowing so few facts they have no business adding their opinion...
You have no clue what you are talking about.. Just have enough class to admit you don't know the facts and butt out.. You are posting sheer nonsense that is not factual.. Nor can it be reconciled by what happens on the court the past 6 years
Idiot.. Those questions are answered on the court.. You didn't think the national championship team was very good ... you want to think the forum forgot all of your nonsense.. No such luck.. Stop the bull shit KingWard, just cut it out
You neither satisfactorily addressed my questions nor refrained from your usual uncivil manner in addressing me. My questions speak to the future of the program while you elect to recite the past. Unresponsive, ungentlemanly, and unsatisfactory.
Baylor.....18 straight NCAA tournaments,
See, that was a sensible and well-expressed response until you added the final sentence, which was needlessly gratuitous.
Needlessly gratuitous? Isn't that redundantly repetitive?
Not when you consider that, occasionally, gratuitous remarks might be interpreted as apt by some listeners. I would not conclude that in this instance, but someone else might.
I can see some of the points you are both making. Here's my lengthy take. On the one hand, yes Dawn has proven to be one of the best coaches in the country and has obviously brought USC to national prominence with 4 (not 5) regular season SEC titles, 4 SEC Tourney titles, 2 Final Fours, a national title etc. That puts USC in the same company IMO with about 10 or so schools nationally in terms of reputation, even if the resume is not the same (UCONN, Baylor, Notre Dame and add other top 15 teams such as Louisville, Texas, Maryland, A&M, Ohio State and other rising teams Miss State and Oregon to name a few.) Even without having won the last 2 titles UCONN is still the biggest team to beat in the recruiting wars evidenced by USC losing out to UCONN for 2 big time forwards in the last year.
I appreciate the time and thought you put into that, as well as the tone. This is a post one could refer to.
I would like you to cite one of my insults toward any poster. Also, the option to ignore one of both of us is at your disposal and would relieve you of the need to scroll through anything written by him or me. Personal insults are not my stock in trade. Neither do I countenance them.
Do you realize the irony of that post.. You suggest King is too smart to insult anyone... One paragraph later you sideswipe a poster who tries to be nice to you with the obsessed teen nonsense... Picking a fight with a non enemy is something an eight year old would do...
You are very nice to me and bring an obsessive amount of knowledge of WBB(far beyond my obsession and I consider that a plus) I always look forward to your posts and learn from them. But just as I become at a times a pissy know it all, KW wallows in negativity, you my friend at times oversell the strengths of our program and players. And I know you do it out of love for Dawn and our program! all of us have default positions that make us at times caricatures of ourselves. That is what makes us fun, stupid, laughable and loveable. I would love to go to a game with you and hear your insights. Sorry that my words hurt they were meant as an observation not a judgement
Why do you see the need to personally attack a person for his opinion? Every person on this board should be free to express an opinion without fear of a personal attack for that opinion. Or are you one of those people who believe other people don't have the right to express an opinion if it differs from yours?
It s a long story... I actually like King Ward.. I enjoy talking football and golf wit h himt.. His habit of repeatedly intersecting sheer nonsense into threads on WBB, deserves rebuke.. He knows nothing about the sport nor the program... There are several knowledgeable posters that try to enlighten him(I used to try)... But he rejects obvious irrefutable facts seemingly for the sake of contention... That's stupid and I let him know it...
