Quote:
Originally Posted by Slewbopper
This is simply not true, at least not this year. Maya was the #1 highschooler in the country as a junior and senior. Of the rest of the roster, none were ranked higher than #10. Other programs (Tennessee, Duke, UNC) are more "stacked" according to HS rankings. Tennessee presently has a roster of at least 6 players that were ranked in the top 10 in HS. Why haven't they even been able to reach the Elite 8 the last two years? Coaching.
Geno goes after players that will fit into his system....essentially a team of unselfish role players....players who were stars in high school, but buy into his team concept.
Prior to the '08-'09 season, UConn signed the #1 HS player in the country, a 6'5 guard named Elena Della Donne. She is probably the greatest pure shooter in the history of the women's game. She attended a pre-season two week get together in June when the team held voluntary uncoached scrimmages and practices. She packed her bags and went home to Delaware after two days. She knew at the time she would be unable to give the intensity needed to play at UConn. In August, she officially left UConn and enrolled at Delaware. She is now playing there in obscurity with little chance of ever making it to the NCAA tournament, and if she does it will be as a 13 to 16 seed. We certainly haven't missed her.
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I have to admit that I don't watch but I find it shockingly hard to believe that the highest profile school in the country with a 90 game win streak that regularly beats teams by 30+ points doesnt have a huge talent disparity when compared to the other "top" teams.
http://www.wnba.com/features/confere...9_bigeast.html
When looking at the 24 WNBA players from the BIG EAST, the 12 players from the University of Connecticut jump off the page. We could have easily created an All-UConn squad that probably could have competed with some other conference squads.