UConn Women Vs. UCLA

[Slewbopper]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

In the history of the NCAA womans tourney, Uconn and Tenn have won more championships than every other team combined, 15-14. The talent pool is simply not that deep and the teams getting the premier players (currently Uconn and formerly Tenn) win 50% of the championships. The difference in the little womans basketball that I watch seems to be the bottom teams have practically no chance to ever beat a top team.

Does UConn get top recruits? Definitely, but other schools, Duke and Tennessee specifically, get players who rated just as highly coming out of high school. What makes UConn different? They have a great, great coach who knows which players to recruit to fit his system and he knows how to develope them once they get to his program.

In '99, UConn had their first great recruiting class. BTW's girl Sue Bird was rated #10 in that class. She was recruited as a shooting guard but when the point guard went down before her college career began, Sue took over the reins. She ended her college career as a three time Lieberman Award winner (Best point guard) and the 2002 player of the year. She became the #1 pick in the W draft and is presently considered the best point guard in the world.

OTOH, in '08 Tennessee signed the #2 player coming out of high school (same year as Maya Moore). In '09 they had one of the best classes of all time with 6 players ranked in the top 20. In the last two seasons, they have won two NCAA tourney games. Last year, Baylor as a #4 seed beat #1 Tennessee and #2 Duke in their region, making it to the final four. Why? They have a great coach in Kim Mulkey who is second only to Geno.

Cannon, there is much more parity in the women's game now than there was ten years ago. UConn and Baylor just happen to stand alone this year just as UConn and Stanford did last year. This year unranked DePaul beat #3 at the time Stanford by 20. Unranked Syracuse beat #6 at the time Ohio State by 10. #20 Georgetown beat #5 Tennessee by 11. #14 at the time Florida State lost to Ivy cellar dweller Yale.