It sure seems like all the Top 5 teams have 6’5” or taller bigs. Doesn’t seem like we are recruiting any in these next few classes…
Until we get our program to the next level -- meaning a Final 4, most likely -- we're unlikely to start landing 5 star, 6'5 recruits from coast to coast regularly. That's just the reality of WBB recruiting and our place in the sport. Or maybe if we make the Elite 8 and win the B1G again, that might put us on track to transition to the next "tier" of programs (i.e., the realm of Louisville and Maryland)....but it seems elite recruits heavily lean into the Final 4 as a status marker. Oregon State is still recruiting pretty well despite being 6 or 7 years out from their Final 4.
All that said, I've been pretty happy with our recruiting as of late. If you look at ESPN's top 100 rankings as a barometer (not that that's the end-all be-all), the following check the box:
- 2020: Clark + Feuerbach (I know KF txfrd but she came with 4 yrs of eligibility, plus her just up and leaving ISU after being part of their best recruiting class ever counts as a win for me) -- so 2/4 in the Top 100
- 2021: Edigar + O'Grady (Edigar ranked higher than O'Grady but I think O'Grady (6'4 btw) promises to have a much bigger impact on our program (don't forget she had a Stanford offer). Furthermore Affolter was considered Top 100 by other rankings) -- 2/3, w/ an argument to be made that it's 3/3
- 2022: Stuelke, Gyamfi, Mcabe (3/3 -- very nice)
- 2023: Jones (maybe Jasmine Brown? We can hope
) -- 1/2
This is at least a serviceable recruit at every position over the course of 4 years. 8/11 recruits being considered high-level and garnering national attention. Plus Goodman and Etienne were huge targets for Bluder so she sees something special in them, even if ESPN or whatever doesn't. We've heard that story before...someone named Czinano
FWIW I don't think every recruit needs to be an All American for us to be considered a successful team. I think any team ranked in the Top 15 / advancing to the Sweet 16 / winning a conference title has some bragging rights + something solid to offer a recruit. If
we as fans only consider success to be a Final 4 or higher (the prereq to attract All-Americans every year), we will continue to be disappointed. I find that barometer to be unrealistic / impractical / just not very fun as a fan. Less than a dozen fanbases would ever be happy if that was a universal measure. Look at Maryland's fanbase, they seem miserable because they expect their team to advance to a Final 4 year in and out. They literally call for firing Brenda Frese every season. It's no wonder everyone leaves that team tbh.
That said, for argument's sake, say we all of a sudden blew up b/c of Clark's notoriety or whatever, and we started landing all americans. I'm just not sure we have the gravitas to keep those kinds of recruits happy, especially if in non-starting roles. Very few schools do. UConn and South Carolina can keep that kind of talent on the bench bc they are legit competing for a NC every season (though, with the transfer portal changes, more are getting restless and leaving than before -- UConn had 3 leave this year, I think, and SC had 2).
It takes a special mix of personalities and talent to achieve greatness. Having Clark comes with (worthwhile) trade-offs. It takes a LOT for multiple all americans to jel on a team like ours. Look at Greta Kampschroeder, who apparently had us in her top 3 (with Stanford and Oregon State) but moved on after we signed Clark.
We're just not in the orbit of the blue bloods at this time, though we're certainly in a better position to break into that club than most other programs. We're furthermore incredibly deep heading into this season (the deepest I can remember in 12 years of following this program). In the event that our bench happened to be even more stacked than it is now, I think we'd have some retention problems being a team with a ceiling that is likely an Elite 8. Even Lauren Jensen and Megan Myers didn't wanna spend 4 years riding the bench behind Clark.
We've been lucky that our outbound transfers the last 2 seasons have resulted in "upgrades" taking their place, but that wouldn't be the case in this scenario. Losing that kind of a player would be a much bigger failure than never landing them in the first place, b/c we'd also be sacrificing other targets to sign them.
All that said, I think a solid rotation has 9 players -- 5 starters and 4 reliable subs who can contribute and float between positions. If we could get to a place where our 9 rotation players are Top 100 level, I think we're in a good place to be very competitive and reasonably expect a path to a conference title / Sweet 16 year in and out. Again, about the same level as Maryland. We're
just about there with the recruits listed above and that makes me really excited for the next few seasons (especially since one is Clark, and she has already said she's open to taking her 5th year of eligibility
).
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