Recruiting Balance

[HUD]

One of the toughest parts of recruiting is to have a year to year balance in new recruits.  Ideally with an overall limit of 14 scholarships for WBB you would have 3 per year with an occasional 4th.  Look at UConn.  That's the way they usually breakdown.  They use redshirting to help achieve that balance.  It's hard when kid's leave because the next year you have to make up that opening.  Theriot is the only player from her class 4 years ago that is here and a starter.  The next class has just 2 remaining players with 1 in a major reserve role and the other in a minor reserve role when she is healthy.  in last years class we lost Page (a 5 star recruit now playing well for K State) and Smith( a 4 star recruit who will probably be a good player for Gonzaga after her red shirt year).  This means we will be very young next year for the 2nd time in a row with 5 new recruits coming in.  Then if all stay we will be down to a class of 2 with a big need for posts.  

 

Why is balance so important?  So you can have a good cross section of experience.  

 

Look at NU Volleyball they have that balance most of the time.  Coach Yori is working towards that but just hasn't gotten there yet.  You can have good teams but not elite ones year to year without it.

[redsteve]

Agree with everything.

 

The difference for NU women's Bball is that we (at this point) don't have the luxury of getting recruits among the best of the Top 20  every year ....like UConn Bball, or NU Volleyball.

 

They can get their choice almost of what ever type of position player they want...from the best in the USA...and they can red shirt at will. (as HUD said red shirting is one of the better ways to achieve balance.)

 

Pretty easy to obtain balance your squad if you can pick and chose your recruits from the very best at their given position. They're waiting in line for a scholarship.

 

We haven't had the luxury to red shirt much. Havers was an example of us needing a post now ....a couple of years ago. Couldn't red shirt because we had to play her because of immediate need. Allie would be a prime candidate to red shirt if we could have, so she could have gained strength, and experience of a years of practice.

Right now..same problem... we can't red shirt a guard...too much immediate need.

 

Most (women's Bball) schools aren't red shirting. It kind of comes down to numbers. If there were 20 that wanted to commit, then you could pick from the litter...but if it's hard to get even 3 or 4 quality players, ..and anyway, they want to play now, and not want to get red shirted.

 

Maybe in time....years and years from now...the talent pool will be so large that it will be like UConn for everybody...but not yet.

 

"Theriot is the only player from her class 4 years ago".....that's another topic all together.....and is largely why we don't always have balance.

 

Sorry...to much dialog

[Cazzie22]

We have lost some good players due to transfer but I respect Connie for sticking to her guns about what she demands from players.  NU had players that want to be there and will play hard.  This team will be very good by the end of the year, barring any injuries.