The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Don’t count on recruiting misses dooming UConn
HARTFORD — The day started on the West Coast in a gymnasium at Archbishop Mitty High School with the kind of news UConn women’s basketball fans did not want to hear. Haley Jones, ranked as the No. 1 college prospect in America by ESPN, announced she had placed great value on a Stanford education and proximity to her home in Santa Cruz.
Long recruiting story short, Jones is headed up the road to Palo Alto and Tara VanderVeer and not across the country to Storrs and Geno Auriemma.
It was the only L that UConn would take Wednesday. Eight hours later, the No. 2 Huskies routed No. 16 DePaul 99-63 at the XL Center. UConn used a 24-0 run in the first half. Katie Lou Samuelson refused to miss from outside the arc.
Off to a 6-0 season start, UConn looks primed for its 1-vs.-2 showdown at Notre Dame on Sunday. The Huskies do not enter as the favorite, and Samuelson recognized this. “Notre Dame is more experienced,” DePaul coach Doug Bruno said. Samuelson, Auriemma pointed out, probably never has been in the situation at UConn where people expected the other team to win.
And there is something refreshing in this, of course.
Still, the swing and miss on Jones would not be the only L that UConn would absorb off the court in recent weeks. While Jones is a multidimensional talent, one could argue UConn needed 6-foot-4 Aliyah Boston more. Ranked No. 1 in the nation by Blue Star Basketball, Boston had more than her surname scream New England. A native of the Virgin Islands, she has played her high school ball at Worcester Academy, only 45 miles from Gampel Pavilion. Boston chose South Carolina.
So let’s do the roll call. The Huskies lost the 2017 Final Four on a shot by Morgan William.
The Huskies lost the 2018 Final Four on a shot by Arike Ogunbowale.
The Huskies lost their shot at the No. 1 preseason ranking when Azurá Stevens decided to leave for the WNBA.
And after getting No.
1-ranked recruits with Katie Samuelson in 2015, Megan Walker in 2017 and Christyn Williams in 2018, they’ve swung and missed on many big names this recruiting cycle.
“The fact we didn’t get that (No. 1) kid tells you how hard it is to that every year,” Auriemma said. “The fact we haven’t won the national championship in two years tells you how hard it is that no one has been able to win two in a row. We won two in a row how many times? A bunch.”
The only other school to do it since 1998 was Tennessee in 2007 and 2008.
“What can I say?” Auriemma said. “It’s over.”
It’s not over, of course. But it is worth asking where are all those folks now who were screaming that UConn and the 11 national titles are bad for the sport? That it’s so easy and so automatic.
“Recruiting is a funny game,” Auriemma said. “I don’t think anyone has gotten more No. 1 players coming out of the country than we have. We’re used to getting really good players. The trick is you’ve got to get more than one good player. You’ve got to get a couple every year. For a while there, we were doing it every year.
“But how long can you keep doing it? I guess you can keep doing it forever. It seems like we have. I asked somebody when was the last time we didn’t sign a Top 10 kid in the country? It was 1990. When it doesn’t happen, they’re not any good anymore. They can’t recruit.”
Actually, it was 2013, not 1990, when UConn landed just Sanyia Chong, but Auriemma’s larger point is well-taken.
“There have been a lot of other schools out there going, ‘How come Connecticut gets them all the time?’ Sometimes you don’t,” Auriemma said. “This is one of those years when we didn’t. That doesn’t mean next year we won’t.”
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley — her stature ever growing with a national championship and as Olympic coach — got Boston. In fact, Staley landed four of the top 13 recruits in the nation, probably the deepest haul since UConn landed Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck in 2012. Stanford, meanwhile, has the No. 2-rated class. And while it’s up for debate exactly how hard UConn pursued Samantha Brunelle, this much is sure: The No. 4-rated player in the nation ended up with Muffet McGraw at Notre Dame. Oregon has developed into a power. Same for Mississippi State. There are threats out there, real ones.
“I remember reading that in 2005 after Diana (Taurasi) graduated, 2005, 2006, 2007, every year I read the program is done,” Auriemma said. “It’s over. It was. It was over for three years. I think we averaged like 29-30 wins. We fell on hard times. We went through a deep depression. We should have won 200 in a row. We only won 111.
“You go though some cycles. You’re supposed to. We’re the only one that has been immune to any cycles of any team in the country. Every single team in America
in the last 25 years has gone through some cycle where they have not been good, except us. The more you do it, the more it’s out there it’s supposed to last forever.”
UConn did land No. 33-ranked Aubrey Griffin. Her development was slowed by knee surgery, and the athletic guard, the daughter of former NBA player Adrian Griffin, has real possibilities.
“She is a really good player; really, really good,” Auriemma said. “She fits us perfectly. She’s one of those kids by the time she’s finished playing, she’s going to be 100 times better than she is right now. And she’s pretty good as it is. She’s long and athletic and loves to guard people and gets to the rim all the time. She reminds me of Christyn but not as good offensively — not yet. She’s exactly what we need.”
Maybe the Huskies need a graduate transfer next season. Maybe they won’t win a national title in 2020. Since the turn of the century, the only time UConn went more than two years without winning a title was a four-year gap before 2009. The doomsayers might scream that the sky is starting to fall or this is the beginning of the end. There is no sustained evidence of this, but it is a giddy narrative for those sick of UConn winning all the time.