The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
UConn recruiting targets among finalists for U-17 team
Eight years ago, a trio of future UConn women’s basketball stars played key roles in the United States rolling to the gold medal in the inaugural FIBA U17 World Championship for Women.
Breanna Stewart, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Morgan Tuck would leave UConn with either three or four national titles and induction into the Huskies of Honor. Could history be repeating?
USA Basketball announced the 18 finalists after three days of trials at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and UConn class of 2019 recruiting targets Aliyah Boston, Jordan Horston and Haley Jones are among those still in contention to be on the 12player roster, which will be coached by former UConn star Carla Berube
UConn currently doesn’t have any commitments in the class of 2019, but the recruiting process is about to heat up beginning in a few days when Horston, a 6-foot-2 guard from Columbus, Ohio, visits the UConn campus.
“I am definitely excited,” Horston said. “You know he (UConn’s Geno Auriemma) is a great coach, he makes players better and that is what I want, I want somebody to push me and make me better. I don’t want to go somewhere where I am comfortable because that is not how I get better. I’d like to be put in an uncomfortable situation so I can get better so I feel like he does that. I have watched some of his practices, I just feel like he is a great coach and he produces great players.”
Boston, a 6-foot-4 forward originally from the U.S. Virgin Islands but has lived with an aunt in Worcester, Mass., since 2014, said she is down to her final five schools. While she is not ready to reveal her entire list of finalists, she did confirm that UConn is among the schools she will be taking an official visit to. Boston is already been named as part of the U.S. squad for the Youth Olympic Games being held in Argentina from Oct. 6-18 and if she is named to the U17 squad, that should
take up much of her time in the month of July.
Boston, the leading scorer and rebounder on the U.S. U-16 squad last summer, first began to follow UConn when she was living in St. Thomas. It didn’t hurt that UConn went undefeated in the 2007 and 2012 Paradise Jam events held not far from Boston’s home.
“Since I was younger I went every year,” Boston said. “It did help because I got to watch basketball at another level.”
Boston made the difficult decision to leave home and live with her aunt back in 2014.
“It was really just about more exposure for basketball and better schooling,” Boston said.
It certainly has worked as Boston is considered to be one of the top 10 players in the class of 2019 and is a two-time Gatorade Massachusetts Player of the Year with a season to go at Worcester Academy.
Jones knows something about prestigious honors, having been named Gatorade’s California state player of the year after helping Archbishop Mitty hold the No. 1 national ranking for long stretches in her junior season. She has a chance to be a two-time winner of the award and it should be noted that the last three players to win Gatorade’s California Girls Basketball Player of the Year award more than once have gone to UConn. It began with Diana Taurasi, then it was Mosqueda-Lewis and more recently that distinction is held by current All-American Katie Lou Samuelson.
Jones is currently considering nine schools and she will cut the list to five before making her official visits.
She is not going to commit to taking all five visits before making her commitment, but she is also being careful not to talk up one school over the others so rumors of which way she might be leaning won’t cloud the process.
“I’ve tried to deal with every program the same so I am looking for the same things,” said Jones, who is also considering California, Louisville, Notre Dame, Oregon, South Carolina, Stanford, Texas and UCLA. “I have developed a relationship with the UConn coaches as well as a lot of different coaching staffs.”
The list of 18 finalists features players from the 2020 and 2021 classes on UConn’s recruiting radar so it will be interesting to see not only which players make the final roster but also which ones head to UConn. With Gabby Williams, Azura’ Stevens and Kia Nurse all going in the top 10 picks in the 2018 WNBA Draft while Napheesa Colier and Samuelson expected to be among the top selections in the 2019 draft, playing time will certainly be available.
A couple of players who figure to have key roles on the 2018-19 UConn squad are incoming freshmen Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Christyn Williams, who were among the 12 players named to the U.S. team that will play in the FIBA Americas U18 Championships.