Get Ready for Brianna Turner

[2lakes 1]

Nice. like I said...splitting hairs. Also why I had issues with so many players getting that 98 ranking.

 

 

 

You would lose that bet Okie. There's a couple of articles out there about Wilson dunking in practice. Plenty of girls can dunk, but they choose not to in games. Why, I don't know. Check out this video. Its the pregame for the WNBA all star game, but you can see Maya Moore, Glory Johnson, and Candice Parker throwing it down.

 

 

But y'all been sleepin' on Westbeld now fer a minute. 'Sup with that?

[JayPfromSB 0]

But y'all been sleepin' on Westbeld now fer a minute. 'Sup with that?

 

As I stated, I'm leery of 21 players rated 98 when usually there are no more than 1-3. If Westbeld comes in and earns minutes as fast as Turner, then it's a beautiful thing. If not, it just shows how deep ND is at the post positions.

[2lakes 1]

As I stated, I'm leery of 21 players rated 98 when usually there are no more than 1-3. If Westbeld comes in and earns minutes as fast as Turner, then it's a beautiful thing. If not, it just shows how deep ND is at the post positions.

 

I totally agree with the skepticism. But it is also hard to believe ESPN just made a mistake, and hasn't noticed it yet. Or they made a conscious decision to be easy graders for just numbers five thru twenty-two.

[2lakes 1]

WIthout actually doing the research (which find much harder to do on my phone), I believe West bed is as highly or more highly ranked than great players like Mabrey, Cable, Allen, Braker,

Edited March 22, 2014 by 2lakes

[JayPfromSB 0]

WIthout actually doing the research (which find much harder to do on my phone), I believe West bed is as highly or more highly ranked than great players like Mabrey, Cable, Allen, Braker,

 

With her current ranking, she's higher rated than any ND player who has come before her since Hoopgurlz started doing rankings with ESPN in 2007, save for Turner.

 

I totally agree with the skepticism. But it is also hard to believe ESPN just made a mistake, and hasn't noticed it yet. Or they made a conscious decision to be easy graders for just numbers five thru twenty-two.

 

I think the latter is true. I looked at the 2015 class, and there's already 7 girls with 98 ratings. The 2016 class already has 5. That's way too many. I think ESPN is trying to make it Rivals style with the recruiting and make more 5-star recruits. Since they can't alter the formula as to what make a girl a 5 star without making a complete mockery of all of their prior rankings, they're just handing out more 98 rankings.

Edited March 23, 2014 by JayPfromSB

[OklahomaIrish 0]

Nice. like I said...splitting hairs. Also why I had issues with so many players getting that 98 ranking.

 

 

 

You would lose that bet Okie. There's a couple of articles out there about Wilson dunking in practice. Plenty of girls can dunk, but they choose not to in games. Why, I don't know. Check out this video. Its the pregame for the WNBA all star game, but you can see Maya Moore, Glory Johnson, and Candice Parker throwing it down.

 

 

OK OK... But one of those was NOT a dunk. I still like our girl better than their girls!!!

[JayPfromSB 0]

OK OK... But one of those was NOT a dunk. I still like our girl better than their girls!!!

 

You probably mean the Maya Moore one. Go on YouTube and look for the Uncle Drew commercials and watch part 3, The lady in that definitely throws it down with ease. That's Moore as well.

 

If Turner throws one down in a game, the ESPN publicity will take ND to a whole new level, if that's possible.

[2lakes 1]

With her current ranking, she's higher rated than any ND player who has come before her since Hoopgurlz started doing rankings with ESPN in 2007, save for Turner.

 

 

 

I think the latter is true. I looked at the 2015 class, and there's already 7 girls with 98 ratings. The 2016 class already has 5. That's way too many. I think ESPN is trying to make it Rivals style with the recruiting and make more 5-star recruits. Since they can't alter the formula as to what make a girl a 5 star without making a complete mockery of all of their prior rankings, they're just handing out more 98 rankings.

 

A little of that is possible, but I also believe the quality of players coming out of high school is improving. Women's basketball, along with women's sports in general, is still in its infancy, and so we should not be surprised to see the quality of play and the quality of players improve pretty rapidly. Maybe not quite that rapidly. So it might be a combination of the two.

[OklahomaIrish 0]

A little of that is possible, but I also believe the quality of players coming out of high school is improving. Women's basketball, along with women's sports in general, is still in its infancy, and so we should not be surprised to see the quality of play and the quality of players improve pretty rapidly. Maybe not quite that rapidly. So it might be a combination of the two.

 

Quality of play is certainly improving, but Notre Dame and Connecticut can still name the score of a first round game in the tourney.

[2lakes 1]

After watching what happened to Duke and North Carolina this season, I can appreciate even more what McGraw is doing by consistently bringing in 3 quality players a year.

 

Duke's senior class was the highest rated in the country. They had the 4th, 9th, 16th, 33rd, and 62nd ranked players in the country. A lot of fans were probably debating how many national titles they would win.

 

The answer has been none: in fact, not even one final four appearance. It became a story about one class, which started out as a very young class and ended up being a very injured class, dominating the team.

 

Notre Dame, on the other hand, had the 20th ranked player, McBride, and Achonwa and Braker, both unranked. Now, that is a little bit deceiving, because Achonwa was very good, but nobody bothered scouting Canadian players back then (Hoopgurlz was just ranking US players). She probably would have been ranked top 20 had anyone bothered to make the trek to the frozen tundra. Point being: ND brought in a very good class of two blue chip recruits and one "project."

 

That is not so impressive when compared to Duke's class, if you look at it without looking at the whole.

 

The whole tells the story of how Notre Dame is where it is today. It is all about Coach McGraw and her staff bringing in a solid class year in and year out.

 

2011 (Juniors): #52 Cable, Whitney Holloway and Markisha Wright (unranked)

2012 (Sophomores): #4 Jewell Loyd, #33 Michaela Mabrey, #52 Hannah Huffman

2013 (Freshmen): #4 Taya Reimer, #25 Lindsay Allen, #39 Kristina Nelson, and unranked Diamond Thompson

2014 (Incoming): #2 Brianna Turner, #21 Katherine Westbeld, #80 Mychal Johnson

2015 (So far): #34 Ali Patberg, and in it for #1 Asia Durr and #7 Napheesa Collier

 

Two things that stand out there:

1.) Notre Dame kind of missed in 2011. Cable is a tough player and is a real contributor this year and will be again next year, but they were missing one blue chip player. Still, they made up for it with a very solid class in 2012.

2.) Notre Dame has done a good job of mixing it up in terms of the inside and outside players. Even though they did not get any ranked inside players in 2011 and 2012, they sandwiched it between two very good classes that include Achonwa, Braker, Reimer, Nelson, and Thompson. Since 2012 they have brought in four solid outside player (Loyd, Allen, Mabrey, and Huffman) and four solid inside players (Reimer, Turner, Nelson, and Westbeld). After striking gold with big players last cycle, Notre Dame is poised to bring in a class of outstanding guards to replace Loyd and Mabrey: a well regarded Patberg and the possibility of bringing in the best guard in the country, Durr, together with a blue chip wing, Collier.

 

Again, I really like the way the Lady Irish are using the momentum they got from landing Diggins and then going to the three Final Fours: hustling to achieve both excellence and balance each class.

 

No team is perfect in that regard. Even UConn is having problems with depth right now. Notre Dame will be inexperienced down low to start the season next year until Reimer, Turner, Westbeld, Wright, Nelson, and Thompson step up and get some experience. But out of those six, you have to like ND's chances of having at least two very good inside players. Then you combine that with a stable of guards like Loyd, Allen, Mabrey, Cable, Huffman, Holloway, and Johnson; and you realize that you simply can't do much better than the Irish have.

Edited March 25, 2014 by 2lakes

[JayPfromSB 0]

After watching what happened to Duke and North Carolina this season, I can appreciate even more what McGraw is doing by consistently bringing in 3 quality players a year.

 

Duke's senior class was the highest rated in the country. They had the 4th, 9th, 16th, 33rd, and 62nd ranked players in the country. A lot of fans were probably debating how many national titles they would win.

 

The answer has been none: in fact, not even one final four appearance. It became a story about one class, which started out as a very young class and ended up being a very injured class, dominating the team.

 

Notre Dame, on the other hand, had the 20th ranked player, McBride, and Achonwa and Braker, both unranked. Now, that is a little bit deceiving, because Achonwa was very good, but nobody bothered scouting Canadian players back then (Hoopgurlz was just ranking US players). She probably would have been ranked top 20 had anyone bothered to make the trek to the frozen tundra. Point being: ND brought in a very good class of two blue chip recruits and one "project."

 

That is not so impressive when compared to Duke's class, if you look at it without looking at the whole.

 

The whole tells the story of how Notre Dame is where it is today. It is all about Coach McGraw and her staff bringing in a solid class year in and year out.

 

2011 (Juniors): #52 Cable, Whitney Holloway and Markisha Wright (unranked)

2012 (Sophomores): #4 Jewell Loyd, #33 Michaela Mabrey, #52 Hannah Huffman

2013 (Freshmen): #4 Taya Reimer, #25 Lindsay Allen, #39 Kristina Nelson, and unranked Diamond Thompson

2014 (Incoming): #2 Brianna Turner, #21 Katherine Westbeld, #80 Mychal Johnson

2015 (So far): #34 Ali Patberg, and in it for #1 Asia Durr and #7 Napheesa Collier

 

Two things that stand out there:

1.) Notre Dame kind of missed in 2011. Cable is a tough player and is a real contributor this year and will be again next year, but they were missing one blue chip player. Still, they made up for it with a very solid class in 2012.

2.) Notre Dame has done a good job of mixing it up in terms of the inside and outside players. Even though they did not get any ranked inside players in 2011 and 2012, they sandwiched it between two very good classes that include Achonwa, Braker, Reimer, Nelson, and Thompson. Since 2012 they have brought in four solid outside player (Loyd, Allen, Mabrey, and Huffman) and four solid inside players (Reimer, Turner, Nelson, and Westbeld). After striking gold with big players last cycle, Notre Dame is poised to bring in a class of outstanding guards to replace Loyd and Mabrey: a well regarded Patberg and the possibility of bringing in the best guard in the country, Durr, together with a blue chip wing, Collier.

 

Again, I really like the way the Lady Irish are using the momentum they got from landing Diggins and then going to the three Final Fours: hustling to achieve both excellence and balance each class.

 

No team is perfect in that regard. Even UConn is having problems with depth right now. Notre Dame will be inexperienced down low to start the season next year until Reimer, Turner, Westbeld, Wright, Nelson, and Thompson step up and get some experience. But out of those six, you have to like ND's chances of having at least two very good inside players. Then you combine that with a stable of guards like Loyd, Allen, Mabrey, Cable, Huffman, Holloway, and Johnson; and you realize that you simply can't do much better than the Irish have.

 

Thompson was a victim of women's basketball recruiting not being as deep as the boys. Thompson was actually a 4 star with a 92 rating and listed as the #10 post player in her class.

 

And shockingly enough, Braker was considered the #23 rated wing in her class and had a 90 rating. You're correct on Achonwa...she had a 40 rating, which is the equivalent of "We've heard of you or seen you play, but don't think you're that good".

[BrianKellyWasNotTheMan 12]

Watching Thompson play she needs to gain some muscle. Still for the little time she plays she doesn't seem very coordinated. Riemer and Nelson for sure need to lose some pounds. Riemer I think could be even quicker and better player if she shed some weight. Also, Braker had a severe knee injury or I think she could of been really good.