Non-Lady Vol Basketball News 2023-24

#19,726
#19,726
NeedOrange said:
You've got me giggling with the bowling. You're right I don't know the history but it's the future I think will be pretty amazing. I just like everything Candice Lee (former WBB captain) is doing and I'm a believer in Shea Ralph. For a first year it has gone pretty well with them. They weren't expected to win 10 games this year and won 14 plus the first SECT win in 6 years and now a WNIT bid. Vandy is in the finals for a couple of pretty good 2023's and I think they will do real well in 2024 recruits. The administration is sinking $300M into a new facility including a WBB locker room, own practice court, and training and stressing 'recruiting space'. Combine the new facility, Vandy diploma, Nashville with Shea's reputation for coaching players, it could turn in to quite a force.
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That's what they say every time Candy hires a new FB or BB coach. Somehow, it never really turns into "quite a force."
 
#19,727
#19,727
There's a good chance Shea will somehow be lucky enough to have "totally surprise visits" from former teammates like Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird when it just so happens some highly prized recruits are on campus visits. Hell, Taurasi has ALREADY given Vandy a supportive shout-out on TV last year. And since Ralph won't likely be in direct competition with Auriemma for Top 5-level recruits, I could see them doing all they can to help their former teammate put the CT mark on the SEC. If I were them I'd be pulling hard for her, too.

So, with all that in mind I can very easily see Ralph making fairly quick inroads into bigtime recruiting. She'll have some bigtime former Huskies on campus or on the phone saying, probably literally, to her visiting top prospects, "Hey, if I were to send my kid to anywhere not named Connecticut, it would be Vanderbilt because Shea is the next best thing to Geno."

Those conversations will be happening soon, if they haven't already. She'll go hard after the ones Geno thinks is really good but doesn't have room for, and even HE may even recommend to those kids that they look at Vandy. He will, of course, want Ralph to succeed and kick SEC butt, and so I can see him (and a legion of former Huskies) going the extra mile to help her do it.

Except for the illegal recruiting aspect of "agents of CT" speaking to prospects about attending Vanderbilt, there is nothing wrong with any of them wanting Shea to succeed. Of course they should!!

But the question will be whether they help within the rules of the NCAA regarding contact with prospects. CT has been known to play loose with those rules. Will Shea Ralph do the same? It remains to be seen, but illegal moves might be more difficult to hide in Nashville than in Storrs.

 
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#19,730
#19,730
lvocd said:
There's a good chance Shea will somehow be lucky enough to have "totally surprise visits" from former teammates like Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird when it just so happens some highly prized recruits are on campus visits. Hell, Taurasi has ALREADY given Vandy a supportive shout-out on TV last year. And since Ralph won't likely be in direct competition with Auriemma for Top 5-level recruits, I could see them doing all they can to help their former teammate put the CT mark on the SEC. If I were them I'd be pulling hard for her, too.

So, with all that in mind I can very easily see Ralph making fairly quick inroads into bigtime recruiting. She'll have some bigtime former Huskies on campus or on the phone saying, probably literally, to her visiting top prospects, "Hey, if I were to send my kid to anywhere not named Connecticut, it would be Vanderbilt because Shea is the next best thing to Geno."

Those conversations will be happening soon, if they haven't already. She'll go hard after the ones Geno thinks is really good but doesn't have room for, and even HE may even recommend to those kids that they look at Vandy. He will, of course, want Ralph to succeed and kick SEC butt, and so I can see him (and a legion of former Huskies) going the extra mile to help her do it.

Except for the illegal recruiting aspect of "agents of CT" speaking to prospects about attending Vanderbilt, there is nothing wrong with any of them wanting Shea to succeed. Of course they should!!

But the question will be whether they help within the rules of the NCAA regarding contact with prospects. CT has been known to play loose with those rules. Will Shea Ralph do the same? It remains to be seen, but illegal moves might be more difficult to hide in Nashville than in Storrs.

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It is beyond doubt that UConn players will be at Vandy. Napheesa has already been there and as they get a chance. I think the comments about playing loose with the recruiting rules is something every school gets dinged with at different times. Shea and Geno are in direct competition for players so there won't be much help coming from Geno. That's why Shea is going to do well. She has relationship with the top recruits and will do very well with the 2024 and 2025. These two players had just a short window to even consider VAndy, yet Vandy made the finals.


 
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#19,731
#19,731
Ralph Shea hasn't put a single player into the W. Geno and the girl gang can give her all the support they want, but ultimately it will come down to whether recruits trust Ralph with their development or not. In many ways, she is like Harper - She has to prove she can develop players and get them to the league before she can be considered a success.
 
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#19,732
#19,732
Yeah, I remember reading how Buecker's favorite NBA player (was it Kyrie Irving?..) just happened to drop by Connecticut's campus to see Auriemma and her during her official visit, impressing the hell out of her and her family. Or was it Breanna Stewart who got the surprise booster visit? lol It was one of them. I remember how Caroline Doty giddily revealed to a reporter that she made up her mind that UConn was the place for her the day Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird just happened to come by and hung out with her while she was on a campus visit. It's a pattern. Most of these incidences are kept from the media and we never hear about them officially, but the grapevine is active.
 
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#19,733
#19,733
lvocd said:
Yeah, I remember reading how Buecker's favorite NBA player (was it Kyrie Irving?..) just happened to drop by Connecticut's campus to see Auriemma and her during her official visit, impressing the hell out of her and her family. Or was it Breanna Stewart who got the surprise booster visit? lol It was one of them. I remember how Caroline Doty giddily revealed to a reporter that she made up her mind that UConn was the place for her the day Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird just happened to come by and hung out with her while she was on a campus visit. It's a pattern. Most of these incidences are kept from the media and we never hear about them officially, but the grapevine is active.
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Don't Lady Vol players stop by after they graduate. Of course they do. At UConn the players come by a lot and work out there in the off season. Kyrie Irving stops by. Kobe and his daughter were there so frequently Geno and Diana spoke at his celebration of life. I bet that was all planned to influence recruits. Paranoia turns coincidence into a plot.
 
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#19,734
#19,734
NeedOrange said:
Don't Lady Vol players stop by after they graduate. Of course they do. At UConn the players come by a lot and work out there in the off season. Kyrie Irving stops by. Kobe and his daughter were there so frequently Geno and Diana spoke at his celebration of life. I bet that was all planned to influence recruits. Paranoia turns coincidence into a plot.
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Please, spare us….
 
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#19,735
#19,735
NeedOrange said:
It is beyond doubt that UConn players will be at Vandy. Napheesa has already been there and as they get a chance. I think the comments about playing loose with the recruiting rules is something every school gets dinged with at different times. Shea and Geno are in direct competition for players so there won't be much help coming from Geno. That's why Shea is going to do well. She has relationship with the top recruits and will do very well with the 2024 and 2025. These two players had just a short window to even consider VAndy, yet Vandy made the finals.


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I'm confused. I clicked on her Twitter and it said she already committed to UCONN Was this an old tweet?
 
#19,737
#19,737
charlie_1 said:
I'm confused. I clicked on her Twitter and it said she already committed to UCONN Was this an old tweet?
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If you are talking about Ashlyn, yes she is committed. The point of the post is to point out that in Shea's first few months of recruiting she is getting into the final consideration of top 10 players
 
#19,740
#19,740
youcancallmeAl said:
Kennedy is just ONE of the Cambridge girls. Why would you extrapolate her feelings to the rest of them? Jaloni may feel otherwise. Rivalries exist in families, too.
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That family tends to do their "Own" thing. So far they have all had different paths and colleges where they played basketball
 
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#19,743
#19,743
VolBall09 said:
Wonder if this anything to do with the players re-opened their recruitment.
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He's had more transfers than anyone. I haven't liked him much since he went of on Hornbuckle for signing with Tennessee. Said she should've been loyal to West Virginia which is ridiculous and she has two rings to prove it.
 
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#19,744
#19,744
youcancallmeAl said:
Kennedy is just ONE of the Cambridge girls. Why would you extrapolate her feelings to the rest of them? Jaloni may feel otherwise. Rivalries exist in families, too.
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I am just guessing from a poster here who said that Jaloni isn’t really interested in playing for Tennessee and still holding out for the UConn offer it’s not the 1st time a top player from Tennessee would rather play for the Connie’s
 
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#19,747
#19,747
Amb3096 said:
Besides making it to 3 Final Fours and being selected as the WNBA ROY...?
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WNBA ROY by default lol lets be real SAB and Chennedy carter had season ending injuries leaving Dangerfield ROY by default . She's barely holding on a to a roster spot right now in Minny so that ROY is a bit of a stretch lol . To me it means best player in the draft class stats wise and she was not she was the best of the rest after the 2 big injuries that year in the WNBA.
 
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#19,748
#19,748
xtpsrh08123 said:
WNBA ROY by default lol lets be real SAB and Chennedy carter had season ending injuries leaving Dangerfield ROY by default . She's barely holding on a to a roster spot right now in Minny so that ROY is a bit of a stretch lol . To me it means best player in the draft class stats wise and she was not she was the best of the rest after the 2 big injuries that year in the WNBA.
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If she had been a lady vol would her ROY be irrelevant in your eyes? She was drafted 16th in the 2nd round let me say that again 16th in the second round and two top players get injured what about the other 13 players that got drafted before her they had a shot too in other words give CD some CREDIT
 
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#19,750
#19,750
LadyVols_WBK said:
I am just guessing from a poster here who said that Jaloni isn’t really interested in playing for Tennessee and still holding out for the UConn offer it’s not the 1st time a top player from Tennessee would rather play for the Connie’s
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And hopefully she leaves without a ring just like the other one, if that’s the route she decides to take.
 
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