Teonni Key to UNC

#76
#76
Bballnut1952 said:
Game Attendance is probably outside the top ten of reasons a player picks a college.
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Of course it is — for most kids. I wasn’t suggesting that she should have given more weight to game attendance when making her choice. Just stating the fact that the fanship for UNC women’s basketball isn’t very strong. When teams that play in small venues and draw very few fans to their own home games go on the road and play in large arenas with 10,000-plus fans, trust me, they love it. And they often discuss the excitement of the experience for years afterward.

So, while it’s not an important consideration, it’s certainly something TO consider. If Harper and Banghart ever schedule a home-and-home series, our fans may raise the roof on TBA when Tamari is introduced. And Teonni will certainly note the difference in the sound of her sister’s home-game intro as opposed to hers at Carmichael. Just sayin’.
 
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#77
#77
Quite possibly Teonni wanted to
1. be close to home
2. play with two of her AAU teammates
3 Attend school at a highly rated Public institution
It is actually surprising that when we discuss recruits, we talk crowd size, TV appearances, Final Fours. Women do not generally make enough money in the Pros to not think beyond 7-10 years after college.
Kelli did nothing wrong here, the young lady decided she wanted something different
 
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#78
#78
HoopsFan said:
Quite possibly Teonni wanted to
1. be close to home
2. play with two of her AAU teammates
3 Attend school at a highly rated Public institution
It is actually surprising that when we discuss recruits, we talk crowd size, TV appearances, Final Fours. Women do not generally make enough money in the Pros to not think beyond 7-10 years after college.
Kelli did nothing wrong here, the young lady decided she wanted something different
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Besides we've still got this one in the hunt
 
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#80
#80
HoopsFan said:
Quite possibly Teonni wanted to
1. be close to home
2. play with two of her AAU teammates
3 Attend school at a highly rated Public institution
It is actually surprising that when we discuss recruits, we talk crowd size, TV appearances, Final Fours. Women do not generally make enough money in the Pros to not think beyond 7-10 years after college.
Kelli did nothing wrong here, the young lady decided she wanted something different
Click to expand...
Well said.
 
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#81
#81
PG1 said:
Maybe Tamari told her if I were you I would go somewhere else. Maybe more to this story. Maybe a transfer in the future. 🤷‍♂️
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That seems to be a bit of a stretch. I’m a little sister, even to this day people refer to me as Mike’s little sister, and I’ll be 39 this week. My brother was a really good high school football player and even though I was a good athlete who lettered in 3 sports, I was always compared to my brother. My brother played college football and when it came time for me to be recruited for basketball, you couldn’t pay me to go to his alma mater. Maybe she wants to make her own path. Let her be a kid and not look for the worst case scenario.
 
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#87
#87
Bballnut1952 said:
Then why doesn’t Iowa and Iowa State get the highly ranked players?
Yes, it’s attendance is one reason, but it’s way after coaching staff, location, teammates, style of play, academics, playing time. I’m sure I could come up with others.
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Don’t forget that Iowa got Caitlin Clark this year — the #2 PG behind Bueckers and #4 overall.

They also have a 5* post committed for 2021.
 
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#88
#88
HoopsFan said:
Quite possibly Teonni wanted to
1. be close to home
2. play with two of her AAU teammates
3 Attend school at a highly rated Public institution
It is actually surprising that when we discuss recruits, we talk crowd size, TV appearances, Final Fours. Women do not generally make enough money in the Pros to not think beyond 7-10 years after college.
Kelli did nothing wrong here, the young lady decided she wanted something different
Click to expand...
Her mother is VERY happy Teonni is staying “home.” Just because a player chooses a school, which she obviously has to, doesn’t mean a coach at another contender or the campus, etc. didn’t look good to the player. People make the choice so black and white, but it usually isn’t. Education, campus, near home, comfort level are the most important elements for Teonni.
 
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#90
#90
PG1 said:
Maybe Tamari
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Only quoting the first two words of this idle speculation since it insults both Key sisters and serves only to try to plant seeds that raise doubts about the program in an attempt to damage the Lady Vols. It's the sort of underhanded tactic used by unscrupulous recruiters. And, because it's just speculation, when challenged on it, the person can just say, "Hey...anything is possible!" The question should be, "Why would you even think that way about a recruit's personal decision?" There's one obvious possible answer to that...but that would just be speculating.

There are all sorts of sarcastic rejoinders that come to mind re: the wild hypotheses presented, but out of respect for the Key family, those will go unspoken.

However, in response to another (unnamed) poster's advancing a personal vendetta against Kellie, does that poster also consider Tara Vanderveer to be a failure because the youngest Samuelson sister chose Connecticut over Stanford despite the fact that her two older sisters (one still playing in WNBA) both suited up in Cardinal red?

There are several players whom I was hoping would choose us, but at the end of the day, I want players who really are thrilled to be part of the program and are 100% committed.

Mannings made one decision; Clausens made another. People are not robots and puppets who exist to please fans.
 
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#92
#92
LadyOrange said:
Her mother is VERY happy Teonni is staying “home.” Just because a player chooses a school, which she obviously has to, doesn’t mean a coach at another contender or the campus, etc. didn’t look good to the player. People make the choice so black and white, but it usually isn’t. Education, campus, near home, comfort level are the most important elements for Teonni.
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Agreed. People are simplifying the sibling relationship as well. I know nothing about Teonni and Tamari’s personal relationship. I do know, that if it had been me, and I could choose to go where my older brother was or somewhere else. I would choose somewhere else lol.

I’m really glad for their mom. It will be much easier for her to catch games for both girls at different schools with Teonni so close. Would have been so hard if they were both a long drive away.
 
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#93
#93
It’s stunning to me how anyone could be genuinely surprised that a young athlete who was born and raised in North Carolina could have been more attracted to the prospect of playing for the University of North Carolina than she was to the University of Tennessee.

Seriously, people.

The REAL feat was that Tennessee was (THANKFULLY!) successful in luring Tamari away from what must have been an extremely tempting situation — that of playing for her home state’s most famous basketball program.

I am so proud of Tamari for having been self-assured, confident and mature enough to make a choice that was likely extremely difficult. Whatever she decided was going to disappoint all but one lucky coaching staff and fanship, and Tennessee sure scored a huge upset over both UNC and NC St in landing her.

When I finally saw Cary, N.C., native Teonni Key’s photos in a UNC uniform, I saw the bright, happy smile of a kid who knew she was born to be a North Carolina girl for life. How anyone could try to make it seem as though the Tennessee staff is inadequate because a NC-born-and-raised star athlete might want to play for UNC is absolutely asinine.

Those who’d ridicule Tennessee for not landing Teonni are fools, and more than likely simply the type of people who are so pathologically negative that they are actually mentally incapable of comprehending what goes into decisions that are, for normal folks, fraught with actual emotional dilemmas such as “state loyalty” or “wanting to be close to family and friends.” Noooooo, those negative folks don’t even consider the obvious because it interferes with their nega-narrative.

Screw them.
 
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#94
#94
Also consider that Teonni chose UNC over NC State although the latter has enjoyed Top Ten status lately. It's not a sign of disrespect when picking schools and programs. That's why so many athletes talk about their decision being tough. They genuinely like a lot of schools but feel that one is a better fit for them.
 
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#95
#95
creekdipper said:
Also consider that Teonni chose UNC over NC State although the latter has enjoyed Top Ten status lately. It's not a sign of disrespect when picking schools and programs. That's why so many athletes talk about their decision being tough. They genuinely like a lot of schools but feel that one is a better fit for them.
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Also chose them over MSST, UConn and ND...all of whom have spent a lot of time in the Final Four the past few years.

May well have been her seeing an opportunity to help resurrect the hometown school. I don't see it as a knock against Tennessee, let alone Kellie.
 
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#96
#96
Amb3096 said:
Also chose them over MSST, UConn and ND...all of whom have spent a lot of time in the Final Four the past few years.

May well have been her seeing an opportunity to help resurrect the hometown school. I don't see it as a knock against Tennessee, let alone Kellie.
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But but but Kellie “had one job” ... not to restore the program, bring back respect, addressing all team needs, transforming the team as she sees fit but get one recruit who has a sister on the team. She was a “must get” and now what are we going to do?

😭😢😭

*Ends sarcasm*
 
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#97
#97
creekdipper said:
Also consider that Teonni chose UNC over NC State although the latter has enjoyed Top Ten status lately. It's not a sign of disrespect when picking schools and programs. That's why so many athletes talk about their decision being tough. They genuinely like a lot of schools but feel that one is a better fit for them.
Click to expand...

I can honestly say that If I’d been an athlete born and raised in North Carolina, I very well may have been the type to have UNC as my natural state-loyalty-driven first choice, leaving the difficult task of changing my mind to everyone else. This is what I suspect was the case for Teonni Key.

Also, we should all bear in mind that the recent highly-rated, emotional, inspirational ESPN documentary about proud UNC alum Michael Jordan was a freaking gift from heaven for this recruiting cycle for both the men’s and women’s basketball programs at North Carolina.

Can you imagine the swell of pride that North Carolina residents and fans felt as one of the players they rooted for at UNC and Chicago was being immortalized in a well done series that lays out a darn good argument for him being recognized as having been the Greatest Of All Time to play the game???

That’s UNC recruiting gold right there. In that context, the timing for Kellie and Tennessee could not have been worse.
 
#98
#98
Somewhere between “fire Coach Harper, Key was a must get” and “ahh, we were never going to get her, so who cares” is the truth.

She was an important player and I’m sure Coach Harper did her best to recruit her to Tennessee. It hurts, but the sun will come up tomorrow and Coach Harper will keep on recruiting hard players she feels fits her system.
 
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#99
#99
lvocd said:
I can honestly say that If I’d been an athlete born and raised in North Carolina, I very well may have been the type to have UNC as my natural state-loyalty-driven first choice, leaving the difficult task of changing my mind to everyone else. This is what I suspect was the case for Teonni Key.

Also, we should all bear in mind that the recent highly-rated, emotional, inspirational ESPN documentary about proud UNC alum Michael Jordan was a freaking gift from heaven for this recruiting cycle for both the men’s and women’s basketball programs at North Carolina.

Can you imagine the swell of pride that North Carolina residents and fans felt as one of the players they rooted for at UNC and Chicago was being immortalized in a well done series that lays out a darn good argument for him being recognized as having been the Greatest Of All Time to play the game???

That’s UNC recruiting gold right there. In that context, the timing for Kellie and Tennessee could not have been worse.
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After seeing Jordan’s hall of fame speech I would be embarrassed of him not proud to have gone to the same school. Total jerk.
 
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