Posted by DevilDavid on April 02, 08 at 19:46:18:
In Reply to: Re: Recruiting a better bench posted by maroondevil on April 02, 08 at 11:31:10:
: My honest opinion is that some players on the roster are not Pac 10 material. Perhaps in another conference but not the pac 10. If ASU has 3 players like Bri, 2 more laceys/Dosty , another Orsillo, then definitely you would have a deep bench and rotate them as you like. Unfortunately that is not the case.
There's a major problem with comparing ASU to a UCONN or Tennessee or North Carolina. Those schools actually do very little recruiting because the top high school players beg to go to their program. Geno and Summitt have the pick of the litter the vast majority of the time the other schools get what's left over. The what's left over is often times very good players because it's a numbers game. Teams try to take in 3-5 players per class.
Their benches are better because girl's that could be tremendous players sacrifice their self to be a part of those programs. You recruit assuming every player has the potential to be an impact player at the DI level. You do not recruit with the mentality this player is going to be a great bench player for 4 years for us. Yes, you can recruit people who fit your style and to add depth, but that is vastly different than recruiting better bench players.
Every once in a while you get a stud to stay home, but 9 times out of 10, the top players in the country beg to become a part of a team like UCONN or Tennessee and everyone else behind them fall into place at other schools. It's the biggest difference between mens and women's college basketball and the same reason why the top 6-8 teams in women's college basketball are the same every single year.