[81alum]

Well, the usual Stanford basketball recruit commitment rankings curse seems to have continued for us. ESPN recently revealed their 2018 HoopGurlz Top 100 and Jenna Brown has dropped from #11 to #20 since decommitting from Votre Dame and committing to us. Lexie Hull remains at #16, and Lacie remains unranked. Nelson-Ododa, one of our main targets, who is still uncommitted, is down to #5, I think(?) from #3.

It's odd how often our basketball recruits drop in the rankings subsequent to committing to Stanford. Last year Daejon Davis took a of exceedingly large proportions hit after he decommitted from Washington and committed to us (I think he dropped around 20-30 places), and in 2014 both Dorian Pickens and Robbie Cartwright were top 100 players prior to committing, and then dropped from the rankings entirely. It's possible it's totally random, but I wonder if there's some reason they're more skeptical of Cardinal commits? It seems like Kezie Okpala is the only player I can remember in recent years whose ranking improved after committing to the Cardinal, and his enormous late-stage growth spurt made it hard to ignore his significantly elevated potential.

Not that any of it matters in the end, but I do think it shapes pre-season hype and expectations, and I feel like we're always getting the short end of the rerankings stick.

Interesting question.  I had not noticed that with Tara recruits before.  I think sometimes that Tara finds and recruits players that the major ratings services miss and then they go up.  Lili and Alanna maybe.  The point is that Tara is a better judge of talent than most of the individuals doing the ratings--and that is one of the reasons we often perform better than the sum of our ratings might indicate. 

I wonder if the Jenna Brown thing is related to her coming off the ACL.  Was the earlier rating based on her pre-ACL form?  I do confess to getting nervous about star recruits who were injured like Beebe and Wilson, since it is hard to predict how quickly and completely they might recover.  Brown is apparently playing again now which is a good sign.

[81alum]

Well, the usual Stanford basketball recruit commitment rankings curse seems to have continued for us. ESPN recently revealed their 2018 HoopGurlz Top 100 and Jenna Brown has dropped from #11 to #20 since decommitting from Votre Dame and committing to us. Lexie Hull remains at #16, and Lacie remains unranked. Nelson-Ododa, one of our main targets, who is still uncommitted, is down to #5, I think(?) from #3.

It's odd how often our basketball recruits drop in the rankings subsequent to committing to Stanford. Last year Daejon Davis took a of exceedingly large proportions hit after he decommitted from Washington and committed to us (I think he dropped around 20-30 places), and in 2014 both Dorian Pickens and Robbie Cartwright were top 100 players prior to committing, and then dropped from the rankings entirely. It's possible it's totally random, but I wonder if there's some reason they're more skeptical of Cardinal commits? It seems like Kezie Okpala is the only player I can remember in recent years whose ranking improved after committing to the Cardinal, and his enormous late-stage growth spurt made it hard to ignore his significantly elevated potential.

Not that any of it matters in the end, but I do think it shapes pre-season hype and expectations, and I feel like we're always getting the short end of the rerankings stick.

Interesting question.  I had not noticed that with Tara recruits before.  I think sometimes that Tara finds and recruits players that the major ratings services miss and then they go up.  Lili and Alanna maybe.  The point is that Tara is a better judge of talent than most of the individuals doing the ratings--and that is one of the reasons we often perform better than the sum of our ratings might indicate. 

I wonder if the Jenna Brown thing is related to her coming off the ACL.  Was the earlier rating based on her pre-ACL form?  I do confess to getting nervous about star recruits who were injured like Beebe and Wilson, since it is hard to predict how quickly and completely they might recover.  Brown is apparently playing again now which is a good sign.