These are fun lists and lots of great thoughts. Just to add a few of my own to the mix:
-I share the view that
Powell was so positionless that there's going to be a quibble wherever you put her, and the 3 position acknowledges her prowess both shooting long distance and also around the paint.
-Whether you want to call her position as being a "wing" or a "shooting forward,"
Pedersen largely played the 3 position at Stanford because she was behind a series of even more post-like posts (Appel, Nneka, and Chiney). Indeed, note that
this Merc article from 2010 explicitly stated, "
Pedersen, who has moved from power forward to wing, is willing to step outside her personality to help the team. She has done everything coaches have asked in three years at Stanford." Indeed, I think Pedersen doesn't get enough credit precisely because she played out of position for most of her Stanford career, and did it exceptionally well. And she had three-point shooting that all of Appel, Nneka, and Chiney lacked at Stanford (Nneka didn't master her trey until well into her time in the W), so she did, in that sense, perform the tasks of a wing/3 player.
I wasn't old enough to observe the Azzi/Starbird/Whiting/Henning years firsthand, so I don't feel qualified to say where I'd place them, but of the bunch, it's telling to me that
Azzi got Tara her first championship and had the most esteemed post-college career, and given the lack of true point guards, she seems the obvious pick at the 1. (Though note that Henning's
assists stats seem to suggest she played the true point role either more often, or more capably, than Azzi. And as someone else mentioned, it's striking that all of our single-season assists records have stood for the better part of 20-30 years.)
The other axis to think about this on is who dominated in a given season. On that basis, I don't see how you don't start
Azzi,
Wiggins, and
Chiney - the former two both won the Wade Trophy, and the latter
won the Wooden, both of which are awards for the year's top college player in the country. I think revisionist history views Nneka more favorably than Chiney because she's become a more well-rounded and dominant pro, but in college Chiney's best seasons were better than Nneka's. And yes, part of that may be due to Chiney not sharing the court with another equally capable big the way that Nneka did first with Appel and then with her sis, but when you start doing these "all-time" lists you have to go based on the player's actual performance because it gets too hard to play counter-factuals with who might have done what had so-and-so been on their team (or not on their team) at the time.
Appel was probably one of the best suited for Tara's triangle offense and what she did she did exceptionally well. However, she was not as versatile as either peak Nneka or peak Chiney, so personally, I would not start her over either of them. But she'd be first off the bench.
So I think I basically share BC's list except I'd start Chiney over Appel. And I think Alanna Smith needs to at least be in the conversation, because she was at least as good as Pedersen and at least as versatile. She took longer to peak than Pedersen did, but if I had to ask myself who I'd want back more next season, senior year Pedersen or senior year Smith, it'd be Smith for me, and it wouldn't be close.
