[2006alum]

Because that is the Stanford standard and just about every Stanford sport does it. WBB does it. 

I guess I think the "Stanford standard" is much easier to achieve in other sports than it is in MBB. In most Olympic sports, no more than a couple dozen pros make a healthy living at it, and those pros aren't barred from entry due to college attendance requirements, so they just turn pro right away (see, for example, Michelle Wie), or else as soon as they are likely to be competitive pros internationally (see Albane Valenzuela and Andrea Lee this fall, for example).  

As for WBB, WNBA prohibits pro draft eligibility for anyone under the age of 22. So apart from a few Europeans who prefer to play in European leagues vs. play US college ball, the top players are captured until graduation-age. (and with starting salaries in the low 100ks for WNBA players, the draw to go pro is not brobdingnagian. WCBB gets better ratings and more fan attention than WNBA by a mile.)

Perhaps it is pure coincidence, but the peak Monty years, from 1998-2004, when he won all of his conference titles, were also the peak years for top high school players going directly to the pros. That stopped in 2005. Best we've done since was 2nd place when we ourselves had two future draft picks on the roster in 2007-2008. 

It doesn't surprise me at all that Haase has been recruiting heavily from academies and schools like Garfield (Davis) in Seattle -- those are the places where recruits are likely to tick the boxes necessary to be eligible for admission. Rare is the recruit like Ziaire Williamson who plans on a pro career but also appears pretty interested in academics.

Now I agree our ceiling should be higher than it has been for the past decade, especially given how down the PAC-12 has been as a whole. But my view is Monty-like coach + pre-one-and-done recruiting era is an environment that we're unlikely to be able to replicate.

[2006alum]

Because that is the Stanford standard and just about every Stanford sport does it. WBB does it. 

I guess I think the "Stanford standard" is much easier to achieve in other sports than it is in MBB. In most Olympic sports, no more than a couple dozen pros make a healthy living at it, and those pros aren't barred from entry due to college attendance requirements, so they just turn pro right away (see, for example, Michelle Wie), or else as soon as they are likely to be competitive pros internationally (see Albane Valenzuela and Andrea Lee this fall, for example).  

As for WBB, WNBA prohibits pro draft eligibility for anyone under the age of 22. So apart from a few Europeans who prefer to play in European leagues vs. play US college ball, the top players are captured until graduation-age. (and with starting salaries in the low 100ks for WNBA players, the draw to go pro is not brobdingnagian. WCBB gets better ratings and more fan attention than WNBA by a mile.)

Perhaps it is pure coincidence, but the peak Monty years, from 1998-2004, when he won all of his conference titles, were also the peak years for top high school players going directly to the pros. That stopped in 2005. Best we've done since was 2nd place when we ourselves had two future draft picks on the roster in 2007-2008. 

It doesn't surprise me at all that Haase has been recruiting heavily from academies and schools like Garfield (Davis) in Seattle -- those are the places where recruits are likely to tick the boxes necessary to be eligible for admission. Rare is the recruit like Ziaire Williamson who plans on a pro career but also appears pretty interested in academics.

Now I agree our ceiling should be higher than it has been for the past decade, especially given how down the PAC-12 has been as a whole. But my view is Monty-like coach + pre-one-and-done recruiting era is an environment that we're unlikely to be able to replicate.