[TheFarm07]

Tangential thought:  does a #1 ranking, final four appearance or national championship have a meaningful impact on women's hoops recruiting at Stanford?  There is no doubt it has a significant impact for schools that don't have academic restrictions, but I don't see how it expands our pool in any significant way, though it may help with academic qualifiers who may be on the fence about Stanford for one reason or another.

I'd love to see this team giving our recruiting a little lift, but I'm doubtful that it can make much of a difference, as much as I'd like to hope otherwise.  Thoughts?

I had the same idea/hope after we made the 5 consecutive Final Four appearances from 2008 to 2012 (especially given the pay in the WNBA) and for a couple years, we were seen as the only potential challenger to the Maya Moore-led UConn juggernaut of that era, but our recruiting did not noticeably pick up (as in getting top 5/top 10 recruits) during the mid-teens after our phenomenal run. It took us ten years to get another #1 recruit after Chiney in Haley for instance and I believe Kiana was our first top 10 recruit during that period, too, though Erica was on the cusp at #11.

It's only been in the last couple years that our recruiting has really jumped up in terms of raw prospect rankings with Haley at #1 and Brink at #3.

But because of our academic requirements, it's more difficult to potentially judge the impact as we may just be unlucky for a stretch of years in terms of the top prospects being academically eligible and wanting to play for us. Katie Lou famously chose UConn over us, but I am not sure if she had been an only child rather than had 2 older sisters who went to Stanford if she would have picked us, as she mentioned wanting to forge a different path from her siblings.

[TheFarm07]

Tangential thought:  does a #1 ranking, final four appearance or national championship have a meaningful impact on women's hoops recruiting at Stanford?  There is no doubt it has a significant impact for schools that don't have academic restrictions, but I don't see how it expands our pool in any significant way, though it may help with academic qualifiers who may be on the fence about Stanford for one reason or another.

I'd love to see this team giving our recruiting a little lift, but I'm doubtful that it can make much of a difference, as much as I'd like to hope otherwise.  Thoughts?

I had the same idea/hope after we made the 5 consecutive Final Four appearances from 2008 to 2012 (especially given the pay in the WNBA) and for a couple years, we were seen as the only potential challenger to the Maya Moore-led UConn juggernaut of that era, but our recruiting did not noticeably pick up (as in getting top 5/top 10 recruits) during the mid-teens after our phenomenal run. It took us ten years to get another #1 recruit after Chiney in Haley for instance and I believe Kiana was our first top 10 recruit during that period, too, though Erica was on the cusp at #11.

It's only been in the last couple years that our recruiting has really jumped up in terms of raw prospect rankings with Haley at #1 and Brink at #3.

But because of our academic requirements, it's more difficult to potentially judge the impact as we may just be unlucky for a stretch of years in terms of the top prospects being academically eligible and wanting to play for us. Katie Lou famously chose UConn over us, but I am not sure if she had been an only child rather than had 2 older sisters who went to Stanford if she would have picked us, as she mentioned wanting to forge a different path from her siblings.