[81alum]

It seems relatively speaking we have had much more success with landing top-5/10 elite-level forwards and posts (Appel, the Ogwumike sisters, Jones, Brink, Betts) rather than guards (Kiana).

Orrange was #11, I recall, and Lili was unrated and unknown.  Those are probably the best two guards in the years leading up to Williams.

McPhee put to the lie any talk that Stanford never has "slasher" guards.  That was her game.

In general, however, it does seem to be the case over many years that we recruit elite bigs more easily than elite guards.  I wonder why that is?  I've never heard a plausible theory.  The pool of available elite guards is actually larger.  Is it something like why Stanford football for a long time recruited much better OL players than DBs?  Why, for example, would Rice go to UCLA which is already stuffed with guards when she could have been a focal point of the offense at Stanford?  While any one case like Rice's may have been something personal and not basketball related, I think there is a bit of a pattern that I find curious.

[81alum]

It seems relatively speaking we have had much more success with landing top-5/10 elite-level forwards and posts (Appel, the Ogwumike sisters, Jones, Brink, Betts) rather than guards (Kiana).

Orrange was #11, I recall, and Lili was unrated and unknown.  Those are probably the best two guards in the years leading up to Williams.

McPhee put to the lie any talk that Stanford never has "slasher" guards.  That was her game.

In general, however, it does seem to be the case over many years that we recruit elite bigs more easily than elite guards.  I wonder why that is?  I've never heard a plausible theory.  The pool of available elite guards is actually larger.  Is it something like why Stanford football for a long time recruited much better OL players than DBs?  Why, for example, would Rice go to UCLA which is already stuffed with guards when she could have been a focal point of the offense at Stanford?  While any one case like Rice's may have been something personal and not basketball related, I think there is a bit of a pattern that I find curious.