[jonnyss]

I'm inclined to think Tara recruits the best players she can regardless of position, and then tries to mold the offense around whoever she gets.  We sometime forget it is Stanford--and it is not football--meaning there are no allowances in WBB for players who can't meet the highest academic standards.  We can get great players, but we can't pick and choose them by position.  So in recent years she has hit the jackpot with big players and struck out on the elite guards (I would count Jones as a wing, personally)--Osborne, Rice, Watkins.  Apparently we came close in each case.  This has created an imbalance of talent on this team--a much stronger frontcourt than backcourt.

i generally agree with your point, but i believe (with some indirect evidence) that we did not strike out on osborne. it's my understanding that we had 5 great options for 4 spots (haley, fran, ashten, hannah, charisma) and chose the first 4.  charisma was my favorite player coming out of high school, and i posted several times that this choice would come back to bite us because we did not have a top point guard to replace kiana. i was asked to pipe down and did until now.

[jonnyss]

I'm inclined to think Tara recruits the best players she can regardless of position, and then tries to mold the offense around whoever she gets.  We sometime forget it is Stanford--and it is not football--meaning there are no allowances in WBB for players who can't meet the highest academic standards.  We can get great players, but we can't pick and choose them by position.  So in recent years she has hit the jackpot with big players and struck out on the elite guards (I would count Jones as a wing, personally)--Osborne, Rice, Watkins.  Apparently we came close in each case.  This has created an imbalance of talent on this team--a much stronger frontcourt than backcourt.

i generally agree with your point, but i believe (with some indirect evidence) that we did not strike out on osborne. it's my understanding that we had 5 great options for 4 spots (haley, fran, ashten, hannah, charisma) and chose the first 4.  charisma was my favorite player coming out of high school, and i posted several times that this choice would come back to bite us because we did not have a top point guard to replace kiana. i was asked to pipe down and did until now.