[OCcardinal]

I kind of feel like we are all in middle school ourselves, taking small observations and running rather too far with them. 

I'm sure the situation with 15 players, 4 coaches, etc., was complex enough that even those who were there wouldn't agree on what all went wrong and why. I don't think us fans speculating in depth about the details is a good look.

I agree we shouldn't speculate. But in middle school students gossip about inconsequential things.  If you like Stanford women's basketball this is quite serious.  Jones' commitment to Stanford was a big deal for the program. And it started an incredible pipeline from Jones to Brink to Betts of truly elite players.  We won a national championship for the first time in decades and Tara was starting to out-recruit Geno.  Then it all fell apart, seemingly at once.  Despite a great start to last season, we failed to make the Pac 12 title game and then failed to make the Sweet 16.  Then the two top-ranked recruits in our freshman class (including, of course Betts) transferred out and we missed out on most of our top prospects. And now we have zero current recruits even playing in the McDonalds All American game.  The team is doing great this year, of course, so there's lots to celebrate for now. But that UConn (of old) level pipeline has evaporated. Maybe it's too much to expect that Stanford could have maintained that (due to NIL or otherwise). But if there's something in this interview, or elsewhere, that helps explain the dramatic shift, I'm very curious to understand it.

[OCcardinal]

I kind of feel like we are all in middle school ourselves, taking small observations and running rather too far with them. 

I'm sure the situation with 15 players, 4 coaches, etc., was complex enough that even those who were there wouldn't agree on what all went wrong and why. I don't think us fans speculating in depth about the details is a good look.

I agree we shouldn't speculate. But in middle school students gossip about inconsequential things.  If you like Stanford women's basketball this is quite serious.  Jones' commitment to Stanford was a big deal for the program. And it started an incredible pipeline from Jones to Brink to Betts of truly elite players.  We won a national championship for the first time in decades and Tara was starting to out-recruit Geno.  Then it all fell apart, seemingly at once.  Despite a great start to last season, we failed to make the Pac 12 title game and then failed to make the Sweet 16.  Then the two top-ranked recruits in our freshman class (including, of course Betts) transferred out and we missed out on most of our top prospects. And now we have zero current recruits even playing in the McDonalds All American game.  The team is doing great this year, of course, so there's lots to celebrate for now. But that UConn (of old) level pipeline has evaporated. Maybe it's too much to expect that Stanford could have maintained that (due to NIL or otherwise). But if there's something in this interview, or elsewhere, that helps explain the dramatic shift, I'm very curious to understand it.