[stopandpop]

An apt example for us is Shea Ralph, 13-year assistant to Auriemma, left UConn and took the Vanderbilt head coaching job 5 years ago. They are now 27-4  and currently projected by ESPN to be a #2-seed in the NCAA tournament. She is the SEC coach of the year and The Athletic's national Coach of the Year. Before she arrived, Vandy was 14-16 in 2019-2020 and then 4-4 in the pandemic year, and 16-19 her first year at Vandy. 12-19 her second year as head coach. 23-10 her third year. then 22-11 and now 27-4. She did get help this year and last from sophomore Mikayla Blakes who is the SEC player of the year. Great coaches convince great players to buy into their program

So this means we can expect a win total in the 20's from Kate next year, right?

Only one data point, which there could have been many reasons for, but Blakes was down to Stanford and Vanderbilt, and chose Vandy.

which begs the question why we keep "just missing out" on the Blakes, the Hidalgos, all the others...perhaps relates to something Stanford cannot control but also perhaps to confidence inspired by the coaching?

In my many years of tutoring at Florida State, I have asked kids who were recruited by both FSU and Stanford why they chose the former. One of the reasons was almost always Stanford was too far from home.
One of the kids said Stanford was too far from home and too academic. He had gone to the same high school my kids had. Ouch.

There are multiple reasons, but one I have heard on more than one occasion from a source I trust is that some of the elite guards and wings Stanford has recruited have been turned-off by Stanford's more structured offense (this goes back to the Tara era, but certainly the Kate Paye era) that (they believe) would not give them the freedom and creativity to operate when they had the ball.

This source tells me that the more structured offense was one (but not all the reasons) why Stanford lost out to Kiki Rice and Juju Watkins.  I have no inside knowledge regarding Blakes.

[stopandpop]

An apt example for us is Shea Ralph, 13-year assistant to Auriemma, left UConn and took the Vanderbilt head coaching job 5 years ago. They are now 27-4  and currently projected by ESPN to be a #2-seed in the NCAA tournament. She is the SEC coach of the year and The Athletic's national Coach of the Year. Before she arrived, Vandy was 14-16 in 2019-2020 and then 4-4 in the pandemic year, and 16-19 her first year at Vandy. 12-19 her second year as head coach. 23-10 her third year. then 22-11 and now 27-4. She did get help this year and last from sophomore Mikayla Blakes who is the SEC player of the year. Great coaches convince great players to buy into their program

So this means we can expect a win total in the 20's from Kate next year, right?

Only one data point, which there could have been many reasons for, but Blakes was down to Stanford and Vanderbilt, and chose Vandy.

which begs the question why we keep "just missing out" on the Blakes, the Hidalgos, all the others...perhaps relates to something Stanford cannot control but also perhaps to confidence inspired by the coaching?

In my many years of tutoring at Florida State, I have asked kids who were recruited by both FSU and Stanford why they chose the former. One of the reasons was almost always Stanford was too far from home.
One of the kids said Stanford was too far from home and too academic. He had gone to the same high school my kids had. Ouch.

There are multiple reasons, but one I have heard on more than one occasion from a source I trust is that some of the elite guards and wings Stanford has recruited have been turned-off by Stanford's more structured offense (this goes back to the Tara era, but certainly the Kate Paye era) that (they believe) would not give them the freedom and creativity to operate when they had the ball.

This source tells me that the more structured offense was one (but not all the reasons) why Stanford lost out to Kiki Rice and Juju Watkins.  I have no inside knowledge regarding Blakes.