My initial post was to respond to the poster who said that at no point were Duke and UNC a threat to UConn and Tennessee. You turned this into a personal attack, claiming -- falsely, I might add -- that I have "have blatantly mis-stated or distorted facts." I will respond to your post, correcting your errors, and presenting evidence to demonstrate that Duke WAS a threat to UConn and Tennessee during this time (while disproving your unwarranted assumptions and showing you the incomplete nature of your research).
First, let me respond to your post about what is not true to tell you that you are incorrect. Goestenkors was 3-0, not 3-1, against the Parker/Hornbuckle/Fuller/Anosike class. The fourth game played was in 2008, when McCallie was the head coach (which Tennessee one).
Think that mattered?
Second, Parker redshirted that year (2004-2005), which is why I mentioned the recruiting class. The rankings of those players (per Blue Star):
Code:
1. Candace Parker
2. Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood (transferred to MD the year after)
4. Alexis Hornbuckle
5. Alex Fuller
16. Nicky Anosike
Think that mattered?
Also on the team: Former #1 recruit (who was a senior) Shyra Ely; former top-two recruit Tye'Sha Fluker (who was a junior); and former top-ten recruit Shanna Zolman (who was a junior).
Think that mattered?
TN made the Final Four that year and was a very good team. Duke became only the seventh team in 17 years to beat the Lady Vols in Thompson-Boling Arena. Duke's 04-05 had nine healthy and eligible/available players for the season, 3 of whom were freshmen. In fact, at the time, the Lady Vols had lost only 14 times at home since the arena opened in 1987.
And then Duke beat them the Lady Vols AGAIN in Thompson-Boling Arena in 2006-07 (with Parker as a redshirt sophomore and Hornbuckle/Fuller/Anosike as juniors). TN was a great team that year and would win the 2007 national title.
Think that mattered?
As far as Goestenkors going 2-1 against UConn in her last seven seasons, you took issue with the 2005-2006 UConn team, claiming it was "the only time in the last 20 years when UConn was ranked below #3 when Duke played them." First, while that is true, it also ignores the fact that the team had Ann Strother and Barbara Turner as seniors (both of whom were top 10 players in HS and team leaders by then), along with several other highly ranked/regarded players. Did I say it was UConn's best team? No. But UConn was a #2 seed in the NCAAT, and the game was played in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
More importantly, your post ignored the fact that the other win against UConn came during Diana Taurasi's senior year in Hartford, CT (where UConn played half of its home games at the time). UConn was the defending national champion and would later win that year's (2004) title). But completely absent from your post is any discussion of this win and the magnitude thereof.
Think that mattered?
In addition, during this time, Duke started to win recruiting battles with both Tennessee and UConn (even though it lost the battles for Parker and Hornbuckle at TN in 2004 and Mel Thomas (2004) at UConn and later had Brittany Hunter (HS 2003) transfer from Duke to UConn after her freshman year).
- Top 10 HS player, Parade AA, and WBCA All-America Wynter Whitley? Picked Duke over both UConn and Tennessee
- Top 10 HS player and MCDAA Mistie Bass? Picked Duke over Tennessee
- Top 15 HS player and MCDAA Chante Black? Picked Duke over UConn
- Top 5 HS player and MCDAA Abby Waner? Picked Duke over UConn
- (Note: MCDAA for girls did not start until the 2002 recruiting class)
And this does not include players like Alana Beard (whose dream school was TN, but she did not receive an offer) and other top ten players (Monique Currie, Iciss Tillis, Alison Bales, etc.) and top fifteen players (Wanisha Smith, etc.) whose recruiting lists and final schools I was unable to specifically recall (and did not pull up after a few searches of my archives and a few Google searches).
Duke emerged as a massive threat to UConn and Tennessee from 2001-2007. Anything who says/think otherwise is revisiting history from an unsourced text.