Originally Posted by
dudog84
Apologies in advance for the lengthy post. But I come to a somewhat weighty conclusion so I feel I need to support that conclusion.
I was shocked when I saw the pre-season rankings that had us at 40 in the AP with a measly 4 votes, and absolutely no votes in the Coach’s poll (53 teams received votes). How could that be? We had all five starters back. From an average team, but still. There was talent.
Haley Gorecki – one of only 2 ACC players to receive a vote for the AP pre-season All-America team. Only 15 got votes nationwide, so she is considered a top 20 player. 5th-year senior, all the experience you could want.
Leaonna Odom – senior. Ranked #9 in high school. When she wants to play, she might be one of the top 10 players in the country. She was one of the best players on the court as a sophomore against UConn (22 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists).
Miela Goodchild – no high school ranking, but was probably top-20 in the class. One of the best freshman 3-point shooters in the country, she broke Becca’s freshman record and Becca was ranked #6.
Jade Williams – junior, #14 high school and everyone was raving about what a great summer she had. Was hoping she was just a year late in developing (always like to see that sophomore surge).
Onome Akinbode-James – showed some promise as a freshman.
Then in support:
Kyra Lambert – yes, coming off an injury but Coach P said she was looking better than ever. As a 5th-year, if she’s healthy she’s one of the top point guards in the country. She was the #9 recruit in high school. And from what I saw in the UNLV game, she appears healthy.
Freshman class – decent support, no big stars but a couple of them were ranked in the 20s by one of the recruiting services (the rankings above were ESPN). So there was hope.
I wondered how the pollsters could be so wrong about us. They weren’t.
No shame in losing to Texas A&M. They were ranked #5. But I thought we would have a chance. They’ve only got 1 top-50 recruit on their entire team! (I did not check to see if they have any high-value transfers)
Then UNLV stayed with us well into the 4th quarter. What? They’ve got 1 top-100 recruit on the entire team! She was ranked 82!
Then the debacle of Sunday. Losing at home to Northwestern by 21 points. I figured some of our players got hurt. Nope. Our top 4 players all got 30+ minutes. Northwestern does not have a single top-50 recruit on their team!
I honestly thought this was going to be a great year, that we would have a shot at a Final Four. Lots of experience, Kyra should be in game shape by ACC time, and even a chance that Mikayla Boykin could be in game shape by February.
But it had to be this year. Haley, Leaonna, and Kyra will all be gone. Next year Jade will be the only top-20 recruit on the entire team (caveat for Miela). Recruiting had some slight promise, but now we’ve whiffed on everyone but a single recruit, #37.
Speaking of which, recruiting has fallen off a cliff. Top recruit in this year’s freshman class is ranked #57 (again, that’s ESPN) Miela was a pleasant surprise the year before, but our top American high-schooler was ranked #77.
This is as good a place as any to say the miss on Bella Alarie was unforgiveable.
The future is bleak. The girls don’t have the deep pool of talent that the boys do. Virtually every Final Four team has at least one top-5 recruit, usually several. We’re not even coming close.
I thought Coach P was a good coach (some on this board probably think I gave her too much benefit of the doubt). She was successful before she came to Duke. The Chelsea Gray class was spectacular, and it was very bad luck when Chelsea went down mid-season in both her junior and senior years. I’ve written before that Mike Krzyzewski probably never becomes "Coach K" if Johnny Dawkins had gotten hurt his junior (probably completely miss the NCAAs) and senior years (certainly no Final Four).
But them’s the breaks, and it appears Coach P has lost it. I am loathe to call for people to get canned, but when you’re reportedly making over $1 million/year you have to produce. You have to. So she has to go.