Natonal Letter of Intent Early Signing Period Begins Nov. 14

Natonal Letter of Intent Early Signing Period Begins Nov. 14
by dillon77 (2018-11-13 11:53:21)
Edited on 2018-11-13 18:08:26

Post Reply Return to McGraw's Bench

As in tomorrow/Wednesday, Nov. 14 and runs until Nov. 21st.

And it starts with a bang! Wing Haley Jones is due to make her choice of college on an ESPN special. Not certain of the time, but since she's on the West Coast, one should take that into consideration.
To recap, her five finalists are ND, UConn, Stanford, Oregon and South Carolina.

The other uncommitted prospect the Irish are after -- post Aliyah Boston -- will make her announcement at home in the U.S. Virgin Islands while on a community service trip with her Worcester Academy.
Her four finalists are ND, UConn, Ohio State and South Carolina.

As for the two verbal commitments ND has procured thus far, Orangutan reports that:

- Sam Brunelle is going to sign on Wednesday, Nov. 14th at 5 p.m. EST.
- Anaya Peoples is due to sign her NLI on Thursday, Nov. 15th at 3 p.m. CST.

Before anything else happens with the uncommitted prospects, here's to Brunelle and Peoples coming aboard at forward and guard, respectively. They want to come and in my very humble opinion, will be great additions.

As for Boston and Jones, like many of you, I can think of compelling reasons why they could/should attend Notre Dame. But many find reasons for them to attend UConn, Stanford, South Carolina, etc. Some of you swear ND is in the driver seat for one and/or both, while others are not so sure.

Personally, I would love to see the Irish have both, but think there might be a smidgen more chance for Boston to play in Purcell (Given she lives less than an hour from UConn, Storrs should be the logical landing spot. Plus they need a post. But if so, why hasn't she signed already? ND interest? Sam factor?). Jones is great, but has options on the left coast. In either case, cross fingers, think good thoughts and stay tuned.

P.S. BTW, there is a dead period through Nov. 15th (Thursday), which means the only contact a coach may have with a player or parent is via phone or writing. No face-to-face contact. After that, a evaluation period is back, which -- for the duration of teh national letter of intent early signing period -- still favors use of the phone and writing. Here we go!

Thanks. Great recap. Fingers and toes crossed! *

Fingers crossed.

Good recap. I also think (hope) that Boston might be a bit more likely to come to Notre Dame. Notre Dame is the only academically elite school in her list, and she seemed psyched on her OV. Haley also has Stanford, and then there is that distance consideration. Hope we get both. But if neither commits, we still have two fantastic players coming to Notre Dame.

Three of the top 4 are B1G teams (ESPN Rankings)

Maryland, Ohio State are 1, 2 and Michigan State is 4. Irish are 10

UConn is not ranked in the top 20 right now...of course that could change rather quickly if they get Boston and Haley Jones.

Here's the List ...

On first read, not sure I agree with some of the rankings (a few seem a bit heavy on quantity and others just have a "huh" feeling to them), but as Dan Olson said, they can change. Stay tuned.

Click here for link at http://www.espn.com/high-school/girls-basketball/recruiting/

What does Team Recruiting Rankings tell us

for the last few years? Here are selective team rankings from 2014:

**Recruiting Classes of Selected Teams Ranked From 2014**
Year	Notre Dame	UConn	Louisville	Duke	Tennessee	Baylor	Maryland
2014	5	4	8	3	6
2015	5	3	2	1	13	4	11
2016	5	14	6			2	1
2017	19	2	4	11	1	7
2018	7	2	15		4	1	5
2019	10		14	12	8		1

Taking a brief look and knowing that this will not be how the teams end up after the signing period reveals, I’d say Tennessee and then Louisville have squandered their players the most, although Louisville did get to the final four last year. Duke also is a first rate squanderer along with Baylor and Maryland. Hmm…OK everyone except Notre Dame and UConn squander talent and I’m not so sure about UConn.

EDIT: I glance at the results again and, perhaps, Maryland squandered the most talent. Anyway, it seems to be another indication that, while ND may not be the best recruiter, they are fairly consistent, and certainly get the most out of their recruits. Kudos to Coach McGraw, a Hall of Fame coach according to another piece of evidence.

FWIW, regarding Maryland

They made the Final Four in 2014 and 2015.

So we need go back further to judge if talent,

per this metric, was utilized.

Maryland in 2010 ranked 2nd per ESPN in recruiting (Alyssa Thomas among others),
in 2011, not ranked,
in 2012, 9th
in 2013, 7th,
so, while their Final Four appearance in 2014 seems to be commensurate with recruited talent, the 2015 appearance seems less predictable to recruiting. I can't recall everything in that 2015 season, but, based on this measure, Maryland did a nice coaching job to get there.

Sam is signing tomorrow at 5

according to her instagram story.