Some (more) Saturday Information On This

I've scoured a few other boards and two contributors from the Northwest on the Boneyard have added some factoids/opinions.

- Some of this information is based on other commits hoping Clark will come.
-- "A week ago the Portland Oregon newspaper posted audio of an 8 minute interview with Sydney Parrish where she said clearly she’s working hard to get Clark to Oregon but Parrish acknowledged that Clark wasn’t there yet."

-- Te-Hina PaoPao: “I’ve been hearing Caitlin Clark [ESPN's fourth-ranked overall player] might commit," she said. "That would be really exciting to have her with us. But, I’ll play with whoever comes to Oregon."

- Rumor on What's Next:
-- "The most recent (presumably informed) information coming from Eugene is that Clark will likely make official visits to both Oregon and Notre Dame, and then commit sometime in the fall."

This fits in with what Clark has said herself: that she wants to take some official visits (OV's) then make up her mind, preferably before the next (High School) basketball season starts.

BTW, in between that time, she's headed to Thailand with a fellow point guard she might spend two years with, Jordan Nixon. For worse or preferably better, perhaps Jordan can share some information and/or they, too, might get to like/respect each other and their games.

Stay tuned....this cycle is not complete yet. It has seemed surprisingly and disappointingly hard to land some recruits, given ND's return to the final fours, a national championship and the mostly positive publicity the Irish have gotten from Arike's on-court heroics and Muffet's principled stands.

But, as someone pointed out, the endgame is, who says "yes." I really like Alli Campbell (off guard, maybe wing) and Nat Marshall (a 6'5" forward/post) for ND (and obvioulsy Irish coaches do, too). Let's see how Clark, Kelly and Westbeld pan out.

If not, let's blanket that 2021 class....

Given the National Championship & the return

to the Championship game plus all of the positive publicity what is your take on why it has been so difficult to land some of these recruits?

Look at the situation

Here are the players we have coming back right now (Class listed for next year):

Mikayla Vaughn: Junior (possible 3 years) McDonald's AA
Jordan Nixon: Sophomore McDonald's AA
Abby Prohaska: Sophomore who was one of the top players off the bench last year
Dannielle Cosgrove: Sophomore
Katlyn Gilbert: Sophomore (possible 4 years) McDonald's AA
Sam Brunelle: Freshman (Top 3 recruit)
Anaya Peoples: Freshman McDonald's AA

Not considering the incoming grad transfers (who would only be at ND one year, which is why I didn't list them), if Vaughn were to choose to take her 5th year all of the players at ND next year would be at ND for at least 3 years.

It's the bigs that we really need. Vaughn was not a

McDonald's AA (see link). I think you're confusing her with Dani.

Vaughn's rankings:

25th on Blue Star
56th on ESPN Hoopgurlz
150th on Prospects Nation

Also, Sam is not a top 3 recruit:

4th on Blue Star
5th on Prospects Nation
6th on Hoopgurlz

Click here for link at https://www.maxpreps.com/news/oQr7OwAIS0qYuehzD0W11A/2017-mc

Thanks for the clarification.

Muffet has some work to do.

This is a really good question. I'm stumped.

It seemed to happen after the 2001 championship as well.

My point exactly we struggled after 2001

You would think the success over the last few years coupled with the players that are going into the WNBA some top picks why can't we get the recruits to make elite 8 & Final 4 every year? We seem to go in spurts and instead of reloading we rebuild which takes time

You must have missed that post I wrote a while back

And then reposted.

Basically, the gist of it was that back in 2001 ND had made one Final Four and one NC both with senior laden teams, so it was viewed more as "ND was successful because of how the classes worked out."

Plus the year that ND won the NC, they had a huge class (6 recruits!). That can kill some initial momentum.

Add in that it often takes time to "get in the heads" of recruits, and if you can't stay on top consecutive years, it can look like a "lucky shot" instead of consistent excellence.

BTW, we have "made the elite 8 and Final 4 every year for 8 the last 9 years (and made the Final Four 7 of the last 9 years. For some perspective on that, only 5 programs have more than 5 Final Fours. Not coaches...programs!).

There are still players out there, as Dillon points out. Plus, we've been hit by the transfer bug.

Well, we've made the Final Four 7 of the last 9 years

and we've made the Elite 8 8 of the last 9 years, so we have been making the Elite 8 and Final Four every year.

I understand that but

there was a drought after 2001 until Skylar got there then recruiting turned and we went on a run but the post 2001 drought lasted awhile. My concern is we should be a decent team but I just don't want to see another "drought" last a few years

You mean a "drought" after only making the Final Four twice

...in ND's history?

Yeah, it turned out that it took a while for McGraw to get a consistent product. And I don't think you realize just how hard it is to get to a Final Four.

Of all the programs out there, only 5 have been to more than 5 Final Fours. UConn, ND, and Stanford have been to them recently. UT's last one was in 2008. La Tech's was in 1999.

There are only 3 other programs that have been to 5 (UGA, Maryland, and LSU)and two others who have been to 4 (Duke and now Baylor).

Quite a few of the "3 Final Four" teams bunched theirs together (and LSU's 5 were all consecutive): Auburn: 1988-90, USC (1983-85), and UVA (1990-92) or had two of their three with many of the same players: UNC (2006-07), ODU (1983, 1985), Oklahoma (2009-10), Purdue (1999, 2001), Texas (1986-87), and W. Kentucky (1985-86).

With the two teams with 4 Final Fours, half of Baylor's came with Griner and half of Duke's came with Beard.

Guess I was just hoping

that we would have landed some more of our top 10 ranked targets. I just don't want them to hit what I considered some rough sledding from the 2001 season thru the 2010 season where in those 9 years we were eliminated in the sweet 16 4 times and didn't get past the 1st or 2nd round the other 5 times. I had hoped we had turned thee corner so to speak and would build off of that 2001 championship which I didn't think we did. I realize how tough it is to make a Final 4. I guess I have been spoiled by the success of the program the last 8 years and was hoping we could continue it. I'm a soon to be 70 year old season ticket holder and at my age one tends to "panic" LOL. Appreciate you & dillons posts along with some others who are really terrific posters.

If Caitlin takes an official visit to ND, that would put ND

in a great position to win her commitment. I was surprised that Watson did not take her ND visit, but it was better (as always) for ND to learn sooner, rather than later, where a recruit has decided to go.