This year is only Niele's 4th team that she has personally put together since the 2020 recruits were signed in November 2019 while she was at Memphis. So the only fair compare is to use recruiting and transfer commitments and losses for the last 3 seasons where rosters got set and commitments were finalized by both Geno & Niele. Here is the list of players that were added to each team (recruits/xfrs in). As for transfer out we shoudl only commitments by Niele and Geno from 2020.

21/22 ND Miles, Citron; xfr in Dodson; UC Fudd. Ducharme, Poffenbarger, DeBerry xfr in Juhahz
22/23 ND Bransford, Prosper xfrs in Ebo, Watson, Brown xfrs out: NONE; UC Patterson, Brady, Bettencourt, El Alfy xfr Senechel, xfr out Poffenbarger
23/24 ND Hidalgo, Risch; xfrs in Dewolfe, Obinma, xfrs out NONE: UC Arnold. Shade, Samuels; xfrs in NONE, xfrs out: Deberry, Bettencourt?

The 24/25 teams have not been finalized yet as transfers are finalizing their new schools if they leave. Still using the three teams so far, ND has recruited 6 HS seniors who they have retained while UConn recruited 11 HS seniors with 2 already xfrd out and one more still in the portal. As for transfers, Notre Dame recruited 6 who all have so far finished their career at ND while UConn recruited only 2 who also finished their career at UConn. Net net Niele brought in 12 recruits and has lost none on her three teams while Geno recruited 13, but has already lost 2 and possible another.

The truth is if you argue quality of recruits I would take our 6 HS recruits over UConn's 8 HS players remaining as Niele has developed 2 AAs (Hidalgo & Miles) while Geno has yet to have one of these players meet that standard. I'd even take Soni over their best recruit Fudd any day of the week. Then looking at xfrs, UConn's two contributed well as starters, but ND had three starters come in as xfrs on the 3 teams. Then on the court when ND played UConn, ND is 2-1 including winning the last two handily.

One other recruiting effort that you could credit Niele with regarding Muffet's last signing class which Geno also matched, as both coaches kept their best player to stay that extra Covid year to play in college. One might argue that Niele's effort was even more impressive since Maddy had 4 full years of playing whereas Paige wasn't able to play for a whole season as well missed the tournament the previous season.

We will see how next season's team get finalized and than can add that compare, but for now I appreciate how effective Niele's approach has been. It is clear she retained all the players she has signed and even talked a key starter to stay another season. I know there was a lot of angst with the Strong and Chen signing that Geno is doing so much better than Niele, but if you look at the last three years the facts say otherwise. We will see what next season yields.

I appreciate having the context all laid out. However, I’m not sure it tells the whole story.

Though Niele didn’t recruit them as HC, leaving out the departures of Gilbert, Prohaska, Peoples, and Brunelle after 2021-22 makes it look like Niele hasn’t lost any players. While she hasn’t lost many that she’s recruited as HC, she did lose a significant number there, making the 2022-23 class less of an impressive haul and more of a necessity. When looking at roster sizes:

2021-22
ND: 10 scholarship players
UConn: 12 scholarship players

2022-23
ND: 10 scholarship players (1 joined mid-season)
UConn: 13 scholarship players

2023-24
ND: 11 scholarship players (not counting Brown who is medically retired or Cernugel who is a former walk-on)
UConn: 14 scholarship players

And though the 2024-25 rosters are nowhere near finalized, here is where each team currently sits:

2024-25
ND: 9 scholarship players (with 1 freshman recruit)
UConn: 14 scholarship players (with 3 freshman recruits)

Despite injuries, UConn has been able to make the Final Four two of the last three years because of how much quality depth they have. Even with key injuries (and a lot of them), they’ve made runs. Niele thus far has been unable to secure a deep roster, and key injuries have kept our team from advancing past the Sweet 16 the past two seasons. We haven’t had the depth to overcome those injuries.

Perhaps Niele’s recruiting has had more quality than Geno’s for the past few seasons, but when looking at both quality AND quantity on the rosters, UConn has been better set up for success.

One other slight counterpoint: if you are going to put Prosper in the 2022-23 group that Niele brought in, then you should also move Miles to the 2020-21 group, which is not being used in your comparison. However, it may be more apt to move Prosper to the 2023-24 group since that was her original recruitment class.

on her since she didn't choose them, especially the class of 2020 signed in November 2019. Olivia was signed in 2020 and started playing 2021 and putting Cass in the 2022 or 2023 class doesn't change the analysis.

The truth in my mind she kept the several players from the Muffet era until they graduated with ND degrees: Abby, Sam, Dara, and Nat. Getting them to stay after their degree is fools gold and Geno doesn't do it either. That's why I given them both credit for keeping Paige and Maddy given the quality of their play.

As for the tourney record I agree Geno has done better, but so far he did with recruits that competed against Muffets recruits. In 2019 when he got #1 recruit Paige and #3 Edwards he was the second in teamr recruitng ranking and ND was 3rd overall with their best Maddy at #15. The one year Bueckers didn't play Geno and Niel ended in the sweet 16, and that was when we wer without Olivia like this past year.

I know people were miffed Nile didn't do more to keep Muffet';s players but let's give her the credit that she is building this team in her won image. Muffet (with Niele's help) built an incredible ND run that ended the 2019 season after that loss in that championship game when 5 ND players were chosen in the 1st two rounds of the WNBA and all still thrive there. After that we required a complete rebuild and the 2020 and 2021 seasons certainly should have told you that. 2022 we got better. 2023 we won the ACC regular season championship but when our AA Miles got hurt we couldn't get past Maryland. In 2023 we won the ACC tournament championship. As for the NCAAs, I woudl contend the only reason that UConn team got to the final was the tourney draw. They wouldn't have beaten OSU and we woudl had no problem with both Duke (or even tOSU) and USC who they got to play. You can differ with that view but I said it even before the tourney started once the bracket was out.

Let's see what happens in 2024/25 before we make that final prognosis on the better current approach of thrash vs numbers. We'd all like more but so far I commend her for the loyalty she has preserved for the players she personally recuited. KK and Maddy staying are very positive signs, but next season does matter.

She was a Niele Ivey recruit the whole way in regards to the transfer.
(Muffet initially chose Jenna Brown over Dara, if you recall, then Jordan Nixon.)

season since Niele had such a late start. So Niele should get credit for recruitng Dara as a transfer. So that 20/21 team had two players who played that only committed to Niele (Dara & Olivia), the rest of the roster all committed to play for Muffet prior to Niel being hired.

Of course, Saylor P. had a stop at Arkansas in between.

DeBerry was supposed to be a "can't miss" coming out of high school, but couldn't get on the floor, later surpassed by "Ice" Brady. Good luck to her in College Park.

Interestingly, both were former teammates of Citron, Bransford and Miles on that U.S.A. team in Chile.

get on a bus, some get off a bus, but few get to their destination.