2019 Recruiting - WBB

Not really a surprise on Scott to me. As far as I know, there hadn't been much interest between the two parties; but, surprisingly, she attended our summer camp. We offered her a scholarship around that time (which is considerably late for a 2019 recruit).

After that, she made official visits to Kansas and USC, so I knew they'd be in her Top 5. She has tweeted so many things about A&M, that I've always felt they were the leaders for her; having her club teammate McKinzie Green commit to A&M recently definitely doesn't hurt their chances. Mizzou and Oklahoma are complete surprises to me; personally, I don't think she fits in with Mizzou's offense at all.
 
Moooooo said:
Not really a surprise on Scott to me. As far as I know, there hadn't been much interest between the two parties; but, surprisingly, she attended our summer camp. We offered her a scholarship around that time (which is considerably late for a 2019 recruit).

After that, she made official visits to Kansas and USC, so I knew they'd be in her Top 5. She has tweeted so many things about A&M, that I've always felt they were the leaders for her; having her club teammate McKinzie Green commit to A&M recently definitely doesn't hurt their chances. Mizzou and Oklahoma are complete surprises to me; personally, I don't think she fits in with Mizzou's offense at all.
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Losing Sophie Cunningham and, to a lesser extent, Cierra Porter is going to set Mizzou a few steps back. It’s this season or bust as they are probably going to fall back to 5-6th at best in the SEC after the upcoming season behind SC, Miss St, Tennessee and an upward trending Georgia program.
 
Our targets for 2019 certainly are dwindling (as far as we know).

Perhaps there is an international target we don't know about, or maybe even a JUCO target (which would actually help balance the two-person class of Chazz and Destiny).
 
As far as I recall, Horns are still in on the running for Haley Jones (very long shot), Rickea Jackson and Aijha Blackwell
 
The 2019 class was always going to be a small class. And to be honest, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It will allow for more class separation. With tons of quality players in the 2020 class.
 
There are 4 remaining spots open for the 2019 class and I would not say that this was always going to be a small class. If Coach KA can get the kids she wants and still has open offers to we could definitely fill the remaining openings for this class. But that number is definitely dwindling. I wonder if London Clarkson is still a possibility? She was supposed to announce her Top 10 today but I haven't seen anything.
 
Ellis21d said:
There are 4 remaining spots open for the 2019 class and I would not say that this was always going to be a small class. If Coach KA can get the kids she wants and still has open offers to we could definitely fill the remaining openings for this class. But that number is definitely dwindling. I wonder if London Clarkson is still a possibility? She was supposed to announce her Top 10 today but I haven't seen anything.
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I would say so. Look at the roster, their really isn’t a NEED at any position.
 
I think a small select group of freshmen for 2019 would be ideal. Everything I have seen and heard about Celeste makes me think she will fit great with the team. Add one more talented guard and wing/forward and the class looks good. Still, I can see it could be hard to turn down super talented players if you have the scholarships.
 
Since women's hoops teams are allowed 15 scholarships, the ideal distribution for individuals per class is any random combination of 4, 4, 4, and 3.

Signing more than 4 in any one class (like we did in 2018 by signing 5 players) will have an impact down the road. And, losing a player (like we did with Rellah) will also have an effect as the 2017 class is down to 2 players. Granted, a lot of things that happen to roster/class numbers are unexpected and happen to just about every program.

If we sign only 2 players for the 2019 class, our scholarship allocations become even more uneven:

2016: 3
2017: 2
2018: 5
2019: 2

While that leaves 6 open slots for the loaded 2020 class, there would be overlap on positions, and very unlikely that all signees would remain all 4 years.
 
Moo, I don’t know if you were responding to me or not but I was thinking a class of three would be desireable. I meant a guard in addition to Taylor plus a wing by which I really meant a small forward.
 
I wouldn't mind one from the pair of Endyia Rogers and Zia Cooke and one from the trio of Aijha Blackwell, Haley Jones and Rickea Jackson.

We will have at least three ships for 2020, maybe more depending on how many are used in 2019.
 
Moooooo, by small forward, do you mean the position Ariel played? Isn't that the position, more or less, that Celeste will be playing?

I am psyched about Endyia, (or Zia, if she would come south). It's nice not to see Baylor on Endyia's list. I don't like seeing Tennessee on it, though. It seems like practically everyone is getting interested in Tennessee again. I don't know enough about Liz Scott to know how disappointed to be. Rickea would be an ultimate get (or Haley Jones, of course). We can keep hoping.
 
In some ways, we can say that our offense last season was a 3-guard offense. Ariel did play at the three (W/SF) even though she had mainly played at the shooting guard the majority of the prior 3 seasons. Probably just splitting hairs, but it worked as Ariel has the strength and versatility to play both positions well.

This season, it makes sense that 5'10 Danni Williams will be the most likely candidate to step into Ariel's role if we play the same offense. Maybe 5'9 Audrey Warren and 5'9 Destiny Littleton can provide some minutes, too, but definitely give up height. 5'11 Jada Underwood still seems more like an undersized PF than she does a G/SF; she just seems more comfortable playing inside even though she has a hit a few perimeter shots when given the chance.

Not certain where 6'1 Shae Routt fits in. Coach A did comment that she would add depth at the small forward position; so, perhaps that is where they will train her. I still think she will end up being more of an inside player for us at the PF position. And, she may still be trying to get back to 100% healthy.

Come 2019-20, we will no longer have Danni. So, at the moment, it does seem like 5'10 Celeste Taylor would be a candidate for playing time at the W/SF spot even though she always seems to be listed as a SG. While she is still very young, she seems slight of build and might not come in with physical strength Ariel did (and Ariel wasn't asked to play at W/SF).

When I talk about "elite SF", I mainly mean someone who has ideal height/strength/quickness/perimeter shooting on both offense and defense. It can't be easy for a 5'10 player trying to guard a 6'2 opponent. I understand that not all our W/SF players will have identical skills and size, but we desperately need some more height on the wings, IMO.
 
From what we saw on twitter, it sure seems like our staff offered both Endyia and Liz Scott later than most other programs. With Endyia, we still made her Top 5. With Liz, we did not.

With Liz, I never felt we would sign her. She has always been very pro-A&M on twitter, and visited several times. While it was great that she attended our summer camp a couple of months ago, and would have been nice to make her Top 5, chances were pretty low that she would have chosen Texas. Perhaps better to be cut earlier rather than later. I do find it interesting that as highly-ranked as she is, none of her Top 5 are programs considered Top 10 nationally. Only A&M was Top 12-16 seed in the NCAA tourney last season. Mizzou was just outside that range. Oklahoma has been steadily falling. Neither USC nor Kansas even made the NCAA tourney. Perhaps she wants to help a program turn things around.
 
Aijha Blackwell and Rickea Jackson are both players I think would be hard to turn away if you have a scholarship available.
 
Excellent post I agree on all points
Moooooo said:
In some ways, we can say that our offense last season was a 3-guard offense. Ariel did play at the three (W/SF) even though she had mainly played at the shooting guard the majority of the prior 3 seasons. Probably just splitting hairs, but it worked as Ariel has the strength and versatility to play both positions well.

This season, it makes sense that 5'10 Danni Williams will be the most likely candidate to step into Ariel's role if we play the same offense. Maybe 5'9 Audrey Warren and 5'9 Destiny Littleton can provide some minutes, too, but definitely give up height. 5'11 Jada Underwood still seems more like an undersized PF than she does a G/SF; she just seems more comfortable playing inside even though she has a hit a few perimeter shots when given the chance.

Not certain where 6'1 Shae Routt fits in. Coach A did comment that she would add depth at the small forward position; so, perhaps that is where they will train her. I still think she will end up being more of an inside player for us at the PF position. And, she may still be trying to get back to 100% healthy.

Come 2019-20, we will no longer have Danni. So, at the moment, it does seem like 5'10 Celeste Taylor would be a candidate for playing time at the W/SF spot even though she always seems to be listed as a SG. While she is still very young, she seems slight of build and might not come in with physical strength Ariel did (and Ariel wasn't asked to play at W/SF).

When I talk about "elite SF", I mainly mean someone who has ideal height/strength/quickness/perimeter shooting on both offense and defense. It can't be easy for a 5'10 player trying to guard a 6'2 opponent. I understand that not all our W/SF players will have identical skills and size, but we desperately need some more height on the wings, IMO.
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Here’s another big time recruit not from Texas that has the longhorns on her final list. She is a must get

 
When I look at Rickea's list of 7 schools, here's what stands out:

- No school from her home state of Michigan (so, staying close to home isn't a factor)
- Closest school to her home is Ohio State
- Only two B1G schools (OSU and Rutgers)
- 3 schools from the SEC
- 4 schools in the south (5 if you count Louisville)
 
Other possible considerations to Rickea's recruitment could involve her friends. Rickea, Zia Cooke, Jordan Horston and Celeste Taylor have a few of the same schools in their final list of favorites. Of the school's on Rickea's list, she, Zia Cooke and Jordan Horston have OSU, Louisville, Tennessee and South Carolina in common. Rickea, Zia Cooke and Celeste Taylor have Texas in common. I'm not saying any of them end up selecting the same school but it certainly could play a part in one's decision making.

I believe Rickea has already visited some of the schools on her list. From memory, she's visited Tennessee and maybe Rutgers. @Moooooo or @Oakman can you recall which schools she has visited? Up until this point, Rickea and her family have been fairly private about recruiting so there's not many breadcrumbs to follow.

It will be interesting to see how the visits start to line-up for the 2019 and 2020 class. I continue to think that Karen will try to pull out the red carpet for recruits on the Sept 15th weekend for the Texas vs USC football game. The only downside to that weekend is that by having a slew of recruits in for a big game, it could be more challenging to personalize the experience for the 2019 players.

Recruiting has always been one of Karen's strong points. I'm certain she's up to the task of showing these players and their parents what Texas has to offer and how they can help take Texas to a higher level.
 
From what I remember Rikea only visited Tennessee. as far her connections to Celeste,Zia & Jordan yes they are all friends I do believe playing with each other will play a factor with the exception of Jordan I believe I haven’t heard anything but just my opinion Jordan will end up at UConn which would take away Ohio State (only way Ohio State has a chance at them is if they get Jordan) . If I had to take an educated guess it will come down to South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas as favorite to land both Rikea and Zia
LutherIsMyDog said:
Other possible considerations to Rickea's recruitment could involve her friends. Rickea, Zia Cooke, Jordan Horston and Celeste Taylor have a few of the same schools in their final list of favorites. Of the school's on Rickea's list, she, Zia Cooke and Jordan Horston have OSU, Louisville, Tennessee and South Carolina in common. Rickea, Zia Cooke and Celeste Taylor have Texas in common. I'm not saying any of them end up selecting the same school but it certainly could play a part in one's decision making.

I believe Rickea has already visited some of the schools on her list. From memory, she's visited Tennessee and maybe Rutgers. @Moooooo or @Oakman can you recall which schools she has visited? Up until this point, Rickea and her family have been fairly private about recruiting so there's not many breadcrumbs to follow.

It will be interesting to see how the visits start to line-up for the 2019 and 2020 class. I continue to think that Karen will try to pull out the red carpet for recruits on the Sept 15th weekend for the Texas vs USC football game. The only downside to that weekend is that by having a slew of recruits in for a big game, it could be more challenging to personalize the experience for the 2019 players.

Recruiting has always been one of Karen's strong points. I'm certain she's up to the task of showing these players and their parents what Texas has to offer and how they can help take Texas to a higher level.
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Oakman said:
From what I remember Rikea only visited Tennessee. as far her connections to Celeste,Zia & Jordan yes they are all friends I do believe playing with each other will play a factor with the exception of Jordan I believe I haven’t heard anything but just my opinion Jordan will end up at UConn which would take away Ohio State (only way Ohio State has a chance at them is if they get Jordan) . If I had to take an educated guess it will come down to South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas as favorite to land both Rikea and Zia
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The interesting thing with Texas, South Carolina, and Tennessee is that if you look at their rosters they’re all very deep and to a certain degree young at the PG and wing positions. Also keep in mind that both Texas and Tennessee are also recruiting the same players at the PG position which also includes Endyia Rogers.
 
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I don’t know the mindset of these young ladies but hopefully they look at the rosters but also style of play and if you do that objectively then I would say Texas is the best fit based on playing time and fit for their style of play.
kurupt said:
The interesting thing with Texas, South Carolina, and Tennessee is that if you look at their rosters they’re all very deep and to a certain degree young at the PG and wing positions. Also keep in mind that both Texas and Tennessee are also recruiting the same players at the PG position which also includes Endyia Rogers.
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Have we seen anything where Zia has actually listed Texas?

Pretty sure Rickea has also visited Ohio State; and, maybe Louisville.

With Rickea barely down to 7 schools, and her official visits most likely starting in early September, it is very important to nail down a date, and the earlier the better. Two schools will not get official visits; and, that to me pretty much eliminates them as a viable option for her signature.
 
The responses to Raoul's tweet are interesting. It seems like some folks don't think very highly of Jeff Walz. (Responses are seen when you click on the Tweet.)

 
Moooooo, while I don't remember where, I do recall reading that Cooke was considering Texas, depending on who else verballed to the Horns.

Guess we will know soon when she releases her top schools soon.
 
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