2022 Recruiting - WBB



This is interesting…


Since I didn't hear Vic's response to this question, the Tweet is left to interpretation. How should it be deciphered? For "today" he is done recruiting (but there could be a 2022 recruit added next month)? Or the 2022 class is finished/finalized and there won't be any additional players added?
 
Your posts are informative. Would like to understand how we would fit a big, athletic guard into our team. We have Rori/Ashley at the 1 so I'm assuming you are talking about the 2. There we have Kyndall, Aaliyah, and (someone else?). What are we missing with them? In the front court I think Moore and Lattimore will be good. Abbie is coming but is an unknown at this point.
Yes, I'm talking about at the 2. I guess you could describe Jordana as that kind of player. Basically a big guard in height that can rebound and defend the 1 through 3 if need be like Celeste could.

The players at the position now are talented but are a bit on the small side. In the front court, Moore and Lattimore are really Power Forwards. And I look at Abbie as being more of a project at this point. They don't have a true center that can consistently score in paint.
 
Since I didn't hear Vic's response to this question, the Tweet is left to interpretation. How should it be deciphered? For "today" he is done recruiting (but there could be a 2022 recruit added next month)? Or the 2022 class is finished/finalized and there won't be any additional players added?
Knowing Vic he does not intend for anyone to know exactly what he meant by that. He's pretty good at not always showing his cards. We'll know when we know.
 
The word "today" could be mean there's more to come. He kind of did that one year ago today, as well; although, I think he stated "and, we're not finished" or something similar. Then, he signed two JUCOs over the next couple of days or so.

Personally, I think he's referring to Maggie Mendelson. If she does decide to come to Texas, she would be signing at a later time than her fellow 2022 signees.
 
Not gonna list all the tweets, but here were their team rankings:

1. UCLA
2. UConn
3. Oregon State
4. Minnesota
5. Arizona
6. Oregon
7. Miami
8. Stanford
9. Duke
10. Texas
PAC cleaning up. Will see a lot of them in the tourney, glad we're not in the same conference. A bit surprising no other BIG12 or SEC in top 10. One service did have Texas at #6.
 

I knew based on the visit she was LSU bound. I don’t like Mulkey but I have to give it to her, that setup was impressive and they went all out. We also did a great job but I think we backed off a bit in the end. Best of luck to her and I really hope her style of play matches what Mulkey does
 
I wouldn't give up on the recruitment of Darianna Littlepage-Buggs just yet. My scenario is that Vic and his assistants have told her to just hold on and watch Texas play before she makes a final decision. After watching the Stanford game she certainly has something to think about. I believe she had said her final choices were the aggies, Baylor, Alabama and Florida? Just a thought.

 
I wouldn't give up on the recruitment of Darianna Littlepage-Buggs just yet. My scenario is that Vic and his assistants have told her to just hold on and watch Texas play before she makes a final decision. After watching the Stanford game she certainly has something to think about. I believe she had said her final choices were the aggies, Baylor, Alabama and Florida? Just a thought.
http://www.espn.com/high-school/gir.../player/_/id/244118/darianna-littlepage-buggs
I’ve thought the same thing. She has yet to commit....
 
I wouldn't give up on the recruitment of Darianna Littlepage-Buggs just yet. My scenario is that Vic and his assistants have told her to just hold on and watch Texas play before she makes a final decision. After watching the Stanford game she certainly has something to think about. I believe she had said her final choices were the aggies, Baylor, Alabama and Florida? Just a thought.
While recruiting never stops (as team attrition never stops), I've moved on from Darianna. Not because she did anything wrong. But, mainly because she never made a visit to Texas (unofficially or officially). When she made her first official visit to Florida (who had fired their head coach this summer and had not named a replacement), I figured what she was looking for was just not Texas. When she made an official visit to Baylor (who has a coaching staff that's only been there for like 5 months), I found it very odd as recruiting is mostly about the relationships you build with a coaching staff. What kind of relationships could she have built with Florida and Baylor as so much changed at those programs the last several months?

And, based on needs, getting early verbal commitments from Jordana Codio and Ndjakalenga might have made DLB less of a priority for our coaching staff; maybe those verbal commitments told DLB that Texas already had 2 players in the 2022 recruiting class who are too similar to her.

Personally, I think her not having signed an LOI yet might have to do with wanting to wait until Florida and Texas A&M name their new head coaches; if that's the case, good for her.

Based on yesterday's game against Stanford, we saw how important Lauren Ebo can be; and, we don't have anyone coming in (as of now) who will be a good replacement for her. If she had any inkling of wanting to return for her super senior season, I'd hold a ship for her over adding another high school wing player. If she doesn't, it makes perfect sense if our staff is prioritizing Maggie Mendelson over DLB.
 
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Jordana Codio is off to a great start to the season scoring 22 points and grabbing 5 rebounds in Monteverde’s win over Mainland.

It’s encouraging that she is getting back-on-track after rehabbing from knee surgery.

 
Well of the top 4 schools, Texas is higher ranked in both sports. Would she be the first person Vic approved to share with another HC at a uni? Would he be willing to share her talents? Is she legit(sincere question)? I honestly haven’t seen her game.
She’s legit. She has areas to improve in as does everyone but she runs the floor very well and can finish at the rim with both hands. She also has a nice jumper so she’s definitely Vic’s type of post player.
 
Well of the top 4 schools, Texas is higher ranked in both sports. Would she be the first person Vic approved to share with another HC at a uni? Would he be willing to share her talents? Is she legit(sincere question)? I honestly haven’t seen her game.


Here’s what I wrote on another thread about Mendelson:

Mendelson is a legitimate talent at both sports. She has been selected to represent the Team USA squads in both basketball and volleyball. ESPN Hoopgurlz 2023 rankings, has her listed as the #20 overall player in the nation and the #5 Post in the nation.

Here are a few snippets from an August 2021 article posted in KSM.com

Fremont's Maggie Mendelson gets opportunity to represent Team USA junior national teams

USA Basketball held team trials for 34 of the top players across the country for its U16 team in June where Mendelson received one of the 12 roster spots. USA Volleyball held its trials for 24 girls in July and recently announced the final roster for their U18 team. Mendelson, again, was extended the invitation to join the 12-member team.

"Anybody that's going to be that good at anything, especially when you have to be sharing between the two sports in basketball and volleyball, you've got to be really good at sacrificing and being really disciplined with your time," Fremont girls basketball coach Lisa Dalebout said. "Her work ethic is elite. Her ability to sacrifice and do what she's got to do to take care of her body and use time efficiently is pretty unique."

Her sophomore year for volleyball was pretty similar: another region title, another semifinal appearance and another first team recipient. In total, she had 417 kills, a .318 hitting percentage, 132 digs and 37 blocks. Basketball was a different story.

After teammate and Oregon State commit Timea Gardiner went out with an injury, Mendelson stepped up and became a crucial piece in Fremont's state title run. On the season, Mendelson averaged 14.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.9 blocks, leading her team to a perfect 26-0 record. The team after their dominant season-long performance received an invite to the GEICO National Tournament.


In the comments in the article, someone posted the following:

My daughter played with her in Jr. High and those teams were so dominant most games were over by half time and Maggie wouldn't even play the second half, in basketball anyway. Half time scores were 40 point games or more. She is tall and is very skilled. Some tall kids are not very skilled but Maggie is a good all around player on both offense and defense.
 
She’s legit. She has areas to improve in as does everyone but she runs the floor very well and can finish at the rim with both hands. She also has a nice jumper so she’s definitely Vic’s type of post player.

I remember reading in this thread Vic doesn’t share players…which made me thinks; has he coached anyone that was a dual sport? JE split time with a dual athlete with KA, but Vic is a different beast.
 
While I hope we can land this recruit, I’m still skeptical.

She seems used to having to do both practices now, but that intensity will only increase. I’d be somewhat worried about overuse injuries.

Since the scholarship would count against basketball, I feel like they’ll have to sign off on it mainly. But it’s kind of “unfair” because she’d play the whole season with volleyball and miss about a month (hopefully Vball is in national championship) of the basketball season. Granted, this isn’t the biggest time, but it’s still important.

But, then again, her reclassifying, playing a position of need, and her top 4 make me optimistic. The irony is that she seems to have bigger post-college goals with volleyball, but we probably need her more in basketball. Our Vball team has plenty of options. But when you have depth as an option, you take it.

So interested to see where this recruit lands.
 
Well of the top 4 schools, Texas is higher ranked in both sports. Would she be the first person Vic approved to share with another HC at a uni? Would he be willing to share her talents? Is she legit(sincere question)? I honestly haven’t seen her game.
That can be a double-edged sword depending on what the recruit wants.

If she wants to be part of programs which will go deep in the tournament each year in both sports, Texas is ahead of the other 3 schools.

If she wants to play both sports as a true freshman, and play significant minutes, she could do that with Texas basketball, but might not be as easy with Texas volleyball based on the depth chart. With the other 3 programs, she most likely starts at both programs from day one.
 
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That can be a double-edged sword depending on what the recruit wants.

If she wants to be part of programs which will go deep in the tournament each year in both sports, Texas is ahead of the other 3 schools.

If she wants to play both sports as a true freshman, and play significant minutes, she could do that with Texas basketball, but might not be as easy with Texas volleyball based on the depth chart. With the other 3 programs, she most likely starts at both programs from day one.

:bullseye:
 
She’s legit. She has areas to improve in as does everyone but she runs the floor very well and can finish at the rim with both hands. She also has a nice jumper so she’s definitely Vic’s type of post player.


I'm not great at analyzing skills/strenghts/weaknesses of athletes but from watching the Mendelson videos, she certainly gets up and down the floor easily for a 6'5" post player. She uses the backboard effectively and has a good outside shot. I would like to see videos of her playing defense and rebounding the ball. With her height and mobility, she would be a great addition to our roster.
 
One additional thought on Mendelson; since she is likely to be setting up official visits, I would pencil in the weekend of December 10th as a date she may visit Texas. Tx Volleyball will likely be hosting the second round of the NCAA post season tournament and TxWBB will play Idaho on Saturday. Although she has previously attended a volleyball game during her unofficial visit to Texas, she would be able to attend the volleyball game with the TxWBB players who regularly attend volleyball games.

Time will tell....
 
According to ESPNW, Baylor finished with 9th ranked class. Texas 15, A&M 16, LSU 17. Mentioned Mendelson could impact rankings for some team.
 
I don't quite understand how Baylor's class ends up that highly ranked.

100% agree. When I saw they had a top 10 class, I had to go and refresh my memory of what recruits signed with Baylor. I still don’t understand it.

It doesn’t matter as these things reveal themselves a year or so after the recruits enroll and start playing the game.

Conversely, I think our class is undervalued and will surprise a few folks. It’s a great class that compliments our 2021 class.

Lol. I think I am objective but I certainly come across as a biased Texas fan.
 
In regards to Mendelson, there's no strong buzz from the UT volleyball side that Mendelson would be a volleyball recruit. I think the Sarah Hattis experiment along with Vic wanting "all-in" from his players would make Mendelson a part time player in volleyball. Texas MB do pride themselves as MBU, but I guess it depends what Mendelson thinks is her best sport as a career after she's done with college.
 
100% agree. When I saw they had a top 10 class, I had to go and refresh my memory of what recruits signed with Baylor. I still don’t understand it.

It doesn’t matter as these things reveal themselves a year or so after the recruits enroll and start playing the game.

Conversely, I think our class is undervalued and will surprise a few folks. It’s a great class that compliments our 2021 class.

Lol. I think I am objective but I certainly come across as a biased Texas fan.
I believe it’s because Littlepage-Buggs has signed/will sign with Baylor.

When they first published the article, they listed her as a Baylor commit, but they removed it, I’d assume because she wants to announce it herself. The beginning still states that there is only two uncommitted recruits (Mendelson and Clark).

Rankings-wise that gives them No. 17, 41, and 62 vs. No. 34, 63, and 67, which obviously would give Baylor the more highly ranked class.
 

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