ESPN HoopGurlz Top 60 Rankings

[Buffnik]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/basketball/womens/news/story?id=5298458

Duke was #1.

Colorado came in at a respectable #59, though we'll need to be much better than that.

Other notables on the list: Stanford #4, USC #7, Cal #12, Washington State #48, Arizona #55, UCLA #56, Oregon #57.

Surprisingly, Nebraska didn't make the list despite their undefeated regular season. That probably has a lot to do with most of the prospects sign during the early period on the women's side and they'll get the bump for the next class.

All in all, it looks like recruiting is challenging the conventional wisdom that CU WBB will have a better opportunity to move up quickly in the Pac 12 then we could have in the Big 12. The Big 12 didn't have a single class ranked in the Top 10 and only 1 in the Top 15. Big 12 also had 7 total programs on the list (including CU), which matches the Pac 10. Of course, if you consider the Lady Buffs as part of the Pac 12, our new conference wins 8-6. Life does not get any easier in WBB, either.

 

[BeBe]

Uuuummmmmm, Nik, Texas A&M didn't go to the SEC so with them coming in at #10, the Big 12 has one ranked in the top 10. And 2/3 of the Big 12 south are in the top 25 so the strong teams are just getting stronger. I think the same is true of the 3 Pac 10 schools in the top 15.

 

[Buffnik]

BeBe, you're right. I mis-read the aTm rank.

What I was trying to challenge (and didn't do a good job of it)... is the notion that the Pac 12 is going to be a lot easier in women's hoops. Based on the recruiting, that simply isn't the case. Both conferences are very strong. And the Pac has Stanford, which seems to be at least a 2-seed every year while winning the Pac 10. WBB in the Pac 10 reminds me a lot of what the Big 8 MBB used to look like with Kansas pretty much winning every year but other programs making their runs too.

 

[BeBe]

I agree that there seems to be about equal strength in the incoming recruiting classes but if you look at where the teams in each league are now and where they have been recently, the Big 12 comes out looking much stronger. Recent NCAA tournament appearances :
2010 : Big 12: 7 teams, seeded 1,2,3,4,4,4,6 Pac 10: 2 teams, seeded 1,8
2009 : Big 12: 6 teams, seeded 1,2,2,4,5,6 Pac 10: 3 teams, seeded 2,4,6
2008 : Big 12: 8 teams, seeded 2,3,3,4,5,7,8,8 Pac 10: 3 teams, seeded 2,3,6

The Big 12 WBB has been getting at least half of the league into the dance every year in recent years; the Pac 10 has not come close to getting half of its teams into the dance.

 

[Buffnik]

BeBe,

Great stats. Need to have you here to keep educating me and others on women's hoops.

The Pac definitely looks top heavy. What I think I know is that there's not a ton of tradition outside of Stanford and USC (Cheryl Miller years). But I thought the conference went a bit deeper than it does. Hopefully we do have an opportunity to turn things around more quickly there than we would have been able to in the Big 12 (which Baylor should dominate the next 3 years).

This is definitely good news, if I'm reading it right.

 

[BeBe]

Two more stats that say Big 12 WBB stronger overall than Pac 10 :

2010 final conference RPI (per Jerry Palm) : Big 12 = 1 in both non-conference and overall Pac 10 = 6 in both non-conference and overall

Final polls: teams in the top 25 : Big 12 had 7 teams in the top 25 in both the AP and USA Today polls; Pac 10 had 1 in the top 25 in AP and 2 in USA Today poll.

Stanford is clearly the strength of the Pac 10...beyond that its been questionable.