Vanderbilt WCBB recruiting dilemma

[DoreFan49]

There is no doubt in my mind that the WCBB coaching staff at Vanderbilt is one of the best if not the best in the NCAA Division I. They have a proven record of recruiting and development of many of the best players in Women's College Basketball. All things being equal, they should be able to recruit and develop the very best players out of high school.

I have been looking at the SAT profile of the typical Vanderbilt freshman student and I have found that most freshmen who are accepted have an SAT score between 1480 and 1570, which are very close to perfect scores. According to published estimates, these scores are in the 96-99 percentile of all students who take the exam. It is my understanding that some other Division I schools do not even require the SAT for admission so those students may not take the test. In other words, these students are the best of the best academically.

I know there is most likely no publicly available SAT requirements for freshman WCBB players at Vanderbilt and their average SAT scores might vary from the typical freshmen. But I do know the players that Vanderbilt is recruiting must be both very good basketball players and great students. Even if their SAT scores are not quite in the 1470 to 1580 range, they will still be in class with those typical students with professors who will have very high expectations of their performance. They will also spend several hours every day with conditioning and practice with coaches with extremely high expectations of their development and performance.

In my experience, most 18 year old students do not have the ability to deal with such high expectations. I am certain if one could examine the top hundred basketball players in a high school graduating class, only a very small percentage can perform academically at this this level. And many more who can, might prefer to go to another school with lower expectations academically, so they can focus on their basketball development.

In my opinion, we are going to experience this season the beginning of a new era in Vanderbilt Women's Basketball. We begin with 6 very talented returning players who have a lot of experience with meeting the expectations both in the classroom and on the court, a graduate transfer from Duke with quality experience playing and meeting these academic and basketball expectations, 5 talented freshman who have taken on the challenge to be the best academically and athletically, a talented (top 12 in high school) sophomore transfer from Tennessee willing to take on these challenges academically and athletically, and finally a basketball coaching staff with a proven record in development second to none.

It has only taken CSR and her staff two years to accomplish this amazing transformation in Vanderbilt Women's Basketball despite the high level of academic requirements. I am ready and excited to see it all begin during the 2023-24 season!