[81alum]

Thought I would total up the talent levels for each team based on those ESPN recruiting rankings.  I will give each player 101 points - their ranking, so the number 1 player would count 100 points. 

Adjustments:  I did not count Beebe at all since she never played.  I counted Rooks only her freshman year.  I counted Ruef for 5 years.  Our three foreign players are harder to rank since they do not appear in ESPN or PN rankings.  I am putting Alanna Smith down as a 10 since she was a PN 5 star and there are only a dozen of those each year, Jerome down as 30 since she was more highly recruited than Moschkau who was 41, and Brewer is unranked.  If these are bad assumptions let me know and I will change them.

Below I list the annual teams, their talent ranking by recruiting, and their win/loss records.

2009-10 870  36-2 runner up
2010-11 814 33-3 final four
2011-12 844 35-2 final four
2012-13 689 33-3 sweet sixteen
2013-14 793 33-4 final four
2014-15 714 26-10 sweet sixteen
2015-16 496 27-8 elite eight
2016-17 696 32-6 final four
2017-18 815 6-5 yet to be determined

What you will immediately notice is how desperate the talent situation became in 2015-16 and how much we have rebounded in the last two years, reaching levels not seen since 2011-12.  However, most of that talent is young.

The dip was created by highly ranked recruits like Beebe and Rooks leaving for one reason or another, Chiney and Amber graduating, and our reliance on unranked recruits like Roberson and Thompson.

Obvious, this is a very imperfect measure of true talent for a whole host of reasons.  But interesting, nonetheless.  Whatever our problems this season, it is not because we have recruits that were judged less talented than in the past.

[81alum]

Thought I would total up the talent levels for each team based on those ESPN recruiting rankings.  I will give each player 101 points - their ranking, so the number 1 player would count 100 points. 

Adjustments:  I did not count Beebe at all since she never played.  I counted Rooks only her freshman year.  I counted Ruef for 5 years.  Our three foreign players are harder to rank since they do not appear in ESPN or PN rankings.  I am putting Alanna Smith down as a 10 since she was a PN 5 star and there are only a dozen of those each year, Jerome down as 30 since she was more highly recruited than Moschkau who was 41, and Brewer is unranked.  If these are bad assumptions let me know and I will change them.

Below I list the annual teams, their talent ranking by recruiting, and their win/loss records.

2009-10 870  36-2 runner up
2010-11 814 33-3 final four
2011-12 844 35-2 final four
2012-13 689 33-3 sweet sixteen
2013-14 793 33-4 final four
2014-15 714 26-10 sweet sixteen
2015-16 496 27-8 elite eight
2016-17 696 32-6 final four
2017-18 815 6-5 yet to be determined

What you will immediately notice is how desperate the talent situation became in 2015-16 and how much we have rebounded in the last two years, reaching levels not seen since 2011-12.  However, most of that talent is young.

The dip was created by highly ranked recruits like Beebe and Rooks leaving for one reason or another, Chiney and Amber graduating, and our reliance on unranked recruits like Roberson and Thompson.

Obvious, this is a very imperfect measure of true talent for a whole host of reasons.  But interesting, nonetheless.  Whatever our problems this season, it is not because we have recruits that were judged less talented than in the past.