[BostonCard]

I don’t think you can analogize between softball and women’s basketball; Cannady aside, there is just a lot less money in softball than there is in basketball, and the value of a Stanford degree is probably much higher given that there is no professional league even remotely analogous to the WNBA.  I think football and men’s basketball are the two comps, and both of those sports have have a substantial number of early departures most years, though nowhere near the number we have this year in women’s basketball.  No sport is completely unaffected; witness the fact that a number of wrestling players have been lured away by NIL money at other schools, and that was after our most successful season ever!  We’ve also had losses in women’s tennis, both men’s and women’s swimming, women’s volleyball, and I’m sure others but for some of the lower profile, the magnitude of the problem is much smaller than for the higher profile sports, because there is just less money involved, so the relative value of a Stanford degree is higher. 

I agree with 2006 that the tone of the posts announcing player’s departures to the portal sound like they are being made by people who are profoundly unhappy with the coaching staff.  Given that a perfunctory acknowledgement/thanks of everyone involved is de rigueur, the posts read like they went out of their way not to mention the coaches (the old “if you don’t have something nice to say…”). Of course, a coach’s job is not necessarily to be loved or even liked by the players, and there is a difference between abuse and leaving players cold.  I think if the allegations of abuse are substantiated, Paye should be fired for cause.

BC

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I've read all the posts on this thread and honestly there's a lot of good observations from lots of folks.
One small suggestion I'd make, is that I would not try to count too heavily on the exact wording of what players announce when they enter the portal.
Yes I realize it is tempting to try to discern subtle inferences out of it.  But that is an unreliable exercise.
Because so many of these announcements are really very similar in nature. 
Complementary to everyone, grateful for the past opportunities, time to move on, to open a new chapter, etc.
In fact I wonder how many are actually written by the players or rather by an agent or legal advisor?
If by the player, is it wordage mostly borrowed from some other prior announcement of someone else?
The real "tell" is not in the wording of the announcement IMO, it is that by entering the portal they are voting with their feet, either for sure, or unless something big causes them to change their minds.

I mean, if the fact that players are entering the portal is proof that something is wrong, should we be firing our wrestling coach?  I understand what you mean about not reading too much into announcements, but I think what is jarring is how several of the announcements from the women transferring out didn’t even have boilerplate text on the coaching staff that it seems conspicuous because you’ve come to expect it to be “Complementary to everyone, grateful for the past opportunities, time to move on, to open a new chapter”.  I may be reading too much into it, so that is a fair criticism, but it was quite jarring to me.

BC

[BostonCard]

I don’t think you can analogize between softball and women’s basketball; Cannady aside, there is just a lot less money in softball than there is in basketball, and the value of a Stanford degree is probably much higher given that there is no professional league even remotely analogous to the WNBA.  I think football and men’s basketball are the two comps, and both of those sports have have a substantial number of early departures most years, though nowhere near the number we have this year in women’s basketball.  No sport is completely unaffected; witness the fact that a number of wrestling players have been lured away by NIL money at other schools, and that was after our most successful season ever!  We’ve also had losses in women’s tennis, both men’s and women’s swimming, women’s volleyball, and I’m sure others but for some of the lower profile, the magnitude of the problem is much smaller than for the higher profile sports, because there is just less money involved, so the relative value of a Stanford degree is higher. 

I agree with 2006 that the tone of the posts announcing player’s departures to the portal sound like they are being made by people who are profoundly unhappy with the coaching staff.  Given that a perfunctory acknowledgement/thanks of everyone involved is de rigueur, the posts read like they went out of their way not to mention the coaches (the old “if you don’t have something nice to say…”). Of course, a coach’s job is not necessarily to be loved or even liked by the players, and there is a difference between abuse and leaving players cold.  I think if the allegations of abuse are substantiated, Paye should be fired for cause.

BC

---

I've read all the posts on this thread and honestly there's a lot of good observations from lots of folks.
One small suggestion I'd make, is that I would not try to count too heavily on the exact wording of what players announce when they enter the portal.
Yes I realize it is tempting to try to discern subtle inferences out of it.  But that is an unreliable exercise.
Because so many of these announcements are really very similar in nature. 
Complementary to everyone, grateful for the past opportunities, time to move on, to open a new chapter, etc.
In fact I wonder how many are actually written by the players or rather by an agent or legal advisor?
If by the player, is it wordage mostly borrowed from some other prior announcement of someone else?
The real "tell" is not in the wording of the announcement IMO, it is that by entering the portal they are voting with their feet, either for sure, or unless something big causes them to change their minds.

I mean, if the fact that players are entering the portal is proof that something is wrong, should we be firing our wrestling coach?  I understand what you mean about not reading too much into announcements, but I think what is jarring is how several of the announcements from the women transferring out didn’t even have boilerplate text on the coaching staff that it seems conspicuous because you’ve come to expect it to be “Complementary to everyone, grateful for the past opportunities, time to move on, to open a new chapter”.  I may be reading too much into it, so that is a fair criticism, but it was quite jarring to me.

BC