A familiar name 6'1" Taylor Bigby ranked top 30 c/o 2021 picks USC after leaving Oregon.

LG also landed a 6'2" long very promising wing/forward Kadi Sissoko originally from France who had stints at Syracuse and Minnesota, the 5'7" stellar and explosive point guard from UC Irvine Kayla Williams, Destiny Littleton, and Koi Love.

Unfortunately for us, USC always seems to sell itself and excels in WBB recruiting.

Well, she had 5 players transfer out after her first season there. I'm not worried.

(Sidebar: It's interesting that your very first post on BI is about the "recruiting success" of a former Cal WBB coach at another school. hmmmmm)

Fortunately for the Bears, Coach G doesn't know how to maximize talent.

SFCALBear72 said:

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Well, she had 5 players transfer out after her first season there. I'm not worried.

(Sidebar: It's interesting that your very first post on BI is about the "recruiting success" of a former Cal WBB coach at another school. hmmmmm)

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Oh c'mon

Not that I have to explain myself, but I've been on this board for years, but wanted to rebrand. And it IS relevant to Cal, as they were one of the handful of other schools on Bigby's long list, though she decided not to visit.

bearchamp said:

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Fortunately for the Bears, Coach G doesn't know how to maximize talent.

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Agree. Coach G was an excellent communicator but not good with the X's and O's.

The 5 players USC picked up are far better than the 5 they lost to the portal.

FOXO1 said:

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SFCALBear72 said:

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Well, she had 5 players transfer out after her first season there. I'm not worried.

(Sidebar: It's interesting that your very first post on BI is about the "recruiting success" of a former Cal WBB coach at another school. hmmmmm)

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Oh c'mon

Not that I have to explain myself, but I've been on this board for years, but wanted to rebrand. And it IS relevant to Cal, as they were one of the handful of other schools on Bigby's long list, though she decided not to visit.

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Go back and read what you wrote about each of those transfers. Glowing terms. As if taken right off the pages of an $c WBB home page. We don't need to read that here.

Baygbear said:

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The 5 players USC picked up are far better than the 5 they lost to the portal.

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what about Jordyn Jenkins?

FOXO1 said:

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Not that I have to explain myself, but I've been on this board for years, but wanted to rebrand.

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Is your rebrand related to our men's coach or is that just a coincidence?

3Cats4CAL said:

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Baygbear said:

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The 5 players USC picked up are far better than the 5 they lost to the portal.

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what about Jordyn Jenkins?

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Jenkins and Pili are great players but as a whole I think the 5 coming in will impact their W/L column a lot more. I could be wrong of course but that is just what I'm thinking in the moment.

Wonderful human being but come on... she left this program in absolute ruins. And her success was in large part from the talent signed on by JB. She's not going to do much of anything at USC.

L.G. did recruit Kristine Anigwe, Jaelyn Brown, Kianna Smith, and a number of other good players who didn't work out quite as well. IMHO where she failed was landing only 3 players in her last two seasons, all of whom left Cal early.

And she lost out on Ionescu.

With all of this player movement, looking forward to next year's PAC12 coaches poll. They are usually good judges on what has transpired and on who will be rising or falling.

3Cats4CAL said:

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And she lost out on Ionescu.

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And Plum. And Canada.

stu said:

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3Cats4CAL said:

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And she lost out on Ionescu.

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And Plum. And Canada.

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weren't we bridesmaids in all 3 cases?

I have no inside info but I recall from discussions on this forum that all three were recruited by Cal. I remember reading Plum was down to Cal and Washington. I don't know which other schools Canada considered. I think Ionescu was looking for something else, I'm not sure we were even a contender.

The following players were recruited by Lindsey. Starting with the 2011-2912 season. Reshandra Gray, Brittany Boyd, and Justine hart (a top 5 player at the time but never came back from her injury.
Mercedes Jefflo, Courtney Range, and KC Waters . Waters was highly regarded but turned out to be a tweener. Range was a top 50 player.

Mikayla Cowing, Gabby Green, and Penns Davidson

Asa Thomas and Anigwe.

And more in the future. I don't see this as bad recruiting. Anyone so far from Charmin that tops Gray and Boyd.

My feeling is when Lindsey had her baby her recruiting went down. I remember watching her practices with and Nanny. Hard to take a nanny on recruiting trips. Now was up to the assistants including Charmin.

stu said:

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L.G. did recruit Kristine Anigwe, Jaelyn Brown, Kianna Smith, and a number of other good players who didn't work out quite as well. IMHO where she failed was landing only 3 players in her last two seasons, all of whom left Cal early.

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The 2017-2018 season with Mykala Cowlings was disappointing as was KAs senior year as far as wins and losses. In 2013 when Cal was in the Final Four, LG received lots of positive press, and she was an up and coming P-5 coach. It was said she was terrific with the x and o. Someone here posted she wasnt that good at the xs and os. I am not alone in thinking her play calling was too complicated at times, especially at the end of close games. I lost faith in her, and was happy to see Charmin as HC. The last three seasons have been so difficult for the players and I am sure the coaching staff. They get an A for effort. They all deserve a winning season!

Lindsey had one final four team. Oregon had one final four team with a lot more talent.

My quote before was that someone said Lindsey couldn't recruit. Has Charmin done better.

IIRC Gray and Boyd were JB signees and stayed on after the coaching change. JH was an LG signing.

CoffeeBear said:

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IIRC Gray and Boyd were JB signees and stayed on after the coaching change. JH was an LG signing.

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This is true. Justine fell into our lap I think after a coaching change at UCLA. Unfortunately she had a serious injury from which she never recovered.

wvitbear said:

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The following players were recruited by Lindsey. Starting with the 2011-2912 season. Reshandra Gray, Brittany Boyd, and Justine hart (a top 5 player at the time but never came back from her injury.
Mercedes Jefflo, Courtney Range, and KC Waters . Waters was highly regarded but turned out to be a tweener. Range was a top 50 player.

Mikayla Cowing, Gabby Green, and Penns Davidson
...

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As mentioned above Reshanda and Brittany were signed by the previous coach.

Courtney was certainly a good one.

Mercedes was dismissed from the team.

IMHO KC, Mikayla, and Gabby were players with no college position. KC had only post skills but was way too small to play inside at this level. Mikayla was a forward asked to play guard who was just beginning to get it as a senior. Gabby had a SF body and PG skills but unfortunately couldn't shoot.

Penina was a gift from Tara VanDerveer.

Ashfield63 said:

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stu said:

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L.G. did recruit Kristine Anigwe, Jaelyn Brown, Kianna Smith, and a number of other good players who didn't work out quite as well. IMHO where she failed was landing only 3 players in her last two seasons, all of whom left Cal early.

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The 2017-2018 season with Mykala Cowlings was disappointing as was KAs senior year as far as wins and losses. In 2013 when Cal was in the Final Four, LG received lots of positive press, and she was an up and coming P-5 coach. It was said she was terrific with the x and o. Someone here posted she wasnt that good at the xs and os. I am not alone in thinking her play calling was too complicated at times, especially at the end of close games. I lost faith in her, and was happy to see Charmin as HC. The last three seasons have been so difficult for the players and I am sure the coaching staff. They get an A for effort. They all deserve a winning season!

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LG inherited a top 4 roster and left a top 150 roster. She had recruiting classes of 0, 1 and 2 players and those 3 players left so she basically had 3 recruiting classes with no players.

She had 4-14 conference record when the PAC-12 was mediocre and Mike Williams gave her an extension.

SFCALBear72 said:

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FOXO1 said:

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SFCALBear72 said:

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Well, she had 5 players transfer out after her first season there. I'm not worried.

(Sidebar: It's interesting that your very first post on BI is about the "recruiting success" of a former Cal WBB coach at another school. hmmmmm)

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Oh c'mon

Not that I have to explain myself, but I've been on this board for years, but wanted to rebrand. And it IS relevant to Cal, as they were one of the handful of other schools on Bigby's long list, though she decided not to visit.

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Go back and read what you wrote about each of those transfers. Glowing terms. As if taken right off the pages of an $c WBB home page. We don't need to read that here.

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I do not mind "being guilty" of celebrating other young women finding academic and athletic opportunities that make sense for their respective futures (even if it does not always align with my allegiance to Cal WBB), as much as I would like a 20-person roster so all 5 could have come to Berkeley instead.

I always root for Cal against USC, but that does not mean I will not commend Gottlieb for honoring Aaliyah Gayles's scholarship offer, or that I will not cheer for Gayles when or if she is able to get back on the basketball court, even if that court happens to be Haas Pavilion.

Positions USC fills today are positions Cal could have an advantage at filling tomorrow. Plus, I am a believer that a strong Pac-12 helps Cal, as many of our recruits have cited "playing in the Pac-12" as a major reason for considering us. And I'd rather be 0.562 in the strongest conference in the country and still dancing in March than 0.944 in conference play yet settling for an WNIT bid.

Lindsey stqrted in the 2010-2011 season. Reshandra, Brittany and Justine signed that November. They could have backed out when Boyle left but Lindsey convinced them to stay. So since they signed in her first year, not before she came I consider them her first class.

Second, I go by the high school ratings for her recruitment prowess. Some were disappointing but rated high in the ratiings---K. C. Waters, Gabby Green, and McKenzie Forbes (who I believe won the McDonalds three point shooting contest. ). I think Gabby played in the McDonalds game also. Asa Thomas was rated in the top 75. Mo Mosely was rated high in high school.As was Kiana Mith and Jae Brown. C J West was a top 100 player.

Now what she did with them when they got here is another question.









anigwe

I think Mo Mosley was another L.G. player without a position. She was very good around the basket and IMHO could have been effective as an undersized PF (kind of a mini Gennifer Brandon) but L.G. tried unsuccessfully to make her a SG.

stu said:

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I have no inside info but I recall from discussions on this forum that all three were recruited by Cal. I remember reading Plum was down to Cal and Washington. I don't know which other schools Canada considered. I think Ionescu was looking for something else, I'm not sure we were even a contender.

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We seemed to be a fairly clear favorite for Sabrina around her sophomore year of HS, but by the end we were either a distant 2nd, 3rd, or 4th behind Oregon.

I think it's wvitbear who says Plum's mom said calling Gottlieb to tell her she was going to UW was "the hardest phone call Kelsey had to make." But I don't think we were as close as that implies, as UW's HC McGuff left for the Ohio State job before Kelsey matriculated, but I never heard a peep about her re-considering UW, even when they were basically without a HC for a short while.

Allegedly we were a leader for Canada at one point, but it really seems that Canada would've been UCLA all along if not for Recee Caldwell's early verbal. Canada actually did not include UCLA when she parred down a short list, but a little convincing by Caldwell put UCLA back in the fold and in front.

I saw Canadaq in an AAU game and talked to one of the parents of another player on the team. That player wanted to come to Cal but Cal didn't offer so she went to USC. I forgot her name but she was a shooting guard.

Anyhow, that parent told me Canada was interested in Cal but not exclusively. Hard to get a player form down south if they want to stay.

Did Lindsay leave the program in better shape for her successor than when she was hired? Definitely a fail on that,

wvitbear said:

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Lindsey stqrted in the 2010-2011 season. Reshandra, Brittany and Justine signed that November. They could have backed out when Boyle left but Lindsey convinced them to stay. So since they signed in her first year, not before she came I consider them her first class.

Second, I go by the high school ratings for her recruitment prowess. Some were disappointing but rated high in the ratiings---K. C. Waters, Gabby Green, and McKenzie Forbes (who I believe won the McDonalds three point shooting contest. ). I think Gabby played in the McDonalds game also. Asa Thomas was rated in the top 75. Mo Mosely was rated high in high school.As was Kiana Mith and Jae Brown. C J West was a top 100 player.

Now what she did with them when they got here is another question.

anigwe

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That's a lot of talent

Just looked up Taylor Bigby's stats as a freshman last year at Oregon - 10 mins/game, 2.0 ppg, 25% shooting %, 0% on threes, and a negative assist/TO ratio. Think I would have rather kept Jordyn Jenkins.

I don't believe Cal was ever a favorite, or close to it, for Sabrina.

And the talk about ratings misses the point: The ratings are opinions, and college coaches are paid to know which of those opinions is more likely to be correct. (Often the ratings are done by journalists or by those who have an interest in promoting certain players (they've come to their camps, they on certain club teams), and coaches must separate the signal from the noise.)

There were legit questions about all those "elite recruits" and sadly, the answers came up wrong for Cal. They could have been different, but they weren't, which is partly bad luck but also partly bad judgment. Again, picking winning recruits is part of the coach's job.

I would agree Clay. When I saw each of these players live I wrote about them. but most people on this site go for those ratings so that is why I quote them.

I even asked for your ratings in Northern Cal a few weeks ago. Should I discount them? I trust you.

Hope to maybe hit the high school circuit this year if Covid subsides. Would particularly like to see Folsom play.

ClayK said:

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... Again, picking winning recruits is part of the coach's job.

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I'd say that's a huge part.

IMHO LG's best recruits were (not counting injuries, premature departures, or JB's signees):
Courtney Range
Kristine Anigwe
Jaelyn Brown
Kianna Smith

And two more players with huge talent but serious flaws:
Mikayla Cowling
Gabby Green

And a number of pretty good role players.

I think LG's biggest problem was recruiting enough guards and using them effectively (probably related).