I haven't seen this information posted (sorry if I missed it), but Stanford's recruiting Twitter account posted this Wednesday. I'm most interested in the comparison with each of the last four years.

Surprised I have not seen this mentioned yet. Some interesting ideas for a super-league with permanent members and additional rotating members that get promoted / relegated like the Premier league. Seems to have some powerful backers. And a lot of headwinds, which seem to be coming from the networks, from what I understand. In The Athletic, so may be behind a paywall, but I can see with my NYT subscription.

Today, Angel Reese announced her intentions to enter the WNBA Draft.

It was also reported today that the Iowa-LSU game set an all-time record for ratings with 13.3M people supposedly watching. This was the highest rated basketball game on ESPN since the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. It was also higher rated than any of last year's NBA Finals games other than Game 5. And this means it outdrew every single MLB game last season.

On Friday, UConn and Paige Bueckers will take on Iowa and Caitlyn Clark in the Final Four, a game that will likely also be very highly rated. Even though this isn't the National Championship Game, it has sort of parallels to Indiana State and Larry Bird vs. Michigan State and Magic Johnson. The problem is, Bueckers has said she is returning tu UConn and not entering the WNBA draft.

I'm seeing Cameron Brink projected as the #2 overall pick, after the obvious #1 being Clark, but what about if Bueckers was in this draft? Shouldn't the WNBA be doing everything in its power to create a reason for Bueckers to change her mind and enter the draft? I mean it will be compelling to have Reese and Clark in the same draft, but I'm guessing Clark and Bueckers will put on an epic game on Friday that would make having Bueckers and Clark entering the same draft be a dream for the WNBA in terms of raising its business profile.

I don't know what the media rights are for the WNBA or when they are up, but this is when the WNBA (NBA) should be putting all its chips in to infuse the league with box office star power this year to raise its value and increase the compensation of WNBA players. Like many people, I'm slowly being pulled into women's basketball at the highest level, but I don't think I've ever watched more than a couple minutes of a WNBA game. If I could see Clark, Bueckers, Reese, and Brink be rookies in the same year, it might be enough to get me to tune in to the draft and watch WNBA games.

Sabrina Ionescu was sort of playing the Caitlyn Clark role a few years ago, and Breanna Stewart was a star too, but I don't think either really resonated like Clark and Bueckers, even Reese does. Having them all join the WNBA would be like getting Zion, Ja, and Wemby in the same draft. I don't know how the WNBA can pass this opportunity to get Bueckers and Clark in the same draft. They do it by offering top draft picks more money.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

I’m hearing Texas A&M

Read and watch that here.

Alrighty, time to get the football recruiting notes thread for March posted. I’m traveling back to the Bay Area today, so I’ll get my recruiting breakdown posted in here after I get back home, but in the meantime I wanted to at least get the thread posted. February thread is here for those that missed anything.

meanwhile Kaanan Carlyle, tho athletic, nevertheless fizzled and frustrated, now in the portal..., and Bynum disappeared after January.....

Times have changed. Cal was recently the most dominant team in the nation. Now it's ASU, and it is not even close.

1. Arizona State University 1036 2. Stanford University 733.5
3. University of California-Berk 595 4. University of Arizona 433
5. University of Southern Calif 394.5 6. University of Utah 211

Of course Rose won last year and it’s one of the top women’s amateur events. The big news is that there are six Stanford players plus three Stanford commits in the field! That’s 9 out of 72 spots!

Sundberg and Ganne tied for 11th at -2. Heck tied for 19th at -1 with four holes left in round one. Martin Sampedro and Rivuelta T30th at even. Chien, Ortengen, Engleman and Xu have work to do. Top30 after round two go on to the final round Augusta National.

Read and watch that here.

Preview is here.

Read that here.

Outcome is still probably the same but maybe explains some of the inaccuracy of 3-point shots during the game on Friday, especially during the 3rd quarter (when Stanford had the old line).

Clown show by the NCAA though.

Adam Gorney has that here.

Pretty shocked by the lack of football content/talk. Two of the most recent 40 threads even touching on it on the verge of spring football starting. Hope it’s the calm before the storm. Also hope there is at least some energy in the fan base around the program and it hasn’t completely stalled just a year into the Taylor era.

Read that here.

A blast from the past...

Read that here.

Since it hasn't been mentioned, I'm really glad that Catarina is back playing soccer after missing almost 22 months of soccer. She played in her first game earlier this month and scored a goal six minutes after entering the game. She's played in 4 other Chelsea games scoring another goal and handing out 2 assists. Better yet, she's been named to the USWNT for the SheBelieves Cup taking place next month. The new USWNT head coach will be Emma Hayes, Macario's coach at Chelsea. Hayes will take over after the club finishes the women's Super League and will be joining the USWNT a couple of months before the Paris Olympics.

Macario Goal Highlights
https://youtu.be/Nia2RsICgqo

Read that here.

I thought this was pretty cool. I also wonder why Yale's band couldn't travel. They have plenty of money.

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Cards were ahead 6-3, but Utah caught up with them in the 8th to tie it 6-6.
Then in the top of the 11th, we pound them with nice mix of singles & doubles to score 7 runs, and blank them in bottom of the 11th to get out of Dodge with at least the one win.

After binging info about our new coach for the last 72 hrs a thought entered my head: that Kyle Smith is a better coach for Stanford than Madsen would have been.

I don't have much empirical evidence of this. But Smith does kinda have a counter for every one of Madsen's positive attributes:

1. Madsen is a Bay Area guy and is here to stay. Smith spent 10+ years as a coach in the Bay Area, apparently loved it here, and Stanford in particular has medical draws for a child with a disability. Point to KS
2. Madsen did a lot with a thin cupboard this past season. Smith took a similarly weak team by recruiting standards and preseason expectations (picked 10th in P12) to the NCAA round of 32. Point to KS
3. Madsen was very successful at his prior gig. Smith appears to specialize in thin cupboards (won at 3 separate places where his predecessors all had trouble winning) and has a track record of making them look like full pantries. Point to KS
4. Madsen is one of our all-time hoops legends and "gets" Stanford. Smith's podcast (posted in another thread) and welcome press conference demonstrated that he not only is aware of the kind of high-academic player he needs to recruit here but prefers it. He even wore Nerd Nation glasses to the presser! Even
5. Madsen is friends with Shaq. I got nothing here. Point to KS