Blogs > Elm City to Eagleville

A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Friday, October 21, 2011

UConn no longer recruiting McDaniel

Shortly after meeting with Xylina McDaniel and her mother when they were up at UConn earlier this month, UConn made the decision to stop recruiting South Carolina's Gatorade Player of the Year.

McDaniel's father Xavier, who played 14 years in the NBA and also is one of her AAU coaches, called me tonight just to make it clear that the decision to end the recruitment was UConn's and not Xylina's.

"They called (Spring Valley) Coach (Anne) Long and told Coach Long that they were taking the pressure off. I guess it was a conversation they had while we were on our recruiting trip that Connecticut was far. I told (UConn assistant) Coach (Marissa) Moseley 'it is far. That is a big, giant step and she needs to figure out that this is what she wants to do.' I think maybe the process is too long for Connecticut being one of the major powers, maybe you either (do it) the Connecticut way or not."
McDaniel, a 6-foot-1 forward, is now expected to pick between South Carolina (where her high school teammate Asia Dozier has committed) and North Carolina.

That completes UConn's recruiting class as Breanna Stewart, a forward/center from Cicero-North Syracuse (N.Y.) High, Bolingbrook (Ill.) High forward Morgan Tuck and guard Moriah Jefferson, who is home schooled and plays for the THESA Riders in Ft. Worth, Tex., have all committed and are expected to sign with the Huskies during the early signing period next month.

Speaking of Stewart, she had 18 points and 21 points but it was not enough as the United States opened play in the Pan Am Games with a 58-55 loss to Argentina. Stewart, the only high school player on the team,  was 3 of 8 from the field but 12 of 14 from the free-throw line. However, the only other U.S. player to scorer in double figures was Gonzaga's Katelan Redmon, who had 16 points.

Melissa Gretter led Argentina with 21 points.

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

UCONN was supposedly so "hot" on McDaniel and her Dad seemed to be very supportive...so why do you think that UCONN suddenly lost interest in her?

8:19 PM 
Blogger Jim Fuller said...

I'd have to think UConn got the sense that she wasn't going to come this far to play or if she was, perhaps they are gun shy that she might decide it is not the place for her like Samarie Walker did. I'd say that they would rather devote their time looking at forwards in the Class of 2013 especially since two forwards are already part of the incoming freshman class.

7:44 PM 
Anonymous Joe said...

Also it sounds like the story said that it was a conversation with Xylina and her mother that changed UConn's mind.....not the first time that a daughter has said one thing to Dad and a different thing to mind.

3:14 PM 

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