Commitments of top high school seniors are starting to roll in and yet UConn has yet to receive a pledge from one member of the Class of 2013.

UConn recruited Diamond DeShields and Taya Reimer hard but they opted to commit to North Carolina and Notre Dame respectively. The Huskies are known to be recruiting guards Saniya Chong and Linnae Harper and forward Erica McCall.

If UConn doesn't get any commitments that would leave the Huskies with eight players on the team next season. Certainly it would be a special eight players but it would also put the Huskies in the position of having to close out easy victories with at least two starters on the court which could result in a key player getting hurt at the end of a 50-point victory. That is not something the Huskies want to have to deal with.\

When I sat down with Geno Auriemma yesterday (before he headed out on recruiting trips to Chicago and then Atlanta) I asked him if he'd be more open accepting walk ons next season in order to avoid using starters during garbage time and he said he would be but also that they are still working to get to an ideal 12-player roster. That could mean that he knows of a Jacquie Fernandes type of player or players who could join the team next season either on scholarship or as a non-scholarship player (with 11 players on this year's team there are no such concerns).

Auriemma isn't allowed to comment on an specific recruit until they sign letters of intent but looking at the three members of the Class of 2013 on UConn's recruiting radar it is looking more and more like Harper is the longest of long shots to land at UConn. Although attempts to reach her high school coach have been unsuccessful, I've heard that UCLA and Miami are among the teams she is planning to visit. I'm not even sure if Harper will end up visiting UConn and if that is the case she certainly won't be coming to UConn. 

McCall is interesting because she is a California kid who has been accepted at Stanford but UConn is still going after her hard enough to lead me to believe that they like their chances of getting her. Saniya Chong, a New York guard, would be a natural fit both basketball wise and geographically at UConn but don't discount Louisville or even Ohio State in the pursuit of the Ossining High star. The good news is that McCall and Chong are both expected to be in attendance the weekend of Oct. 12-13 when the Huskies host their First Night on Friday night and their first official practice the next morning (with a possible appearance at the UConn/Temple football game). UConn's track record of closing the deal when recruits come to First Night is pretty impressive.

The good news is that this is not the first rodeo for the UConn coaching staff. They knew pretty much from the time they signed the class of Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson that it would be difficult to follow up with a dynamic class the following year. However, while their rivals have been going hard after top Class of 2013 targets, the UConn coaches have been spending quite a bit of time getting a jump recruiting in the Class of 2014. UConn already has a commitment from Arizona guard Courtney Ekmark and have been out to see Brianna Turner, Recee' Caldwell, A'ja Wilson while Sierra Calhoun and LaJahna Drummer are also in the mix with the Huskies so the feeling is that UConn could end up with a strong class in the Class of 2014 even if the haul from the current recruiting class isn't as large as some people may like.

Even before top recruiting targets Diamond DeShields (North Carolina), Taya Reimer (Notre Dame) and Karlie Samuelson (Stanford) opted to commit elsewhere, the UConn brain trust was not doing cartwheels around the options in the high school Class of 2013 opting to focus on the talent-rich Class of 2014 pretty early on in the process.

A recruiting source told me that UConn's attitude towards the current group of available Class of 2013 commits is along the line of  "we'll get who we get." In other words, UConn is impressed by the three players it is currently recruiting in that class but don't look for any new names to emerge between now and the early signing period in November.

UConn is still involved with guards Linnae Harper and Saniya Chong and post Erica McCall in the Class of 2013. Chong was recently quoted as saying that she plans on taking visits to her final four schools (UConn, Louisville, Maryland and Ohio State) in the fall before making her choice.

Harper and McCall are both members of the U.S. team which will be competing in the  FIBA U17 World Championship for Women and the process of visiting campuses and weighing their college options will have to wait until they return from Amsterdam next month. The U-17 team will meet in Colorado Springs on Aug. 1 for training camp before leaving for Italy for three international friendlies. The U17 World Championship will run from Aug. 17-26 which means they will be tied up with their USA Basketball commitments for almost the entire month of August.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma saw each of those players earlier this month. He was on hand to see Chong score 53 points and Harper rip down 18 rebounds. UConn seems to have a different approach in the Class of 2014. The Huskies already have a commitment from sweet-shooting Arizona guard Courtney Ekmark and are EXTREMELY high on Brianna Turner, the only member of the Class of 2014 on the U.S. U-17 team.

I was able to speak to Turner, a versatile 6-foot-3 forward from Pearland, Tex., at the U-17 training camp in Kissimmee, Fla. in May. She talked about taking a trip to the UConn campus.


"I went to New York for spring break and took a train to Connecticut," Turner said. "We took a train to Hartford and then we drove to where UConn is. I toured the campus and it is nice. I got to meet the players and coaches. They were really nice and I liked what they had."

Unlike Ekmark, who was one of the earliest commits UConn has ever received, Turner seems willing to take her time.

"I want to take as many visits as I can," Turner said. "Probably next year when I am a junior to narrow it down to 10 schools."

In terms of committing she said "probably after high school season my junior year."

The final question I asked her is what she was looking for in her college of choice.

"I want a coach to take me out of my comfort zone and give me something I have never had before," Turner said.

Auriemma saw Turner in person earlier this month and I've heard that he came away extremely impressed with her.

Apparently Turner is not the only Texas player to catch the eyes of the UConn coaches. Recruiting analyst Keil Moore tweeted earlier this week that Recee Caldwell, a 5-8 guard from San Antonio, is planning on visiting UConn in the fall. Another player to keep an eye on is Christ the King star Sierra Calhoun. Calhoun's dad has been quoted as saying he'd prefer his kids to go to the same school and his son Omar Calhoun will be a freshman on UConn men's team in the fall. LaJahna Drummer, a 6-2 forward from Inglewood, Calif.,  listed UConn among eight schools she considers to be favorites on her bio at the U-17 national team trials.

In a perfect world UConn would not have unbalanced classes but pretty much from the time they locked up a sensational Class of 2012 with commitments from consensus national player of the year Breanna Stewart, No. 2 rated Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck, they knew it would not be easy to convince players in the next recruiting cycle to come to Storrs because of a concern over available playing time. If the Huskies get only one or even two commitments in the Class of 2013, it wouldn't be the first time they went down this road. In the Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi classes UConn signed just one player and rising senior Kelly Faris was the only player signed in her recruiting class.

The good news is that while many of their competitors have been going hard after Class of 2013 prospects, UConn seems to have a jump on identifying and pursuing the top players in the Class of 2014.