June 4, 2004

By Katie Zemko
Colorado Daily (U. Colorado)

(U-WIRE) BOULDER, Colo. - Four players from last season's Colorado women's basketball team graduated and two more asked to be released from their scholarships when the season was over.

CU head coach Ceal Barry now must rebuild her program, and that rebuilding process begins with recruiting.

Barry recently said in published reports she felt she needed to do a better job of recruiting if the Buffs are ever to make the NCAA Final Four.

When asked how she plans to improve recruiting, Barry pointed to her new assistant coach.

"I think the hiring of Matt Daniel right away will help because of his interest in recruiting," said Barry. "Finding coaches who really enjoy connecting with young kids is a big first step towards becoming a better recruiting program.

"That's one of things that attracted me to [Daniel]," Barry continued. "I knew he had a lot of energy and enthusiasm."

Indeed, Daniel was instrumental in landing a recruit for Barry before he was hired. Daniel directed Barry's attention to 5-foot-8 point guard Jessica Berry of Pulaski Academy in Arkansas, where he was head coach. The guard has since committed to CU and will suit up for the Buffs in 2005-06.

The former CU men's player is also expected to help the Buffs recruit Texas. Daniel worked as an assistant coach at Texas-Arlington from 1999 to 2003.

"I think that in time, he'll be able to connect with some people down there," said Barry.

Barry said the question is whether or not CU can draw kids from the many top-notch programs in the state, which houses four Big 12 Conference teams.

"[Texas] is always an area for CU. Texas high schools, regardless of the sport, have strong coaching and tremendous facilities," she said.

CU has also been concentrating efforts in Europe.

Assistant coach Tanya Haave has connections overseas that helped bring in two of last year's international players, freshmen forwards Anna Nedovic of Denmark and Jasmina Ilic of Serbia.

Barry said, however, that recruiting European players differs from recruiting their domestic counterparts.

"It's a different approach. A coach that knows Tanya calls her: 'This kid wants to come to the United States. Do you need her? Yes or No? Come look at her? Yes.' Here she comes."

Many United States prospects want to be courted and there are other advantages to recruiting overseas.

"American kids want to be recruited for two and a half years. European kids are looking for an opportunity and the right match," Barry said.

"Jasmina [Ilic], I believe, is one of the more talented small forwards in the Big 12. Anna Nedovic at 6-4, with some of the things that she can do; both would have been blue-chip players if they were Americans," Barry said.

CU has struggled in recent years recruiting in its own backyard.

Jamie Carey, Katy Flecky, Ann Strother, Liz Sherwood and Abby Waner are just a few of the blue-chip instate players that opted to play out of state.

Another common thread tying those players together is the fact that they played AAU ball for Rick Lopez's Colorado Hoopsters. A knowledgeable source close to women's college basketball told the Colorado Daily that Lopez routinely tells his top players they are too good to attend CU.

"We're not considered a 'glamour school' with some of the club coaches in our state," Barry said. "Where as if you go to Minnesota, we're a very attractive school. Or if you go to Sarajevo, we're a very attractive place for a European kid to come to school."

Barry conceded that AAU teams and coaches have an affect on the college recruiting process.

"I think when you're running an organization like the Hoopsters or the Boulder Rockies or the Mile High Magic, those are all organizations that compete with one another to recruit the best seventh and eighth graders into those programs," Barry said. "And part of that recruitment process is, 'Look, where we can place your kid?'"

But Barry has lured instate players once on the Hoopsters' roster. Former Buffs Jenny Roulier and Britt Hartshorn, both of whom graduated in 2002, were a part of the AAU squad.

"We're not Stanford, we're not Duke; we are Colorado," said Barry. "I'm proud of who we are, how we do things and of our record with graduation."

Barry is generally thought of as having the highest ethical standards and those ethics, therefore, affect her approach to recruiting.

Asked if she felt her principles could be a drawback in the recruiting wars, Barry was resolute.

"I wouldn't say it's the most honest business in athletics," she said of the underbelly of recruiting.

"I'm not sure that the adults that are making money in this business -- and I'm one of them -- really have the kids' or the families' best interest in mind. In terms of ethics, you can go from A) breaking an NCAA rule; that's not ethical, to B) slandering another program, to C) out and out being dishonest or exaggerating. There are a plethora of things that go on in recruiting," Barry added.

It's just another sign that women's college basketball is hitting the big-time. That "progress" hasn't escaped Barry's attention.

"It [the recruiting process] has changed tremendously in the 25 years I've been in the business -- and not for the better," she said. "There is no question that it has gotten worse. Particularly with the Internet and the chat rooms and the opinions on coaches. Typically, the people who have an opinion about a particular coach have never been to the coach's practice."

Exposure is another factor high school athletes take into account when deciding on a school. Simply put, these athletes now have one eye on the WNBA from the time they choose a college program. Thus, programs like UConn and Tennessee have the added appeal of playing frequently on national television, not to mention playing in front of sell-out crowds.

Barry pointed out, however, that CU draws comparably to Duke. But Duke and Stanford have the reputation of being among the nation's elite academic institutions. Meanwhile, as Barry noted, "You battle the No. 1 party school image and that sets you back a bit."

Barry said she felt the recent football recruiting scandal would hurt her program a little, but not as much as negative feedback from others involved with potential players.

"If you have a local club coach working against your program, that hurts you much, much more than a recruiting scandal. The stuff you read in the paper, you set down and move on," she said. "But if you go to practice every day for seven straight years and hear we're not a glamour school, that sinks in over a period of time."

She also conceded she also recruits against the belief of some that CU is not a premier program.

"If you join the program as a sixth grader, by the time you're a senior in high school you've have been told over and over again that middle-tier players are good enough for CU. But top-tier players should go to UConn, Duke, Notre Dame or Stanford; that's tougher for us to swallow. We can play on the same floor as Stanford and Notre Dame at least."

Actually, CU defeated each of those programs in their last meetings.

The question now is how many more such wins will it take until CU is seen in the same light as those programs.