Women's Hoops Guru

By Stephen K. Lee

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - When Hall of Fame coach C.Vivian Stringer arrived at Rutgers from her successful run at Iowa in the summer of 1995, she promised to make the Scarlet Knights women's basketball program ``The Jewel of the East.''

Based on the five-player announcement Wednesday of the 2008 blue-chip recruiting treasures from outside the Garden State, Stringer has become quite the mine operator.

It only takes the official news like this to ease the frustration over Sunday's tough 60-59 loss here to then-No. 7 Stanford on a last-second foul call that resulted in the Scarlet Knights dropping from third to sixth in this week's Associated Press rankings.

Stringer says she and her coaches have been recruiting Nikki Speed (Pasadena, Calif.), Jasmine Dixon (Long Beach, Calif.), Brooklyn Pope (Fort Worth, Texas), Chelsey Lee (Miami, Fla.), and April Sykes (Crawford, Miss.) for some time. Needless to say she is quite excited about what each one will bring to the table.

“This is a unique group because they all are tremendously talented and they all bring a uniqueness – each and every person,” Stringer said following practice on Wednesday. “Sometimes you can have a great class and maybe you’ve got two point guards or two shooters or two of the same position. We recruited all five positions and feel real good about the chemistry, what’s going to be the chemistry of that group.”

It didn't hurt along the way to make an appearance in last season's NCAA title game. And Stringer was able to close the deal after the departure of Jolette Law, her longtime aide who left last summer for the head coaching job at Illinois.

All five of the recruits ranked in the top eight of their respective positions according to hoopgurlz.com and Sykes (No. 2) and Pope (No. 9) ranked in the overall top 10

Sykes is considered one of three "franchise" type players who are making early commitments.

The overall No. 1 star is Elena Delle Donne of Wilmington, Del., who has already orally committed to Connecticut and will sign her letter of intent Monday at 2 p.m. at Ursuline High after returning from a retreat.

Sykes is considered No. 2 and called by Stringer "the most imposing offensive weapon in high school basketball." Glory Johnson, the third in the elite category, has committed to Tennessee.

Coming off her most successful season as a head coach by reaching the national championship game, Stringer wanted to recruit aggressively and go after the nation’s best talent.

“ You go for broke,” she said. “We really went for broke because there was no question in our mind that this combination of young people would be what would challenge and sustain for the next four years.

“And so why play games and pretend that it was anything other than that? And given that we had just come off of a Final Four, we’re just going to max out and if it was a mistake we’ll see.”

Another reason for Rutgers’ aggressiveness in recruiting may come from the fact that the Scarlet Knights will be without seniors Essence Carson and Matee Ajavon next season.

“Keep in mind Mat and E are not just seniors,” Stringer pointed out. “They’re carrying 60 percent of the load and they came in here as freshmen starting. Mat and E are not your ordinary guards.”

Stringer added that that assistant coach Carlene Mitchell is largely responsible for assembling such a strong recruiting class.

“Carlene Mitchell. I’m telling you what – the strain and the expectations that she had, I know the eyes of the nation were upon her,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “The eyes of the nation were upon her and she couldn’t have performed more beautifully. While it was a great effort on everyone’s part – all coaches’ part – Carlene was the person that is the recruiting coordinator who was reading everything out.”

Here are Stringer’s thoughts on each of the five recruits:

Nikki Speed (5-9 point guard from Pasadena, Calif….Rated fifth-best guard by hoopgurlz.com…Ranked overall at No. 8 by All Star Girls Report, No. 16 by Blue Star Report)

Stringer on Nikki Speed:
“Nikki Speed, she’s real different. Is she going to score 30 points and all that? No, no. But the vision that I see, the quickness that she has, and the ultimate desire to be a point guard – not a combo guard….So if you love to catch and you want to score, she’s going to find you ’cause that’s her business. She knows that. You don’t have to worry about if she’s going to find you when she’s on the floor.”

Jasmine Dixon (6-1 guard/forward from Long Branch, Calif….Rated eighth-best guard by hoopgurlz.com…Ranked overall at No. 6 by All Star Girls Report)

Stringer on Jasmine Dixon:
“Jasmine Dixon is a strong body. You can imagine that if you try to get past her, as strong as she is, she challenges extremely well – great basketball instincts. She and Nikki executed that screen roll to perfection while they were in high school. Jasmine can play four, she can play two, three, she can play the perimeter, she can play the outside. And that’s in the image of the players that we have. Now is she thin like Mat, like E who is just a beautifully athletic, albeit willowy kind of body? No, she’s a much stronger-body-looking body. You hit her, you’re going to probably fall – not her. She’s not feeling any pain. But she’s skilled and she’s a competitor, great competitor. So that was fortunate for us on that side.”

Brooklyn Pope (6-2 forward from Fort Worth, Texas…Rated the No. 1 forward by Scout.com…Rated overall at No. 8 by Blue Star Report and No. 9 overall by hoopgurlz.com)

Stringer on Brooklyn Pope:
“No one thought that Brooklyn Pope would leave Texas – nobody. You can look at her and she seems to be kind of unassuming, sort of looking around like “Well what’s going on over there? Oh I should get in there and rebound.” And then you just see this explosiveness. You say “what the heck?” You just recognize you saw great power in this unassuming presence…. Pope is an explosive power forward / center. She can probably go one-two. She can probably play a four or five readily right now. Would we like to see her at a three possibly? Yeah that’s a possibility at some point.”

Chelsey Lee (6-2 forward from Miami, Fla….Rated No. 6 forward by hoopgurlz.com…Rated overall at No. 20 by Blue Star Report and No. 23 by All Star Girls Report / Michael T White)

Stringer on Chelsey Lee:
“Chelsey is more in the image of the agile post who is on the front end of a press that can hit a four real quick and get to that trap… she has tremendous enthusiasm and intensity. Energy, energy, energy. That’s all she knows. She wants to win and that’s all she knows. I was so amazed through the course of the summer. I’ve never seen her improve as much from one part of the summer to the end. From July 1 to July 30, she was the most amazing specimen, just improved and continued to work hard. She has a deep desire to be the best at whatever it is that she does. And that is difficult to measure but that is what she has.”

April Sykes (5-11 forward from Crawford, Miss…Rated second-best player by hoopgurlz.com…Rated overall at No. 3 by both Blue Star Report and All Star Girls Report)

Stringer on April Sykes:
“April Sykes came to visit us on an unofficial visit and an official visit and thank God for that because I think that that was key for us that she came up on an unofficial visit. She came, I think really liked our kids right away, hopefully liked the coaches.

“April is one of the most mature, versatile players in the country. She has a great body frame, high level of skill, and can play multiple positions. She reminds me of a veteran pro player in that she never seems rushed or uncomfortable with anything. April is a high intensity person who has the ability to see the game as all great players do, which is slow.”

So now that the future has been established, the Scarlet Knights will return to the present and try to regain their winning form this weekend when Creighton visits Friday night and then Rutgers travels to the nation's capital on Sunday night for another Top 25 showdown -- this one with No. 14 George Washington, which will be televised at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.