STORRS, Conn. _ It was stunning turn in the women's basketball recruiting world.
UConn had no verbal commitments as the early signing period approached. When it was over, the Huskies secured commitments from two of the top five players in the 2018 class.
First, No. 1 prospect Christyn Williams signed. And on Wednesday, No. 5-ranked recruit Olivia Nelson-Ododa signed with UConn.
The program got a coveted guard in Williams and a top post player in Nelson-Ododa. They were the players UConn was focused on recruiting and those are the players who will be arriving in Storrs next year.
"Our approach always has been, we try to identify pretty early on what we're looking for and then when we find it we just spend all our time and energy on those kids," Geno Auriemma said. "If it's one or if it's two or if it's three, we go in believing that we're going to get the kids that we think we worked hard enough and that fit who we want. We roll the dice and you might come up empty but that's the (chance) that we've taken a lot of times. We've been in that situation a lot of times."
Auriemma said he's never approached recruiting with, say, a Plan B. Whether it was Rebecca Lobo in the early years or Breanna Stewart more recently, Auriemma and his staff had no backup plan.
"There's years when you come up empty," Auriemma said. "But we've gotten pretty much what we need more times than not."
Nelson-Ododa injured her knee in January and is just returning to the court. Yet she drew attention from schools all over the country and made her official visit to UConn _ with Williams _ last month.
But while Auriemma felt good about UConn's chances after that visit, he remained unsure. This was not a routine process.
"She's not your typical kid that wants to have 20 schools involved so that she can have 20 phones calls and then put out on social media that I'm being recruited by 20 schools and then when the signing day comes I'm going to have 20 different hats and then I'm going to pick one out, then I'm going to post it on all the message boards and let everybody know that I'm taking my talents to this particular school," Auriemma said.
In fact, Auriemma said Nelson-Ododa was not easy to reach. Weeks might pass without contact.
"This wasn't one of those, we've got to call this kid three times every day and text them and we've got to be on instant message and all the other nonsense that I don't even know about," Auriemma said. "This was unusual recruiting and because of that, I don't think anybody really knew where you stood. This was like old fashion, like when she came up on campus that's when I felt like ... we're going to get her."
Auriemma said Nelson-Ododa is not an average player. She is athletic and has a strong perimeter game, a player whose game caught UConn's attention early in the process.
Then the coaches met her.
"She's like one of the nicest kids we've ever been involved with in recruiting," Auriemma said. "Her, her parents. ... A little bit like Azura (Stevens) as a person. Laid back, kind of easy-going, nice kid. Just a really talented kid who's not your average, stick them in the low post and forget about them. She's a basketball player. Needless to say, we were pretty excited."
