We already knew that the University of Connecticut women’s basketball program has Class of 2027 No. 1 overall recruit Kaleena Smith on its radar.
The guard from California is going to visit the Huskies on Nov. 6, right after the start of the regular season. And while her visit and recruitment is going to be closely monitored, there are other recruits in the Class of 2027 that the Huskies are vying for.
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According to On3, Finley Parcher, a four-star recruit, has narrowed her list down to seven schools, with UConn being one of them.
Those seven schools? UConn, UCLA, Arizona, Washington, Stanford, Gonzaga and Oregon.
Here’s more of what you need to know.
Listed at 6-feet tall, Parcher is a guard from Washington State’s Lynden High School.
This past March, before the Washington high school state tournament, it was noted that Parcher had compiled a 74-1 record in high school, averaging more than 19 ppg with seven rebounds and three steals. She has scored more than 1,000 points already through her junior season and has been named to the All-State team in Washington.
UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma speaks after the UConn Huskies are awarded the Fort Worth Regional trophy following their win against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Dickies Arena. Chris Jones-Imagn Images
What a ridiculous thing to say, right? Nobody has the resume and sales pitch that UConn does. Geno Auriemma has built the best program in the history of the sport, complete with 12 national championship wins and seven No. 1 overall WNBA draft picks.
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Those No. 1 picks? Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Breanna Stewart, Maya Moore, Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers.
If Parcher wants to be a part of that legacy, it’s there for her. And no other program can offer it.
Location.
It’s the one thing that UConn can’t overcome. If you notice, Parcher’s other six schools are all West Coast schools, including the University of Washington, which is an NCAA Tournament-caliber program in its own right. UCLA is the defending national champion, though it lost significant portions of its title-winning roster to the WNBA this past spring.
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We should start to get more on an official visit schedule now that the top seven schools are out there. Once we do, we’ll pass that along.
For now, the current UConn group is getting ready to start the next academic year, which means we are just over two months away from the start of the regular season.
The Huskies went unbeaten last regular season before losing to South Carolina in the Final Four.
