2016 recruiting

Yes, you read that right. This post is about past recruiting, not current recruiting. We've had quite a bit of discussion on the performance record of recruiting services. I've been one to acknowledge that the rankings of High School girls basketball has improved a lot over the last few years, but still had some doubt to how accurately girls are being ranked, and services very quite a bit on some players. We don't need to look any further than Oregon State's Kennedy Brown, who was ranked #20 in her 2019 class by Hoopgurlz, but only #100 by Prospects Nation. A fairly good sized variance. 

For discussion here I only used Hoopgurlz rankings from the 2016 class. I'll make an assumption that some of you may not make. That assumption is that, in a perfect world, the top 20 ranked girls out of High School would all eventually be chosen in the WNBA draft. There are 36 players that get drafted each year, so we should reasonably expect them to be drafted, even if a few international players are in the draft. I've taken a look at 2016 and 2017, which I may I address in a future post, but between the two, 2016 appears to be the better year for those who do the rankings. Beyond that, I'll try to leave my opinion out of the remainder of this post, but would like to hear the thoughts of others. The following are the facts:

Out of the top 20 ranked players of 2016, 12 have been drafted to date.
Because of the 2020 Covid year, there are 4 of the 2016 top 20 players who will be on NCAA teams again in 2021/2022. Those four players include Hoopgurls 2016 #16 ranked Jenna Staiti who will be playing for Georgia, #19 Nancy Mulkey, who will be playing for Washington, #12 ranked Amber Ramirez, who will play for Arkansas, and #8 ranked Natalie Chou, who will play for UCLA.
There are four girls from the 2016 top 20 who went undrafted. #20 Ae'Rianna Harris who played for Purdue and in her best season averaged 13.5 points and 8.4 rebounds earning 1st team Big 10. #14 Sierra Campisano, who played for Cal Poly and earned 1st team Big West. #10  Tori McCoy began her career at Ohio State, transferred to Marquette, but became a medical redshirt because of kidney disease that ended her career at Marquette. The Highest ranked recruit from the 2016 class that wasn't drafted was #5 ranked Erin Boley who finished her career at Oregon in 2020/2021.
The 2016 class actually ended up having 2 #1 picks in the WNBA draft. Jackie Young was the #11 recruit in 2016, and became the 1st pick in the WNBA draft in 2019. Sabrina Iouescu was the #4 ranked recruit and became the #1 pick in the 2020 NBA draft.
The top 20 players from the 2016 class ended up producing 3 top 10 draft picks, 5 more who were top 20, and 4 more who were drafted between the 21st and 36th pick (including both the 35th and 36th pick).
Here's the Hoopgurls 2016 top 20:
#1 Lauren Cox------------#3 pick in the 2020 WNBA draft
#2 Joyner Holmes--------#19 pick in 2020
#3 Crystal Dangerfield---#16 pick in 2020
#4 Sabrina Iouescu------#1 pick in 2020
#5 Erin Boley--------------Undrafted
#6 Alicia Sutton-----------#36 pick in 2020
#7 Destiny Slocum-------#14 pick in 2021
#8 Natilie Chou-----------Playing at UCLA
#9 Leaonna Odom------#15 pick in 2020
#10 Tori McCoy---------Medical redshirt in college (possibly played international ball)
#11 Jackie Young-------#1 pick in 2019
#12 Amber Ramirez-----Playing for Arkansas
#13 Ciera Johnson-----#32 pick in 2021
#14 Sierra Campisano--Undrafted
#15 Valerie Higgins----#25 pick in 2021
#16 Jenna Staiti--------Playing for Georgia
#17 Kylee Shook-------#13 pick in 2020
#18 Calveion Landrum--#35 pick in 2020
#19 Nancy Mulkey------Playing for Washington
#20 Ae'Rianna Harris---Not drafted