true and gb1: since you two seem to my two most adversarial emoticons on this issue, let me point out:
1.) i did not initiate this thread. ronbo did. the thread was on page four, had had some 60 replies and was already the second most viewed thread on this board before i even posted. so obviously there's interest in this subject well beyond me.
2.) during his tenure, rob has had 105 letterwinners. of them, 34 have been from out of state. the breakdown: washington 9, oregon 5, alaska 4, california, north dakota and wyoming 3 each, illinois and colorado 2 each, minnesota, maryland and idaho 1 each. (odd that hollie tyler is the only player from idaho to letter in the history of the program.) these stats may support the contention that the recruiting budget is limited, as most of the recruits have come from the northwest or from neighboring states wyoming and north dakota.
3.) curious that montana has produced so few--any?--steller black women's players the past 25 years. on the men's side, you can go way back to ray howard and zip rhoades, and forward to j.r. camel and chris spoja. in football, where would we be without lex hilliard? are there any great black women's players that got away? if so, i can't think of them.
4.) i will also say that if there were black players here, i'm sure rob would recruit them with the same effort and success he's put into recruiting native americans.
5.) still--i sure would love to see another vickie austin! if you want an assessment of her talent, just go ask shannon schweyen. had vickie not gotten hurt, those two would have cut a much wider swath in the ncaa tournament in 1990.