I think it is fair to say that LV TEAMS have under performed during Holly's tenure (with the exception of her first two seasons).
However, the idea that LV players simply don't improve while they are in the program does not hold up so well. Meme jackson may be a little up and down this season but she is light years ahead of where she was as a freshman (she looked a lot like Rae actually, lots of hustle with very limited results and lots of mistakes).
Cheridene Green has made a massive step forward. Evina has a much better offensive game and much better defensive positioning and much better court sense (though she still needs some work on knowing when not to force a pass).
[Rennia's game has also improved but there are more subtle changes- she has a more consistent jump shot; her effort is more consistent. I actually expected her to be more of an impact player though I feel like we have not yet seen the best of her this season. I think Rennia does better when not feeling that she has to carry the team so the emergence of Zaay as a scoring threat is a definite plus for RD]
Of course, people can say "oh but none of these players lived up to their POTENTIAL!" Well, who knows exactly what a player's potential really is? You can make some general assessments. For example Rae is considerably more athletic than Dunbar-- that is readily apparent. Given her hustle, size, and quickness, I am pretty confident she has more potential than Dunbar to be a contributor to the team in her next 3 years. Does she have the potential to be an All-american and eventually a first round pick in the WNBA? That question is a lot harder to assess.
So, if next year, Rae comes back with a more consistent jump shot and has a better court sense (so she is not caught of defensive position) while maintaining her current level of intensity, we could all agree that would have become a better player. However, if one raises the counterpoint, well, if she had not played for Holly, she would have developed into an AA player is equivalent to proclaiming that exactly 37 angels can dance in the eye of a needle. Okay, if you say so....
Stipulating that "improvement" is subjective and also that you are glass half full (I envy you that) and my glass is empty and broken, I respectfully disagree. IMO the lack of significant improvement and development, both of individual players and teams, is exactly the hill that poor Holly is going to die on. Its the heart of the current problem.
Yes there are some improvements for some players over the last 4 seasons that we can find if we look hard enough. But you're right, its that potential thing. Such a long sad line of players and teams have left us with the nagging woulda, coulda, shoulda, been better feeling (Nared, Russell). Some have arguably gotten worse (Bashara Graves, Jordan Reynolds). More than anything for me its a crazy zigzagging lack of consistency that confounds.
No one embodies that more for me than the current players you cite. We often consider Evina and Rennia "young" players but they are now very nearly halfway thru their careers and have started 50+ games each. Yet we have Rennia just a few games ago looking lost, hapless and hopeless. I'm delighted with her current few games of good play, but is anyone confident she won't slide back into the abyss? And Evina is so wildly inconsistent she usually cannot even sustain a consistent quarter. Great 1st against Mizzu, followed by a second in which once again, she could not hit a layup to save her life and the second row of spectators was endangered by her ill-advised passes. I could be wrong, but it just seems recruits this highly ranked and with this much playing experience should be far more consistent.
Unfortunately, this kind of bi-polar play from elite players has become our hallmark. They're the little girl with the curl - good when their good but so bad when they're bad. Hello Diamond, who may give you 30 pts or may give you 8 turnovers and couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a base fiddle. No middle ground.
Then there's poor MeMe, who may be the poster child for what many say is a wrong-headed approach to recruiting that Holly can no more shed than she can give up the 80s approach to offense. Except for a few out-of-her-mind offensive games this year, IMO MeMe is exactly the player she has been since she was a frosh - athletic, quick, but not very skilled especially offensively. If you are going to recruit this type player, all raw athletic potential, you better be a genius at skills development. Hello Capt. Obvious, Holly is decidedly not that developmental genius.
It wouldn't be fair not to wonder if these players come in over-ranked, but there have been too many of them, the pattern is too consistent for it to be all bad assessment. That said, I have come to detest the word "talent". Is it actually talent if it is unable to provide consistent, winning SEC level play? I agree that "talent" is very often misused when we really mean "potential". Which yes is a nebulous concept, but more importantly requires honing and development.
And that, I'm afraid, is exactly the heart of the current problem. Recruiting athletic potential which is labeled as great talent which leaves here as unfulfilled potential.
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