Recruiting for Stanford Basketball moves forward at a pace largely controlled
by the admissions application process. Phone calls, incessant letter
writing, and unending babysitting by coaches in the stands of recruits' games
keeps the Cardinal in the game. Ungodly amounts of hours are poured into
those efforts, but in the grand scheme of things, it is little more than
foreplay.
So when Jeanette Pohlen this spring narrowed her list of schools to a final
three, and Stanford was whispered to be the odds-on favorite, it still meant
little until she completed and submitted her application. Late last week,
the Brea (Calif.) Brea-Olina High School standout guard received word that she
had been admitted by the University. It was a monumental event that
ultimately allowed her to make her verbal commitment to the Cardinal late
Tuesday night.
"I was kind of in shock," the recruit recalls of her admissions news.
"It is such a great achievement. I was excited because being accepted to
Stanford is such a great honor."
A much-deserved honor for Pohlen, who is not only one of the great players in
the history of one of the great high school girls basketball programs in the
nation, but also a standout student. Three times, in three consecutive
months, she scheduled and sat for the SAT this spring to maximize her score and
admissions chances. She holds a 4.0 weighted GPA (3.6 unweighted) at the
top Orange County school, taking courses such as AP U.S. history, honors
physics, honors literature III and Japanese III. Pohlen will take AP
Japanese next year. Konnichiwa, Pohlensan.
"When I found out that I was admitted, I definitely knew that I needed to go
back up there [to Stanford] again," Pohlen shares. "My dad worked hard to
make sure I could get there."
Monday night wrapped the Nike Girls Skills Academy in Beaverton (Ore.).
Today starts the famed End of the Trail tournament in Oregon City (Ore.), with
Pohlen practicing yesterday in town with her AAU team. That left precisely
one day where the new admitted Cardinal recruit could see Stanford. She
and her mother took the Fourth of July for a one-day trip to The Farm.
"When I went up there the first time, Coach Tara [VanDerveer] was not there.
Before this visit, we had only talked on the phone at that point," Pohlen
explains. "We wanted to meet her. Also to meet all the girls,
including the incoming freshmen. I got to meet all of them this time, talk
with Coach Tara, and get a feel for the campus."
"When we first got there," the recruit reports of Tuesday's trip, "we looked
around at the different facilities and centers and visited that. We met
with Coach Tara and watched a highlight video from last season. We met
with the girls, went to eat, and went to see a dorm. I shot around with
the girls at Maples Pavilion. Just hung around with the girls and the
coaches."
"There wasn't anybody in particular who stood out or made the biggest
impression," Pohlen says of the Stanford student-athletes. "They were all
welcoming and supportive and nice. They gave me an honest answer to why
they decided to go there, and how they enjoyed Stanford. They said that
they enjoy the atmosphere, all the people, and of course the education. As
far as basketball, they really enjoy Coach Tara. The incoming freshmen all
said how much they were looking forward to playing and learning with Coach
Tara."
Stanford was the presumptive favorite, and Pohlen enjoyed the euphoria of an
admissions acceptance plus a full day of attention and opportunities with the
Stanford players and coaches. However, she and her mother walked away from
campus without having deliberated or delivered anything definitive on a
recruiting decision. Later that evening, while the Pohlens sat at the
airport and the Stanford team was living it up at a Fourth of July barbeque, the
four-star SoCal guard decided to pick up her phone and call Tara VanDerveer.
"I told her that I wanted to come to Stanford. She was very excited and
very welcoming," Pohlen replays. "It was the whole day that cinched it for
me. It just felt right. We visited a lot and enjoyed our time
together."
How big is this commitment for the Cardinal? As in all recruiting
matters, that depends upon who you ask. Opinions vary on Pohlen's game,
though it was telling that the three top programs in the Pac-10 offered and
comprised her final three: Stanford, Arizona State and USC. For a more
detailed perspective, we turn to Chris Hansen, Scout.com National
Director of Scouting. Hansen has seen Pohlen plenty of times, including an
up-close look at the Nike Skills Academy amidst the elite of the country's
elite.
"She isn't the quickest, the fastest. She doesn't have the best shot,"
Hansen begins. "But she got it done. She competed with the best
players in the country, and she proved that she belonged. She hit the open
shot, and she got to open balls. She worked hard and really competed."
The 2007 ordinal rankings have not yet been officially unveiled by
Scout.com. That will come after the most intense and nationally
ambitious month of scouting this July that any service has ever attempted with
girls basketball. Hansen projects that Pohlen will be in the "high 20s to
low 30s". Rated at four stars today, that places Pohlen among the nation's
elite prospects this year and gives Stanford already three Top 50 players
committed in this class after landing four Top 50 talents last November.
One question for Pohlen, however, is where she projects to play in college.
She is built like a wing, near six-feet and able to rebound like a forward, yet
she plays point guard for her high school team and has a strong handle.
"She's a 'three,'" Hansen answers. "She's six-foot and strong.
She's quick, but I have a hard time seeing her stay in front of a Candice Wiggins, so I don't know that she would defend some of the 'two's in the Pac-10.
Jeanette is tough, gritty and smart, which makes up for the lack of athleticism,
though she's not an athletic slouch."
One of the most redeeming qualities of Pohlen is how hard she works and how
much she can and does improve herself. A great listener and a very
coachable player, the Orange County product is much better bet to overachieve
rather than underachieve at the next level.
"She was improving at the camp every day and doing well in all the drills,"
Hansen says of the Skills Academy. "Her jumper, as they worked through
shooting drills, really improved. She came in with her release too low,
and she worked with the coaches on it - moved it up about four inches. She
really improved. She came out here and did very, very well."
"At the beginning, I kind of came in with a different shot," Pohlen
describes. "At the end, the coaches showed me a different way that could
probably help me be more successful. They just said that my other hand, my
left hand, that holds the ball was getting in the way. I get my hand up,
and I shoot it better."
"I think I improved tremendously," she continues. "All the techniques
they showed us were great. Even in those three or four days, I improved a
fair amount with each drill."
Tough, smart, skilled, versatile and still improving. That is the
thumbnail sketch of Jeanette Pohlen, though it still does her little justice.
Look for much more this summer and in the coming year on the latest exciting
Cardinal commit from TheBootleg.com and Scout.com.
Are you fully subscribed to The Bootleg?
If not, then you are missing out on all the top Cardinal coverage we provide
daily on our website, as well as our full-length feature articles in our glossy
magazine. Sign up today for the biggest and best in Stanford sports coverage
with TheBootleg.com (sign-up)
and The Bootleg Magazine (sign-up)!