a constant reminder of our futility, sure – just like the team up until recently, she as a player has just not improved in a few years
she could’ve been a draft prospect had she taken even a slight step up from last season, but she’s actually gotten worse statistically lmao
i wonder how much players who play their whole career at one school where the program achieves very little end up second-guessing everything after their career has already wrapped up
I first encountered Haley in seventh grade. No one really knew about her because she hadn't played much, but a friend of hers played with her in some low-level rec league and she came out to play for Bentley (a tiny school) in a JV summer league. It took me about five minutes to realize she was really good, and had a great future. But she didn't really care about basketball, and would go to the beach with her friends instead of coming to a game.
Her parents didn't want to pay for a private school, so she was recruited by a public school and played there (even though she should have gone to a different school). She did well, but just as you note, many felt she never really lived up to her potential.
My point: Sometimes we blame the coach and the program, but sometimes it's just the player. And once you get to college, basketball is a job, plain and simple. Van Dyke is amply rewarded now, but even without NIL money, she was punching the clock to get her college paid for. And sometimes people don't work as hard as they could at a job -- they do what needs to be done, and collect the paycheck.
Now I haven't talked to Haley in years, and she could be a diligent worker who spends all her free time improving her game, and has been failed by her coaches. But it also could be that she doesn't love basketball any more than most people love their jobs, and that's why it appears she's stagnated.
Finally, congrats to Haley on a fine career. She has had to work hard to get where she is, and achieve what she's achieved. All credit to her, and if she didn't spend every waking hour upping her game, well, that's OK too.
i love that insight, thank you for sharing it clayk. for context, she did say at [around] the 2021-22 media day that she had decided she did want to pursue a professional playing career. it would’ve maybe been different had she make that decision earlier on in her college career. hell, maybe that’s Jody Wynn’s fault for not encouraging her more or encouraging her properly.
and Wynn wasn’t the coach she originally committed to, which i found out recently – it was Mike Neighbors. so really, Van Dyke has more or less been through three different coaches while at Washington; the program has essentially been reborn twice since she’s been there. but she has stuck with it each time, and she does say now that the whole thing has very much been a rewarding process for her. i hope she still feels that way years from now.
i wish we could’ve played her at her natural SF spot at any one point in her five-season career. that maybe more than anything has messed with her development. she had (has?) that rare two-way potential, but playing out of position at the 4 no doubt has limited her, even as she has seemingly never complained about playing there.
i really hope these last few weeks of her college career are rewarding for her. even making the WNIT would be a very satisfying result for both the program and the seniors who have been here since their freshmen year (like Bay Area product TT Watkins, who doesn’t play all that much anymore, nor does other products from that neck of the woods in Lexi Griggsby or Nia Lowery – both of whom are sitting out the season and likely moving on after this, too).
crazy to think Washington is the last Pac team still playing – absolutely no one would’ve guessed that in any capacity at the beginning of the season, including me lmfao
Last Edit: Mar 27, 2023 16:25:47 GMT -5 by Deleted
i've seen the clips & the stats, and i think she's gonna be good for us in 2024. another game-changer. VERY ready for The Sellers & Soltau Show™️, coming not freakin' soon enough lmao