 "Photo: Milos Roganovic/Targum Staff Photographer")
The Rutgers women's basketball team is adding some local talent to its attack for the coming years.
Included in the four-member 2006-07 recruiting class that head coach C. Vivian Stringer announced yesterday are two New Yorkers and one New Jerseyan - a class that is ranked second in the nation by Blue Star recruiting service, behind only that of Connecticut.
"We're happy that this class fills some of our needs," Stringer said in a press conference at the Louis Brown Athletic Center. "We're excited about every position. We have a nice shooter in this class, an excellent ball-handler in this class, and a center on nothing but her up-side, just scratching the surface of her own abilities."
Epiphanny Prince, Rashidat Junaid, Myia McCurdy, and Brittany Ray are the four student-athletes to have penned national letters of intent to join the Scarlet Knights next season.
Perhaps the Knights' biggest signing in the class comes in Prince, a 5-foot-9-inch guard out of Murry Bergtraum High School in New York City.
Prince averaged almost 23 points and 12 assists-per-game in her junior season, leading the third-ranked Bergtraum squad to three straight Public School Athletic League (PSAL) Championships and two New York State Federation championships.
"She is considered one of the top three players in the country," Stringer said. "She is a break-ankle guard."
Prince was named a 2005 Street & Smith's first-team All-American and is among the highest-ranked players in the nation in virtually every publication.
That "break-ankle" description is one the coach has attached to others like Cappie Pondexter and Matee Ajavon.
"She is an excellent ball-handler, and she can shoot it at the three-point range," Stringer said. "She comes in at the one or the two."
Stringer said that once Ajavon takes over the point guard reigns for good upon Pondexter's graduation, it will open up space for Prince to step up as a legitimate two guard.
But Prince does have the ability to play both guard positions if needed.
"She can do anything she wants to do when she wants to do it, and she will because she wants to win championships," Stringer said. "She is a winner.
This kid, skill-wise, has every skill that Cappie has, and I'll leave it at that."
Junaid is a 6-4 center from Camden Catholic High School in South Jersey. She averaged 22.4 points, 12 rebounds, and four blocks her junior year, on her way to being named the 2005 Courier Post Player of the Year and a member of the Associated Press All-State First Team.
She is also a three-time Street & Smith's Magazine Honorable Mention All-American.
"Rashidat is a big girl, as big as Kia [Vaughn] if not bigger," Stringer said. "This is the first time we will really have two centers."
Stringer acknowledged the one-two punch of Vaughn and Junaid as a sort of "twin towers" type of attack, and whether or not they see time together in games will depend on how things play out both this year and in the future.
"She goes into the post, keeps her hands up, and she works," Stringer said. "Now we feel we have posts like the Tennessee posts, but physically we'll have to wait and see."
In McCurdy, the Knights get a 6-1 forward-slash-guard who missed much of her junior season due to injury but averaged 15 points and over eight rebounds as a sophomore at Winton Woods High School in Cincinnati.
"Her strength is great defense," Stringer said of McCurdy. "She can rebound well and make good passing decisions, and she can shoot the ball."
The final recruit for 2006-07 is Ray, a 5-9 guard from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in the Bronx.
Ray is the younger sister of Villanova men's basketball standout Allan Ray.
"She is an outstanding shooter," Stringer said, comparing Ray's abilities to those of former Knight standout guard Mauri Horton.
"Mauri shot the ball strong and this kid does the same thing," Stringer said. "She has a great strength on her shot."
In terms of how she stacks up against the current RU guards, Ray is expected to join the legion of "punishing guards."
The 2006-07 class will mark the third consecutive top-15 recruiting class that Stringer and her staff have produced, the third top-five class in the last six years.
Behind UConn and the Knights, Purdue, Duke, and Stanford's women's basketball programs round out the Blue Star Top 5 recruiting classes for next year.
Individually, the four RU recruits all found their way onto Blue Star's Top-55. Prince is the nation's third-highest rated recruit for her year, while McCurdy, Junaid, and Ray were selected 21st, 43rd, and 53rd, respectively.
For Stringer, it was important to bring the tri-state area talent to the Banks.
"We want to keep the best talent in this area, that's really the idea," she said. "We were very fortunate this year."
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