Things started going right for the program on the recruiting front this month when Nikki Speed, the outstanding point guard from Pasadena, Calif., choose Rutgers over numerous programs from across the nation. Add to that the No. 9 player in the country in Brooklyn Pope, who recently gave her verbal commitment to coach C. Vivian Stringer.

Pope’s explosiveness and scoring can dominate a game. She has incredible leaping ability and blocks more shots than most post players. She has a great burst on her first step and covers a lot of ground. She can catch fire from long range. She can get in the zone and score in bunches. Pope also has the ability to score inside, but at the college level she’ll probably see more time at the three, where her ball handling will need to be sharpened some. She is a player who can excite the crowd as well and is almost unstoppable in the open court where her athleticism.

Brooklyn Pope Finger Roll

Last year around this time many were wondering who Rutgers was going to sign after the huge splash in the 2006 class. The Scarlet Knights had been the runner up on many top prospects and would ultimately secure one of the nation’s top guards in Khadijah Rushdan. This year there is no need for Rutgers fans to hit the panic button. With Pope (No. 9 in the class) and Speed (No. 27 in the class) Rutgers is reloading. They return almost all their firepower from its runner-up season in 2006-2007 and now have a great collection of young talent to continue to challenge not only in the Big East, but also nationally.

After this year, Rutgers will lose three senior perimeter players in Katie Adams, Matee Ajavon and Essence Carson but will return Epiphany Prince and Brittany Ray as well as Rushdan and will have Speed to provide more depth and talent at the lead guard spot and Pope who may be the most explosive wing in the country should provide another wing scorer to go with the exploits of Prince. All in all the depth and talent on the perimeter for Rutgers will continue to be among the best in the nation.

Many fans of the sport cry out for parity both on the court and in recruiting, especially when they look at the impressive recruiting runs of Connecticut and Tennessee. Those in Storrs likely would retort that they isn’t a need for parity, just that more teams need to get better. Well, in terms of top-level recruiting and the balance of power in the Big East, Rutgers is taking the right steps to continue to challenge Connecticut at the top of the conference.

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Chris Hansen is the National Director of Scouting for Women’s Basketball at HoopGurlz.com. He leads the panel that evaluates and ranks girl's basketball prospects nationally for HoopGurlz. Chris has been involved in the women’s basketball community since 1998 as a coach, trainer, evaluator and reporter. He can be reached at chris@hoopgurlz.com.