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The rich got a little bit richer last night as the #1 prospect in the country for the Class of 2015 announced her verbal commitment to UConn.
Katie Lou Samuelson has two older sisters who also play basketball, quite well in fact. Both are currently playing at Stanford. Katie credits her development as a young player to the competitive upbringing with her sisters and to her father- a former player in college and overseas. About a month ago she told reporters that she expected to make her decision soon. Sources close to her said it was down to UConn and Notre Dame.
Katie currently attends Mater Dei High School, where she averaged 26 points and 9.8 rebounds last year, good enough to earn Gatorade Player of the Year honors in California. This summer she will be representing the US in the FIBA U-17 World Championship. She was on the U-16 team last year where she proudly sported Diana Taurasi's number as the US won Gold.
Joining Samuelson on UConn in 2015 will be Natalie Butler, the 6-foot-5 Big East Freshman of the Year who recently announced her transfer from Georgetown, and two more from the Class of '15: De'Janae Boykin (#10 overall) and Napheesa Collier (#5 overall). Boykin, Collier and Samuelson actually visited UConn together.
There have been rumblings that the UConn women's team may struggle to recruit given the lower level of competition in The American. Hopefully that nonsense can be put to rest for another couple of years as Geno and co. appear poised to dominate through at least 2019.
You can follow Katie on Twitter, @33katielou
GO HUSKIES!!!