Apologies to Dana Evans, who headlines Louisville's No. 1 class heading into the NCAA's early signing period for women's basketball. Likewise to Duke, which is expected to welcome an outstanding 2017 recruiting class. And even to Delaware, which is expected to sign the tallest Top 100 recruit in 6-foot-5 Katherine Cain. But the most significant "D" in this year's A-to-Z guide to signing week is drama.
Heading into a week that normally features pens going to predictable places, four of the top five prospects in the espnW HoopGurlz Top 100 and six of the top 10 remain undeclared.
So while we wait to find out where No. 1 Megan Walker, No. 2 Evina Westbrook, No. 3 Rellah Boothe, No. 5 Sidney Cooks, No. 6 Chennedy Carter and No. 10 Michaela Onyenwere are mailing their letters, we present you with 26 of our own, A to Z:
A: ACC. Starting with Louisville at No. 1, six of the top 20 recruiting classes heading into the early signing period are in the ACC. Following the Cardinals are Syracuse at No. 6, Duke (8), Miami (15), Georgia Tech (18) and Notre Dame (19). The Pac-12 and SEC are tied for second with five each in the top 20.
B: Baylor. One of just two Big 12 teams ranked in the top 20, the Bears are following up an outstanding 2016 recruiting class with another gem in 2017. Coach Kim Mulkey has verbals from four players, including three in the top 100. Deauzya Richards, a 6-1 guard ranked 16th; Alexis Morris, a 5-6 point guard ranked 18th; and Cara Ursin, a 5-6 point guard ranked 64th, are expected to sign national letters of intent this week.
C: Chasity Patterson. Texas has dibs on the lone player in the top five who has announced her destination. "Chaz" Patterson, a 5-6 point guard and the No. 4 prospect in the country, is simply electric. She's got a quick release and long range. If that sounds like a dangerous combination, it's because it is. As a junior at North Shore (Houston), Patterson averaged 24.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 5.2 steals per game.
D: Since we've set up the drama up top, we'll slide Duke -- and dang! -- into this spot. As in "Dang, what a class, Duke!" The Blue Devils are expected to get four national letters of intent this week from four VIPs. The first is Jade Williams, a 6-4 forward, the No. 13 prospect in the class and a bronze medalist with Team USA in 2015. Next up is Mikayla Boykin, a 5-9 guard who could be ranked higher than 20th if not for two knee injuries. Then there's Madison Treece, a 6-3 post player who gets things done in the paint. Finally, there's Jayda Adams, a former teammate of UConn sophomore Katie Lou Samuelson's and the current sister of USC senior Jordan Adams. If you're looking for coach Joanne P. McCallie, she'll be camped out by the mailbox.
E: Evina Westbrook. Who's it going to be? The No. 2 prospect in the nation lists her finalists as Maryland, Notre Dame, Oregon State, USC and Tennessee. Westbrook is keeping us in suspense for the first day of the early signing period. She is scheduled to announce her decision Thursday. Here's what we know: The 6-foot guard from South Salem (Oregon) has a sweet shot and uncanny court awareness. Somebody is going to be celebrating come Thursday. Big time.
F: Foreign flavor. And there's a lot. Starting with Chantel Horvat, a 6-1 guard from Australia and the No. 15 prospect in the class, who is headed to sunny UCLA. There are four other international players ranked among the top 50 prospects: Digna Strautmane (Syracuse), Julia Reisigerova (undeclared), Hailey Brown (Michigan) and Louise Forsyth (Gonzaga).
G: Gamecocks. Coach Dawn Staley's Gamecocks are residing right near the top of all the preseason polls. Ditto for her 2017 recruiting class. It's all led by Elisia Grissett, a 6-1 wing ranked 24th in the nation. Trust us when we tell you that you're going to get to know the outgoing Grissett, who prefers to go by "LeLe." Also headed the Gamecocks' way are LaDazhia Williams, a 6-2 forward ranked 47th; Bianca Jackson, a 5-11 wing ranked 54th; and three-star guard Haley Troup.
H: Huskies. Connecticut already gets an A for its 2017 class. But an A-plus is still a possibility because the Huskies are on the short list for No. 1 Megan Walker. With a class that already includes Mikayla Coombs, a 5-foot-10 guard ranked 14th; Lexi Gordon, a 5-11 wing ranked 29th; and Andra Espinoza-Hunter, a 5-10 guard ranked 37th; the addition of a No. 1 would be truly epic.
I: Irish. Speaking of epic ... Notre Dame is the only team that is still in the running for both No. 1 Megan Walker and No. 2 Evina Westbrook. Coach Muffet McGraw already is expecting letters from No. 30 Danielle Patterson and No. 90 Mikayla Vaughn. If a couple of surprises make their way to her mailbox? Let's just say there would be a whole lot of jigging going on in South Bend.
J: Jackrabbits. We're talking the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits, who have a trio of Top 100 recruits who could seal envelopes this week. Ayanna Clark, ranked 17th, has given a verbal to USC. Danae Miller, ranked 87th, is expected to sign with UC Santa Barbara. Jasmine Jones, ranked 50th, remains undeclared. Long Beach Poly isn't the only high school team with multiple Top 100 players signing this week. St. Francis (Alpharetta, Georgia) has Maya Dodson penning a letter to Stanford and Kasiyahna Kushkituah writing to Tennessee. Also, Miami Country Day stars Channise Lewis (Illinois) and Kelsey Marshall (undeclared) could be doing some higher education communication this week as well.
K: Konawaena. Yup, we're taking you all the way to beautiful Hawaii. Why? It's where Celena Molina resides. She's a 5-9 three-star guard who is expected to sign with Washington State this week. Her big sister, Chanelle Molina, did pretty much the exact same thing at the exact same time a year ago. And -- who knows? -- it could be same time, same place with baby sister Cherilyn Molina next year.
L: Louisville. Leading. Lindsey. Loretta. And Dana? OK, so the "L" theme kind of falls apart there at the end. The point is, Jeff Walz has struck again. The Cardinals coach has the No. 1 recruiting class heading into the early signing period. Lindsey Duvall, a 5-9 guard and the No. 22 prospect, is a big part of that. As is Loretta Kakala, a 6-3 post player ranked 25th. And then there's Dana Evans, the 5-6 point guard and one of just four top-10 prospects who has declared.
M: Megan Walker. Consider this our drum roll: Last year's No. 1 prospect, Lauren Cox, is about to debut at Baylor. The year before that it was Katie Lou Samuelson signing with UConn. In 2014 A'ja Wilson waited until the spring to sign with South Carolina. In 2013, it was Mercedes Russell signing with Tennessee. Where will this year's top pick land? Her finalists are Connecticut, Notre Dame and Texas. The 6-1 guard and premier prospect in the class is scheduled to explain her decision Thursday at 6 p.m. on ESPNU.
N: None. The wait-to-decide epidemic is not just affecting the top 10. There's a whole of "Nones" in the "College" column in the espnW HoopGurlz Top 100. In all, 18 players have yet to declare. For those who aren't math majors, that's 18 percent of the class that has yet to announce a decision. Is that a trend we see? Hate to state the obvious (again), but only time will tell.
O: Oregon State. Could it be the age of the Beavers? Oregon State made its debut trip to the Final Four a year ago and landed arguably the best recruiting class in school history soon thereafter. And the good news doesn't end there. Coach Scott Rueck has landed two Top 100 recruits -- No. 27 Taya Corosdale and No. 63 Aleah Goodman -- and is in the running for a third, in-state superstar Evina Westbrook.
P: If it weren't for three pesky letters -- ACC -- we could be talking about the best recruiting season out West. Stanford goes into the early signing period with the second-best class in the country. UCLA is ranked ninth, USC 11th, California 12th and Oregon State 13th. An honorable mention goes to Arizona, which falls just outside the top 20 but features an incredible five-player class.
Q: Quentin Hillsman. This Q is on fire. Hillsman, who guided Syracuse to a runner-up finish a year ago, is expecting his mailbox to be full of good news this week. Digna Strautmane, a versatile and agile 6-foot-2 forward who is ranked 23rd, is expected to send a letter postmarked from Latvia. Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi, a three-star 6-2 forward, is sending hers from France. Approximately 3,000 miles closer to home, Amaya Finklea-Guity, a 6-4 post player who is ranked 42nd, also is expected to sign with Syracuse. Keeping the theme of Hillsman's global domination, Nikki Oppenheimer, a 5-9 point guard from Illinois who represented Puerto Rico over the summer at the FIBA Americas U18 championships, also is expected to sign with Orange ink.
R: Really, really good Rellah Boothe. She's the No. 3 prospect, a USA Basketball gold medalist, and she's undeclared. The 6-1 forward with jaw-dropping talent plans to choose Friday night. It's apparently down to Florida, LSU, Texas and Ohio State. Think a few folks are holding their breath? No need to answer that.
S: Sidney Cooks. The No. 5 prospect in the country intends to announce her decision a bit later in the signing period. The 6-4 forward from Saint Joseph Academy (Kenosha, Wisconsin) apparently is thinking Big Ten or Pac-12. Her finalists are Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Wisconsin and UCLA.
T: Tennessee class. Ta-da! A year after getting shut out in the early signing period, Tennessee is back among the best. A lot of that is thanks to in-state superstar Anastasia Hayes of Riverdale (Murfreesboro, Tennessee), who is expected to sign with the Lady Vols this week. Coach Holly Warlick also will be awaiting official word(s) from Kasiyahna Kushkituah, the No. 55 prospect who has verbally committed to the Lady Vols. No. 2 Evina Westbrook, No. 10 Michaela Onyenwere and No. 21 Rennia Davis have Tennessee listed among their finalists.
U: UCLA: Coach Cori Close landed the top class in the country in 2014. Could she pull off an encore? She's got a chance. Her three-player class, featuring two players in the Top 100, already is ranked in the top 10. But when you consider that No. 5 Sidney Cooks and No. 10 Michaela Onyenwere are both considering the Bruins, well ...
V: VanDerveer. How sweet it is for coach Tara VanDerveer and Stanford. The Cardinal's four-player class includes three Top 100 recruits. Point guard Kiana Williams is ranked eighth. Wing Maya Dodson is ranked 11th. Wing Estella Moschkau is ranked 44th. Forward Alyssa Jerome is a three-star prospect. Even somebody who isn't a member of Nerd Nation can see that adds up to all kinds of impressive.
W: Where's Waldo? Make that, where's the Big Ten? A year after Maryland landed the top class in the country, you won't find any Big Ten teams ranked in the top 20 recruiting classes heading into the week. That's not to say there aren't some big-time stars headed that way -- Canadian standout Hailey Brown is expected to sign with Michigan, Jaelynn Penn is headed to Indiana and Taylor Kissinger is staying put in Nebraska -- but no team has the depth required to make the top-20 cut. Of course, the ink is far from dry. Maryland is in the running for Evina Westbrook and Ohio State is a finalist for Rellah Boothe. Sidney Cooks could wind up at Purdue, Wisconsin or either one of the Michigans.
X: X factor. And not just because we're suffering from a shortage of the 24th letter. Cross our hearts. Dorie Harrison has the power to truly turn the tide at Kentucky, which suffered from a rash of departures a season ago. The 6-3 post player from Nashville, Tennessee, who has battled through injuries, has both the skill and the pedigree to shine in the SEC. Her sister, Isabelle Harrison, was a standout at Tennessee. Her brother, David Harrison, had a four-year career in the NBA.
Y: Yellow Jackets. MaChelle Joseph is at it again at Georgia Tech. The winningest coach in Georgia Tech women's basketball history had a winning season on the recruiting trail, landing two Top 100 prospects -- No. 51 Kierra Fletcher, a 5-9 guard; and No. 56 Daijah Jefferson, a 6-2 forward.
Z: Zags. Coach Lisa Fortier and Gonzaga are rubbing elbows with some bigwigs on the recruiting trail. The class, firmly among the top 20 in the country, includes two Top 100 prospects in 6-foot Canadian guard Louise Forsyth, who is ranked 48th, and 5-11 guard Jill Townsend, ranked 97th. Twin sisters Jenn Wirth and LeeAnne Wirth, three-star forwards, also are heading Gonzaga's way.