Great question ... so from my perspective, first, is that blue-chip middle-schoolers don't wind up at certain high schools by accident. "Recruiting" might be too strong a word -- or it might not -- but certainly "encouragement" and "helping players explore their options" are in the ballpark.
In my experience, one major factor in where girls go to high school (and they almost always have a choice if they "explore their options") is where their friends are going to high school. And most girls have a pretty good idea of where that will be by the fall of their eighth grade year. The reason? In part, it's because private school applications are due in the fall, and public school transfer processes also require advance planning. And perhaps more important, it's a big topic of conversation among eighth graders and consensus among groups start to emerge.
So what that means is that "encouragement" for the incoming class of 2019-20 needs to already have occurred for the talent pipeline to continue flowing for any school. The key encouragement for a serious high school program right now is with seventh graders for the 2020-21 school year.
Last year's Carondelet JV team was not a powerhouse. I have no idea if there are incoming freshmen who will make this year's JV team strong, but my guess is no, simply because it never appeared that encouragement of middle schoolers was a high priority for the previous staff (though I could be wrong, of course). It's possible, of course, that a horde of talented eighth graders are on track for enrollment in 2019-20, but given what happened at the end of last season, that seems less likely than in the past.
But what's worse for Carondelet, in my opinion, is that the long delay in hiring a coach means that encouragement for this year's seventh graders has not taken place, so that the likelihood of a talent surge in 2020-21 seems low.
Of course, I could be completely wrong about Carondelet's incoming freshmen and their future classes, as I don't really keep up with the club scene, but what I have learned over the years is that talented girls seldom just appear on campus. After all, there's a lot of money at stake for those girls (a college scholarship is worth $250,000 or so) so parents tend to think seriously about the various options -- and just going with the flow to the neighborhood school isn't always the best way to guarantee that scholarship.
Finally (apologies for the long post), it well could be that the Carondelet administration is less concerned with the quality of their girls' basketball program than we are on this board, and has set priorities in other areas. That's just another on the list of unknowns, but it appears to me, from the outside knowing nothing specific, that after this season, it may be a while before Carondelet is a NorCal power again.
