NatHillIV

This whole NIL thing would be funny if it weren't so sad.

That is REALLY sad. Are those figures accurate I wonder? How many free college degrees have been tossed away by kids getting bad advice from parents/friends/"agents"? Are two thirds of those transfer kids (including Sandvik) really left in the lurch ? Unbelievable.

I guess I'm an old grump, but I can't get excited about a girl looking for happiness at her third different school in 3 years who bails on the last possible day of the transfer portal window.

I feel certain you guys have watched the incoming transfers more closely than I have. I don't really have any idea who the starting lineup will be. In my mind, the only absolute sure starter is Cizeki. I am pulling for Spreen and Faith, because I'm an Indiana "homer" and not ashamed to admit it. They're both here because they WANT to wear candy stripes. Chloe and Syd are the starters for both Little 500s. I'm personally happy about that!

That would be AWESOME !!!

What an amazing group of IU Women's basketball contributors this forum features. Realistic, even optimistic, while showing support for the IU coach. Perhaps the IU men's team fans should learn something from this bunch :)

Hard to replace Chloe, Syd, Strip, and now Garzon with one returning starter and some clearly highly talented transfers. Time will tell !

" Socka-Ngueman picked UCLA over Indiana, Tennessee, and Michigan in October 2023. She was ranked No. 26 in the ESPN Top 100 for the Class of 2024, which would’ve made her one of IU’s highest-ranked commits in program history. She ranked higher than both Grace Berger (No. 44, 2018) and Mackenzie Holmes (No. 53, 2019)." NO idea if this is accurate, but I hope it is. And once again we see, when a team recruits somebody, you must KEEP RECRUITING them.

Well, that certainly shines a different light on things, doesn't it?

ESPN says Yardon Garzon is the #5 transfer in the entire women's basketball portal. https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/44575312/women-ncaa-basketball-transfer-portal-player-rankings-2025-26-season Not sure how that makes me feel.

The "student-athlete' model is totally broken. We now have professional sports with no rules. Winning has simply become a matter of which schools can convince enough rich alumni to kick in NIL dollars. I will continue to support IU Women's basketball, simply because I always have, and the girls appreciate support way more than the men's teams do. I will also support next year's IU basketball team because they will have so many Indiana high school stalwarts ready, willing, and able to wear candy stripes. But talking about final 4s and such nonsense for IU has now become a waste of time unless and until we get some rich dude or dudes willing to kick in millions of dollars to hire mercenaries to win ball games. I HATE what has happened to college sports. Thanks NCAA. Well done! Rant over.....

Great insight. Makes PERFECT sense. This whole transfer thing is making things crazy for coaches and fans.

Thanks ‼️. I'm 77

Maybe that sort of comment is why she's moving on? Can't say I blame her.

I'm glad Phoenix Stotijin committed to IU. She will be a sophomore, and with her international experience she should help us. While her Arkansas stats are not great (31.7% fg, 26% 3s, 52.4% ft). she got better towards the end of the season, and ended up as a starter. She's 5'9" tall. I will never understand this mass exodus. Simply beyond me. Surely somebody knows what happened. I certainly don't. I'm not an Instagram expert, and I'm not sure if you have to be a subscriber or not to view these. Click through these Instagram memories/photos. Do these look like girls who could not wait to get out of here? https://www.instagram.com/p/DHtMgSDudIX/?img_index=9 https://www.instagram.com/p/DH2K2AoxkU3/?img_index=20 Yardon to Maryland. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse..... I hope we play them there. Can't stand to see her play for Maryland after all IU did for her when she was here.

Pretty sure Keyanna Warthen, who played 4 years at IU, then transferred to SMU, signed the board. She is now an assistant coach, which seems odd to me. I really liked her as a player, and felt bad when she left after her 4 years at IU. I need to learn that it's the new normal.

I'm very happy Spreen is here. I know she's not elite enough for many of you. Right now, for me, it's nice to have a player who clearly WANTS to be a Hoosier and to play basketball for the school 20 miles from her home. She has something to prove to the coaches who gave up on her after offering her a scholarship as a youngster.

Agree with what you have written above. Lilly Meister MIGHT land somewhere with a deal of some sort. How this mass exodus all came down is certainly a very well kept secret, at least to me. I simply don't understand it.

I see. I misread your post. NO MORE than her top five list. I somehow managed to change that into "not on her top five list." My bad. We need some "good but not elite players." I fear we will need warm bodies, unfortunately. Elite would be great , but hate to see us end up with nine players to start the season. Take Spreen. She WANTS to play here, and will bring a boat load of BNL fans. Maybe not "elite,' but so what? :)

Where did you see that? Twitter from 23 hours ago has us at #1.

I think Madison Layden's fourth year was 2023-2024. She took a year off, now coming back to play with her sister. https://purduesports.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/madison-laydenzay/14407

Here's what little I know. Yardon has obviously been offered a substantial sum of money to play somewhere else. If you're a Junior in college with a twin sister fighting against Hamas, a family living under a constant threat, and you're offered a bunch of money, what would YOU DO? Easy for us to judge Yardon from the comfort of our easy chair, because we've never been in a situation remotely resembling hers, I wish her well, whatever she decides.

I hope some of the girls who entered the portal decide to come back. At this point, IU needs warm bodies. Down to 5 returning, right? Gino Auriemma is right. Time to rethink the whole college "student-athlete" sports situation. I do NOT blame Garzon. She has a twin sister fighting in the army, and her family and her country can use the money. I would guess (bet?) it's strictly about the money. I feel sorry for her. She very seldom smiles, and IU is one place she seems to find some joy. I hope she and a few others decide to stay.

Played for Indiana Elite. She is reportedly 6' 6" tall. Very hard to push around in the post. Led 1-15 (Big 10) Penn State in points, rebounds, and blocks. Freshmen at Bellarmine, soph at PSU. This is the new normal. I personally will miss Lilly and don't like the new normal. But that's for sure how it is.

Great article. Coach Box was really good here, and like many IU assistants before him, has landed as a head coach. That list is quite long. He's spot on in the article. The Wild West is perhaps too tame a term for the craziness of NCAA basketball now. I look for a whole bunch of small mid-major schools to simply quit Division 1 and drop back to lower divisions. Can't compete. Rich programs and their grossly overpaid coaches will do great. The rest will suffer. And I agree that Teri needs to sub more freely, especially in early season when IU is pounding people. Hard to get better sitting on the bench watching the starters totally dominate. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/cotie-mcmahon-has-made-demands-as-ohio-state-star-linked-with-lsu-transfer/ar-AA1BLGEQ?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=4dd2908b82d341ea8c2a891a4908a3e2&ei=9