mickey one

Sharnecce's new team values her highly. Murray State had a lot of success last year and got into the NCAA tournament. Hopefully, Sharnecce can keep them on this winning path: https://goracers.com/news/2025/4/7/womens-basketball-currie-jelks-joins-racers-for-2025-26

Would she start at all of those places?

One other thing on English: don't know if you remember, but Garzon freshman year was VERY awkward and afraid to speak in English. By this year, she was very confident. Nothing like "immersion learning" for a foreign language!

I remember, but that was the beginning of last year. Some of these Europeans can really pick up English. Don't know if you remember, like Uwe Blab or Matt Haarms (at Purdue). Their English was SO incredibly good. Anyway, I just like Valentyna's game, and would like to see her get some major minutes. If she screwed up, ok, back to the bench. There were times last year where Cieski looked less than stellar . . . but she was the starter, and that wasn't going to budge. CTM can be stubborn and inflexible. Great when it works . . .. but last year was a bit of an off year, and maybe a time to experiment. Coming year will be even more like that.

+ I like her game. She has come in and shown that she can go to the hoop. CTM said she was good on offense. Can't she learn defense? She is a good athlete.

She majors in Game Design. That is like Rocket Science, compared with some of these majors like "Exercise Science" or "Recreation". By this point, she probably knows more English vocab than your average US student!

Did she leave the program or something? I agree she always seemed to have a lot of potential, but never saw the court. Could not understand why CTM did not play her more. Or at least challenge her with some major exposure.

saw post on Reddit, claiming that Lilly Meister had visited Creighton; posted 5 days ago.

I do not understand some of these statements from people who are transferring: "I would like to thank the coaches and my teammates and the fans for a wonderful experience I will never forget . . . but I decided to continue my journey elsewhere". It's like a script they are following that is available online somewhere (if you were a teacher these days, you would suspect plagiarism, and demand footnotes). It seems there would be some REASON or NOTE OF DISCONTENT, but they rarely, if ever, say it (for instance, "I didn't get enough PT" or "the coach doesn't know what he/she is doing" or "we lost 30 in a row and that was enough"). More candor and honesty would be nice, rather than being left to guess or deduce (sometimes it's obvious; other times it is not). Heck, we are not sure why OUR people are leaving! In a way, I respect the people who make NO statement. Just saying . . . Whatever their reason for moving, I hope IU can round up a few 6'2" bigs, with a proven record. How about Ashley Sofilkanich from Bucknell. We are recruiting her little sister out of HS. Ashley has a proven record and has been unstoppable, albeit in mid-major territory. Just the kind of player who would not be chasing NIL bucks, and could make a big difference at IU.

I don't know about "great". It was their decision to make . . . but not a good day for IU. If she had gone to Iowa State, or Oklahoma, or Florida, that would be one thing . . . . you could even half-way root for her.

Last year WAS a vote of no confidence in a number of the bench players. Cieski & Striplin came in and played ahead of them. And there was the prospect for coming year that this would happen again, i.e. two or more transfers coming in, and playing ahead of them again. So . . . why not transfer? Now it is up to CTM to "deliver" and get worthy portal players, who can play at a high level. Maybe easier said than done.

We have not forgotten you, Nevaeh. Big potential here, and wide open PT next year.

who is B.F.? re a phone call, who is MM? Guys, go light on the initials.

Yeah, why not? Wasn't Zach Edey a 3-star recruit? Peyton Manning vs. Ryan Leaf. It goes on. Some people step up and improve, and others don't.

We look forward to you participating.

No doubt. Just hoping for a "sleeper" who surprises everyone (in her last game at Arkansas, didn't Phoenix get 23 points and hit five 3's against Texas A&M?). IU brought in 2 European players in Garzon & Sandvik. Garzon ends up all-Big 10 and best 3-point shooter ever . . . and Sandvik barely gets PT, and transfers. Who would have bet $1,000 on that outcome?

Phoenix: I have one request. After you become the new Juju Watkins, and make 1st team All-Big Ten, and lead the Hoosiers to the Final Four, do NOT transfer to Maryland. Thank you. We all love you.

You never know about highlight reels, which can make anyone look like a superstar, but she seems to have outstanding athletic ability, long-distance shooting, and great timing:

All IU fans must feel a bit bewildered that Garzon can be so clueless and/or ruthless to go to a big rival. However, the main victim would be CTM, who always wanted to elevate Garzon into the next Michael Jordan or something. Garzon was a good passer and 3-point shooter (obviously), but CTM had a vision of her posting up, and going to the hoop, etc., which frequently seemed to have little relationship with reality.

Talia Goodman says Phoenix Stotijn to IU.

UConn has amazing team esprit de corp, but Paige Bueckers supposedly has about $1.4 m. in NIL money (this year?), and some comment was made on TV at the finals, that she asked Geno for advice on how to invest her money. Do all of them at UConn get NIL money like that? Wouldn't it be destructive of team spirit to have 1 or 2 players with "big time NIL" and others get nothing or little? What if one player is driving a BMW, and the rest of the players cannot even afford cars? What happens if you get big-time NIL money and then have an off year. Shouldn't the team rightfully cut the NIL money? Last of all, is there a "contract length" (like the pro's) where the NIL goes for a set term, and then is renegotiated? If a player has a great NIL contract, would they care if they don't "produce"? Re the "student-athlete thing", if a player is getting $1.5 m. in NIL, isn't it somewhat ridiculous that this person would have to go to classes and get passing grades? At $1.5 m. NIL, some players will make more than the head coach.

Why wouldn't the coach agree to use NIL?

Depressing. Whole new round of being drubbed in the recruiting race. Whatever Maryland is doing, IU needs to do that. At press conference after crushing UCLA, Geno quoted Hank Stram: "in order to win it all, you have to have it all". Means you have to have great players, throughout the roster.

Where do marginal players land (or do they)? Will Sandvik, Bargesser, Meister, et al. get offers? From like Murray State? Would they want to play there? Ava Learn was a big success there (or Jordyn Poole to Dayton), but are most B10 players willing to move to that level?

50 schools supposedly interested, including UConn: https://www.themirror.com/sport/basketball/yuting-deng-auburn-college-basketball-1072625 UConn fans are skeptical: https://the-boneyard.com/threads/yuting-deng.206936/ Since when is Kentucky regarded as women's basketball elite? Tied for 4th in SEC last year.