mickey one

https://hawkeyeswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/hawkeyes/womens-basketball/2025/04/29/iowa-womens-basketball-targets-transfer-portal-ucf-emely-rodriguez/83351931007/ Had offers from UConn, South Carolina, Florida State, and UCF . . . and chose UCF . . . and is all-rookie team in Big 12, and pursued by Iowa, IU, & Oklahoma. Girl looks smart to me.

QUESTION: in this age of the TRANSFER PORTAL, where 1/3 of all players are on the move at the end of each season: instead of going from high school to a Power 5 school, and risk being stuck on the bench (+ some coaches will not play freshmen), wouldn't a better strategy be to go to a mid-major or lower grade university, distinguish yourself there, and THEN move up to a "Power 5" conference, if you have shown yourself to be good enough? Case in point: Emely Rodriguez goes to a sub-par team (UCF), does exceptionally well, picked to All-Rookie team in Big 12, and now she is in demand. I hope IU gets her. At the other end, Faith Wiseman is well-regarded in HS, pursued by IU, Iowa, Maryland, and she sits on the bench freshman year at IU--almost no PT. Even the fans almost forget that she is there. Wouldn't she have been better off going to UCF or Miami (Ohio) or a Mountain West or A-10 team, get rookie of the year, all-conference, and THEN you have all kinds of experience, and people want you. There are a whole bunch of examples of this in the portal this year. I suppose the "danger" is that you will not be great in the A-10 and get "stuck" there, but if you weren't going to be great in the A-10, then you probably were not going to be great in the Big 10 or SEC either. I know there are slogans like "challenge yourself" or "be all that you can be", but that's hard when you do not get into the game, and develop through challenge and adversity. Maybe we need a new "paradigm" for success and player development, driven by the transfer portal (which is here to stay, like it or not)? What do you think?

Not sure what the over-under means. 12 is plenty--this may be a "wait and see" year, unless Zania steps up to dominate, and IU plays its usual cohesive team play. Going forward, maybe Colsten Thompson will make IU competitive for the top 20 type players--add that to CTM coaching, and IU should challenge to win Big 10.

Looks like a good choice for her. She could really get in there and hustle, but didn't get a chance to play much at IU. At Wyoming, she will hopefully have a central role, and I think she will do well. Same conference as Lex.

Agree. Also, at a certain point, I like to think that we need to trust the people we have, and give them a chance . . . rather than initiating some kind of merciless and ongoing "survival of the fittest" where you bring in more and more talent, knowing that in the process some very good people are not going to get a chance and will end up on the bench.

You've got Faith Wiseman and Sydney Fenn.

She had a nice interview:

Zania Noyan Caffey Shay Phoenix ??--Is Wiseman going to step up? Can Makalusky be the reincarnation of Sydney Parrish? If so, they play a lot. Need a bigger lineup option. Don't know about Beaumont--she's kind of untested.

???

Don't expect her to be a 3-point shooting ace, and she can run the CSU offense pretty well. Good defender. Confident ball handler. I think her choice of a Mountain West team was a good one--fresh start, and a chance to shine.

Hard to judge talent in this portal business, or in recruiting in general. You have to figure out which ones are REALLY going to thrive at the next level (not a certainty), and, also, it's about putting together a TEAM . . . something that CTM has excelled at. The potential is there, if some people step up. Going from the shock of mass exodus, to the feeling that next year's team could be an improvement has been an interesting journey over the past few weeks.

Edessa Noyan highlights: https://www.facebook.com/UVAWomensHoops/videos/edessa-noyan-highlights-vs-north-carolina/1391592455081422/ https://www.instagram.com/uvawomenshoops/reel/C7hQ5uWOrhh/ https://www.support-by-report.nl/stories/2011829_edessa-noyan-shows-her-talent-and-determination

GCU overachieved big time last year, and their coach moved to Arizona State. Their NEW coach is an up and comer from South Carolina . . . so it should be exciting at GCU for Jules. She should have the PT to show what she can do.

If Williams goes to UConn, Ayanna Patterson and several others are most likely history.

I think she is ethnic Turkish (or as they write now "Turkiye"). Turkiye and the Balkans, they play some decent basketball down there.

Looks like she can be a force, with the proper coaching.

Anything else in the works?

Laura Ziegler? https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=44182313

Any word on Laura Ziegler? I'm afraid to ask, for fear that it turns out she's going to Iowa or Ohio State. Ziegler could solve a lot of our problems.

It would be easier to root for her, if she were at Iowa State . . . or Clemson . . .or UNC. At least she didn't go to Purdue, right?

Agree. CTM was kind of a miracle worker in that respect . . . which is why you hope she could do the same thing for a Phoenix Stotijn or Valentyna Kadlecova or (is she still on the board?) Laura Ziegler (from Denmark/St. Joe's). If you can't win all the conventional recruiting battles, then look for sleepers or Luka or Nikola-type players, whom everyone else overlooked.

Give that talent to CTM.

And, by the way, Geno Auriemma himself says it is broken. It has become about money, but people won't admit it. He said: "you don't fly 3,000 miles for a conference game if it is not about money."

Agree 100%. There needs to be a "salary cap" and NIL figures should be published. In the "old days", if an alum supporter bought a car for or made payments to a prospect, that was totally verboten. NOW, it is the way things are done, but it's hidden from the public. System broken. Needs to be fixed.

Good for her. A real talent, and doesn't even start (neither does Joyce Edwards, who was All-SEC)! That South Carolina situation is nuts--stockpiling talent to make up for Dawn Staley's average coaching, and they still can't get it done.