NCAA Women's Bball Transfer Portal

[TTT]

Excellent news for IU Ladies.  Phoenix Stotijin is excellent.

[ronzo4IU]

On 4/5/2025 at 8:51 PM, Aaron said:

I have info on both NIL and Yarden via a couple things I have heard and putting some puzzle pieces together.

I would advise everyone to not get their hopes up over big names in portal. IU is low on NIL and doesn't have enough cash to get the top players.

Good news is Moren finally gets it and that her culture won't override NIL as she assumed for so long. Ironically Brenda Frese had this same issue at Maryland a couple of years ago and assumed her years of winning were enough, but now adjusted and getting biggest names in portal and has healthy NIL for Merkle and other stars she has grabbed recently. 

IU is behind in fundraising but going all in for donations now to program. Will use next season finally to up fundraising and NIL and would expect a bunch of huge names for 2026-2027 after there has been time to fundraise. Moren had to learn for herself as is human nature that no matter how good your culture is, money is needed today. Alarm bells were sounded to her midseason but she said she was fine and was afraid to ask for help. 

Unlike Woodson though at least she is willing to adjust and final presser was her more or less admitting that. However, will take time to catch up on amounts and get top players in again. This has a great chance to be a redemption story similar to Frese but could well be a rough season in the interim.

As for Yarden, plenty in Jewish Community offered NIL to keep her but she was 'unbuyable' here. She saw situation for 2025-2026 was going to be rough and wants to move on to win a title and not struggle on a mediocre team her senior season. Whole situation here with Yarden is one of the reasons and catalysts Moren finally saw that her culture won't override NIL.

This will take time to build up similar to men but will be a bit slower since getting needed NIL for women as harder to snap fingers.   

So, no one in charge could foresee that the women were going to need NIL in this era?  Top-tier recruits were going to flock to IU like they’ve never done before because of culture? If true, that seems incredibly out of touch.

[Aaron]

37 minutes ago, ronzo4IU said:

So, no one in charge could foresee that the women were going to need NIL in this era?  Top-tier recruits were going to flock to IU like they’ve never done before because of culture? If true, that seems incredibly out of touch.

I would say it’s relatively accurate to say Moren was out of touch with modern game and NIL until very recently.

At least unlike Woodson though she seems willing to change and Stotijn pickup is biggest evidence of this so far in a couple ways. Shows Moren wants to get bigger and more athletic as she talked about and also NIL situation is slowly improving that they were able to secure a player of this level.

[TTT]

There are some pretty good bigs in the portal and some 6’3’ or 6’4” would be as good or could be improvement over last year.  = 2 players desired 

6’ 1” and/or 6’2”  high quality needed = 2 players needed 

and still not sure a transfer portal player doesn’t withdraw name = 1player

(hopefully not so thin/lean that injury or re injury  which has been problem in the past years really has negative impact)

[ronzo4IU]

6 hours ago, Aaron said:

I would say it’s relatively accurate to say Moren was out of touch with modern game and NIL until very recently.

At least unlike Woodson though she seems willing to change and Stotijn pickup is biggest evidence of this so far in a couple ways. Shows Moren wants to get bigger and more athletic as she talked about and also NIL situation is slowly improving that they were able to secure a player of this level.

That’s really unfortunate because now we’re behind the eight ball instead of riding the wave of the past couple seasons when fans were packing the stadium. Now we’ve taken several steps backwards. Hopefully a donor can throw some money into the women’s program and at least snag a couple quality Bigs.. Hopefully Terry can work some magic this off-season…. She’s going to need it.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Sad day in Hoosier land

 

[NatHillIV]

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.

Edited April 7 by NatHillIV
Yardon news popped up when I was typing.

[CSP]

I hope they boo the hell out of Yarden. Not sure we play Maryland at home. 

[TheWatShot]

So we let Maryland out-bid us for our best returning player...cool. 

[TheWatShot]

11 minutes ago, NatHillIV said:

 

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

 

I think the Mackenzie Holmes era went to Coach Moren's head and she thought she could win with anybody. Hence we end up with a bench full of players who simply weren't playable at this level.

 

Just two years removed from our best season ever, we're now completely rebuilding and let a conference rival poach our best returner. Disappointing. 

[LamarCheeks]

 

1 minute ago, TheWatShot said:

So we let Maryland out-bid us for our best returning player...cool. 

According to what someone wrote on here, IU stepped up with a good offer to keep her. She apparently just had it in her head and heart to leave. Her cohorts -- Mack, Syd, CMM, Meister -- are all gone, we're looking at a bit if a rebuild and she didn't want to be a part of that for her senior year. 

I thought it would have been a perfect opportunity for her to become the face of the program -- the team leader if you will. But perhaps she's more follower than leader. 

Kinda disappointing she had to pick Maryland, though. Something about Brenda Frese just bugs me. 

[GloryDays]

8 minutes ago, TheWatShot said:

So we let Maryland out-bid us for our best returning player...cool. 

Well,the bright side is she should be an easy scout.This whole situation is dumbfounding to me.I guess our womens NIL sucks.

[Aaron]

15 minutes ago, TheWatShot said:

So we let Maryland out-bid us for our best returning player...cool. 

Nope. I will explain below in a few min what happened.

[Aaron]

10 minutes ago, TheWatShot said:

I think the Mackenzie Holmes era went to Coach Moren's head and she thought she could win with anybody. Hence we end up with a bench full of players who simply weren't playable at this level.

 

Just two years removed from our best season ever, we're now completely rebuilding and let a conference rival poach our best returner. Disappointing. 

You are not totally wrong here. Adjustments coming from her though it seems. See below in a few min.

[8bucks]

5 minutes ago, LamarCheeks said:

 

According to what someone wrote on here, IU stepped up with a good offer to keep her. She apparently just had it in her head and heart to leave. Her cohorts -- Mack, Syd, CMM, Meister -- are all gone, we're looking at a bit if a rebuild and she didn't want to be a part of that for her senior year. 

I thought it would have been a perfect opportunity for her to become the face of the program -- the team leader if you will. But perhaps she's more follower than leader. 

Kinda disappointing she had to pick Maryland, though. Something about Brenda Frese just bugs me. 

I can't help but wonder if the reported email from MM and the subsequent non-response/punishment for that neutered any goodwill gained from the staff's support.  I recall that Moren wanted her to play to her size advantage more and work inside more was creating a role here that differed from the role Maryland offered.  Also a bit saddened that we have not been able to utilize the portal to restack things here.  2023/24 was a great year but we took a step back this year.  If we take another step back next year Moren might start to lose a lot of momentum.

[Aaron]

19 minutes ago, Certified Sunshine Pumper said:

I hope they boo the hell out of Yarden. Not sure we play Maryland at home. 

No IU home game vs. Maryland this year.

[Aaron]

Just now, 8bucks said:

I can't help but wonder if the reported email from MM and the subsequent non-response/punishment for that neutered any goodwill gained from the staff's support.  I recall that Moren wanted her to play to her size advantage more and work inside more was creating a role here that differed from the role Maryland offered.  Also a bit saddened that we have not been able to utilize the portal to restack things here.  2023/24 was a great year but we took a step back this year.  If we take another step back next year Moren might start to lose a lot of momentum.

Not related to emails. See below in a few min.

[Aaron]

6 minutes ago, GloryDays said:

Well,the bright side is she should be an easy scout.This whole situation is dumbfounding to me.I guess our womens NIL sucks.

It has for a long time thanks to Moren but that sounds like it is about to change. See below in a few min.

[TTT]

If Gracie Merkle would have committed to IU…would have Garzon withdrawn from portal and returned to IU?  
From Garzon view….this is a home run.  She will have much more help going towards her playing strengths (not being made to shoulder so much work load out of her comfort zone….allowing her to play more confident and comfortable in her zone because of more talented physical help around her) of just how good she can be….Brenda F. is the best coach she could have gotten.

And just like that….The ground gained when IU was finally able to beat Maryland has been lost.

(T. Moren is accustomed to old school Bob Knight techniques in developing players to fit her model….overall philosophy and ways she has tried to develop players depending on team needs vs regardless of player strengths resulting in taking less talented players/recruits and modifying their game to fit team needs.  Elite players want their talent strengthened to be multiplied….not so changed to make up for recruiting inadequacies.  (Placing emphasis on HERSELF classroom teaching rather than player needs/wants…(the needle movement focused to much out of balance on herself making her the focus of her teaching/coaching creating underdog mentality trying to go for upset wins).

[Aaron]

Yarden situation could end up being best thing to ever happen to Moren if it causes her to change as she says she wants to. Supposedly Yarden wanting to leave was wake up call to Moren to finally get with the program with NIL as I described recently.

Her choosing Maryland as much as it sucks for IU makes perfect sense and matches her wanting to chase a title and no amount of money keeping her. As I told everyone, IU could have raised more money than anyone else for her from Jewish community who wanted to help, but she was not gettable with way everything went down. Maryland makes perfect sense as they are ready to chase a title and also is one of few campuses with larger Jewish and Israeli community than IU.

As I have stated, Moren thought culture she had built overrode NIL and was unnecessary. Whole Yarden situation was wake up call and now NIL is being raised for future and Moren is finally embracing it but fairly behind. For this year, just going for decent players like Stotijn to see what they can pull together. However, if all goes well, should have competitive NIL for future seasons.       

If Moren is really ready to change as she seems to want to, Yarden situation will be best thing for program. Ironically Brenda Frese a couple of years ago had Moren's attitude, and lost a ton of players over it and now has adjusted and killing it again. Moren needs to follow same path and hopefully will as she promises to do.

Proof will be in the pudding. Either she will be like Frese and adjust to be a top program again or she will be next Coquese Washington at Penn State and Rutgers who refuses to change at all and went from being a winning coach for about as long as Moren did, to being completely unsuccessful.       

This is biggest test of Moren's career and if she is willing to change with modern NIL game as she claims she wants to, everything will be fine. We are either going to look back at Yarden situation in a few years and say "Fortunately this really woke her up to adapt to modern game and NIL just as Angel Reese and Ashley Owusu situation did at Maryland for Frese" or it will be "This was the beginning of the end of Moren being an effective coach as she was to stuck in her old ways."

From everything I hear, it should be the former. However, we will see in the next few years when proof is in pudding. Either way though this Yarden situation will be program defining moment for better or worse.

See further back in thread for other info that has been whispered to me about what is going on.