Iowa WBB 2025 Recruiting Thread
- Thread starter BraydonRoberts5
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? I'm interested in knowing why that would lead to Skinner going to UCLA too.
Emilee visited six months ago and just visited the Bruins. Now she's visiting Duke, ND and TCU. Great atmosphere for her visit but will that have more of a lasting memory than her upcoming visits. I think our chances have declined.
No. 10 shooting guard Emilee Skinner shares thoughts on top 5 schools
Emilee Skinner top 5 finalists include: Duke, Iowa, UCLA, Notre Dame and TCU.247sports.com
Nothing terribly revealing, but I know we're all starved for info. I'm happy to hear Emilee say she liked Iowa's players.
I think you bring her in on a football weekend where they recognize the women’s team at half and so she can see the wave and is reminded how much fan support is behind Iowa wbb. Maybe it won’t make a difference but why not try. If she comes for another visit there’s still interest at least. Who knows, maybe she forms more of a connection with our girls and that ends up being the determining factor. Jada is our secret weapon.
When commenting on her five finalists, she's already raved about Iowa's fan support and stated, "I liked all the girls on the team."
(You can read all her comments on the link at post #1635).
Since Iowa has a new head coach, she's eligible for another official visit. Selfishly I feel every visit we can get improves our chances for a commit, but if she did her homework when she came last spring I don't know that another visit would teach her much. If she doesn't come this fall I don't think that eliminates our chances.
She did mention academics as being important, and Duke, Notre Dame, plus UCLA all would be rated above us.
That’s good to hear at least. There’s a paywall and I’m a cheapskate so I didn’t read that part.
You can easily argue alternate positions though. Like: Iowa is the only school she visited early in her process still on her list and also the only school where she took a WBB gameday visit. Or: she didn't commit to UCLA after that visit, so maybe that's bad news for them.
At this point, we know the Iowa coaches still think they have a decent chance. Anything more than that is uncertain.
When she gets wind of another sellout season coming up, that can’t hurt either.
I wonder if her ship hasn't passed and the staff are looking at Alves-Fernandez. Shorter but more athletic.
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A little digging..
Feurbach, Stremlow, Gyamfi, and Levin all commented on her Tipton Edits final 5 post on instagram 2 weeks ago..
Affolter commented 1 week ago.
So they still believed they had a shot after Skinner visited UCLA.
Feurbach, Stremlow, Gyamfi, and Levin all commented on her Tipton Edits final 5 post on instagram 2 weeks ago..
Affolter commented 1 week ago.
So they still believed they had a shot after Skinner visited UCLA.
Emilee visited Duke this past weekend.
The good: she hasn't yet visited Notre Dame.
The bad: in an article after she named her final 5 she mentioned she "might not take all of her visits if she's wowed enough by a program to commit to them during a visit."
Did Duke wow her?
She'd make a great Hawkeye.
The good: she hasn't yet visited Notre Dame.
The bad: in an article after she named her final 5 she mentioned she "might not take all of her visits if she's wowed enough by a program to commit to them during a visit."
Did Duke wow her?
She'd make a great Hawkeye.
Bummer, that sure smacks of a Duke commitment to me. If true, I suppose that would help us with Greenway - at least that's my take given they're both PGs.
Duke must be killing it with NIL. Their 24 hoops class was top 10 & their volleyball recruiting class for 25 has players significantly better than what they've normally brought in.
Never know--still a chance!
Yet another swing and miss for Jan....
Another recruit goes to a lesser program...bit concerned on recruiting for Iowa.......
Does anyone know the story on Libby Fandel? Did Bluder/Jensen just ignore her in favor of higher-rated recruits? Seems like she had some good offers.
With Jensen and staff seemingly striking out on all of their remaining known targets, sure would have been nice to get a talented young lady from 20 miles down the road.
With Jensen and staff seemingly striking out on all of their remaining known targets, sure would have been nice to get a talented young lady from 20 miles down the road.
Disappointing but Jan just needs to keep swinging away. I’ve said it before but I still believe the 26 class is what is going to give a barometer on Jan’s recruiting chops as a head coach.
Ok skinner bums me Jan is way to good of a coach to have her head on the chopping block before the season has even started the biggest thing I see is no one wants to fill Caitlin Clark shoes or scared to, even Lucy said I am not Caitlin …. Kinda wanted Emilee since her and jazzy already played with deal ☹️
FWIW, Duke recruits very well under Kara Lawson, a storied Tennessee player and 13-year WNBA vet. In 2022, her second year at Duke (after being an assistant for the Boston Celtics), she brought in ESPN # 16 and # 33 recruits, and in 2023 and 2024, she brought in ESPN # 3, # 27 & #29, and # 10 and # 17, respectively. Lawson took Duke to the Sweet 16 last year, her 4th year at Duke, and is pre-season ranked top 10 this season. Duke also has substantial WBB history, more Final Fours, more Elite Eights and more Sweet 16s than Iowa.
Layla Hays and Manuella Alves-Fernandez are the two players they're still connected with in 2025. Iowa is in Hays' top 8 and Alves-Fernandez's top 5.
I haven't heard much on Alves-Fernandez so not sure how to evaluate her situation. North Carolina, Louisville, Miami, and Illinois are the other finalists.
Hays has visited a number of other schools on her list. She's still liking some Iowa posts on Instagram, though, so maybe not all is lost there.
Roster-wise, a 5 in this class makes a lot of sense. O'Grady and Ediger are graduating, so the only natural 5 on roster next year is Heiden.
I agree with @Scott559 that the 2026 class will be a bigger barometer for Jan's recruiting. Losing Spieser and Skinner hurts, but both are explainable. Iowa is fairly deep already with players that can play the 2-3-4, so Spieser wasn't a glaring need. With Skinner, Iowa doesn't exactly have a recruiting pipeline in Utah.
In the 2026 class, Trinity Jones, Addison Bjorn, Jenica Lewis, Natalie Kussow, Maddyn Greenway, and Ashlyn Koupal are all Top 20 players from border states. Top 30 players like Emilia Krstevski, Amari Byles, and Bella Ragone had visited campus. I think it's fair to say it would be disappointing if Iowa doesn't land multiple players from that group.
Also for what it's worth, the 2028 class could be another big one for Iowa. Jhaliana Guy (Iowa), Chloe Johnson (Minnesota) and Ari Peterson (Minnesota) all look like top players in that class and have already visited.
It seems like most all of those are trending away from Iowa from some reports......
True, but even in a home run scenario Iowa is still going to miss out on more than half of those players. Plus situations are fluid. Greenway was linked with Duke, but now Duke just got a Top 10 PG in the class of 2025. So where does that leave Greenway?
Iowa just has so many quality options that make sense in this class. I doubt people will care much if Iowa missed out on Greenway and Bjorn if the class ended up being Kussow, Lewis, and Koupal as an example.
Greenway (Tennessee) and Bjorn (Texas) really are the only two I have seen much buzz in regard to tending away. Are you familiar with others?
Also worth a reminder 26 top 10 recruit McKenna Woliczko is supposed to be in town next weekend for an unofficial visit.
Ok, we lost another elite recruit! Perspective please! When you recruit elite players you have to realize that your percentage of “gets” is going to be small especially if the players do not have a connection to the program. That is simply reality. We have lost a few for 2025 but don’t forget we already have one elite player committed. If we are lucky to get 1 in 10, we are already doing well (Deal) particularly when another quality player is also on board ( Houston ) Smile people!
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