Iowa WBB 2025 Recruiting Thread
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6'5 2025 Layla Hays from Alaska with an offer
Beatrice Bullock and Leah Magner were good players for us. Hope the trend continues.
Agile, quick for her size, shoots with either hand, has an outside shot, aggressive rim protector. She has a number of offers; Illinois, Iowa state, Indiana, Gonzaga, Tennessee, Alabama, Utah, etc.
I watched the Nike championships from Chicago and there is 6'2" guard from Tea South Dakota on the Sanford team. Wow, her team smoked a Georgia team and she was by far the star of the game (34 points). At 6'2" she hit threes and if they came out to guard her, she went around them. She is quick and skilled... a slight build but she makes up for with quickness and footwork. Personally, I was much more impressed with her than Jordan Speiser. I was just wondering if Iowa has been in contact?
Guessing this was Katie Vasecka, South Dakota St commit. No idea what interest Iowa had. They don't play in the EYBL from what I can tell.
Can't vouch for their rankings, but jr. all star ranks her as # 54 in the '24 class.
https://jrallstar.com/rankings/?filter=National,2024
Here's an update on Divine Bourrage's offer list. She has plenty of elite offers already, and UConn appears to be interested.
Of all the AIA 2025 players, she's the one that seems to have the most complete game.
Eldorado's Bella Hines has emerged as a national name in girls basketball
Albuquerque Journal, N.M.Sat, Jul 22, 2023·5 min read
Jul. 22—The national stock of Bella Hines is perhaps hotter than even New Mexico's scorching temperatures. Hines arrives at Eldorado High School week after next for her academic junior year. There is a strong and maybe unshakeable case to be made that she has blossomed into the state's most recognizable prep athlete, regardless of gender. It's been a whirlwind spring and summer for Hines, the Eagles' 5-foot-10 combo guard who has rapidly evolved into New Mexico's most recruited girls basketball player — probably ever. Hines certainly rates as one of the country's best prospects. "I feel like I've put in the work to be able to say I am," Hines said. "I just try to stay humble and keep working. I can't be satisfied with where I'm at." Where she's at is here: Hines has, in essence, been her own personal heat wave, racking up 32 Division I scholarship offers to date, with more certainly on the horizon. This list of suitors includes some heavy hitters — none of them more prominent than Iowa, which fell to LSU in last season's national championship game. "Big shock to me," Hines said of the Iowa offer. She had just returned to Albuquerque from the Nike Nationals event in Chicago, where the Hawkeyes scouted Hines. It was a game-changing type of offer in an offseason from Eldorado that has been chock full of them. "I was super excited," Hines said. "I don't like to show my emotions, but inside I was really happy." "She's really good at controlling her emotions," her father Josh, sitting next to Bella for this interview, said with a smile. "We get a whole lot more excited." The full list: SMU, Cincinnati, Florida State, TCU, San Francisco, BYU, New Mexico, Arizona State, Alabama, New Mexico State, Delaware, Colorado State, Utah, Kansas State, UAB, Texas Tech, North Texas, Vanderbilt, Houston, Syracuse, UTEP, Georgia Tech, Georgia, Texas A&M, Arizona, Iowa, Auburn, West Virginia, Pitt, Florida State, UTSA and, most recently, Cal. "They all pitch me a lot of stuff, saying they'll promise me this (or that), but it's the relationships I built with certain schools (that matter)," Hines said. Pressed to name her favorites, Iowa and Alabama top the current short list. (UNM is not in contention, she said.) "I know what my top five is," she said, smiling, but keeping her cards close to the vest. She did reveal that she'll be taking an official visit to Alabama in September. And she might plot a trip to Iowa this upcoming school year, if for no other reason than to meet Hawkeyes' superstar Caitlin Clark. This burst of attention, which has practically been nonstop and elevated Hines from one of the region's most recognized prospects to a name ingrained on a national scale, does not fluster her. "I don't think it's been overwhelming," Hines, 16, said. "I like getting to know people. I'm a really talkative person, so I don't mind talking to multiple coaches." Hines said she hopes to decide by perhaps early next year on a college. She is coming off a sensational sophomore campaign in which she averaged a state-leading 30 points a game for the Eagles. The explosion in D1 offers for Hines can likely be directly traced to her decision to change club teams this year. Two-thirds of her D1 offers, she said, have come since this current club season started. Hines has been playing for CyFair Elite, a Houston-based squad. How elite? Hines' 32 offers, she said, rank a distant third on this roster alone, which includes seven of the top 50 prospects in the country. Shaquille O'Neal's daugher Me'Arah is among Hines' teammates. "I fit in really well with this program," she said. She played primarily for a club team in Colorado a year ago. "Being on a team full of ranked players has just really boosted all of our exposure in general, and playing with Shaq's daughter doesn't hurt." The CyFair travel has been intensive, to be sure. There have been events in Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Virginia; she is in Orlando, Florida, this weekend, and her club calendar ends at the end of this month with a special invite event in Memphis. "When I was on (previous club teams in Colorado and New Mexico), I was getting exposure, but I wasn't getting the exposure I wanted," Hines said. "So I knew I had to branch off and go play for another team in a different state to get my exposure. ... I just feel like I made the best move." Amari Brown left New Mexico last year, moving to Atlanta, in part, to expand his national profile. He would perhaps have played at Cibola had he stayed in town; he is returning to Albuquerque later this year to compete for ABC Prep. Hines was asked if she had considered a similar relocation to heighten awareness of her game. "It's definitely crossed my mind," she said candidly. "I don't know. It might happen, it might not." Her father said Bella could and perhaps should average more than 35 points next season at Eldorado, given her improvements. "Being able to play off the ball," Hines said of how her game has improved since joining CyFair. "In high school, I consistently have the ball in my hands, always trying to get the ball in the hole by myself. With CyFair, I'm able to work off the ball, off of screens, work on other parts of my game that doesn't include me having the ball 24/7." She definitely has become must-watch basketball in these parts. As much as any girl Albuquerque has ever seen. And, Hines said, as a post script, if her 3-point shooting becomes more consistent, "then I feel like this season nobody will be able to guard me."
“Big shock to me," Hines said of the Iowa offer.
Exactly the kind of stuff you want to hear! Iowa stock is certainly rising, both with media and prospects. Bluder’s just gotta close a few of these deals now.
Exactly the kind of stuff you want to hear! Iowa stock is certainly rising, both with media and prospects. Bluder’s just gotta close a few of these deals now.
Vasecka is very talented. Committed to SDSU early. She can do everything and is a prolific scorer
Another South Dakota prospect is Ashlyn Koupal ‘2o26 6ft3 G/F, who already has offers from Nebraska, Creighton, and just added an offer from Indiana. Will add many more.
I slapped together a table of (I believe) all of the 2025 targets who are in the ESPN Top 60 for 2025 for quick reference. I also added their Prospects Nation rank to the right, because they're fairly different.
If I missed anyone or you know of another ranking service I can check out (I checked out Top Spot Basketball but honestly their rankings are at best out of date and at worst a total mess), please lmk and I can update.
If I missed anyone or you know of another ranking service I can check out (I checked out Top Spot Basketball but honestly their rankings are at best out of date and at worst a total mess), please lmk and I can update.
| Recruit | Position | ESPN | Prosp. Ntn. |
| Jazzy Davidson | W | 2 | 1 |
| Dee Alexander | W | 4 | 5 |
| Addison Deal | W | 12 | 6 |
| Brynn McGaughy | F | 15 | - |
| Jordan Speiser | W | 17 | 17 |
| Journee Houston | G | 19 | - |
| Aniyah Trent | G | 20 | 20 |
| Bella Hynes | G | 23 | - |
| Jaliyah Davis | F | 28 | - |
| Taliyah Henderson | W | 33 | - |
| Makena Christian | G | 38 | |
| Avery Gordon | C | 44 | - |
| Divine Bourrage | G | 45 | - |
Deal, McGaughy, Bourrage, & Layla Hays would be my wishlist for 25. Hays blew up after Chicago. Will be interesting to see where she ends up
What Iowa needs now is for at least one of these highly-ranked recruits to commit. That might open the floodgate; and hopefully convince other great players to join the party. I'm sure most of you are aware that Bluder talked about "salary cap" issues around signing players from the portal, but at this point even the HS recruits are looking toward the best $$. I have no expertise in this realm. I do invite those of us who really do study the $$ to chime in around this dynamic.
If all a player is looking for is money, then Iowa probably isn't the right school. If players want to play for a walking neon sign; who says look at me, then Iowa isn't the right place. On the other hand, if a player wants to get a good education and be developed personally and on the court - then Iowa could be the place. Basketball is a team sport, too many look at me players; can be a detrimate.
I trust Lisa to find her type of players.
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Bourrage is the best prospect on AIA for 2025 in my opinion. PG with the ability to score as well. All the players on that list would obviously be great additions. With all the new follows/offers at the guard spot in the 25 class, it will be interesting to see what happens.
Appreciate your perspective. What I was really hoping for was to hear from someone who is schooled in NIL; where the money comes from, how it's distributed, rules/regs around it, etc. Like it or not, it is the new reality, and will be a major factor in recruiting ongoing.
I think there were posts on here for the swarm collective, which basically was a set mount per athlete with options to get paid for appearances. I think local businesses mostly bypass the u and coaches. It sounds like Bluder isn't really interested in being a middleman. I suspect LSU coaches are working with donars to guarantee nil deals for recruits that the coaches control.
If you join the collective, you can earmark where you want the funds to be distributed. Men's Football and Basketball, or Women's basketball.
I could be wrong but I think Kurt, like many of us. is more curious about how big “deals” are determined / allotted / distributed to nab a potential star.
Say we wanted to get the next Caitlin Clark, how do they decide whether to offer her $50k or $100k? How much money is available to offer to highly in-demand prospects? Are four years offered up front or is it negotiated yearly? What is the general expectation of a respectable offer for an in-demand kid and can we offer that?
The info about how to donate, where your donation goes, and how much WBB players get as a base stipend is easily accessible and I would guess Kurt has seen that already.
Say we wanted to get the next Caitlin Clark, how do they decide whether to offer her $50k or $100k? How much money is available to offer to highly in-demand prospects? Are four years offered up front or is it negotiated yearly? What is the general expectation of a respectable offer for an in-demand kid and can we offer that?
The info about how to donate, where your donation goes, and how much WBB players get as a base stipend is easily accessible and I would guess Kurt has seen that already.
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This is at the bottom of the swarm collective page. I take this to mean that a coach cant directly interact, so they would have to indicate interest somehow and the swarm collective (or some other NIL facilitator) would have to do the negotiations.
DISCLAIMER: The Swarm Collective, Inc does not have an official relationship with the University of Iowa and Iowa Athletics. The University and its employees are prohibited from making or facilitating any NIL deals or payments to student-athletes. SWARM is organized independently to advance the work of Iowa Athletics.
DISCLAIMER: The Swarm Collective, Inc does not have an official relationship with the University of Iowa and Iowa Athletics. The University and its employees are prohibited from making or facilitating any NIL deals or payments to student-athletes. SWARM is organized independently to advance the work of Iowa Athletics.
It's down in the article a ways, but here's the best article I've found about how Iowa's NIL works: https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/s...clark-lisa-bluder-aneesah-morrow/70086449007/
Frankly I'm not sure if WBB is at the point where many recruits are being offered NIL deals from school collectives. South Carolina and UConn were a couple of the top teams landing recruits pre-NIL deals, and still appear to be.
Transfers are different, as Bluder implied some of Iowa's transfer targets did receive NIL money that Iowa wasn't willing to offer.
It sounds like Iowa WBB had a $225,000 pot of money last year. I'd imagine it will be higher this year. Iowa has taken the approach of equally dividing the money so far, but isn't required to.
For sports like football collectives are making deals with players with agreed upon amounts for 4 years. I recall reading a while ago in an an article on the Athletic that there were different going rates for 5 star players based upon positions.
I had seen that, and I think it's still the protocol nationally; however I have read that those regs are somewhat dependent on the legal parameters of whatever state the school is in. Seems like some observers think that because it's early in the process, we have a kind of wild west situation. They anticipate further clarification and national standards over the next few years. Thanks to all on this post for helping me understand this stuff.
A backdrop to the '25 recruiting class (and remaining '24 recruiting) is the massive high-end talent infusion that USC, UCLA and now Oregon are going to bring to the BIG. In the last 3 recruiting classes ('21-'23), inclusive of transfers, our prospective 4 new BIG members have collectively recruited 14 top 30 players (based on HoopGurlz rankings), compared to just 6 for the current 14-team BIG. The numbers are even worse for the existing BIG schools when you focus on top 15 players. Over the last three years, including through the portal, USC (Watkins & Gayles), UCLA (Rice & Betts) & Oregon (Gray & VanSlooten) have each recruited 2 top 15 players; the current BIG schools haven't had a top 15 recruit since the 2020 class featuring Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese & Diamond Johnson.
Will be interesting to see if the arrival of the Pac 12 schools in the BIG will help the existing BIG schools to continue to up their games, including their recruiting games, just as the arrival of Maryland forced BIG schools to improve to compete on a national basis.
Will be interesting to see if the arrival of the Pac 12 schools in the BIG will help the existing BIG schools to continue to up their games, including their recruiting games, just as the arrival of Maryland forced BIG schools to improve to compete on a national basis.
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