Holy shit that makes me feel old seeing AJ Guyton having a kid that old.
Iowa Women's Basketball Recruiting Offer/Commitment List
- Thread starter KyleHuesmann
- Start date
Bjorn talks Iowa offer
Classof 2026 G Addison Bjorn out of Kansas City, Missouri was in Iowa City last month for an unofficial visit
Guyton picks up Iowa offer
2024 prospect Aaliyah Guyton has basketball in her blood and now she had an Iowa hoops offer in hand.
That's a gut punch. I thought she was our best chance to stay at a high level after Clark leaves.
Dropped Iowa, but kept Nebraska , Minnesota, and Michigan? either something went sideways or she knows something we dont?
Agree Nebraska is a real surprise, but not Minnesota, the hometown team, or Michigan, where Barnes Arico is building a highly-attractive program, after decades of mediocrity at Michigan. Michigan earlier snagged Taylor Woodson ('23) out of Minnesota, a top 50ish recruit, and Katy Eidle ('23) out of Illinois, a top 75ish recruit, both of whom had Iowa offers.
The love for Michigan is puzzling because Iowa historically has been much stronger, draws much better crowds, and plays a much more exciting brand of basketball. Evidently the brand Michigan still resonates with many young athletes. With 2 years remaining with Clark this possibly will be Lisa’s best opportunity to cash in on our recent success. As I’ve noted in previous posts the 2024 class will be crucial and so far our only commitment has been Callie Levin from Solon. Obviously still time to put together a strong 2024 class. Not inside info of course but I’m very skeptical of Ava Jone ever playing college basketball. Hopefully she will recover to the point where she can lead a normal and productive life.
Agree with you that the '24 class will be key. We also shouldn't sell Levin short (not saying you are doing this) because of her early commitment. Mike Neighbors (now at Arkansas) has been a very good recruiter and evaluator (he recruited Kelsey Plum to Washington from the San Diego area), and he offered Levin as a freshman. Blue Star ranks Levin in the top 50 (though its rankings of young players are notoriously incomplete).
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anon_salmfilsntd0b
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I mean this in the most polite way possible.....
I don't think we should be discussing Ava's condition or basketball outlook. It's tacky at best. At worst, it's disrespectful, insensitive and potentially damaging to everyone -- Ava, her family, our coaching staff/athletes, and the fans.
Our only priority should be her continued progress and recovery. Predictions/discussions about her basketball career are not useful to anyone in any way.
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anon_salmfilsntd0b
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Nebraska has a very positive/fun culture, and a young/exciting coach with a BIG vision. Last year she went on record saying she wanted to win a national championship. I can see why recruits are attracted to that energy.
Well dang. Was hoping her and Greenway would start a Minnesota pipeline.
It would be a bit nerve racking to go to Iowa and be Clark's replacement.
It would be a bit nerve racking to go to Iowa and be Clark's replacement.
Amy Williams is a dynamic young coach and tireless recruiter. She is building a very respectable team over there.
The dad is but they were clearly taking the recruiting process pretty seriously. They visited schools all over the country over the last few years.
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Well that's a major bummer. I'm shocked with all the recent success as a team, individual accolades, the way Bluder and staff handle coaching... I don't get how that didn't crack her top 10.
Iowa’s recent success is helping them fish in a new pond, but landing elite athletic recruits from outside the state of Iowa will be tough. With the possible exceptions of Lindsay Richards and Johanna Solvenson, whose recruiting stories I do not remember, recruits like Olson, Prince and Ziebell represent a whole new ball game for Bluder and Jan. As highly ranked as Sam Logic was, her athletic shortcomings kept her offer list from being anything like the lists for Olson, Prince and Ziebell.
All true, good points. Seems like we had a good run at girls that were Ms. Basketballs of their state. Got them to play well together. Hopefully we can get some of these top prospects!
I’m not sure Iowa has been able to fully leverage its home court with recruits since Caitlin has been here. Her first year was the covid year and last year Iowa had very few prime weekend games that recruits could attend. That should be better this year (hopefully) and selling out all 7 football games should help as well. The fanbase, along with the potential NIL opportunities that I don’t see happening as much at other schools, should be a separator for Iowa.
Comparing Barnes to Lisa. Lisa is a better developer and game day coach. Barnes has much more talent within a 100 miles than Lisa. She recruits well , their roster probably has more stars than us. I watched both Michigan at Nebraska and at Iowa, Michigan didn’t play well either game. Like they didn’t show up
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anon_salmfilsntd0b
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I mean no disrespect to Bluder b/c I don't believe we could have asked for a better coach to helm our program the last 2 decades, but coaches like Barnes-Arico and Amy Williams are selling a new, younger, ambitious brand with lots of energy, big plans and even bigger dreams (I could see the new coach at Illinois joining this club in coming years as well, and many at MN hope that Whalen will be in the same boat). They're "building something" and have had some recent success to back that up (especially KBA). They plan to be where they are for a long time to come, and their pitch is that this is just the beginning, come be a part of it. That sells, even if it certainly won't pan out for everyone like that.
A program like Iowa has had quite a bit of success but I think we're an established mid-tier brand. I read an article this year that mentioned Iowa WBB and it said we "typically get eliminated in the first weekend of the tournament." Clearly they were overlooking our Sweet 16s in '16 and '21, and our Elite 8 in '19, but it is what it is. We've definitely had slow but steady improvement in her tenure. As a fan, it's been a great trajectory. But at this point, Bluder only has a certain number of years left. It may be that recruits doubt she has what it takes to take her team to the Final 4 or higher -- after all, she's been around 20+ years and hasn't done it. People all over Twitter say that we're overrated seemingly every season. Furthermore, I could see some doubting how long she'll be around after Clark graduates.
Of course, we all know that Bluder's a great coach and that a Final 4 may very well be within the realm of possibility in the next few years. But our most recent Elite 8 is now going on 4 seasons ago. Recruits have short memories. Furthermore, our B1G title likely means a lot less outside B1G states. Add to that the undeniable fact that we live in one of the most flyoverish of flyover states (with literally zero major cities nearby)...I can see why it can be a challenge to attract elite talent outside of Iowa.
All that said, I'm very pleased with Bluder's '21 and '22 recruiting classes, not to mention Clark OR our inbound transfers, which were both GREAT gets IMO.
A program like Iowa has had quite a bit of success but I think we're an established mid-tier brand. I read an article this year that mentioned Iowa WBB and it said we "typically get eliminated in the first weekend of the tournament." Clearly they were overlooking our Sweet 16s in '16 and '21, and our Elite 8 in '19, but it is what it is. We've definitely had slow but steady improvement in her tenure. As a fan, it's been a great trajectory. But at this point, Bluder only has a certain number of years left. It may be that recruits doubt she has what it takes to take her team to the Final 4 or higher -- after all, she's been around 20+ years and hasn't done it. People all over Twitter say that we're overrated seemingly every season. Furthermore, I could see some doubting how long she'll be around after Clark graduates.
Of course, we all know that Bluder's a great coach and that a Final 4 may very well be within the realm of possibility in the next few years. But our most recent Elite 8 is now going on 4 seasons ago. Recruits have short memories. Furthermore, our B1G title likely means a lot less outside B1G states. Add to that the undeniable fact that we live in one of the most flyoverish of flyover states (with literally zero major cities nearby)...I can see why it can be a challenge to attract elite talent outside of Iowa.
All that said, I'm very pleased with Bluder's '21 and '22 recruiting classes, not to mention Clark OR our inbound transfers, which were both GREAT gets IMO.
