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**NEW** Iowa Women's Basketball Recruiting Thread

Raina is in Orlando today.

She’s gonna be a million miler if she’s not already.
 
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This is a great example of how tough it is to put your finger on where kids are likely to end up. Her dream schools have been listed as Oregon and UCLA, both of which she has offers from. Could not be more different from Iowa State on every level (program culture, talent around her, location, academic prestige (and offerings) of the school, conference, distance from home) but you’ve gotta assume ISU is on that short list if she’s visiting this late in the game.

Tho tbh any kid with elite talent who is seriously considering either ISU or UNL at this point baffles me. Their coaches seem inept. They’re both offense-first programs but there’s a good chance their offense is stagnant on any given night. Just some data points:
  • Ashley Joens went 4-1 versus Iowa, and made one Sweet 16. To their credit, they won the Big 12 last year (but that was its worst year in memory and they then immediately got bounced in the first round of the NCAAT).
  • Jaz Shelley has never beaten Iowa, and the UNL program epically melted down during what should have been their best season in a long awhile. UNL beat Indiana, Michigan and Maryland over the last couple seasons but didn’t even make the NCAA tourney in 2023.
Both got demolished by Creighton in 2022/2023 as well. They’ve both inexplicably become little sister programs regionally despite immense fan / institutional support and LOTS of talent.

Head scratchers all around…can anyone fill the class in on NIL for wbb at these schools?
ISU could be in the running as a 'close proximity' choice if Britt gets cold feet about moving far from home and/or parents would like to see most games in person?
 
It's important to remember with Prince that we don't actually know how many of her offers are still committable. She had a controversy late last year, and at least one school cancelled a visit with her (from what I remember).

Schools might have either pulled their offer because of that (that would seem like an overreaction to me, but not my call) or have already filled their 2024 class with other targets.
 
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Iowa has no shortage of young PG talent to replace Clark should she depart after this season.

For anyone smarter than I, what is to be made of the scholarship situation next season? If Clark returns, by my count that's 17 scholarships out of 15. https://wbbblog.com/iowa-womens-basketball-recruiting/
The Iowa scholarship roster on that site still has Shateah Wettering listed. As of now, Iowa has the maximum 15 scholarships allowed for 24/25 without Caitlin.
 
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Don’t know how much stock to put in Prep Girls Hoops state rankings, but Guyton’s trajectory in the Illinois PGH rankings is really something. In May of 2022, PGH bumped Guyton from # 17 to # 10 in Illinois, and then bumped her to # 1 in Illinois in June of 2023 (perhaps earlier).



 
My favorite things about this commitment:
  • Guyton is the second '24 commit who chose us over Ohio State
  • Illinois and Nebraska fans are sad
  • This is going to drive Indiana fans crazy.
  • I venture to say this is Bluder's best recruiting class of all time.
  • We will have 2 options competing for the 1 after Clark departs.
  • The positional distribution for our '24/'25 classes combined is inching close to perfect.
Anyway, now that our recruiting focus will shift to the classes of 2025 and 2026, @BraydonRoberts5 would you be willing to create a thread for 2026 discussion (since we have quite an active 2025 thread already)? I am happy to create one as well but I'm sure you'd do a better job.

What's this class ranked at?
ESPN has not released class rankings yet. I'd say this class lands somewhere 13-18 (assuming no one trends down further).
 
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My favorite things about this commitment:
  • Guyton is the second '24 commit who chose us over Ohio State
  • Illinois and Nebraska fans are sad
  • This is going to drive Indiana fans crazy.
  • I venture to say this is Bluder's best recruiting class of all time.
  • We will have 2 options competing for the 1 after Clark departs.
  • The positional distribution for our '24/'25 classes combined is inching closer to perfect.
Anyway, now that our recruiting focus will shift to the classes of 2025 and 2026, @BraydonRoberts5 would you be willing to create a thread for 2026 discussion (since we have quite an active 2025 thread already)? I am happy to create one as well but I'm sure you'd do a better job.



ESPN has not released class rankings yet. I'd say this class lands somewhere 11-15 (assuming no one trends down further).
I have a partial draft of a Class of 2026 article done. I used the 2025 version to start that thread. Not sure I'll get that done in the next day or two because of work stuff, but it's on my short term to-do list.
 
My favorite things about this commitment:
  • Guyton is the second '24 commit who chose us over Ohio State
  • Illinois and Nebraska fans are sad
  • This is going to drive Indiana fans crazy.
  • I venture to say this is Bluder's best recruiting class of all time.
  • We will have 2 options competing for the 1 after Clark departs.
  • The positional distribution for our '24/'25 classes combined is inching close to perfect.
Anyway, now that our recruiting focus will shift to the classes of 2025 and 2026, @BraydonRoberts5 would you be willing to create a thread for 2026 discussion (since we have quite an active 2025 thread already)? I am happy to create one as well but I'm sure you'd do a better job.


ESPN has not released class rankings yet. I'd say this class lands somewhere 13-18 (assuming no one trends down further).
 
. . . I venture to say this is Bluder's best recruiting class of all time. . . .
Have to disagree. The 2020 class is Bluder’s best class. WBB is overwhelmingly about elite quality. Players in the bottom half of the top 100 are rarely the type of player that can lead a team to the Final Four. You need the elite star or superstar. Even if Ava Heiden stays near the bottom of the top 40, I’d take 1 top 5 player over the ‘24 class.
 
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