Yep agree. And maybe I'm in the minority but I actually hate to see dynasties
Time to recruit, Lisa.
- Thread starter kwik44
- Start date
So what you're saying is that Bluder needs to step out of and recruit outside of the nunnery? Yeah, that might help.
Brad was on WW last week saying they were in talks with an elite player in the portal but didnt give anymore context
There is no female in the country that can guard her. Maybe the WNBA ? Dont know as I dont watch that.
Didn’t need someone to guard her so much as needed the size to prevent her from grabbing every rebound ‘NOT OVER THE BACK’ and giving them 40 second chance points.
17 offensive rebounds to 5. Honestly it felt like a helluva lot more than 17.
If USC would've missed more often it would have been worse. There was simply no answer.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
In another thread it was pointed out how SC and UConn have mostly all 5 star talent and additional insights into the talent gap.
(The thread titled “Taking mostly 3 star recruits..”)
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Huge. The bench had to be screaming 'wolf', and that a Gabby or Caitlin trailer was near. Dribbling more is usually never the answer, especially in the women's game.
80-75 was the score.
And then the couple times Iowa got called for a foul when trying to box out (martin was one for sure). Wtf were they supposed to do?
There's no such foul in the rule book for "over the back", announcers say over the back but what they really mean is contact from a player going through the opponent in front of them when trying to make a rebound. This picture is a prime example of "over the back" not being a foul. Hannah at 6'2" is trying to rebound with her feet on the floor. Cardoso is 6'7" and has also jumped into the air, looking at her heels, about a foot off the floor. By doing so she isn't making any contact with Hannah and grabbing the ball more than 3 feet above Hannah's head. You can see a gap of 6 inches between the two of them, everywhere except for Hannah's hand reaching back into Cardoso's arm. If Hannah had jumped, Cardoso may have had to go through her when going after the rebound and a foul may have been called.This
Hannah needs to use this as a learning experience. She has to jump up for rebounds. This isn't Iowa high school anymore where you can be anchored to the ground and waiting for the ball to come to you.
I did have a problem with some of the foul calls on us boxing out. A few were fouls and a few should have been no-calls. Considering that they never called SC on any similar ones where I saw a lot of contact from them a few times. But overall, the game was officiated pretty well for a NCAA WBB game. Especially compared to last year's title game. SC's fans were complaining about all of the fouls called on them, but they played defense with their arms out quite a bit which allowed us to draw a bunch of fouls in the first half. They adjusted in the second half and the fouls mostly stopped getting called. That one girl stopped having her arm straight out in front of her with her hand in CC's face after CC drew two fouls on her by driving through those extended arms.
Yep, only made the championship again.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
Here are Bluder's next six recruits. One five star and five four stars. (The usual schools are loading up on 5 stars).
Ava Heiden 6'-4" **** #40 Top 100 HoopGulrz
Alliyah Guyton 5'-8" **** #58 Top 100 HoopGurlz
Teagan Mallegni 6'-0" **** #64 Top 100 HoopGurlz
Taylor Stremlow 5'-8" **** #91 Top 100 HoopGurlz
Addison Deal 6'0" ***** #12 Top 100 HoopGurlz
Journey Houston 5'-11" **** #36 Top 100 HoopGurlz
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
I am not an expert but based on a ton of comments related to this it seems “top 100” is maybe not the right grouping. Someone else could probably design the break points but there seems to be elite talent in the Top 20, very good talent in top 40 then seems to fall off from there. I am paraphrasing what I read but we seem to never quite attract the ELITE talent that UConn and SC get.
"we seem to never quite attract the ELITE talent that UConn and SC get."
Very few do. That's why they have so many titles.
Lisa tried to get an elite big from the portal last year. She's on record as saying they didn't have the NIL $$ to compete with the other teams for ones they wanted. Wasn't for lack of effort.
Then she is a failure and needs to be replaced. Trying osmt good enough. Imagine Phil Jackson telling Michael Jordan sorry I tried.
Shut the **** up dumbass.
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I try not to use the ignore feature too much but Grumpy just made the list.
If someone is too soft for the men's game they are 100% too soft for the women's game. It's way more physical.
With all the dumbasses on this board he's moved into the top 3 w/that comment.
That is a travesty. A program, on the cusp of a national championship, with a generational talent returning. Supreme effort, from all hands, should have been made to provide that program w/ whatever it needed to try to get over the hump. It could be years before UofI would be in a similar position, not counting the exposure and revenue the school would have taken in for years afterward. Would be interesting to know if they just didn't have the $$$ or it was earmarked for other purposes.
Who’s in your top 3? Way too many dumbasses on this board. I’d need at least a top 10!
I don't totally disagree with you, but it's hard to quantify how much team chemistry played in Iowa's success this year...bringing in the wrong personality could have upset the the whole thing. Personally, I'll live with how it played out and the ride we were treated to.
Uconn has been dominant for decades. Exactly how has that translated to making people excited about women's college basketball? That's right. It hasn't. Nobody has popularized the game the way Caitlin Clark and Iowa have. Period. People could look it up.
Few people outside NYC love the Yankees. Few people want to see domination by one team all the time in any sport.
Parity is always the answer when the question is what will draw fans. Women's basketball has a ways to go. CC and Iowa have done WAY more than their part. Now we'll see what happens in the aftermath.
I hope Heiden is good at rebounding. We desperately need to add that ability to the mix.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
There was some rationalization that we have as many top 100 as they do or look at all of our 4 star players we have, etc. I was merely restating the WHY behind the difference vs blue bloods. The chasm is larger than people
Want to admit. Not shocking but fans need to be smarter about women’s recruiting rankings. Me included.
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A
anon_salmfilsntd0b
Guest
It’s crazy how no one wants to reads existing threads. There are exhaustive threads about the following:
For those who can’t be bothered to read those other threads, here’s what you need to know about our incoming recruits/targets:
1) The Class of 2024 is done. It’s a top 10 class. It’s a good class, not an elite class. There are 5 kids in it. They're a complete line-up if need be. The low-down:
Remaining Targets: Bluder is not done recruiting for 2025, and her sights are set high. There are 3 very impressive recruits in the mix:
This is all to say that the future lineup is already very good, but it could get even better. If Addie Deal is our next Caitlin, she is going to have a lot more help around her than Caitlin ever did.
2026: The excitement doesn't stop in 2025. Bluder has her eye on 3 more Top 25 kids in this class -- all of whom have been to Iowa City multiple times due to their proximity and friendship. She's been working on these relationships much longer than McGaughy / Hays.
But the bottom line here is that Iowa has attracted some pretty good recruits for 2024, some excellent recruits for 2025 and Bluder has set her sights very high for both rest of of the 2025 class as well as the 2026 class.
We have a great post coming in 2024 — Ava Heiden of Oregon, who is very agile/quick for 6’4. She is ranked #40 in the country by ESPN -- #4 Center in the class. We can always use more height but IMO Bluder has been waiting for this kind of a post and will run a lot of offense through her. She doesn't shy away from contact on the block. She WANTS to post up and be physical. I'm excited for her.
For those who can’t be bothered to read those other threads, here’s what you need to know about our incoming recruits/targets:
1) The Class of 2024 is done. It’s a top 10 class. It’s a good class, not an elite class. There are 5 kids in it. They're a complete line-up if need be. The low-down:
- Heiden (C): See above. Unless O'Grady has a breakout senior season, I expect her to be a starter by January if not sooner tbh. Oregon is the farthest away Bluder has ever signed a recruit. It was impressive. She is not in the Prospects Nation Top 60 but was at one time. This is a pretty good get, but she is the type of player who should thrive under Bluder. Lots of upside.
- Mallegni (W): Mallegni has the best offer list since Clark. She had offers from NC, OR, Duke, Ohio State, to name a few. ESPN has her in the mid-60s, as does Prospects Nation. ASGR has her as #28. She will get minutes next year. People have called her the next Warnock. This is a good get.
- Guyton (PG): Ranked in the mid 50s by ESPN. Athletic. Had some good offers including Ohio State. Was supposed to take over for CC, but she just tore her ACL in December. Really unfortunate timing. IMO she is likely to RS her freshman year now. We will have to wait to see how good she can become. Regardless, this is a good get — even if she is not ranked in the Prospects Nation Top 60. An Ohio State offer is a good litmus test.
- Stremlow (G): Knockdown shooter, good defender, but not an elite prospect. Ranked in 90s per ESPN. A good recruit but likely to be a role-player a la McCabe if '25/'26 recruiting pans out as it should. She has very well-rounded stats in HS (Points, Assists, Steals, Rebounds) but I wouldn't expect her to be an impact player early, if at all.
- Levin (G): The only Iowan on the list -- she played for an unknown AAU team so she didn't get much exposure. Had some interesting offers, but nothing truly impressive. Ms. Iowa Basketball, which isn't nothing. But I don't expect her to be a game-changer. Some disagree, I hope I'm wrong.
- Addie Deal (W): She is ranked #12 in the country acc. to ESPN and #5 according to Prospects Nation. She had offers from LSU, Stanford, Ohio State, Indiana, UCLA, USC, the list goes on. As a consensus top 12 pick, we should have very high expectations of her. This is an EXCELLENT get -- her HS has traditionally been a feeder school to Stanford.
- Journey Houston (W): She is ranked #31 and #36 by ESPN + Prospects Nation. From Davenport. Not much more to say other than this is a very good get.
Remaining Targets: Bluder is not done recruiting for 2025, and her sights are set high. There are 3 very impressive recruits in the mix:
- Jordan Speiser (F): Consensus Top 20 player in the country out of Missouri. She plays for All Iowa Attack and is very warm to Iowa. She has been to campus multiple times. She is the most recent kid Bluder (the HC, not an Asst Coach) went to visit (in Feb I think). It looks like her top 3 are Iowa, Notre Dame, and K-State. She also has an LSU offer.
- Brynn McGaughy (PF): Consensus Top 15 player with a very impressive offer list that may include UConn. She was just in IC for the WV game and was reportedly v. impressed.
- Layla Hays (C): An up-and-coming 6'5 prospect out of Alaska who visited Iowa earlier this season and clearly had a great time. Believe it or not, her aunt played for Bluder. She (and her mom) are both clearly Hawk fans based on their social media activity. Prospects Nation has her as #21. She isn't in the ESPN Top 60 yet -- likely bc she's from Alaska and hasn't had the exposure. But ESPN updates their rankings periodically, I expect she will appear by summer.
This is all to say that the future lineup is already very good, but it could get even better. If Addie Deal is our next Caitlin, she is going to have a lot more help around her than Caitlin ever did.
2026: The excitement doesn't stop in 2025. Bluder has her eye on 3 more Top 25 kids in this class -- all of whom have been to Iowa City multiple times due to their proximity and friendship. She's been working on these relationships much longer than McGaughy / Hays.
- Maddyn Greenway (G): You know the last name. She is a legacy and a phenom. She has offers from everywhere. We're hoping she comes home. Clearcut Top 25 talent. Some say the deal is already done, but nothing is guaranteed til the ink is dry.
- Jenica Lewis (G): Another DSM sharpshooter. She is clearly a hawk fan, but as a Top 25 kid, she'll have the option to go much farther away. Top 25, was reportedly once #1 in the country.
- Addison Bjorn (W): A tall, long, very athletic Top 10 prospect out of MO who plays for All Iowa Attack. She has elite offers from everywhere including UConn. She seems very warm to Texas based on her social media activity. She has been to Iowa City half a dozen times as a sophomore.
But the bottom line here is that Iowa has attracted some pretty good recruits for 2024, some excellent recruits for 2025 and Bluder has set her sights very high for both rest of of the 2025 class as well as the 2026 class.
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