Wow!!! Offering students entering 8th grade sees a bit much to me. But that’s way recruiting seems to be going
WBB recruiting for the future
- Thread starter cyberhawk
- Start date
It was intended to be humor about how when we were little boys, the girls "developed faster than boys".
Are there any PGs in the 2023 class that we are seriously pursuing? To me it looks like the big focus is on getting one or more PGs in the 2024 class. It seems like people think we're in good shape with Levin, and the coaches are spending a lot of time watching Olson and Prince.
Kennise Johnson-Etienne seems to the be the main one. Iowa offered on June 16 and Raina Harmon was at several of her games last weekend.
There's also someone like Ashlynn Shade, who might not be a PG and might be a long shot anyway.
There are others with offers but I'm not sure how serious any of them are.
But I agree with you, they are very clearly are focusing on 2024 for a PG and obviously that makes sense, given what they lose.
Focusing so much on the 2024 PGs is a high risk, high reward strategy. "You can be the next Caitlin Clark and start as a freshman" is the best recruiting pitch we can make, especially if the next few years go well. But if we miss on the elite PGs, not having one from 2022 (and potentially 2023) could be disastrous.
However, doesn’t the transfer portal change everything? Basically access to every college tram roster every year, especially for the “elite” teams.
Sadly this is correct. Need a PG? Just recruit someone playing on another team.
Don’t forget Callie Levin from Solon is a PG in the 2024 class and I hear she is Iowas to lose. She might not be elite but I bet will be a top 100 recruit.
I think that remains to be seen. Teams like UConn and NC State have certainly made huge upgrades to their roster through the transfer portal this offseason. But I also think there were only a few players who entered the portal that would've been guaranteed starters on a Top 10-15 team. Even if we have the portal to fall back on, I think not getting a PG before the 2024 class is a fairly big risk.
I'm really not trying to knock Levin here, but if she's our starting PG as a true freshman the year after Clark leaves, we're probably taking a step back for at least that year. As an example, think of Kathleen Doyle. She was a back of the top 100 recruit. She started right away and was good, but the team wasn't yet. We finished 20-14 and didn't make the NCAA Tournament. Doyle almost certainly wasn't good enough as a freshman to be the PG on a Sweet 16 team.
If we got a PG of Levin's caliber in the 2022 or 2023 class, they would have time to develop before needing to start after Clark leaves. We could potentially avoid a down year or two.
The reason I'm talking so much about Olson and Prince in the 2024 class is that if they continue to develop, they might be good enough as freshman to step in and help the team continue to compete for Sweet 16s right away.
I think we need a backup point guard ASAP. Someone capable of giving Clark some rest and covering for injuries.
We need an elite guard for when Caitlyn graduates but it's not really an immediate need for the season. Gabby will likely slide over to PG when Clark gets a breather. Kate and Tomi have also been primary ball handlers in the past and Kylie is also capable but I didn't see enough of her games last year to know how she would run the offense. Gabby and Kate are both very effective running the offense. Obviously neither are going to make the kind of plays on their own that Caitlyn can but then run the offense in the half court. If Gabby has added some extra muscle she should have more success finishing when she drives this year. We had Megan Meyer last year as the backup PG but her minutes were limited. If we play better defense and protect our leads this year, Caitlyn will be able to get longer breathers. But I still expect her to average 25-30 minutes a game because she is who she is.
To be fair the 2016 team was in bad shape when Doyle took over. There was a huge talent deficit. Davis was coming off in injury. Hannah Stewart hadn't come into her own. The SF position didn't really have any stars just a bunch of role players. It was a basically a four player team with Doyle, Gustafson, Coley and Disterhoff. Kastanek played the most of out of the others. She was talented but streaky. Mohns and Buttenham were role players and just weren't all that effective to be honest. No back up center to speak of. Mackenzie Meyer and Sevillian were both freshmen and the only depth at guard. The cupboard was really bare because of attrition.
When Clark leaves, Iowa will be in an entirely different situation as we have had some very good recruiting and haven't dealt with a lot of injuries or attrition. Levin is young so who knows how much more she will develop. But if she's a top 100 player by the time she arrives on campus I think she could at least take Iowa to the Sweet 16 if no one transfers given the talent we have already committed for the next few years.
I think Levin will be much better suited off the ball. Have seen her multiple times and she struggles to handle the ball against quicker, smaller guards. She is turning into a much better shooter/scorer and she doesn’t have anywhere near the handle/vision of a kid like Clark.
Most pg's don't look like Clark and Levin is 4 years younger than Clark. Still time to develop. Besides, her dad works for the University so she's a lock. Get used to her...
I didn’t say she wouldn’t end up a Hawk. I don’t think she is a PG at the next level. I’ve seen her play 50+ times. I could be off but that is my OPINION.
Levin will verbal very soon to Iowa..........sources say.
So then would you say she could possibly be playing the 2 if she commits to us
Callie Levin (class of 2024) commits to Iowa
She has been mentioned in this thread before. Any idea of how she projects for that class?
She has been mentioned in this thread before. Any idea of how she projects for that class?
[QUOTE="libertyhawkeye, post: 9138570, member: 34127
[…]
She has been mentioned in this thread before. Any idea of how she projects for that class?
[/QUOTE]
She did play up one year for the U16 AIA Nike GEYBL national champions. That says something.
[…]
She has been mentioned in this thread before. Any idea of how she projects for that class?
[/QUOTE]
She did play up one year for the U16 AIA Nike GEYBL national champions. That says something.
I posted some thoughts on the prior page (post 1,550). Expanding on those a bit, Iowa offered and got commitments from Stuelke, Gyamfi, and McCabe in the class of 2022 well before they were ranked nationally. They have since made it onto at least 1 Top 100 list. I presume the coaches wouldn't have offered so early in the process unless they felt Levin was a Top 100 level player.
Levin had an early offer from Mike Neighbors at Arkansas, which is pretty strong validation of her potential. As an assistant and head coach, Neighbors has been a highly-regarded recruiter.
I do know that her high school coach checked his mailbox at school and had a questionnaire for her and her teammate Divine Burrage, from UCONN. Geno is at least aware of her.
Also thank you hawkbuck70 for the insider information once again!
Absolutely. It sounds like it's been an open secret that Levin would end up at Iowa for a while now. The coaches have still focused a lot of attention on Olson in the last few weeks despite that. She's probably the top target in the 2024 class.
The 2024 class also has some flexibility. It will be replacing the Clark, Wetering, Goodman, and Feuerbach class, so if the coaches want to go to 4 players (instead of the typical 3) they can without adding an extra player to the roster. Taking 2 or even 3 guards shouldn't be too big of a problem.
Correct. It would be great to have a quality ball-handling guard right now to back up Clark. But will be tough to get a real good player at that position for a couple of years. Iowa will just have to try and get by if Clark is in foul trouble or hurt next year.
Bluder is really recruiting well. High quality players interested in the program.
She's taken unofficial visits to Michigan State, Ohio State, DePaul, Purdue, and Wisconsin in the last couple months. It seems like she posts her unofficial visits on Twitter and Iowa wasn't one of them. That doesn't necessarily mean Iowa isn't one of her top schools, but I don't think it's a great sign. I also haven't seen her mentioned as a player the coaches are watching at AAU tournaments.
