WBB Transfer Portal
- Thread starter huntermmm
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Bluder seems to want the best for her players .... no info but guessing there was a honest heart to heart and it was determined that if Tomi wanted more minutes she’d be better off leaving?
I found it strange too because regardless of how you feel about incoming recruits and all you never know about injuries and how well freshmen will play
is this Tomi’s 6th season and we needed the scholarship? Honestly probably best left between them..... I don’t ever recall a player having anything negative to say about her..... players seem to love her
I found it strange too because regardless of how you feel about incoming recruits and all you never know about injuries and how well freshmen will play
is this Tomi’s 6th season and we needed the scholarship? Honestly probably best left between them..... I don’t ever recall a player having anything negative to say about her..... players seem to love her
Thank you. Refreshing to see open and honest from a coach.
Tomi just completed her 4th season, she is using her Covid year as a Grad Transfer.
I think that's noteworthy for two reasons: 1) most of us have assumed the coaches probably aren't looking at many transfer targets, and 2) Carr has played starter minutes her whole career.
For 1, they obviously didn't land Carr. So was their transfer interest limited to her, or are they looking at additional targets?
For 2, Carr presumably was only going to transfer to a school where she would play significant minutes. She's also listed at 5'5', so she's probably limited to the 1 or 2. Did the coaches envision her starting over Marshall? Playing all the backup 1 and 2 minutes?
Posted in the committment thread - played against Iowa in NCAA first round 2 years ago. Good shooter, goes off dribble, plays bigger than 5'7.
I doubt Clark will be "off ball" any more than she has been. Any of the players 1-3 technically initiate the offense, but it ends up in Clark's hands sooner or later. With the type of player she is, she should touch the ball on virtually every possession.
I do think running some set off ball plays for Clark is a good idea, but any of Marshall, Martin, or Warnock should be able to pass into those in addition to Davis.
It was 2021. She had 18 points, 5 steals and 3 assists though shot 1-7 from 3 in that game.
Interesting that she is willing to give up being a starter on a midmajor to be a backup on a Power 5 team. If she can fit in more quickly than Kylie did, sounds like the perfect veteran piece to lessen our starters minutes.
Excellent and much needed picked and EXACTLY what Iowa needs. An experienced guard to backup CC and Gabbie. It frees up Caitlin to be more aggressive attacking the rim as we now have a true backup point. It also gives us a secondary ballhandler when CC/MD are on the floor together and makes it much harder for teams to faceguard Caitlin so aggressively. Also takes the sting out of the lack of '23 commits as we don't necessarily need to add anyone in '23 unless somebody decides to not use their COVID year.
This added transfer is also telling me that I think Lisa is finally coming to terms with the transfer portal era.
Is anyone worried about the possibility that we took a transfer because the coaches have been informed that a current player is entering the portal??
That is a possibility seeing as Lisa rarely likes to have 15-player rosters. Or it could be that nobody is planning on transferring out and they recognized the need for a backup PG.
I think after last season Bluder recognizes the need for depth. I think the staff was likely very silently recruiting a PG all along hence why Tomi entered the portal.
I strongly doubt the coaches knew a player was leaving and added Davis as a result. I'm sure the transfer process for Davis took several days if not longer from first contact to commitment. If a player told the coaches they were leaving a few days ago, I'm sure they would've entered the portal by now. There's no good reason to wait and roster spots are filling by the day.
That said, Davis joining could certainly lead a player to decide to transfer. Davis and Feuerbach are probably going to fill most of the minutes Taiwo played last year.
See the first basket of the game. If someone beyond Clark can breakdown a defense that benefits an Iowa offense dependent on spacing the floor for its 3 point options. And this team could use a little more toughness and I think Davis plays with that edge.
Is it possible that Iowa could play Clark and Davis together a lot? Doing so would give Iowa a lot more versatility on offense with 2 players who can handle the ball. Iowa's ball-handling if the ball was not in Clark's hands was not good.
I could see Davis getting at least 10-15 minutes (and maybe more) at the 2 in place of Marshall. Her ability to get to the basket is something Marshall just can't offer. Same with her ball-handling in general. Add in 5-8 minutes at the backup 1, and I could easily see her averaging 15-20 minutes per game.
That would leave Feuerbach to backup Martin, O'Grady/Goodman to backup Czinano, and Stuelke (or someone else) to backup Warnock. 9 players is deeper than the rotation has been in quite a while.
I see it happening, but probably not for long periods of time. Clark is always going to be ball dominant, as she should, but she played off the ball more late in the season & having Davis could make it more effective. Davis gives Iowa flexibility if teams are pressing, or guards getting in foul trouble, injuries, & a backup point guard who can create when the shot clock is running down.
I just watched the entire NCAA game CMU played against Iowa & it is easy to see how Davis will fit in with Iowa. She played under control, setup her teammates, drove the ball with purpose to score or kick, & her defense was sneaky good too. I noticed her team this past season record wise wasn't very good so I'm sure she had to force things a bit more with defenses focused on her.
Was wondering this too—-if this gal can take the starter’s spot from Gabbie. Haven’t seen her play but we’re all aware of Gabbie’s shortcomings.
I would put Iowa's 3rd 5 up against anyone else's in the country. That fact worries me in that there is no way to keep 15 people happy, and does this mean sacrificing a few of the younger players (transfers) for a run here in the next 2 years?
I think that comes down to shooting, defense, and Coach Bluder.
Shooting wise, Davis was very good her freshman and sophomore year, but below average last year. Part of that, I think, was needing to carry a heavier offensive load for her team. If her shooting returns this year, that puts her fairly close to Gabbie as a reliable shooting option.
Defensively, Gabbie is our best perimeter defender. Can Davis match her or at least get close? If so, that makes her being a starter more likely because of the things she offers that Gabbie doesn't.
I put Coach Bluder in as a variable because I think its sometimes hard for coaches to move on from players that they have trusted for a long time. If Davis were clearly slightly better than Gabbie would Coach Bluder make her the starter? We hope the answer is yes, but I don't think it's a 100% certainty.
I think it might be possible to keep both 5s happy, because Czinano is leaving after this year. In 2023/2024 both O'Grady and Goodman will play a lot unless one of them is clearly better than the other. Having them both split 40 minutes could actually be a big advantage in that both can play harder knowing they will get a break soon or that foul trouble isn't a big issue.
Assuming Marshall, Davis, Martin, and Warnock take the extra Covid year (or that at least 3 of 4 do), then I think transfers are almost a certainty. Players like Affolter, Ediger, and Wetering would have no clear path to playing time for an additional two seasons. McCabe and Gyamfi would need to be okay with not seeing major minutes until they are juniors (unless they just beat someone out).
There was an article in the Gazette back during the girls state tournaments on Jada Gyamfi. In which she said she plans on learning during her freshman year. I know Lisa is not big on redshirting unless a player gets injured. She did with Sevillian because they were loaded at guard at that time. Maybe Jada would be open to redshirting.
If I were Coach Bluder, McCabe is the player I would think about redshirting. With Davis coming in, McCabe probably isn't going to see the floor much this year barring injury. She does have a pretty clear path to playing time once Marshall and Davis move on, though. If injuries do happen, we can always burn the redshirt to address them.
You might be right about McCabe. She could use a year of weight training before playing in the physical Big Ten. However, I assume she came in with the expectation of competing. And Coach Bluder would have to change her philosophy of no redshirts, which is possible. (Alexis Sevillian was an exception.) I remember Hannah Stewart and Tagyn Larson totally wasting a year of eligibility their freshmen years for a handful of minutes.
I would love to know what happened behind the scenes with Molly Davis. Raina Harmon played and coached at Central Michigan so that might have been a connection, though she had moved on to Iowa before Davis started. And what conversations did Lisa Bluder have with the current Iowa players beforehand? We will probably never know.
Stewart is a great example. She barely played her freshman year, but was a big contributor by her senior season. It would've been nice to have her on roster for an additional season after Gustafson graduated (even though Czinano and Ollinger played her positions well in 2019-2020).
Raina recruits Michigan for Iowa so that is where it probably started. When Lisa wants to bring in a transfer or walk-on the entire team knows about it and is encouraged to give feedback. I saw Molly Davis was originally scheduled to visit Minnesota this weekend too.
