You comment about "needing help in athleticism" would seem to suggest that you don't think we have enough athleticism on the team. (Edit: This rant is because you said ND needed help in athleticism. If you had just said height and depth, I would have just said, "Yeah, sure.")
We have a player who made the First team All American team as a freshman, with 22.6 ppg, 5.5 apg, 6.2 rpg, and 4.6 spg. She was 6th in scoring, 25th in assists per game, and 1st in steals per game. She probably would have had more steals if ND's depth wasn't so bad down the stretch, requiring her to not be as aggressive in order to avoid foul trouble. Outside of Caitlin Clark, who had a better overall stat line than that last year?
We're getting back a PG who, as a sophomore, finished 3rd in school history in assists (only 3 behind Niele Ivey's 2000-01 season) despite going down in the regular season finale, missing both the ACC and NCAA Tournament.
We'll have a 5th year senior who is half of the only pair of sisters in school history to both have over 1,000 career points. She's currently ranked 16th in school history in scoring (just ahead of Achonwa). She, like her sister, is a great "glue" player as well as a strong 3 point shooter.
We'll have Sonia Citron back. I don't have to go into details on that.
We're getting back someone who is a starter on the Canadian National team and who is amazing on defense and in rebounding.
Emma Risch as a our next Ratay? Do you know who compared her to Ratay? Someone who LITERALLY PLAYED WITH RATAY! It seemed like she started out with the "freshman adjusting to the college game" thing, but I wonder if the injury that she ended up getting surgery for might have had some effect on that as well.
We're getting a 5 star 6'5" center who seems to be very advanced as a player. Granted, she'll be a freshman, but still.
Do we need some more depth in the post from the portal? Yes. Considering who else in on this team, I think a great post prospect would be nuts not to consider ND.
However, clenching your pearls over who other teams have compared to ours is ridiculous. The only thing that would keep next year's ND team out of the Final Four would be an injury-ridden season like this year.
You are aware that ND beat UConn last year, at UConn, right? With Bueckers playing? Also, Fudd so far hasn't really been playing up to expectations, especially after her injury.