withe portal so active, coaches have tp adapt to that. S. Carolina seems to have found a solution to keeping quality players who do not start but get a lot of PT. I think that Ivey needs to move in that direction.

Sanaiya Rivers (NC State), Destiny Littlejohn (Southern Cal), Eniyah Russell (Kentucky), Elysa Wesolek (North Florida), and Talasia Cooper (Tennessee) left South Carolina the last two seasons.

Sahnya Jah has her name in the portal now. She is a somewhat different case because she had been suspended from the team for a condusct issue, but it's another case of a talented player leaving South Carolina.

to home in the Midwest. She's my favorite player on South Carolina. I wonder if she will even start in the next year.

team in the country in most way too early polls with a good chance at a Final 4 opportunity and possibly a National Championship. Does she really need to go to a team where you will be a starter and have guaranteed PT. She's got one year left and if ND wants her she would be smart to go. Even if she wants to play professionally, she has a lot of tape and PT. Showing she can be a team player with a team of great players maybe even more important for her pro prospects.

Liza, make a good choice and add an ND degree to your Marquette degree. We'd love to have you.

The same logic applies to Kiki I. An ND degree added to Stanford degree. All the alumni network of both schools. There is a long long life after pro basketball

that decision. Of course that was before NIL so there is now another factor in play and hopefully Niele is getting the right help with that.

Maybe I've grown a bit too jaded. All I can say is that if Niele can land top players without needing to promise lots of minutes, that bodes very well for us.

when she spells Kate.

One or two other thoughts come to mind: Let's see Niele has/will give call to Iriafen and/or Gardiner, but so have a lot of other top competitors. Karlen can play at a top level and she might not mind being the focus of attention.

Plus, the one-year stint tells me that Niele is working hard on procuring a four-year starter from the Class of 2025 at forward, such as Leah Macy, Grace Knox or Madison Francis.

The fact that Karlen is taking a tour tells me she's thought about it...plus there could be a specific grad program she's after at ND.

will join ND but you can't complain about not enough players and the complain when they try to get more.

The more good ones the merrier.

I agree with a lot of the points you're making, but I'm not worried about how we will match up with the smaller teams. I'm worried about the bigger teams that we'll run into in the tournament. Maddy at the 5 is good for a change of pace against those teams, but I'd be worried about it being the main plan. If Kate gets into foul trouble, we could be in trouble. As of right now, I think we'll be the favorites in the ACC based on our guards alone, but we have a real shot at the title if we can cover our weaknesses effectively, and post depth is likely our biggest weakness right now.

I'm hoping that Niele is selling players on a high tempo aggressive team that will sub a lot. In that case we'll want to go two deep at every position, which means we'll still be after a post player. If she's able to sell Karlen on that vision, knowing that she'll be a backup to a star player, hopefully that translates to other top players buying into the vision as well.

Such as Caitlyn Weimar, the 6'4" Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year from Boston U who averaged a double double?

I'm just throwing her out as a mid-major player who was an absolute star and stud for her team but might want to try P5 competition and chase a ring.

If Karlen comes aboard -- remember she's just visiting -- and Maddy is, indeed, here, that leaves ND with 8 able-bodied players. I'm sure Niele is looking for at least one more (preferably two in my book).

the chance of pursuing a national championship. Think of Anna DeWolfe.

Plus Koval will have several veterans to support her.