an ideal finish to portal season given how it’s already played out?
I think we can all agree we have a pressing need for post depth and athletic rebounding/shot blocking. A few weeks ago, my hope had been to get a center, a forward, and one other player. Now, I’m just hoping for a center and a forward.
Weimar is off the board. Nye withdrew. Karlen has been quiet and posting pics from Marquette practices. Iriafen is almost surely going to USC. King has been quiet since her visit. There are a few others who I thought would’ve been perfect (Alyssa Latham, Malea Williams), but there was never any interest shown on either side.
Given all of this, my mind goes to Dauda and Gardiner. I will not be surprised if Dauda goes to LSU, but I think she’s the exact type of shot blocker we need. Gardiner would be an ideal get as well if she’s willing to get good minutes off the bench. She has such a similar style to Maddy that she would be a perfect bridge between Maddy leaving and (hopefully) several forward recruits for 2025 coming in.
Any other thoughts? How can ND still get big wins from the portal? Perhaps King is still in play, but I personally think we should go for more height.
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Additionally, as it’s been talked about both on the boards and off, I wonder what Niele’s approach is to these transfers, and what’s keeping them away from ND. You have to think that an ND degree/grad degree PLUS playing with one of the best backcourts in the country is appealing, no?
I obviously don’t have anything beyond speculation, but my assumption is that Coach Ivey already knows who the starters are next year (Miles, Hidalgo, Citron, Westbeld, Koval). This is a problem when any big name worth getting would want to be a starter. The other two factors are likely coaching makeup—only having one post coach on staff compared to three guard coaches (including Coach Ivey)—and lack of proven depth under Ivey as HC (not always her fault—injuries suck—but she’s never shown she’s willing to play a deep lineup down low). I know Becky was likely never up to the level Niele would’ve wanted her to be last season, but I believe that refusing to play her, even when all we needed was a body down low, hurt the perception players have of how Niele uses her bench.
From all of that, we now arrive at:
• The top players don’t want to come to ND because they want to start… which won’t happen here
• The players we need for depth don’t want to come to ND because there’s no guarantee they’ll play
• The post players who want to develop don’t want to come to ND because the coaching staff is so geared toward guards
Please poke holes in this, but from an outside perspective, this seems to make the most sense.