Leadership and experience was needed. Jordan was and is a great potential PG. However she was a turnover machine last year with a great cast of players around her. I think MM saw that and realized the she needs some development. Nothing to hang your head about, some players find their game later.
I think with the transfers and early graduation and recruiting misses, ND is trying to accumulate the best possible team they can until recruiting fills the gap.

On the like side.
- Experienced. To use her words, "...plays within the offense," letting things come to her. That's right in line with what a Princeton-style offense demands. If she, Jordan and other guards can take that approach, super.
- Like MPG said, she's gritty, both in her defensive posture and on 50/50's..I remember her being the proverbial pain in the you-know-what when ND played Stanford. Now that she's on our team, I can see that in-your-face spirit helping. She's got an underclassman (Abby P) and a frosh (Anaya P) who have similar approaches to defense and loose balls. Marta can add some experience to that attitude.
- One year. I actually look at this short-term stint as a positive. The Irish can get a year of solid play and mentorship, then can move on to either let Jordan run the show and/or make way or share with an incoming freshman in 20/20 (Clark or Kelly, knock on wood floor).

And that segues into my concern....

- I hope that when this move was conveyed to Jordan Nixon, it was messaged and taken in the proper context. To some degree, I think Jackie Young moving on prompted this because Jackie was probably going to handle the ball often, along with Jordan. If Jordan can take this in the right context, good.

Hopefully, Shake's selection to the U.S. National Team will give her the confidence to come charging back to camp. And hopefully, MM and staff will be able to dole out appropriate minutes.

p.s. Ironic that Jordan beat out a Jenna Brown, who de-committed from ND to attend Stanford and might've been playing with Marta this year. Now that match-up with Jordan and Marta in South Bend.

And also very ironic, that Jordan will be playing summer ball with a player who also plays PG and is a prospect of ND. That, of course, is Caitlin Clark. Who knows, we might see Caitlin off the ball playing with Jordan (even in practice).

There's a lot of tight circles that spin and intersect at times, no?

next season with her -- I have to imagine there isn't anyone on earth they can recruit or get as a transfer that even remotely concerns JN. None of them are going to fill the shoes JY left behind and she was considered an absolute lock to start.

So, my guess is MM simply told her and the rest of the team that we unexpectedly are down 2 more bodies than planned for and at this point the only possible way we can get back to full strength headed into the season is to get graduate transfers that can play day one.

I also suspect the kids we have returning aren't stupid -- they know it isn't going to be easy to be a top 15 team sans any seniors on the team that have any kind of star power. They want to win -- and probably are happier than pigs in slop that we managed to get two players that on paper can probably increase our win total by 3-5 games this season -- making us more experienced day one versus needing 2/3 of the season to get experienced enough to play the way we need to play game one.

That's my theory anyway.

..as I said, it's more of a concern or worry. Your idea that our young guards would like to have some folks that have been around the block makes good sense. We'll just see how MM and staff achieve that balance of having experience on the court and allowing the young 'uns to get floor time.

In any case, Marta was always one of those "pain the butt" players you hated going against but am now glad is on our team. Plays good defense for sure.

for one reason or another this season too. It's just a harsh reality -- injuries happen (or illness in the case of A. Patberg). This gives us some margin of error. Going into a season with only 8 is virtually a lock to be a problem.

We need to know what we can expect going forward from the guards we already have. Next season is likely to be a struggle regardless, but in the years that follow how will we use Nixon, Prohaska, Gilbert and Peoples? The answer to that question will greatly affect recruiting.

I'm happy to have a good player like Sneizek, but it's only for one year and the more time she spends on the floor, the fewer minutes the others get.

The 2 grad transfer guard we got are both Grads of Stanford. Is this MMs
way of getting back at Tara.

...We can possibly go after Jenna Brown in a few years to keep this trend
going.

SEG/Chief

But hopefully MM had a talk with her before bringing Marta in.
1) Only 8 scholarship players on the roster (now 9) - plenty of minutes to go around
2) No senior/grad student leadership
3) Basically she is taking Jackie's spot - an additional guard/upperclassman leadership
4) Marta is gone after a year
5) MM could also point out that they had brought in LiLi the year before with 4 guards already on the roster (3 of which are currently in the WNBA) and those players accepted the transfer and won a national title
6) And she could point out that she lost two point guards to injuries that year - reason she felt she needed to add a player

My concern on both transfers is health and being in shape. The returning roster still has a bunch of guards with questions but with that being said, alot of talent. I still believe the team's best guard will be Anaya Peoples.

a freshman. She is the real deal and will be difficult to keep off the floor

If they are typical freshman that have some good moments here and there, but generally speaking need a year to adjust, then this is going to be a 6-10 loss season IMO and we will at best be a S16 team and finish 3rd or so in the ACC.

If one of the two come in and play anywhere near the way Lloyd played as a freshman, then everything goes up a notch in the positive direction. We probably still lose 3-4 more games than we are used to, but we probably get to around a top 10 team (assuming at least one of the two transfers actually plays v continues their injury trend).

If both of them hit the ground running, then this team has a shot to shock many people and be a solid top 10 team and could even get into the E8 and be considered a threat to all but the absolute top 2-3 teams.

Odds are that we have way too many players that have to either return to pre-injury form, stay healthy for the first time in a while, have breakout years that on paper they are capable of having, and all come together quickly into a team for this season to be the shocking one I describe in the previous paragraph -- but IMO the root of it all rests in whether the two freshman come flying out of the gate.

She had to make this move now.

SEG/Chief

defenders. My guess is that Marta will become a captain and that Jordan will appreciate having her as a mentor. I'll bet Sam Brunelle knows Marta from Fairfax Stars camps.

Marta is taking my position." I want to see an aggrssive, confident Jordan on the floor. I want her to
take command.

That being said, we need two point guard in case of fouls and/or injuries.