...on everything from recruiting and the U.S. Women's National Team to other teams' recruiting and the recruiting/retention challenges in the days of transfer portal. Been taking some long walks, walk/jogs early in the morning to beat the heat here in the east and been thinking about a few things hoop-wise.
Nothing earth-shattering here, but a few items might get a conversation going here or there.
- Let's start with a factoid. Jordan Nixon was injured during the U.S. Basketball Team's U-19 Practices just before July 4th and had to drop off the team. She was replaced by Ashley Joens of Iowa State. That interests me only because before Jordan blew the South Bend coop for Texas A&M, I thought it would be interesting to compare/contrast her with top Irish prospect Caitlin Clark. Now Jordan is not in Thailand, and Joens -- who knows Clark well from AAU days -- is there. Incidentally, according to a few observers (SkinsHoops86), is the Iowa coaching staff.
- BTW, U.S. is 2-0, having beaten Australia and South Korea. Clark comes off the bench spelling Paige Buecker and/or Hailey Van Lith. The team is coached by Jeff Walz, who does have a strong interest in Van Lith (as does Baylor's Kim Mulkey, Oregon State and Oregon, who must have a roster size that never really ends...) Van Lith is getting a lot of minutes.
- Speaking of UConn, they just got a 2021 commitment from the fabulously named Saylor Poffenbarger, a 6'2" wing from Maryland, whose mom played hoops at Missouri. Poffenbarger was on the U.S. National u-16 team. She was one of the first subs off the bench (behind Payton Verhulst and Sonia Citron). Didn't shoot as well as I've seen her do elsewhere, but she has deep range, an ability to put it on the floor and drive and keeps her head in the game. Reminds me a bit of Alli Campbell, our verbal commit for 2020, who is now 6'0" tall and has both outside and driving components to her continually improving game.
- With Paige Bueckers (2020), Poffenbarger (2021), Nika Muhl (from Croatia and 2020), wing Anna Makurat (from Poland and 2019), UConn has been picking up a slew of commitments. However, if you've noticed -- and the Boneyard faithful have -- these are guards/wings, with no one slated to join O-NO, as of yet (outside of a grad transfer).
So, the Husky faithful preach this will all work out with the ball-movement offense Geno teaches, while others think that's fine until you run into a forward-heavy team like Baylor, Oregon State or the one Oregon is building. Sound somewhat familiar?
Luckily, the Irish do have a verbal commitment from Nat Marshall. Expect both UConn and the Irish to go heavily after 2021 forward Amari DeBarry. Many signs point her to UConn, but so did those for Aliyah Boston.
- As for other 2021 guards like Ms. Citron and/or Verhulst. Well, Citron seems to be the most popular belle of the ball, with offers recently pouting in from Louisville (don't tell me you're surprised), Texas Tech and UCLA. Olivia Miles, the u16 starting point guard, dropped by ND on her way to an Indy AAU event and saw former Philly Belle buddy, Danielle Cosgrove.
- Regarding these 202l guard/wings, I think Irish next steps at the guard/wing position are all dependent on what happens with a relatively few 2020 prospects: Caitin Clark, Maddy Westbeld and/or Deja Kelly.
Remember, the Irish have got a number of guards/wings with multiple years of eligibility in 2020 (Peoples, Gilbert, Prohaska, Brunelle [offense]) and Campbell coming in, so I think the coaching staff is being selective, if past processes are any indication.
I used to think Clark first and then Kelly. Still think we're after Clark in a major way, in part because she's a take-charge player from either the PG or Off-Guard.
But recently, I've also been getting more interested in Westbeld, who recently included us in her top 5. Yes, she's wing, but if forwards/posts are as difficult to get as we've recently seen and UConn, well, having very tall guards and wings helps to somewhat counterbalance that. Maddy is 6'2", like Sam, and Alli is now listed at 6', as is Clark. See a trend to "moving up" in height? (UConn's commits are taller, too.)
If Clark and/or Westbeld go elsewhere*, I would hope ND is looking at Citron, (now) Verhulst and 6'3" play-anywhere Destiny Adams, who made it deep into the U16 tryouts. I know the prize in 2021 is Azzi Fudd, but that star is so elusive, you've got to take in others, too. And these are top-notch prospects who would all fit into ND's motion-based Princeton offense.
(* Like many on this board, I very much hope Clark lands in South Bend and many other folks think this should've been a layup. But she does seem to have interest in other places: Orangutan has noted her interest in Oregon and Sabrina Ionescu and I could see her wanting to become Sabrina2. She is also very much something of a superstar in Iowa, which has excellent programs, both at the public and private level. She's aware of ND...in a major way...so got to keep the faith.)
As for the other PG, I feel Kelly's apparent top options are not as plentiful as one might think. For instance, while I think Clark could still commit to Oregon and feel very confident about starting there, I can't say the same about Kelly. She might not even get an offer.
And I think Olivia Miles is a good one in 2021. Good as in Lindsay Allen start-from-day-one good. And the interest between her and ND appears to be mutual and strong. Perhaps the Philly Belle connection is helping.
- Now, to answer the "what about bigs in 2020?" I did some research a few weeks back and who knows if there's any mutual interest on any of those or others. We'll see if any of these connected with visits in September.
- Some prospects who fit a model in retention could work backwards into recruiting.
Huh? I read a good post on the Lacrosse board about Coach Corrigan from a former player who thought Corrigan's greatest strength was finding and getting the kind of player that fit his style of play, but also fit the 40-year model that his team does a good job of addressing from internships to job placements.
I'm not saying MM has not done that (recent landing spots for former players is impressive), but we don't seem to be doing it on the scale tha we used to, as witnessed by the smaller rosters and even smaller ones, once hit by transfers.
Coach Tara V at Stanford seems to do a top notch job of getting kids to Palo Alto, then keeping them (remember, the two transfers to ND were grad transfers). A lot of those "back benchers" were solid HS players who could've gone elsewhere, but seemed to be content with being practice players and getting a few minutes here or there.
Can MM and Niele, in addition to going after the top-notch kids necessary to win national championships, also find similar-style players? I've got to think ND could find players of a similar ilk. Maybe one or two become regular contributors, either as spot players and/or specialty contributors (Hannah H?).
Why not talk to guards Keegan Sullivan of South Bend or Brynn Farrell of St. Rose Catholic in New Jersey? These girls are not chopped liver...Sullivan is highly rated in some services and Farrell made first-team all-NJ as a senior (over players like Kylee Watson).