Thanks for this—an interesting article with some substance to back it up. Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, and Maryland are all up there. What happened to Pennsylvania? (Although PA has been good to ND with McBride, Cable and Campbell.)

..and a look at this heat map shows that. Orangutan has always pointed this out when looking at ND recruiting.

- While Caitlin Clark didn't come to ND, you can go east from Iowa (Markesa Wright) to Illinois (Anaya People), Indiana (Katlyn Gilbert, Ali Patberg), Ohio (Westbelds), Pa. (Ali Campbell), NJ (Olivia Miles, the Mabreys) and New York (Sonia Citron, Nat Marshall, Dani Cosgrove).

- ND has done a good job of getting to know AAU Clubs in a lot of those areas (the Indy clubs, Excel in NYC and Philly Belles, who recruit from the mid-Atlantic). Niele has made some incursions into Texas, when she was scouting Deja Kelly. Sure those are still in touch.

And then there are coaches who know areas: Michaela knows the Jersey Shore; Niele has really gotten conversant with the metro NYC area; Coquese has connections in Maryland, NJ and the Michigan communities.

- But ND will also find "their kind of players," which is why we'll see ND staff in LA, Utah (Timea Gardiner) and Colorado (Lauren Betts).

- But they've also ventured in states that are mentioned like Tennessee and Georgia. Get the presence and contacts known a bit more...

hasn't added a Texan since Brianna Turner or a Californian since Hannah Huffman. Nicole Benz is on the roster from Cal., but was not recruited.

The article is an interesting read as we await the summer solstice.