I went through the entire list of D1 transfers and compiled my own list of forwards/centers who could fit the role(s) we need. Just a few to keep an eye on even as it seems the sky is falling while more big names come off the board. I will post the ones you did not name below, along with their stats and what their eligibility will be for 2024-25.

First up, two forwards from the Ivies:

Jordan Obi, 6’1” F, Penn, Senior
34.1 MPG, 14.8 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 1.4 BPG, 43.3% FG, 38.6% 3P

Brenna McDonald, 6’3” F, Yale, Senior
29.5 MPG, 10.8 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 1.5 BPG, 53.9% FG


Next up, a player who definitely needs development, but who could work perfectly for what we need:

Letycia Vasconcelos, 6’7” C, Baylor, Sophomore
5.9 MPG, 1.1 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 0.4 BPG, 31.6% FG (was the #36 HG prospect for 2023)


Lastly, a couple of other players who caught my eye:

Lilly Taulelei, 6’3” C, UMass, Sophomore
24.2 MPG, 6.7 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 0.4 BPG, 45.3% FG

Jorynn Ross, 6’3” F, Pepperdine, Sophomore
20.7 MPG, 6.1 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 0.4 BPG, 51.0% FG

Boy, they both played on some horrible teams, but those were both in transition years for coaches (last at Pepperdine, first at U-Mass). Both started more as the season went on.

Ross is interesting in that she's from Milwaukee. Would she be interested in being close(r) to home? (Could, should see Marquette after her, too.)

..a 4-year senior with a Covid year who has chosen not to put her name into the portal at this late point. Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year for three years running who plays much taller than her 6'1" frame. I kept waiting for her to show up on the portal list, but it hasn't happened.

Brenna McDonald was one of the better players on a very blaah Yale team, but she plays with purpose and efficiency in the two games I watched.
Muffet and Niele have Ivy connections to drop a dime on her, as well as Penn's Jordan Obi, who I have not seen this year.

Thanks for doing this...always interesting (well, at least to you and me) to check over these players. As for a few others ...

when so many teams - good teams with good, stable coaching situations - have massive turnover. I am all for letting people out of their commitments when coaches leave. No problem when people transfer once - especially grad transfer. But transferring 2 and 3 and even 4X is insane. Not just for the school but for the athlete.

Let no one forget that the most successful player ever in terms of TV and NIL was Caitlyn Clark, who stayed 4 years at one school and was a real student. And South Carolina has been very quiet.

I am glad ND has been quiet. I think max one - would take no more than one (ideally a front court grad transfer with one year eligibility). I won't shed a tear for any school that has lots of transfer activity and does poorly.

We had a championship caliber roster returning and people were already salivating over transfer portal targets. We lost two and everyone just assumed All Americans and Conference POYs would line up. Forget whether they would be appropriate fits.

There’s also been this assumption that Niele has learned her lesson re getting a deep bench through the portal. You know, learned her lesson from winning the ACC tournament playing 6! But surely there were adequate replacements for Olivia and Kylee in the portal last year just waiting to sit the bench in the event of injury. Because it’s not like she took a chance on Obinma who wasn’t ready for the jump.

Niele isn’t changing her stripes. She likes a short bench and team chemistry. KK was a massive win for her. Nat was a huge loss. She’ll most certainly look for the best forward she can to replace her. But people thinking that we’d take 3-4 transfers are simply setting themselves and others up for disappointment. I would suggest that they ask themselves whether that is the kind of team they want to root for.

that we need at least two additions from the portal. A few others prefer adding three. With two, that would be a roster of ten and with three a roster of eleven, to start the year.

So far Niele has shown she likes to play a rotation of eight. If that remains the same two players would struggle to get minutes. Would she go one more if it was a quality player and/or was a younger player in need of development? Maybe, maybe not.

A smaller roster than ten is living on the edge. Can you have an excellent season, yes, but can it all fall flat absolutely.

Becky was a late add on last season, acquired in May and it did not work. (I am sure she was very disappointed.). That is what I am currently concerned about. We don't need two bodies, we need two players who are capable of playing and contributing. When and how much will be decided by many factors. One injury and we're down to nine, two and down to eight. Each loss means less options in how you can play.

My "druthers" (On loan from Dillon.) We land one strong forward/post and one solid rotational back up, who won't just sit the bench.

What is the distribution of minutes...and I'm talking about competitive ACC games? Total of 200M (40M x 5)

HH
Olivia
Soni
Maddy
Kate
Strong post TP
Rotational TP
KK
Cass
Emma

For purposes of this post, I will assume that Kylee takes a full medical redshirt.

The big 4 will target 25-27 minutes per game.
Koval will target 20 minutes.
The other 5 in the hypothetical 10 player roster will get about 16 minutes each.

There will be some individual variation based on matchups and performance.

This is more or less the model used by South Carolina and they don't seem to have a problem attracting or retaining talent.

Based on comments from Ivey earlier this year, she had intended to do more pressing, more fast breaking, and harder defense but wasn't able to due to numbers. That implies that she wants a large rotation and fewer minutes per game for her starters to keep up the intensity.

Add in the analytics that I believe the team still uses to track vitals during games to help optimize playing time and substitution timing, and I think it's clear that she would make data-driven decisions here to sub earlier when needed.

I also reject the notion that Ivey prefers a short bench. She did say that she wanted a smaller roster after she struggled with 15 in her first year, but my take is that she wants fewer total players but a larger percentage of contributors. The fact is, we don't have any examples of Ivey coaching a team with more than 8 healthy players that could also play at a high level. The closest we got was the South Carolina game last year where 8 players had at least 14 minutes. That seems like the model she is aiming for.

team with the existing players healthy plus a Karlen or similar player. It would be very good and intense on D. I would hope for that model but I haven't seen it with Niele yet. It takes trust in non-starting players.

Does a coach recruit elite talent because she plays a deep bench or does she play a deep bench because she has elite talent.

It's pretty easy to say just do what this coach does. HOFer, 20+ years and team usa coach. Just do that.

Do I think Niele would like to bring a MiLaysia Fulwiley off the bench for Paopao? Of course. I assume that's what you mean by trust. I don't see Dawn Staley bringing on freshman Ali Campbell for Paopao to give her 15-20 minutes of rest.

Even if I disagree with it, I appreciate your argument.

My only specific counter is that if Niele was truly looking to build a deep bench I would have expected her to sign more than one recruit in her last class.

And I would have expected to see more rotation of minutes between Nat, Maddy and Kylee when they were all healthy. But that didn’t happen much even with larger leads.

But what we cannot know are minor (not season ending) injuries, foul trouble in any particular game, searching for hot shooter should someone but having a bad game. Or even players that evolve through hard work and practice and warrant more playing time. We need 10 strong players for spirited practices. I realize we all think the 4 returning will be terrific every game but…… history teaches a different lesson. Complacency will weaken any team and competition for playing time should be the norm.

Not when playing 20-30+ elsewhere. 18 mins? OK. Not 10.

problem to have but as you, me
and a few others keep bringing
up is playing time. Ergo, transfers,
even from ND.

They will be OK back at 30 but if taking even 1 transfer you need to go down to 28. Add in Olivia at 30 (or less) and you are at 120 max. The leaves 80 for Kylee (25mins last year), KK (25mins last year). Yes, that is only 2 true bigs, but even if you drop those two to 20 you have only 40 left for EMMA, Cass and a TBD big???


Reality will have to look something like this if take a transfer big who is worth playing:

Maddy, HH, Soni, Liv @ 28 = 112 (all over 30 in last playing year)

KK and Cass @ 20 = 40 (fewer mins than either played in past year)

Kylee and TBD Big @ 18 = 36 (fewer for each)

Koval @ 8-10 = 8 (Biggest player needs some time)

Emma @ 5-8 = 5 (Only other 3 pts shooter)

As it is, this gets you to 201. Take Karlen - she played 30+ all year and Kylee 25 last year, neither are going lower than 18.

You can easily see why Nat left even if there is no Big TBD transfer. She was staring at going down from playing 30+ mins in NCAA at the end to under 20 for sure.

Frankly, the only reason for a transfer Big is (a) 18 quality mins play at max and (b) Insurance against injuries. Most truly good players don't want to be "insurance".

With KK back, no need for anything else besides maybe a big who can do A and B, and as important accept that that is what she is there for. And if the player isn't really good, she won't even get 18. Anna DeWolfe probably had a similar deal but then so much changed injury wise.

appropriate. But before I get to that, you probably should be aware that there is a very small chance that Kylee plays next year, as it typically takes a year for the surgery/rehab/getting into game shape. That's why Mike (who generally agrees with your general point about the minute crunch) did not consider Kylee when counting available players for next season.

So what about your minutes accounting was inappropriate? You cannot just add together players' minutes and have it total to 200. The implicit assumption in the that model is that all players play those minutes in all games. In other words, there are no games lost to injury, illness, or DNP (coach's decision). In reality, that never happens. But when you make arguments like, KK and Cass played more than 40 min/game when you add them together, you're assuming that they played every game. But in reality because Cass was injured so early in the season, the total minutes they played was not 48 minutes/game (22.4 + 25.6), which would be 48/200 = 24% of the total minutes but rather (844 + 112)/(32games * 200 min) = 14.9% of the total minutes.

Put another way, if you went and added all the min/game for the Irish for last season, you get 251 minutes, not 200 minutes. That's because not all players played in every game. Here are the totals for Niele's 4 years as the head coach:

23-24: 250.7 minutes
22-23: 234.5
21-22: 219.6
20-21: 259.9

The 4-year average is 243.3 minutes.

I was specific in mentioning minute distribution in competitive ACC play. Putting yourself in the shoes of a recruit, I think that’s your relative mindset. What/when can I reasonably expect to play when it matters most? The reality of the situation is that HH and Soni aren’t likely to leave the floor much at all. Maddy might for some rest and foul trouble. Liv is a bit of a wild card, but if she’s healthy she’s not going to sit much.

There’s average minute distribution and there’s the reasonable expectation of available minutes.

and I cut everyone's minutes. Everyone's. Relative to the history because I am well aware of how they get warped. In fact Nat's minutes were only 20 on average (below that at times) and she was playing over 30 at the end.

There are 200 minutes and we have a bunch of 4* and 5* players only one of which is a freshman. And that freshman has to play because she is by far the biggest one. It's an issue. And its an even bigger issue if we take 1 or 2 players from the portal. I see one max and it better be someone with a big time team attitude like Anna DeWolfe willing to play whatever role comes her way.

I'm intrigued to see if Liza Karlen, a player from a team you and I have followed quite a bit, will be "the one."

Anna DeWolfe was like a gift from heaven now that we look back at it....

But as I noted, she won't come if she thinks it will be 10 a night. The poster Knuteberg doesn't know shit about her and the cavalier attitude is extremely annoying.

She is the best fit. Weimar might have fit as well. But Liza has played at a very high level of competition (not a dominant player on a bad team desperate for some success as incorrectly suggested above).

Like you, I loved DeWolfe and she played 30 a night but would have done whatever asked. Karlen is close - but she is also Big East 1st team. She put up 19 and 14 on Ole Miss.

always some form of word thinking.

quite some time. Are they completely healthy? Has their rehab brought them to game conditions?

What I do feel comfortable with is Kate Koval. Having watched her enough and also considering that she will be a freshman, who is 6'5" and has a good size frame. I think she will average 22 - 25 mins. pg.

Breaking down the season, pre ACC I would think Niele would be working in all ten players in different combinations and different situations.

It makes sense that when ACC games start that players nine and ten will get less minutes, but that may differ based on other players performances and game to game situations: short term injuries,foul troubles, off games etc.

Many teams do not have quality depth, if we do, does it not make sense to use them? (Keeps everyone happy, keeps legs fresh in a long and challenging season, allows full court pressure, addresses foul trouble ......

The bottom line too many if's and way too soon to know. In fact we are still missing players, but I do get your question. That will be for Niele to determine in due time.

They're your druthers, but let me help you out a bit. The distribution below assumes that all the players (except Emma and of course Kate) will play fewer minutes than they are used to playing in college.

HH 33
OM 30
Soni 32
Maddy 30
Timea? 25
Rotate 10
KK 15
Kate 15
Emma 5
Cass 5
200

There are 19 additional minutes that the big four could easily play if they each went to 36 minutes. If we're thinking of adding a 2nd (or 3rd!) transfer, what kind of caliber player is coming to play 10mpg?

IMO, if Notre Dame is going to have a successful season, it's much more likely that there will be a more significant contribution from KK, Cass and/or Emma than whatever backup they'll get in the portal.

I'm strictly looking at the front court, here.

You're right..Coach Ivey has played a relatively tight bench when push comes to shove. Maddy Westbeld is going to play a lot of minutes; primarily at the all-around forward slot (Deb Antonelli's term), but subbing into the middle on occasion.

If Kylee Watson was back, she'd share minutes with Kate Koval and even play a little dual post/forward if Maddy needed a blow. But, you and I both agree, Kylee will be out this year.

So, the best possible option -- to me -- is to find a person capable of being in a three-person rotation. Timea Gardiner would be the optimal choice but the fact that Liza Karlen visited this weekend (if Mr. Hansen is correct) tells me: 1) Coach Niele is looking for such an option; and, 2) She knows something about Gardiner we don't. Karlen could play that role.
Or see if a player like Maryam Dauda, who is all about defense, is available. She'll rebound and block shots until her heart is content. And she's relatively mobile, with a surprisingly decent three-pt. shot (for a big).

If they're all healthy, I agree that KK, Cass Prosper (primarily at wing in some kind of formation) and Emma Risch could and should get the minutes.

My main argument for getting two people would be to "prepare for the worst and hope for the best." In 2023-24,

- ND had a 13-person roster listed:
- Two (Miles, Brown) never played and one really never did (Cernugel)
So, it was really 10:
- Two were out the majority of the year (Risch-hip; Prosper-lower leg)
- Two more were out for multiple games (Citron-knee, Obinma-concussion, other injuries)
- Bransford missed the first two games and Watson the tail end.

Given that, I'd feel comfortable as a coach with 10. Can you find a person willing to do that in the portal? I don't know, but one can call around and see...a young frosh willing to sit and learn; a grad who is hep on getting a free first year of grad school, etc.

Otherwise, get the right combo-forward, find a decent walk-on for practice and knock on wood.

p.s. Starting after Maddy W., Soni C. and 'Liv M (probably) leave after next year, one could make an argument for expanding the roster based on a S. Carolina-type usage. The difference? Dawn Staley gets the kinds of players up and down the roster that she can thrown into games and she's been blessed with relatively few injuries this past year. For a later time maybe (I think Niele will never get that big a roster.)

to help prep for the next level, but it doesn't look like she'll be seeing much of that position.

wood and get a walk on and play with nine." (Not sure that was said in jest, but ten is the minimum.)

The biggest thing that I'm trying to stress here is that we're really looking for one primary contributor. Whether it's Karlen, Gardiner or someone else, I'm sure we'll get somebody. When Niele was looking at King and others, I'm sure it was with the mindset that KK was gone. Now that she's back, there really aren't minutes to promise anyone with the kind of talent and experience that would be an upgrade from what we can get from KK, Emma and/or Cass.

That leaves us with the emergency options. The portal has five billion players in it. The sky isn't falling if Niele has announced to the world if and when she has a contingency plan.

In the meantime, I'm sure that she's going to kick the tires on plenty of options that might make the team better. But as much as we might want them, that player will want to actually play some basketball.

to a recruit to promise minutes, nor is it fair to promise that to a returning player. What you can do is tell both that you feel that they are capable of competing/earning minutes. (The same is true for starting positions.)

This is big kid basketball. The portal and NIL have changed the entire landscape of college football and basketball. Kids looking at top tier schools will not only be aware of their possible playing time, but also the value to their "brand" and professional future based on that time and exposure on the national stage.

Every player that Niele talks with will know that there are four returning players that will play 135+ minutes every game. Niele doesn't need to make any kind of promises for anyone to know that to be true.

In a rotation of 8, that leaves 4 players splitting 65 minutes. There's promises, and then there's math.

remainder of the year.
The Loss of Cass and Emma for almost the entire season. The loss of Jenna and Lia for the entire season, plus the loss of Soni for nine games, Maddy for one, but encumbered for a number of other games with the mask and finally the loss of Kylee near the end of the season.

We could not press. We could not get any of the starters in foul trouble. We could not play as much man x man. If someone was having an off game, you just had to live with it. Very limited options!

We weren't alone look at U Conn.

& Pao Pao so its hard to argue the favorable effect of xfrs to winning it all. The previous year champions best player Angel Reese was a transfer and Mulkey has been filling her roster that way. So Caitlin did well staying at one school but lost both championship games to teams that added that key transfer and now Iowa has added that key xfr Lucy Olsen to replace CC next season. I guess if you can't beat then, join them.

over and over again, only to have players commit somewhere else. It's also the secret nature of Niele in all things. We have to sleuth to even get an inkling of what's going on. It's also the time frame, end of April and it's also the need. WE NEED AT LEAST TWO.

If we had our two players, it would have been posted. Even if we had one.

However, here I go again, your post gives me hope. Thanks

that I uncovered today:

1. The practice photos were re-posted by Karlen's former teammate, PG Rose Nkumu. Karlen did make some passing comment about them, but nothing that would indicate that she is staying at Marquette.

2. I recall reading somewhere that Rose Nkumu decided not to use her Covid year and will not be playing college basketball next season. She and Karlen were Marquette's two best players in their loss to Mississippi at the Joyce Center.

3. Neither Karlen nor Nkumu are among the five players listed on Marquette's '24-25 WBB roster.

Thank you for calmly keeping us posted on reasonable possibilities for ND in the transfer portal. As noted elsewhere, players still have until May 1 to enter the portal...

but the other two you mention are also very good. Dominika Paurova is a player from Czechslovakia, is 6’1, and going to be a sophomore like Donovan. She scored 5.5 ppg in only 16 mpg, shooting 48% overall and 37.2% for threes. She is great at finishing at the rim. She played a lot more in the end of the season and made some big shots. I also like her defense and energy.

Hansford is a three point killer but a bit streaky. She certainly also has upside as she only played 17 mpg so would be a good get. Donovan is got more upside. She is good at ball control and defense, but she has still been hesitant to shoot. Considering she averages more minutes per game than Talia, I would have hoped she would have more of impact on the stats but Talia had far more assists, rebounds, points, steals, and blocks than Donovan. Talia will add a lot to USC along with Kiki and JuJu. Should be a tougher team next year especially with one of the top recruiting class.

Still Timea is the class of the remaining Beavs. If she has to leave the Beavs, I hope ND gets her. Good summary.

is back in the portal this year. Very productive at Sacramento State for 2 years but wasn't much of a factor last year at Iowa State. D77 profiled her during portal season last year. At 6'5" she has the height and experience to battle with Koval in practice, sub in for key minutes so Westbeld doesn't have to guard the 5, and only has one year of eligibility left so it won't be too crowded in the Post Position group when/if Watson comes back the following year. She shot better than 60% FG% in each of her first two seasons. There must be some skills there.

Plus, she struck me as an all-around guard more than a point or thee-pt. specialist. That's also what one KK Bransford does.

I've seen Paurova play and like her. Liked her stat lines, too.

As noted, though, Coach Ivey brought in a three-pt. specialist for a visit and that makes a few of us wonder if one is needed...for next year. Hence. Hansford.

Gardiner is obviously the prime target still out there.

I'm still holding out some hope for Karlen and King. No news might be good news here. I imagine ND admissions may take a bit longer than others, so as long as those two aren't linked to other schools we may still have a shot.

Hansford is interesting. I wouldn't have expected us to be interested either, but the visit from Aaliyah Nye may indicate otherwise. No reason to think playing time would be a deterrent here, so seems plausible.

As for the post, I think we're likely onto plan C. That likely means someone that will be Koval's backup. I do think Niele likely prefers someone with one year here, since Kylee Watson will likely be back the following season.