2024 portal

[yotenation]

Mar 18, 2024 16:34:45 GMT -6 90yote said:

I would be stunned if she played. Why would she?

Why would USD want that?

Agreed. Almost zero chance she plays.

[marco]

that would be the right thing she should not even be there

[lowbbiq]

Could the second lady that doesn't have an athletic scholarship, besides Coral Mason, be related to Bergstrom? Either she was the second one without scholarship or it was taken away due to injury to give to another.

/

[captaincoyote]

Demers reclassified in high school and skipped her senior year right? If so, I just read recently that the data is showing that that doesn’t usually pan out. Something to think about in the future with kids considering that path. They often need their senior year more than they realize.

[90yote]

Mar 18, 2024 21:19:53 GMT -6 captaincoyote said:

Demers reclassified in high school and skipped her senior year right? If so, I just read recently that the data is showing that that doesn’t usually pan out. Something to think about in the future with kids considering that path. They often need their senior year more than they realize.

Yeah, I think it's fair to say that didn't work out well. Now that I have time to share my thoughts, here goes.

I think between Dawn asking her to reclassify, being reportedly 6-3, and that all ND and SD schools offered her, we as fans probably had higher expectations. The first alarm bell came when she was listed at 6-0 initially (then upped to 6-1). She is really strong, but not much of a jumper and not long either. So when she got her defender sealed, she was fine. But when that didn't happen, she was unable to be a threat against longer defenders, and she was not a rim-protector. She was aggressive defensively (which is inherently fine), but she needs to play position defense and she was foul-prone. I mean, let's face it, last Monday afternoon was a complete mismatch with her opponent.

Now in her defense, I thought her shot got better this year, even though her 3pt percentage went down. She shot it much better at the line. But she only played 15 minutes a game. Most nights she started and was subbed out before the 7-minute mark. There was one game where she started the second half, committed a foul 11 seconds in, and then sat the rest of the 3rd quarter. I commented that Mazurek probably deserved more time, but I wasn't sure if that was the best way to get the most out of Demers. So who knows what the issues were, but it probably was that the coaches didn't feel like her play warranted more time on the court and she probably felt she wasn't given enough of a chance.

I think she could have been a useful player, but odds were that she was going to lose court time to Mazurek, especially if Natalie plans to play 2 more years. But now they probably have to go to the portal. They don't have any posts that are FR/SO, and don't currently have any 2025 commits that are posts (though they are trying).

[captaincoyote]

Yeah. That’s similar to my observations as well. Both her floor and ceiling were lower than expected here. A fresh start will benefit everyone. I don’t doubt we can find a portal transfer at least capable of matching her production.

[soofooyote]

I wish Joy and Walker all the best in wherever their journey takes them. Shame that Joy was never able to see the court in Vermillion. The portal is never going to be a long-term solution for us. We need to recruit better and develop. The best team in our league is not relying on the portal for talent, it's a stop gap measure that shows a program in desperation in my opinion if we need to lean on the portal every year trying to strike gold.

[90yote]

Mar 19, 2024 8:53:50 GMT -6 soofooyote said:

I wish Joy and Walker all the best in wherever their journey takes them. Shame that Joy was never able to see the court in Vermillion. The portal is never going to be a long-term solution for us. We need to recruit better and develop. The best team in our league is not relying on the portal for talent, it's a stop gap measure that shows a program in desperation in my opinion if we need to lean on the portal every year trying to strike gold.

I don't think anyone disagrees with this going forward, but if they feel they need another post player to compete next year, then that's what they need to do.

[kiyoat]

IDK if we can look at the portal the same way as in the past. College sports have changed. SDSU is in a good position to not need it most of the time... but they do still use it occasionally. ORU is a good example of a program that has had some immediate success with it.

Picking up one or two players from the portal every year isn't that strange anymore. Our HS recruiting just isn't on the same level as SDSU right now, but that doesn't mean we are a "program in desperation". That's a bit of hyperbole, folks.

[jorjo]

I think mid majors need to use the portal to try and fill gaps in their rosters created by recruiting misses, injuries, and outgoing transfers. Thinking you’re going to dramatically change your talent level via the portal at the mid major level is a gamble. However it can work out.(Hannah Sjerven)

[kiyoat]

Here are some stats from NCAA D-1 women's teams from after last season (2022-23) with regard to the transfer portal:

333 schools (out of 350) had at least one player transfer out (95%)

216 players transferred out from a P-5 school (65 schools - average 3.32 transfers per school)
1,005 players transferred out from a mid-major (285 schools - average 3.53 transfers per school)

182 players transferred in to a P-5 school (average 2.80 intakes per school)
583 players transferred in to a mid-major (average 2.05 intakes per school)

289 players (0f 1,221) transferred from D1 to a non-D1 school (24%)
42 players returned to the original school as a student-athlete (3%)
42 players turned pro or retired from basketball...................... (3%)

To be completely honest, I'm surprised the P-5 numbers are similar to the mid-major numbers.  As a mid-major, losing 3.5 athletes to the portal and bringing in 2 athletes is the average.  Not that unusual.

my source:
wbbblog.com/womens-basketball-transfers-d-i-2022-23/

Of course, I'd rather be a team that only loses and takes in closer to 1 athlete per cycle, but to have zero puts you in a rare group (5% of all Division 1 schools).

[yotewannabe]

There is no way Demers plays Friday. That would be awkward and would not benefit anyone. I hope both her and Joy find something that works for them. Would the Wilke girl coming in next year be a possible 5? If not we will definitely need to find something in the portal.

[90yote]

Mar 19, 2024 18:00:59 GMT -6 yotewannabe said:

There is no way Demers plays Friday. That would be awkward and would not benefit anyone. I hope both her and Joy find something that works for them. Would the Wilke girl coming in next year be a possible 5? If not we will definitely need to find something in the portal.

I thought about Wilke, but just from seeing a few highlights and reading some reports on her, she seems like a '4'. She doesn't appear to have a big frame.

But that's just my (uninformed) opinion. I've given up trying to guess at who might be a good college player based on what I've seen of incoming recruits. Maybe she's real strong and is an option there.

It will be interesting to see if recruit height inflation occurs again.

[gopheryote]

Yotes have had a really good run of players at the 5 going back to maybe Abigale Fogg? Mostly an unbroken string of all-conference post players since then. Not really fair to think Demers was going to be the next one - it has been a high bar.
That said, I think it is OK for us to keep the bar high and expect it from the coaches/recruiting.

[kiyoat]

Mar 19, 2024 19:51:19 GMT -6 gopheryote said:

Yotes have had a really good run of players at the 5 going back to maybe Abigale Fogg? Mostly an unbroken string of all-conference post players since then. Not really fair to think Demers was going to be the next one - it has been a high bar.
That said, I think it is OK for us to keep the bar high and expect it from the coaches/recruiting.

Don’t forget Coach P’s second season in 2018. We lost Fogg at 5 and Bridget Arens as a strong 4, so we were undersized. Hannah was on the team but couldn’t play yet.

That year we won with an aggressive harassing defense. Junkyard Jas played a severely undersized post, and won DPOY. I think we actually were undefeated w conference play? There’s more than one way to win. I think the women that year over-achieved. Good athleticism though. AA was outstanding.