2023/2024 Portal News

As much as I'd like Quinerly (because she's proven on both the offensive and defensive ends), until we actually get confirmation that she is in the transfer portal, I will have to turn my attention to other transfer guards. But, she would be at the top of my list, especially because she will be in college two more years before being eligible for the WNBA draft.

Te-hina Paopao would be a great addition as she shot 42% from 3-point range this past season; and, 88% from the free throw line. She might only play on more season in college; but, that's okay, too, as she wouldn't affect the numbers for the 2024 high school recruiting class.

Te-Hina Paopao - Women's Basketball - University of Oregon Athletics (goducks.com)

Not sure if Hailey Van Lith wants to play mainly PG or SG at her new school; she's actually been the SG at Louisville most of the last 3 seasons. Since Blair followed her on IG, and she followed Rori Harmon, her situation is worth monitoring.
 
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As much as I'd like Quinerly (because she's proven on both the offensive and defensive ends), until we actually get confirmation that she is in the transfer portal, I will have to turn my attention to other transfer guards. But, she would be at the top of my list, especially she because she will be in college two more years before being eligible for the WNBA draft.

Te-hina Paopao would be a great addition as she shot 42% from 3-point range this past season; and, 88% from the free throw line. She might only play on more season in college; but, that's okay, too, as she wouldn't affect the numbers for the 2024 high school recruiting class.

Te-Hina Paopao - Women's Basketball - University of Oregon Athletics (goducks.com)

Not sure if Hailey Van Lith wants to play mainly PG or SG at her new school; she's actually been the SG at Louisville most of the last 3 seasons. Since Blair followed her on IG, and she followed Rori Harmon, her situation is worth monitoring.
I'm right there with you... Quinnerly is my #1 but would certainly be just as thrilled to get Paopao, Rogers, or Van Lith. I'm thinking most of these will use the extra year of eligibility with the right NIL deals in place. More money than a WNBA salary and furthered education = win/win, especially for someone like Van Lith who will have her undergraduate degree next month. NIL compensation and another two years of eligibility to complete a grad degree would be very appealing if it were me.
 
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Speculation is Stanford or Washington for HVL based upon Walz’s comments today about wanting to be closer to home. Would be really funny because lSu fans swear she’s theirs.
 
Speculation is Stanford or Washington for HVL based upon Walz’s comments today about wanting to be closer to home. Would be really funny because lSu fans swear she’s theirs.

Obviously Stanford would put her in a position to contend for championships right away. Washington may be a really good fit, as it's in her home state. Tina Langley (Rice) just finished her second season as HC there, and they had a winning season in spite of finishing in the bottom portion of the PAC 12. I believe they're a relatively young team that returns most of their players. Also... Washington is an Adidas school which is consistent with her personal Adidas NIL, so that could mean $omething.;)
 
Has to be Washington if that’s the case. Stanford really can’t take transfers because of their academic requirements. I’m sure Tara would love to have her but it’s the academic side that prevents them from bringing in anyone from the portal.
 
Has to be Washington if that’s the case. Stanford really can’t take transfers because of their academic requirements. I’m sure Tara would love to have her but it’s the academic side that prevents them from bringing in anyone from the portal.
Undergrads are those who rarely if ever transfer to Stanford.

Graduate transfers are more common across many sports. In women's hoops, Northwestern's Jordan Hamilton transferred to Stanford a couple of seasons ago.

That being said, I just don't see Van Lith heading there; could be wrong.
 
You have to admit that Vic and CDC need to be considering that $100K in NIL money would go so far in adding a piece to the team that would be transformative. I know the danger of it injuring team chemistry is there. The solution is NIL for all as a base and then special situations for attracting key talent. Mike White had to use NIL to get a PAC first team freshman pitcher to join the Horns this year. The sad thing is that some of these players make more than assistant coaches on the non FB sports. We need two or three transfers and getting a starter vs a bench player is key to a deeper run.
 
You have to admit that Vic and CDC need to be considering that $100K in NIL money would go so far in adding a piece to the team that would be transformative. The sad thing is that some of these players make more than assistant coaches on the non FB sports. We need two or three transfers and getting a starter vs a bench player is key to a deeper run.
I had not considered that. I would say they make more than even football assistant coaches. It's the world we live in. Heck, some are making more than women's basketball head coaches.
 
I was thinking about Shaylee' Gonzales' recruitment and speculation after she entered the portal last summer. She had quite a bit of social media followers; and, I believe she had already established quite a bit of her own NIL. Rumors/predictions that she'd end up at Stanford. Her finalists ended up being Texas, Oregon State, and NC State. I don't think many (including myself) ever thought she'd land at Texas; yet she did. Perhaps there was NIL involved which tipped the scales in our favor. Not sure that's ever been discussed or confirmed.
 
I was thinking about Shaylee' Gonzales' recruitment and speculation after she entered the portal last summer. She had quite a bit of social media followers; and, I believe she had already established quite a bit of her own NIL. Rumors/predictions that she'd end up at Stanford. Her finalists ended up being Texas, Oregon State, and NC State. I don't think many (including myself) ever thought she'd land at Texas; yet she did. Perhaps there was NIL involved which tipped the scales in our favor. Not sure that's ever been discussed or confirmed.
One thing I’ve taken from interviews with players in the past (like Shaylee) who have revealed why they picked Texas is that if we can just get them to visit Austin, there is a good chance they will choose Texas. But there is so little coverage of WBB recruiting, we have no way of knowing who visits without rare clues being found on social media. And we know even less about NIL.
 
Interesting. I guess the twins are portaling out of basketball entirely (and after getting Miami into hot water with the NCAA no less). Will be interesting to see what the "new chapter" that they speak of will be. There are already too many social media "influencers" in this world, but who knows.
 
Interesting. I guess the twins are portaling out of basketball entirely (and after getting Miami into hot water with the NCAA no less). Will be interesting to see what the "new chapter" that they speak of will be. There are already too many social media "influencers" in this world, but who knows.

Well, it's for sure they are making more money elsewhere than a 5th year NIL deal could provide.
 
I had a visit from a friend who is close to UNC and Duke WBB. He said, Duke is gearing up to commit about $1M to WBB. Apparently Miami used NIL in a big way to build mens and womens BB this past year. We were supposed to be on the cutting edge of NIL and I think the idea was to give every non-FB player something. I was assuming 10K per player and then the major players get bigger money. The failure of our legal system -- with NIL and sports gambling -- is that when the rules fall, there is nothing left and it is the wild west. You have to stop the players who will transfer 4 times. You should not be able to pay for specific performance goals like points per game. Who knows what these NIL deals are but it will eliminate some schools from keeping great athletes and make other schools much better. I once heard a president of a NY area school say, my BB program is responsible for 20% of our endowment. So if that is true, NIL might be worth it for smaller schools.
 
Last year at this time we were in a similar situation with transfers. There were lots of rumors and suggestions and comments about players Schaefer was after. Then top targets disappeared and Morris and Gonzalez joined. Not going to revisit their fit on the team. HOWEVER, there will always be a question in my mind wondering if missing out on his top targets led to second tier solutions whose skill sets didn’t allow him to play his style. I’m watching this year’s portal with last year on my mind.
 
Well, looking at last year when Sonya's commitment was announced on May 20th and Shaylee's was announced in July we have a potentially long time to wait. Think I'm going to concentrate on the WNBA in the mean time.:p
Our issue is we only have a couple of spots to fill, and those are spots with very specific critical needs. They need to be filled by players ready to step in and play and not just anybody. Yes, we may be waiting quite a while.
 
When it comes to the portal I think The Rolling Stones said/sang it best You Can’t Always get What You Want just like with normal recruiting.
I think some of us (me) thought it would be easier to fulfill those wants at Texas with NIL in the portal. Turns out, not necessarily true.
 
When it comes to the portal I think The Rolling Stones said/sang it best You Can’t Always get What You Want just like with normal recruiting.
I think some of us (me) thought it would be easier to fulfill those wants at Texas with NIL in the portal. Turns out, not necessarily true.
We don't seem to be getting "what we need" for either the men's or women's team. Just been really frustrating. I know it's not over yet, but it's still frustrating seeing so many top prospects committing elsewhere.
 
Hoping for an official visit this weekend from some potential transfers. Spring Football game and softball games in town this weekend. Sunny weather and kind of warm on Saturday, but at least not rainy and cold.
 
I’m not about to get my hopes up about Celeste but man oh man would that make me happy
I want "hope".

If she goes somewhere else, that would mean 4 different head coaches in 5 seasons (Aston, Vic, Lawson 2, new head coach). If she comes back to Texas she already knows Vic and Lovato.
 

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