2025 Recruiting - WBB

Not sure which school requested which official visit date. Originally, I expected Vic's big recruiting weekend would be this coming weekend for the Georgia game, but both Chavez and Crump ended up visiting the last weekend in September. Regardless, we weren't Chavez's last official visit which sometimes is a factor based on recency bias.

"Rumors" have been very quiet out on social media since that report that LSU took themselves out of the running. I guess she could still make an official to Oklahoma. I don't expect her to visit South Carolina.

Chavez didn't post any kind of video after her UCLA visit in August like she did after her Texas visit. Might not mean anything as to whether UCLA is still in contention. UCLA has been recruiting very well coast to coast, and having a lot of success in the transfer portal; so, perhaps they are playing the NIL game very well.

If Chavez weren't planning on signing in November, I honestly don't think she'd be making her official visits in the Fall as she could so in the Spring. But, if it really is already decided that it's between Tech and Texas, she could make several unofficial visits and watch the teams play this winter and all the way through March; that might be the only way she can know if Gerlich is going to get a contract extension or get fired.
 
GoHorns22 said:
I agree. I wish Chavez would make a decision so it wouldn't affect other potential recruiting.
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I get that. But, Vic didn't cast a very wide recruiting net for this 2025 class. So far, only 3 official visitors, and only one remaining potential visitor in Jaliya Davis. So, could be that Vic isn't all that worried if we don't get Chavez as he believes Rori will return for her fifth season; but, we only find out recently that Rori was granted a medical redshirt season so that wouldn't make a lot of sense. Or, he will mine the transfer portal if necessary.
 
Would love to have the points that Chavez can put up, but I 'm old and cautious, LOL. Can she score in college like she can now in high school? Yes, probably, eventually. Can she play defense to Vic's satisfaction? No idea. Would a big NIL deal create problems with team chemistry? No idea about that either, don't know what kind of deals players have. Had the same thought when Tech paid a million for a softball player. I suppose the players understand that everyone is not equal in NIL world - good preparation for the Real World.
:hookem:
 
UTSUgrad said:
Would love to have the points that Chavez can put up, but I 'm old and cautious, LOL. Can she score in college like she can now in high school? Yes, probably, eventually. Can she play defense to Vic's satisfaction? No idea. Would a big NIL deal create problems with team chemistry? No idea about that either, don't know what kind of deals players have. Had the same thought when Tech paid a million for a softball player. I suppose the players understand that everyone is not equal in NIL world - good preparation for the Real World.
:hookem:
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I mean, she averaged like 37 points a game her junior season in high school; so, no, she won't do that in college.

What she can provide Texas from day one is the ability to put the ball in the basket in so many different ways and from so many different spots on the court. She could add tremendous range to a Texas team that doesn't have many long-range shooters; and, her free throw shooting would challenge Booker for best on the team.
 
Chavez will need an adjustment period to her game. But her adjustments will be short and even more problematic for the opponent. Chavez’s 3 point shooting would create so many match-up problems for a defense. Watch her step back and not sure how many players can guard that. However, her ability to drive and get to the rim and score or dish may be almost as important. And she can do that with either hand. She sees the court so well and her passing is terrific. I’m just guessing that her scoring progression would be similar to Luka. He averaged 21 points in year one and it’s increased to 34. No doubt the biggest adjustment will be her defense. Hopefully, she and family will recognize that she needs improvement there and most assuredly it could come from Schaefer. Chavez with her Hispanic heritage could be a Texas and Southwest icon. I’m hoping that’s important to her as well.
 
Thanks, good info. Hoping she wants to play for a nationally competitive team at an academically elite university ... and develop defensive skills necessary for success in the pros ... 🤘
 
I had a feeling OU was still involved for Chavez.

So, that means her official visit to Texas Tech won't be until November 9 (that is the next home football game) which is only a few days prior to the beginning of the signing period.

 
Moooooo said:
Interesting choice of clothing worn by Chavez at the football game. That seems to be a half-cut Nike Longhorns basketball jersey complete with "SEC" logo (so you know it's relatively new). Most recruits wear very neutral (non-college team) clothing on their official visits. I'm gonna assume her family purchased that jersey for her, and altered it to look like a tank top. Not that that's a sure sign she's coming to Texas, but it can't hurt!
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Chavez's video of her OU visit seems shorter than the vid of her visit to Texas; and, she wasn't wearing a school jersey at the OU football game like she did at the Texas football game.

 
That’s the most disgusting video I’ve seen in years. Land thief/dirt burglar jerseys set me off. HOWEVER, Mooo’s observations are right on. All top programs produce these type videos. I’ll sure accept that the short length and no jersey at game as positive signs for Horns.
 
WaPo makes it difficult to share, sigh. Here is the part about Shaylee. This is only a portion of the article - lots of detail is included about UCLA, Colorado, LSU, SCarolina …
Washington Post = October 21, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

By the time she took the court for the final March Madness of her college career, Shaylee Gonzales had built her brand into a bona fide small business.

A starting guard at the University of Texas, she had endorsement deals with Steve Madden, Skims and Whataburger. She had 88,000 followers on Instagram and 200,000 followers on TikTok, more than the other four starters combined. Yes, she had been second-team all-conference the previous season and had aspirations to go pro, but she was under no illusions about what was driving her growing income.

“It didn’t matter how well I played on the court,” she said. “Those brands just looked at how many followers you had.”

Gonzales offered those brands a valuable commodity: the chance to be associated with women’s college basketball. The sport’s popularity has surged in recent years, drawing television ratings that rival the men’s college game and producing superstars more famous than any men’s player. All those new eyes started tuning in just as college athletes were permitted to get paid for their name, image and likeness, or NIL.

Gonzales and her Texas teammates earned a combined total of $435,000 in NIL income from July 2021 to July 2024, the records show. Their counterparts on the men’s team made a total of $4.8 million, even as the women won more regular season and NCAA tournament games and had more than twice as many social media followers on their personal accounts at the end of last season. A pay gap existed between men’s and women’s earnings at nearly every school that released NIL records.
At Texas A&M, men received 98 percent of all NIL dollars — $25.2 million, compared with $534,000 for women — for disclosed deals from July 2021 to February 2024.

For women, the smaller slice also can require more labor. Like Gonzales, many get paid only if they build their social media followings and secure brand deals, according to records and interviews. Men, the records show, typically receive much higher sums for token tasks — sometimes arranged by a collective — such as signing autographs or appearing at meet and greets, effectively providing them with de facto salaries.
Before she made her way to Texas, Shaylee Gonzales grew up in Arizona and began her college career at BYU. A casual social media user with modest local renown as a budding athlete, she had 3,000 Instagram followers when she enrolled in 2018.

Then she started hooping. During her first season, the 5-foot-10 guard led her team in scoring and received the West Coast Conference newcomer of the year award.

After tearing her ACL, she missed the following season. Rehabbing her knee and stuck at home during the early months of the pandemic, she started a TikTok account, often scrolling but rarely posting.

She returned to the court in fall 2020 better than ever, winning WCC player of the year and leading BYU to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Her profile rose, as did the frequency of her posts. Her Instagram featured action shots on the court and glamour shots from beach vacations. Her TikTok page showed trendy dances with teammates and clips of jump shots and dribble moves at the practice facility. Her follower counts grew.

“Your social media definitely starts with what you produce on the court,” she said. “It was something I enjoyed, a hobby that took my mind off basketball and school.”

The following summer, the NCAA started allowing athletes to profit off their personal brands. Among the first generation of athletes to benefit from this new economy, Gonzales navigated a frontier shaped by rules being written in real time, with no precedent to follow.

She researched what social media influencers charged companies for advertisements, hired a graphic designer to craft a business card that listed her rates, then began contacting brands she hoped to work with.

While her follower count wasn’t yet large enough to command the attention of national brands, she signed deals with small clothing companies, posting Instagram ads for Thrifthood in December 2021 and Swoosh Resell in February 2022.

That year, she won her second straight WCC player of the year award and her team finished at the top of the conference. After the season, with her coach retiring and her skills in high demand, Gonzales entered the transfer portal. Dozens of schools contacted her, she said. She chose the University of Texas, which boasts one of the most recognizable athletic programs in the country.

While her performance on the court had raised her profile throughout her years at BYU,

Gonzales said her social media numbers began to balloon after she arrived in Austin. Her July 2022 Instagram post announcing her decision garnered more than 91,000 “likes,” three times as many as anything she had posted before.

At Texas, Gonzales started at guard but was no longer her team’s centerpiece. With the level of competition higher and her role more complementary than starring, her scoring, rebounding, and assist numbers dipped. Still, she played well enough to earn all-Big 12 second team honors in 2023, and in 2024 she helped push Texas to its highest win total in nearly four decades, as well as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

And she emerged as one of the NIL era’s success stories.

Like other athletes who spoke with The Post, Gonzales declined to divulge exactly how much she has earned from NIL deals. In the records The Post reviewed, women’s basketball players rarely appeared to make more than high five figures in a season. Whatever Gonzales made, to her, it was “tons of money.” (Texas’s athletic department declined to comment, saying state law bars them from publicly disclosing the specifics of NIL deals.)

As her opportunities multiplied, her budding influencer business took up more time. Unlike the celebrity athletes who appear in ads produced by brands or marketing companies, Gonzales often had to create the content herself. Filming and editing the videos — fast-paced jump cuts of her modeling clothes for fashion brands, eating meals at fast-food restaurants, or getting ready in a bathroom mirror — sometimes took hours. Even more laborious was the process of communicating with companies and negotiating deals.

Gonzales decided to sign with a management agency, trading a cut of profits to offload the labor that threatened to drain energy she would rather devote to hoops and school.

“I didn’t want to spend as much time chasing brands,” she said.

Once she turned pro, signing this summer with a team in Mexico and then Italy, she stopped posting branded content.

“It’s super nice to be able to focus on one thing,” she said.
 
UTSUgrad said:
Sorry, it was supposed to be a free read, gift article. I will post the cut and pased article separately - it is long, but is detailed. Unfortunately, the pasted version doesn’t show the pictures - there are several from Moody, showing the Longhorns, Vic and Shaylee.

Try this linlk:
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This link made the article available to read! WOW the numbers are staggering. I had no idea. I’m not sure where NIL is headed but it has changed the face of college athletics forever! So much money out there now? Shaking my head!!
Thanks for posting the free link UTSU!
 
UTSUgrad said:
Would love to have the points that Chavez can put up, but I 'm old and cautious, LOL. Can she score in college like she can now in high school? Yes, probably, eventually. Can she play defense to Vic's satisfaction? No idea. Would a big NIL deal create problems with team chemistry? No idea about that either, don't know what kind of deals players have. Had the same thought when Tech paid a million for a softball player. I suppose the players understand that everyone is not equal in NIL world - good preparation for the Real World.
:hookem:
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If you Caitlyn Clark and Juju Watkins can make the fast transition to college, there is no reason Aaliyah cannot do the same.

Call me paranoid, but if OU is willing to match any Texas or Tech NIL deal, then she is going there. I do not see her playing behind Rori. She will want to start right away.
 
wkass said:
If you Caitlyn Clark and Juju Watkins can make the fast transition to college, there is no reason Aaliyah cannot do the same.

Call me paranoid, but if OU is willing to match any Texas or Tech NIL deal, then she is going there. I do not see her playing behind Rori. She will want to start right away.
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I get it... but I stopped concerning myself with it. She'll go where she goes, we'll get who we get, and hopefully those will be one in the same. If not, so be it. We will need bigs more than anything next year.
 
Apparently, 6'2 Jaliya Davis from Kansas City made her official visit to Texas a week ago; odd that she'd visit while Texas was playing OU in Dallas. But, it's all about the recruit's schedule availability.

Not sue why Instagram posts don't seem to work on here anymore. If anyone has any advice, please provide.

 
I’m going through another phase this morning. Yesterday was kinda acceptance of potential Chavez to bad guys. After the volleyball results last night, I can’t tolerate losing her to a rival. So today, simply HAVE to get good news soon. After less than stellar reports on USC scrimmage, my anxiety levels are through the roof on basketball AND volleyball. Somebody do ANYTHING! Please. The Mavs opener tonight will calm me down for a day or two. Don’t kids understand the stress they are causing us old folks. Just commit to Horns. Soon.
 
flash34 said:
I’m going through another phase this morning. Yesterday was kinda acceptance of potential Chavez to bad guys. After the volleyball results last night, I can’t tolerate losing her to a rival. So today, simply HAVE to get good news soon. After less than stellar reports on USC scrimmage, my anxiety levels are through the roof on basketball AND volleyball. Somebody do ANYTHING! Please. The Mavs opener tonight will calm me down for a day or two. Don’t kids understand the stress they are causing us old folks. Just commit to Horns. Soon.
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How did the usc scrimmage go?
 
flash34 said:
I’m going through another phase this morning. Yesterday was kinda acceptance of potential Chavez to bad guys. After the volleyball results last night, I can’t tolerate losing her to a rival. So today, simply HAVE to get good news soon. After less than stellar reports on USC scrimmage, my anxiety levels are through the roof on basketball AND volleyball. Somebody do ANYTHING! Please. The Mavs opener tonight will calm me down for a day or two. Don’t kids understand the stress they are causing us old folks. Just commit to Horns. Soon.
Click to expand...
I don’t know where Chavez will go but don’t believe she signs in early period. Think this will be a drawn out process. She will finish her visits and watch the season in college while she focuses on a state championship. So sit back and enjoy the horns.
 
Lovethegame said:
I don’t know where Chavez will go but don’t believe she signs in early period. Think this will be a drawn out process. She will finish her visits and watch the season in college while she focuses on a state championship. So sit back and enjoy the horns.
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Certainly a viable option. Seeing how season unfolds for suitors, potential more NIL money in a bidding war, and all teams willing to hold a position for her…..why not wait? Not what coaches and fan bases want but ?
 
flash34 said:
Certainly a viable option. Seeing how season unfolds for suitors, potential more NIL money in a bidding war, and all teams willing to hold a position for her…..why not wait? Not what coaches and fan bases want but ?
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It certainly is a possibility and I don't see Vic getting caught up in all that BS. It would take a program desperate for one player's services to allow itself to be held hostage like that... we're not that program. We've already got some star players, and a few more in the making.
 
It's not like a player has to sign an NLI at all; Sabrina Ionescu basically waited until the summer after her senior year of high school and just showed up at Oregon shortly before classes were to start; she signed an ASA instead which is for the most part the same type of financial agreement. She had taken her official visits, including the one to Texas, in the Fall.

As for Chavez, no idea of her timetable. She didn't make many unofficial visits her junior year. Since August, she's made 3 official visits to UCLA, Texas, and OU, with a speculated official visit to Texas Tech yet to come; no rumors of a visit to South Carolina as of yet.

If she or her family really were "shopping around" I would have expected a lot more unofficial and official visits; but, that hasn't been the case. For Texas, I'm not sure if it lowers/increases our chances to sign her if she waits until next Spring to make a decision. To me, her not signing in November could be to make sure Coach Gerlich is retained and gets a contract extension; and, that decision won't happen until the season concludes next March.
 
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