Okay Bluder...

Bingo. This is her off-season task......have to bring in a giant in the middle. The rest of the centers at Iowa...god bless them.....I think are ok to good post players. They are fine to bring off the bench.......I think HS needs to grow more before she can be the main person in the middle. I also don't think they are tall enough.

She needs an Elite Center to go with Caitlin. And God Bless Monika...and I do wish she could be back for another year...but someone even better.

Slam Dunk GIF by WNBA
 
LSU won last year and she went there so she will probably want to go to this years champ. :) Might be Iowa lol. Covid year so she won't count against scholarships.

Are you sure about COVID year not counting against scholarships? I know that was the deal at one point, but I thought most conferences have now moved away from that (I could be wrong).

HVL is a fine player, but she wouldn't be at the top of my list. Doesn't shoot the 3 well, not a natural point. I thought it was a weird fit for LSU, and if you can judge by Twitter, most of their fan base agrees.
 
I'd take HVL in a second and wondered if she'd be interested in the stable, "family" environment Bluder has created before she was even in the portal. I'd think it could be just the fit she is looking for.

In my opinion, LSU did her no favors putting her at point. She can play it when needed, but she is a gunner at heart. You gotta let the peacock fly.

Iowa would still need a starting PG in my opinion, but you absolutely take HVL if she's all in on buying into Bluder's system.

Again, my opinion, but I think the Hawks are just fine in the middle starting Hannah, with O'Grady and AJ off the bench and the freshman from Oregon coming in.
 
It will be interesting to see where HVL goes. It would seem that going from LSU to Iowa is a major change in environment. The move to LSU didn’t work well for her. She didn’t have a great year but I think she has the potential to be a difference maker for someone.
 
Are you sure about COVID year not counting against scholarships? I know that was the deal at one point, but I thought most conferences have now moved away from that (I could be wrong).

HVL is a fine player, but she wouldn't be at the top of my list. Doesn't shoot the 3 well, not a natural point. I thought it was a weird fit for LSU, and if you can judge by Twitter, most of their fan base agrees.
You are right it will count now. I think Iowa can get a better fit and wouldn't be interested unless they lose out on the preferred targets and she starts looking better. She would become more of a scorer for us and it would actually work better than LSU. She really jumped the bandwagon and it wasn't a great fit and she didn't get as far as she hoped.
 
It will be interesting to see where HVL goes. It would seem that going from LSU to Iowa is a major change in environment. The move to LSU didn’t work well for her. She didn’t have a great year but I think she has the potential to be a difference maker for someone.
The more I've thought about it the less I would welcome her addition-although deferring to the coaches of course.

HVL brings some baggage. Her father has a reputation as a big nut. Yells at HVL and the coaches sort of thing. Also, we know from two transfers in two years-she's not team oriented. Not the worst thing she could do but not really an Iowa thing either.

HVL chose to go from a team that could have won a title to join Kim Mulkey's nut house and filthy style of play. It gave Haley a better chance at a title but it took more than that to be drawn to LSU. She could have gone to Iowa, South Carolina, UCLA, Stanford and probably others whose title probability would leap at her play. So the LSU move doesn't make a ton of sense, albeit with the benefit of hindsight.
 
OK, Bluder now that the 2023-2024 season is over it's time to predict the starting lineup for 2024-2025.

Does Bluder repeat the 4-guard, 1-Big setup from last season, or does she go back to a more traditional lineup? I predict a little bit of both, at least starting out.

Center - O' Grady
Forward - Stuelke
Guard - Offolter
Guard - Feurbach
Guard - McCabe

Now Bluder can also go to the portal for help and has a tremendous freshman class to choose from that may eventually work their way into the starting lineup.

It could be one of those rebuilding years where it will take time for the team to gell, but could be pretty good by the end of the season.
 
OK, Bluder now that the 2023-2024 season is over it's time to predict the starting lineup for 2024-2025.

Does Bluder repeat the 4-guard, 1-Big setup from last season, or does she go back to a more traditional lineup? I predict a little bit of both, at least starting out.

Center - O' Grady
Forward - Stuelke
Guard - Offolter
Guard - Feurbach
Guard - McCabe

Now Bluder can also go to the portal for help and has a tremendous freshman class to choose from that may eventually work their way into the starting lineup.

It could be one of those rebuilding years where it will take time for the team to gell, but could be pretty good by the end of the season.


I think that is how it will go, but I think the Villanova PG takes the place of Fuerbach, though Fuerbach will play lots of minutes of the bench.

Having the entire Oregon St.(an Elite 8 team) roster in the portal is an interesting wrinkle, here. I don't see us as huge buyers, but I suppose we at least need to explore that.
 
I have no doubt Affolter can handle the point and I will bet the freshman from CA can too. We most need some height in the post to compete in the final four. Three or four more inches would do it. Our existing posts can get us to the NCAA's but then the height begins to matter. With three starters to replace it will probably take awhile for next year's team to come together. By tourney time we should be good.
 
I think that is how it will go, but I think the Villanova PG takes the place of Fuerbach, though Fuerbach will play lots of minutes of the bench.

Having the entire Oregon St.(an Elite 8 team) roster in the portal is an interesting wrinkle, here. I don't see us as huge buyers, but I suppose we at least need to explore that.
IOWA most definitely needs to talk to Oregon state's former players! Multiple players would start at IOWA. Beers and Gardner are All American caliber players. Would be a huge get. Crying shame what happened to their program with the unnecessary breakup of the Pac12
 
IOWA most definitely needs to talk to Oregon state's former players! Multiple players would start at IOWA. Beers and Gardner are All American caliber players. Would be a huge get. Crying shame what happened to their program with the unnecessary breakup of the Pac12

Kiki Iriafen from Stanford just entered the portal.
 
Lisa strikes me as a much more "iowa way" of recruiting HS players. Iowa's recruiting has been good for a few years I think. Obviously, Sidney is a very good player. Kylie has been mostly good in limited minutes. Before Molly's injury we had the luxury of two natural point guards both were rarely out at the same time.

That witty McCabe girl is obviously a very good shooter. She showed some ball hawking skills as did Kylie and Sid.

Addison is questionable. She's not super tall at 6'4" but she is broad and strong. I've never seen a player M or F that gets the shitty tie ball calls. I think she plays from fear not confidence. A regular off season should improve her sufficiently to center a Big Ten Champ. A big off season won't make her a star but could make her much more than adequate. Big hands, good scoring in the low posts, great screener so we would see a lot of successful pick and rolls. Too easy to overlook her.
 
I have no doubt Affolter can handle the point and I will bet the freshman from CA can too. We most need some height in the post to compete in the final four. Three or four more inches would do it. Our existing posts can get us to the NCAA's but then the height begins to matter. With three starters to replace it will probably take awhile for next year's team to come together. By tourney time we should be good.
I respectfully disagree. We have NO ONE in the roster who can be even a capable PG at the Big 10 level. Lisa needs the VT PG
 
OK, Bluder now that the 2023-2024 season is over it's time to predict the starting lineup for 2024-2025.

Does Bluder repeat the 4-guard, 1-Big setup from last season, or does she go back to a more traditional lineup? I predict a little bit of both, at least starting out.

Center - O' Grady
Forward - Stuelke
Guard - Offolter
Guard - Feurbach
Guard - McCabe

Now Bluder can also go to the portal for help and has a tremendous freshman class to choose from that may eventually work their way into the starting lineup.

It could be one of those rebuilding years where it will take time for the team to gell, but could be pretty good by the end of the season.

Solid lineup and should also provide signicent playing time for hopefully the Caitlin Clone from
the West Coast

Taylor should be a serious threat from beyond the arc, with a starting role, and she certainly has ATTITUDE
 
Solid lineup and should also provide signicent playing time for hopefully the Caitlin Clone from
the West Coast

Taylor should be a serious threat from beyond the arc, with a starting role, and she certainly has ATTITUDE
Taylor McCabe could be quite the provocateur, if the Iowa girls fought during/after games.

That's a funny image. Taylor would be aggressive. She's a total shit talker and I have to believe somewhere along the way another girl attacked her out of frustration. Probably some grade school gym in rec league.
 
I respectfully disagree. We have NO ONE in the roster who can be even a capable PG at the Big 10 level. Lisa needs the VT PG

It probably would have been freshman Guyton, but with her ACL tear she won't even be ready until Nov, she probably redshirts. Without bringing in a transfer, it will probably have to be the other freshman, Stremlow. That could get dicey, but I suppose the baptism by fire could pay off the following year
 
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