HawkeyezBull
Well-Known Member
Need to pick her up in the portal, should be easy if she want to elevate her stock for next years draft
HAILEY VAN LITH
- Thread starter HawkeyezBull
- Start date
Pass
I would. If she had gone to any other prigram that didnt win the last championship. Going to the reigning champions? Im not a huge fan of that kind opportunism. I said in another post, it seemed like a brilliant tactical move on both parts. LSU gets a ball handler and shooter they don't otherwise have. She gets to handle the ball and shoot for a champion.
But the reality is, LSU wins in the paint. You're now taking a player who is likely very good at being in the paint off the floor to put in Van Lith.
And now your asking 4 others who spend a lot of time focusing on what's going under the basket, to start looking elsewhere.
It's a coaching failure. And it couldn't have happened to a better coach.
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MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
I don't think she is as much of a thug as I think many perceive her to be. To me, she seemed to be kind of a fish out of water down there. It is not her culture.
If she has any inclination or hopes of joining Iowa, it makes complete sense. Iowa has CC leaving along with Martin and Marshall. Haley knows they need guard play and Iowa realizes that as well. Haley also prob appreciates how Iowa let CC play. She prob has observed and enjoyed the Iowa team culture and family feel that the Iowa program has.
It just makes too much sense on many levels, IMO.
I'm not against it, but she would have to leave any thug tendancies at the door on the way in and I think she would realize that. Iowa is a much different atmosphere.
If she has any inclination or hopes of joining Iowa, it makes complete sense. Iowa has CC leaving along with Martin and Marshall. Haley knows they need guard play and Iowa realizes that as well. Haley also prob appreciates how Iowa let CC play. She prob has observed and enjoyed the Iowa team culture and family feel that the Iowa program has.
It just makes too much sense on many levels, IMO.
I'm not against it, but she would have to leave any thug tendancies at the door on the way in and I think she would realize that. Iowa is a much different atmosphere.
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Fryowa
Administrator
One thing I'm learning, is that Iowa women's basketball fans are a super fickle bunch, not unlike Nebraska football fans.
Everyone's out to get them, refs are out to get them, everyone else who's not an Iowa player is a thug trying to bring CC down. Good god...
Some of these people need to get over themselves. Go Hawks.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
I thought she just looked defeated and signed out during that press conference. I think it prob didn't take her too long in that program to realize she made a mistake transferring trying to chase a c-ship.
RobHowe
Administrator
Seems unlikely she would want to follow in CC's footsteps. Talk about a tough act to follow.
She'll know better what to look for this time. She didn't fit at LSU. A lot of trial and error with the portal and NIL.
The AJ Storr Kansas speculation is mind-blowing.
www.si.com
She'll know better what to look for this time. She didn't fit at LSU. A lot of trial and error with the portal and NIL.
The AJ Storr Kansas speculation is mind-blowing.
Former Wisconsin Star Storr Seeks $1 Million NIL Deal to Transfer
Recent Badgers guard AJ Storr is looking for the best NIL deal possible in the transfer portal
www.si.com
Except she wasn't a great shooter (I think <30% from 3PT in her last year at Louisville), and she isn't a natural PG. It seemed weird from the start, and I am sure it was mostly appealing for HVL because LSU had beaucoup NIL bucks. She actually had a perfect situation at Louisville, but I am guessing NIL opportunities were limited compared to the big spenders.
I think USC would be a great fit. She wouldn't be putting up 17 shots a game like at Louisville, but she could find lots of opportunities playing alongside a playmaker like JuJu.
At the moment, Van Lith is electing to utilize her COVID year to play one more year of collegiate basketball. Being that her NIL and collective money, plus whatever "scholarship" revenue is roughly 4x what she would make in the WNBA, we can assume a significant factor is money. Sure, she could be trying for a higher draft pick, but she's already a first rounder. You could make the argument that she's got a history of chasing championship opportunities and she's doing that again. I don't know or not if she's actually doing post grad work. She earned a finance degree from Louisville with a highly impressive near 4.0 GPA. But, everything aide, I suspect that money is highly important. And, don't get me wrong. I'm a raging libertarian. Good for her. I would almost assuredly do the same.
Her boyfriend is the same age. He is in his third year of playing in the NBA, with an annual salary of ~$7.5 million dollars.
Is she still just a "college kid" next year?
When do they become a full on professional athlete? Is it 18? When they can be dressed in olive drab and sent to exotic places to kill exotic people? Is it 21 when they can legally buy beer? Is it when they accept their first NIL dollar? Which now happens in high school in some states.
Her dad is kind of a piece of work, pushed her fanatically hard, seemingly to live out his dreams through her (I obviously don't know either of them, so this is all pulled from my arse). It seems he has always wanted her to be girl-Kobe, and that is what she has tried to become, right down to the crazy work ethic and mean-mugging.
But speaking generally, sports are grueling if your entire persona is tied up in your performance. It works when you actually ARE Kobe (or MJ, of Tom Brady, or Tom and Terry Brands, or name your hyper-competitive all-timer), but it grinds you down if you are anything short of that. Even those uber-successful athletes evolved in how they looked at competition. Notably, listen to Kobe interviews early in his career when he was trying to be MJ, versus late in his career when he became comfortable with being Kobe.
Bluder encourages her players to grow as people first, players second. They define themselves broadly, not only by their performance on the court, but by their role as teammates, friends, family members, etc. That allows them to play freely on the court because they know a loss doesn't crush their entire sense of being.
Making the game seem like life-or-death and motivating by fear of falling short works really well in the short-term, it just isn't a great long-term strategy for performance or health.
HVL is not Kobe, and I think she would be better off in a situation where she did not have to be that.
I don't think there is any way she is a 1st round draft pick, and her odds to make a team are miniscule. Undersized, no elite skills other than work ethic, did not look great as a role player at LSU...I don't see it.
Her efforts to defend CC were not at all impressive. I expect Althoffer to take over the point and do well at it. Losing three starters including CC will take some time to deal with. The new recruit from California will probably be able to back up Althoffer or play the other guard. I don't see Van Lith as a need for Iowa. It would sure be great to get someone taller who can play the 5 spot. A defender like Gabbie would be great too. Our bench probably has what we need except for the height. And we have done pretty well even without matching the height we have faced in the last two years.
Here is video of her from last year discussing how little she cares about only being honorable mention All-American, in the process clearly demonstrating how much she cared about only being named honorable mention All-American (God strongly disagreed with the voting):
If I had to take my pick (only with rather limited knowledge of only teams that are still left, and basically the Big 10 teams I paid more attention to)....
That would be my pick. But, anywhere she goes it's sorta the same problem. If you're going to a good program with either recent hotness (SC/USC/LSU) or a program with a fairly recent history of success (SC/LSU/USC/Stanford/Notre Dame)....
You're going into a program that is already 'built' for next year. The groundwork is laid. Those schools, don't sit around like Iowa wondering "What are we gonna do for the post when Czinano leaves? Hopefully we get something in the portal." We know Coach Bluder wasn't sitting around idle with her fingers crossed. She was at work. She was at work the year before getting Stuelke to sign.
They sit around going "No worries, when Johnson and Reese leave, we got x,y, and z ready to go. They already looked great off the bench this year. But, even they might be challenged by ________, that 4 star from ______ High School who signed last spring."
Now, maybe someone is looking for a player exactly like Van Lith who would fit right into their system. But, my guess is it's likely not one of the above teams. More like a Nebraska/Iowa/etc. But even those teams then, have to shift gears. And you've only got a couple of months to make that happen.
kicker22
Well-Known Member
I'd take her in black and gold. She was not the player or person at LSU that she was at Louisville and I think transferring in to a National Champ trying to win another she did whatever she could to fit in, but never really did. I wanted her when she transferred out of Louisville and I'd take her now. I still think she'd make a great Hawkeye.
I don't think we need her but if Lisa thinks she would help us I am all for it. LSU was not a good fit for her.
Something I've been wondering about.
Sure, Iowa's success is massively due to Clark. But Clark can't do Clark things without the rest of the team. They're proving that a team with flexibility and dynamics can beat a highly skilled, bigger, stronger team that relies almost solely on the paint on both ends of the court. If women's basketball was 5 quarters, Indiana would have downed SC.
There's clearly different styles of play between some of the conferences. Just wondering if we see more of it? I would think long term for sure, if the Clark Effect on these young girls seeking autographs and wanting to wear 22 in their youth league continues. If it does, we could be in for a treat in a few years with some wildly entertaining basketball.
But do we see more of it sooner?
