Yeah, a 6'5 player should never have a shot blocked under the basket by smaller players. That is either poor athleticism or skills. If she can improve that detail, and improve her lateral movement to stop drives into the lane, I can see some better minutes for her backing up the 5. She absolutely needs to learn to use her height and size. Hopefully.
So, just to be clear, I am one of those here who believes that Layla wasn't really a functional backup this year, but I also believe that she can make great strides to get much better, but it's going to take some time.
You have good reason to be confident. Layla practices against Ava all the time and Jan has a history of making bigs better. On top of that, she has better skills in her hands than some bigs we have had. She should improve this year.
wbbblog.com
wbbblog.com
Wemby got his shot blocked last night.
Of course Iowa is recruiting the position already. Well aware.I don’t think it’s a matter of “if she can improve…”, but rather how much she can improve. What is her ceiling if she conditions and drills herself in the offseason which I believe she is doing. I am confident that she will maximize her full potential.
Also, if she decides to stay with Iowa, Hays will most certainly be the backup center for as long as Ava is there (which could be for the next two or even conceivably three seasons). She may never start a game in her career, but I project her to be one of the all-time best career backup centers in Iowa Wbb history.
I just think the notion that she is a liability, is just based on her limited experience last season (and lack of high quality prep competition… which also applied to Megan Gustafson) and not giving her any credit for likely progression. She will definitely improve.
Iowa Women's Basketball Recruiting - Page 2 of 4 - WBB Blog
Recruiting summary for Iowa women's basketball, including a scholarship chart (projecting open spots for upcoming classes), commitments, and targetsIowa Women's Basketball Recruiting - Page 3 of 4 - WBB Blog
Recruiting summary for Iowa women's basketball, including a scholarship chart (projecting open spots for upcoming classes), commitments, and targets
Regardless, Iowa is not waiting to see her progress to recruit the prep ranks in 2027 and 2028. As you can see from the links above, there are a number of potentially more athletic bigs listed.
If Iowa could get just one or two players from each these two next classes, they will be doing good. I agree with the theory that the prep recruiting classes will get smaller on average while many teams will try to load up on proven 3- and 4-year veterans. (Indiana in FB)
Finally, 5 [seasons of eligibility] in 5 [years] will likely become a reality this Friday. That will negatively impact prep recruiting going forward.
Wow, wild. Clearly, he needs to rethink his career choice. Slacker.
Obviously having gone through Hannah's career, its easy to be skeptical about her improving as a free throw shooter. The weird thing is that she actually has a pretty good elbow jump shot. She made a few early on and she has a decent stroke, so my guess is the free throw thing is mostly mental with her, and not as much of a form thing as it was with Hannah. Hopefully she works through that.
Totally agree. Just saying…even Wemby can have his shot blocked.
It's not just Hannah. A lot of post players throughout basketball have struggled mightily to become even average FT shooters. People like to act like shooting 70+ percent from the FT line in front of the cameras is easy and something everyone s/b able to do with practice, but it's not. A lot of bigs are on basketball teams only because they are big, not because they possess innate skills that other people don't. If 50% foul shooter Shaq had been 6 foot tall he'd have been coming off the bench of his junior high team instead of becoming a Hall of Famer, and it wasn't because he didn't practice. He just couldn't shoot the ball.
