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.
When she says “Missed out on one Canadian but is still looking at the next best Canadian…”, what do we understand here? That Iowa is still looking for the 12th player in Portal or is this about 2027 recruiting the class?
On Unash and Dukes podcast @~2:05 Jan says, "So, it wasn't until May 12th really that we could really solidify that roster. And then there was a big recruiting weekend. And I think last week I went to New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles within about five, six days."
www.wgil.com
A Galesburg reporter interviews Bria Medina. Found it fascinating that she's working out with the Knox men's squad to get ready for here. I say that coz at another point she said they don't have summer ball at Know like at Iowa. Taking the opportunity seriously to help out more in practice is a good sign of her mentality.
"... getting in the gym every day or, you know, 6 days a week with the men's team here. They're they're being super helpful and they're letting me um, you know, play in their 3v3s and really training me and doing everything that, you know, to help me. They're being super helpful with that."
"... you know, 2 months of practice time that we wouldn't get at the Division 3 level. You know, we don't get the the summertime um practices."
Article on it...
Bria Medina on her unlikely journey from Knox to the Iowa Hawkeyes: the call, the visit, and what comes next | WGIL 93.7 FM - 1400 AM
Bria Medina on her unlikely journey from Knox to the Iowa Hawkeyes: the call, the visit, and what comes next
A Galesburg reporter interviews Bria Medina. Found it fascinating that she's working out with the Knox men's squad to get ready for here. I say that coz at another point she said they don't have summer ball at Know like at Iowa. Taking the opportunity seriously to help out more in practice is a good sign of her mentality.
"... getting in the gym every day or, you know, 6 days a week with the men's team here. They're they're being super helpful and they're letting me um, you know, play in their 3v3s and really training me and doing everything that, you know, to help me. They're being super helpful with that."
"... you know, 2 months of practice time that we wouldn't get at the Division 3 level. You know, we don't get the the summertime um practices."
Article on it...
Bria Medina on her unlikely journey from Knox to the Iowa Hawkeyes: the call, the visit, and what comes next | WGIL 93.7 FM - 1400 AM
Bria Medina on her unlikely journey from Knox to the Iowa Hawkeyes: the call, the visit, and what comes next
A good pure 4 in the portal goes for over 600k. I'm sure Iowa wbb would still accept a check now to try to fill that need.
You know what? You can't always get what you want. But if you try some times. Well you just might find. You get what you need....
Retention is key. Ava had to receive a nice increase. Chit Chat also. Taylor and Journey a nice bump. Layla also. Carnegie an all SEC first team player probably received dollars to match Ava. Whiting probably got good money also. I'm sure Woliczko received more than Addie. Bottom line I'm sure our payroll is much higher than last year.
We can't forget that the money used to pay Hannah, Kylie, McCabe, Jada, Kennise, Levine, Addie Deal, Rodriguez and Mallegni would theoretically have been available, and our recruiting class only had one player. So, even though Woliczko, Dani Carnegie, and Amari Whiting cost a lot of money, they are only three players, and soon after, the money ran out. Therefore, it's obvious that Iowa has a financial limitation that prevents Jan from getting more than the eight elite players she did get, plus three more to complete the roster with only 11 players. So, again: Jan did a great job with the limited money he had available. We have eight very good players. And that's it.
If you will only believe Brad, Jan or Beth then no reason to ask anybody here "in the know" since they won't meet your criteria, no?
You can also analyze for yourself how many Portal top players and how many top 30 recruits each team is getting every year and draw your own conclusions. Each one of them costs a lot of money. Teams that manage to get recruitment class with several top recruits and transfer class with several top players have more money than those who manage to get fewer. It's that simple. Jan has said several times that the difficulty of getting someone else into Portal is all about time and money. There's a very good interview with Jan that came out on YouTube a few days ago where she says it's shocking how much money each player is asking for. Very good. I recommend it.
We have more money than most. I think we're going to have a really good team, but we shouldn't be the ones crying poor. Your next post explained where you're coming from a little better but still we have to be top 10 or 15 for resources.
Huh??????
The JJ defenders continually make excuses for roster deficiencies.
