People have credited JJ with getting Addie Deal to Iowa. Exactly what part of Deal's game was the draw???
The only issue with Deal is that people expected her to come in and play like Clark. Addie Deal is a wing, not a PG. She was a top 20 recruit, not a Top 5 recruit.
In WBB, rankings are like earthquakes. With each “tier” of recruit, the magnitude changes. A top 5 player (CC22) is usually a *lot* better than a Top 20 player. A top 20 player (Deal) is usually a *lot* better than a Top 50 player. A top 50 player (Stuelke) is usually quite a bit better than a Top 100 player (McCabe). Take a look at the 2020 HS rankings — we all know the Top 5 players and they all had a lot of success. Outside the Top 5, names become a lot less familiar. Same with the class of 2022 to some extent.
Deal wasn’t stellar as a freshman but she will be a productive player. She can play 1-4. She is 6’0 and can rebound well. Her game is more like Sydney Parrish or Avery Howellthan CC22 or JuJu Watkins. She has a well rounded skillset and a sturdy build as well.
The bottom line is that outside those 5 or so players in each class, no one should be judged by their freshman year. That is rly the only level of player that can come in and take over a Top 15 team as a freshman. I’ll be shocked if she is shooting under 35% from
3 this year. I could see her with a triple double at some point as well.
The real question at this point is whether Woliczko (ranked either 6 or 7 by basically every major ranking service) will be such a player. Hopefully she is one of those few players who can hit the ground running. She might be able to do it with her rebounding (if she can rebound as well as Hannah did as a freshman I’ll be pleased) but ESPN comp’d her game to that of Darianna Littlepage-Buggs at Baylor, who just went undrafted…