Do y'all remember Mary Ashley Groot? She played at Cardinal Newman for a year before moving up north. This is her:
2024-2025 WBB Team (2022-present)
- Thread starter TN-Gamecock
- Start date
I genuinely think this is it. I believe coach Law in that they weren't really looking in the portal. But if Kiki comes knocking you hear her out and make it work if needed.
I have mixed feelings but one thing I like about Kiki is that she did her damage efficiently. She played 27 minutes a game which is a lot easier to work with than a player who averages 35+ minutes.
She played 27 minutes a game out of necessity. If she is coming here it is because of things other than increasing her playing time . She is a Aja Wilson fan and the whole world saw the relationship our players and coaches have.
That would be seismic if her acquisition is realized, but would it drive anyone we have into the portal?
Realizing that some players have goals other than to make it in the WNBA, but if that is the goal, I can see Sania transferring out if Iriafen came in. Sania would easily be a 20/10 player at any other P5 school. She already has 2 rings. But she'll be drafted no matter what, so maybe it doesn't matter that she gets 15-20 minutes per game here. And NIL here might be better than anywhere else for WBB. When does the portal close to be eligible next year?
You have to enter the portal by May1 but there is no deadline on when you have to sign by.
One thing worth noting is that when word got out Kiki was in the portal I decided to see who she had recently followed. She followed Southern Cal coach, Mikaylah Williams from LSU, Paige and...... Sania Feagin. So who knows, perhaps Feagin could be the one that brought her here for the visit.
I recall SoCal was one of her finalists. Don't know if they want her now with all those young players coming in.
Why would Dawn go after KiKi but not Reagan Beers? Beers is the better player. Beers was 3rd Team AP All-American.
We are not going after anyone. Bringing in Iriafen would create an uncomfortable logjam in the frontcourt. However, I think you take her if she wants to come because of the talent and to keep her away from USC. Iriafen is a player that can really hurt you as opponent and would make USC an even stiffer challenge.
Did Beers call Staley? If Kiki was true to her word, the only way the she and Staley got together was at the player's initiative.
Dawn did not go after anyone. KI was listed as Do Not Contact in the portal.
Regardless, scouts don't agree with you that Beers is the better player.
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If Dawn takes anyone, it will be because she thinks that player will make us better without upsetting the chemistry. As other posters have pointed out, Beers would slow us down. Great player but would suit other teams better.
Beers is not. Fit for our style of defense. Why do you lean on choices based on racial lines. Yes that is obvious. The player in question had a do not contact, so that means Staley did not pursue her, she pursued us. Beers had that same choice. Did she contact Us? Again, your racial lines angle is getting tiresome. This is a great thread so don’t make it about color .
I don't agree either. Iriafen went for 19.5 and 11 on 55% shooting with Cameron Brink on her team. The only knock I see in Kiki's game is that she is not really a shot blocker.
Sorry, this was supposed to be in reply to DarkCock's post.
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Speed and endurances, please put your thinking cap on!
I said from the beginning there was one big recruit I would entertain if they entered the portal and that was Kiki. She just has the speed and athleticism that just fits our brand of basketball. We've only seen the tip of the iceberg of her talent, she went from role player to all-American in just this one season alone. She's in my opinion the closest prospect to A'ja we've seen since she graduated.
As for Beers, great player definitely not the right fit. She can't switch on defense and her conditioning is questionable for our roster. You don't slow down players like Raven, Milaysia, Ashlyn and even Joyce down for one player. Our speed and transition offense is one of our main strengths.
Overall I'm excited that Kiki is interested and I don't envy Dawn if she does commits. If I'm being honest I think she goes to one of the LA schools and it might be for the best. I still believe in our current roster either way.
As for Beers, great player definitely not the right fit. She can't switch on defense and her conditioning is questionable for our roster. You don't slow down players like Raven, Milaysia, Ashlyn and even Joyce down for one player. Our speed and transition offense is one of our main strengths.
Overall I'm excited that Kiki is interested and I don't envy Dawn if she does commits. If I'm being honest I think she goes to one of the LA schools and it might be for the best. I still believe in our current roster either way.
I think that, if she's coming 3,000 miles, it's more than likely to come together. It might already have come together. Pao-pao's precedent inclines me to think this way.
I think one of the reasons Dawn started Saxton and Fletcher was because Aliyah prefers more of a halfcourt game. Coach liked to keep Raven and Cardoso together and have them came off the bench together because they prefer a faster pace.
Raven and Fulwiley are fast and faster. Maddie McDaniel is fast as well. Paopao can run the point if Dawn wants to slow the game down. But, like you say, Beers doesn't make sense here and there's no indication she was interested anyway. I'm sure one of the reasons she chose Oregon State was their deliberate pace. Or their coach molded his team to fit her skill set.
Who said anything about race? I was just making a comment "I know we are not taking another player." Someone mentioned about Kiki coming here which would be odd due to the best post player in the portal is Reagan Beers. If coach wanted another post, I'm sure she would've tried to get Beers to visit but I don't see coach taking another player with the minutes to spread around.
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You did this to yourself with your constant whining about Coach not recruiting white players earlier in the season. Therefore, that’s where people think you are coming from all the time. If you were keeping up, you would have known Beers and Iriafen designated themselves as “Do Not Contact” when entering the portal. Thus no school is going after either player. They are contacting the schools they are interested in.
TN-Gamecock might have been totally ignorant of Iriafen and Beers’ do not contact status. But if that were the case, a simple “Oops I didn’t know that” would have sufficed. Instead he made another attempt to promote Beers over Iriafen and poke at coach Staley. All done with a “Who me??” attitude.
Combine that with his earlier total unwillingness to deal with his( I will be kind) fraught statements on race and I can only doubt the sincerity of his words.
dog whistle is the use of coded or suggestive language in political messaging
Whatever, point was to say it's been said by others that coach won't take another player...I was agreeing with that assessment. If Dawn wanted the most talented (highly ranked) post she would have made it known publicly even though as someone else, Beers asked for no contact.
So you want Coach to beg for Beers even though we need no one. You just keep digging. LOL!!! It would also be against the spirit of the No Contact Rule.
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Are you dumb as a box of rocks? Did you not just read where I said, I know coach is not taking another player.....what do you mean, " I just keep digging"...
Figure out the hole you are digging. You are the smart one, right?
You don’t get to just say “whatever” as a way to gloss over your bad behavior over the last year. Many on this thread thought your words were not acceptable. You were even politely offered a chance to walk your statements back. Instead you doubled down and told us to eff off.
You may have had no ill intentions in these words about Beers, Iriafen and Staley. However your past actions around Kitts and Staley are the lens that people see you through. They will always see you through that lens until you do something to regain good faith.
The tenor of your comments since PFUNK addressed you make it clear that you are either completely tone deaf to the impact of your words or are slyly and deliberately baiting us with your prejudices.
My Dad always told me, "when you realize you are in a hole, the first thing to do is put down the shovel"!
On the flip side of this discussion are the UCONN fans who don't want Beers because of her politics. Or her alleged politics because they are just basing it on her instagram follows. I tagged Beers on every such post I saw. Just so she's aware there are UCONN fans who don't want her to go there. Beers is not a fit here, but she is a very good player and if we have to face her every year I would much prefer her on Oklahoma than UCONN.
That's so stupid. I don't think I share much in the arena of politics with Tom Brady, but there is no way I don't take him (when he was in his prime) in a heartbeat. As bad as UConn needs a big, I just can't believe that real UConn fans would balk at Beers.
I did see it posted somewhere. Not sure it wasn't just speculation since they were visiting together at Southern Cal
She announced her 4 finalists on Instagram and we were not one of them. Adding a senior guard wouldn't make much sense. Maybe a young wing, I could see.
Good. I was beginning to get concerned that we would get overcrowded. This program is sprinting now. Overcrowding and ultimate transfers is the one thing that could bring us down.She announced her 4 finalists on Instagram and we were not one of them. Adding a senior guard wouldn't make much sense. Maybe a young wing, I could see.
Speed and endurances, please put your thinking cap on!
He's a TENNESSEE-Gamecock........
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