WBB Offseason

[Pistol]

She's a top-20 shot blocker nationally but there's not much to be excited about on the offensive side. It's a little odd to have the first incoming transfer to be a defensive role player. I guess we just have to give her time to put the rest of the roster together and maybe this will make more sense.

[Lord Elrond]

59 minutes ago, Pistol said:

She's a top-20 shot blocker nationally but there's not much to be excited about on the offensive side. It's a little odd to have the first incoming transfer to be a defensive role player. I guess we just have to give her time to put the rest of the roster together and maybe this will make more sense.

There is room on the roster for a defensive roll player, so that’s fine.  Tillett needs to bring in multiple high quality offensive players.  This announcement would have gone down better if a couple of really promising offensive players were announced prior to announcing Jada Tiggett.  I don’t want to let my own frustration with the roster crisis get in the way of welcoming a player who could help us.  

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

Bel Tillett is returning as a player, according to her social media.

[TheA_Bomb]

32 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Bel Tillett is returning as a player, according to her social media.

That's what May was talking about.  Big News!

[billikenfan05]

47 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Bel Tillett is returning as a player, according to her social media.

If she’s getting any minutes on this team, it’s gonna be a LONG year. 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

1 hour ago, TheA_Bomb said:

That's what May was talking about.  Big News!

I do think it's odd that we've gotten one "meh" player on the women's side. We need to hit the portal so hard or we're toast.

[Lord Elrond]

2 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

If she’s getting any minutes on this team, it’s gonna be a LONG year. 

Yeah, but right now, no one else on the team is a point guard other than Bel Tillett, none of the incoming freshmen are point guards either.  

There still is time to get players, the women’s side seems a lot slower in action than the men’s side.  But let’s get going.

[TheA_Bomb]

Jordana Codio, Texas Jr, 6'1, is in the portal my friend is one of her professors. I'm asking her to put in a good word for SLU. Has final 4 experience.  I'm told her IG game is strong.

https://texaslonghorns.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/jordana-codio/13723

 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

10 hours ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Jordana Codio, Texas Jr, 6'1, is in the portal my friend is one of her professors. I'm asking her to put in a good word for SLU. Has final 4 experience.  I'm told her IG game is strong.

https://texaslonghorns.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/jordana-codio/13723

 

Uhhhhhh anyone from Texas would be an every-game starter here. Pleaseeeeee let your words carry weight, lol.

[billikenfan05]

Any update from that women's basketball portal war room? Are they still holed up there? Has anyone checked on them? 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

1 hour ago, billikenfan05 said:

Any update from that women's basketball portal war room? Are they still holed up there? Has anyone checked on them? 

They've just sent out for more rations. They've run out of protein bars.

[courtside]

On 4/5/2025 at 10:51 PM, Lord Elrond said:

Yeah, but right now, no one else on the team is a point guard other than Bel Tillett, none of the incoming freshmen are point guards either.  

There still is time to get players, the women’s side seems a lot slower in action than the men’s side.  But let’s get going.

Dead period finished up last night. There has been more than 1200 players in the portal. Commitments reached the 100 mark over the weekend. Commitment pace is picking up as commitments have reached more than 125. And some players are still entering the portal as that number is north of 1250. Lots of uncommitted players are still in the portal. Roughly 90%. There will be more movement the next few weeks. SLU is active in the portal.

[courtside]

George Mason Head Coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis will remain at George Mason. She was a finalist for the head coaching position at Arizona. Buffalo’s Becky Burke was named the new Arizona Head Coach today. 

Former VCU Coach Beth Cunningham (Missouri State HC)  was also a candidate at Arizona. They went through many names, about a dozen. Some coaching targets had financial concerns, available NIL money etc…Cunningham was also a candidate at Wisconsin. 

Regional landscape: Missouri also was turned down by its first few choices due to financial commitment concerns. They almost hired Jacie Hoyt but ended up with Kellie Harper. Harper is getting $950k base with incentives into 7 figures. $950k staff compensation budget. $100k annual personal family travel budget. That pushes Missouri close to top 25 compensation. All of that is significantly more than what was available for Robin Pingeton, who is now at Wisconsin. (another school turned down by candidates due to financial commitment concerns). 

Former VCU Associate Head Coach Karen Blair became the new HC at Georgia Tech this cycle. She had a lot of success on staff at Maryland for 7 seasons. 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

We have any movement over here? Dead period's been over a few days.

[Lord Elrond]

4 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

We have any movement over here? Dead period's been over a few days.

We haven’t lost anyone else to the portal, so there’s a positive. As for additions,

[courtside]

On 3/26/2025 at 4:11 AM, Lord Elrond said:

OK, the OVC Freshman of the Year, Zoe Best from SEMO is in the portal. 14.1 PPG, started all 28 games for SEMO, and a graduate of Incarnate Wood, 5’10” shooting guard/wing. If we’re not trying to get her to come play for her hometown crowd, what are we doing?

Zoe Best committed to Charlotte.

Some other locals in the portal: Jayla Murray transferred to Ole amiss from Wichita St. Averaged 12 and 5 as a 6 foot Forward.

Shannon Dowell, 5’10 guard at Illinois State, had an 18 & 5 season as a Sophomore. She visited Missouri this weekend. 

Eliza Maupin from K-State is in the portal. 
…………..

Laura Ziegler from St. Joe’s visited Louisville this week.

………….

Contact is allowed during dead periods, just not in person, and no visits. It was a short dead period. There are still 11 days left for any player to enter the portal. 

Last count was roughly 1350 players and counting in the portal, and 210 portal commits and counting. 

There are roughly 25 programs with zero players in the portal And that might be less as the portal continues another 11 days..

And there are more than 60 programs with at least 7 players in the portal. (SLU has 5, none have committed elsewhere yet)

[courtside]

On 4/12/2025 at 6:31 PM, courtside said:

Zoe Best committed to Charlotte.

Some other locals in the portal: Jayla Murray transferred to Ole amiss from Wichita St. Averaged 12 and 5 as a 6 foot Forward.

Shannon Dowell, 5’10 guard at Illinois State, had an 18 & 5 season as a Sophomore. She visited Missouri this weekend. 

Eliza Maupin from K-State is in the portal. 
…………..

Laura Ziegler from St. Joe’s visited Louisville this week.

………….

Contact is allowed during dead periods, just not in person, and no visits. It was a short dead period. There are still 11 days left for any player to enter the portal. 

Last count was roughly 1350 players and counting in the portal, and 210 portal commits and counting. 

There are roughly 25 programs with zero players in the portal And that might be less as the portal continues another 11 days..

And there are more than 60 programs with at least 7 players in the portal. (SLU has 5, none have committed elsewhere yet)

Ziegler took a visit to Oregon. Dowell is visiting Arizona State and Arizona. Inadvertently forgot that St. Louisan Saniah Tyler was scooped up by Missouri last week, after playing a reserve role under two different staffs at Kentucky. 

Maupin committed to Nebraska.

Commits have surpassed 250, out of roughly 1360.

[thetorch]

Will we have a team next year?

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

1 hour ago, thetorch said:

Will we have a team next year?

Asking the real questions. How do we have NO ONE (according to MMP we have one?) from the portal yet?

Edited Tuesday at 01:53 AM by BrettJollyComedyHour

[Pistol]

Just Jada Tiggett so far, in addition to the few remaining players.

[courtside]

1 hour ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Asking the real questions. How do we have NO ONE (according to MMP we have one?) from the portal yet?

SLU has had 1 commit thus far that I posted about on April 2nd. They are active in the portal and they will have other commits. 

Only 20% of portal players have committed, which is up from 10% last week. Over 1375 players are in the portal and counting which has slowed a lot, but new portal players are still entering daily. There is still a little more than another week for players to enter the portal that haven’t done so yet.

SLU has 5 players in the portal. Well over 60 schools have at least 7 players in the portal. 

A10 portal players:

Dayton: 2

Duquesne: 1

Fordham:: 6

George Mason: 5

George Washington: 5

La Salle: 3

Loyola: 2

Rhode Island: 2

Richmond: 1

Saint Joseph’s: 2

SLU: 5

St. Bonaventure: 9

UMass: 5

VCU: 7

[Lord Elrond]

10 hours ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Asking the real questions. How do we have NO ONE (according to MMP we have one?) from the portal yet?

That is starting to be a good question. Just from looking at numbers of players who ran out of eligibility after last season (8) and the number of incoming freshman commits (3), it was obvious we needed to hit the portal hard. Add on other players leaving, and we need more. It amounts to 80% of all the minutes played last year, and about 88% of our points gone from last years team. Right now, it’s 4 returning players, 3 incoming freshmen, and 1 commit from the portal. I hear that we say we have what we need to compete, yet I see Brooklyn Gray making a recruiting trip to URI, where I think she will have a much harder time finding minutes than here. Yes, the portal is still open, yes there is plenty of time, but good players are committing to other schools now. While numbers of players might still be available, the quality ones will go quickly.  We need some impact players to commit to us now before they are gone.

[courtside]

38 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

That is starting to be a good question. Just from looking at numbers of players who ran out of eligibility after last season (8) and the number of incoming freshman commits (3), it was obvious we needed to hit the portal hard. Add on other players leaving, and we need more. It amounts to 80% of all the minutes played last year, and about 88% of our points gone from last years team. Right now, it’s 4 returning players, 3 incoming freshmen, and 1 commit from the portal. I hear that we say we have what we need to compete, yet I see Brooklyn Gray making a recruiting trip to URI, where I think she will have a much harder time finding minutes than here. Yes, the portal is still open, yes there is plenty of time, but good players are committing to other schools now. While numbers of players might still be available, the quality ones will go quickly.  We need some impact players to commit to us now before they are gone.

The first question many high level players ask is how much money do you have for me?

[courtside]

On 4/15/2025 at 8:31 AM, courtside said:

The first question many high level players ask is how much money do you have for me?

Example:

Last week a Top 25 program hosted a transfer, and, they felt confident they were landing the player. The visit went well. The offer was $100k. The player turned it down because she had an offer for $300k at another school. The somewhat surprised runner up coach for the player happened to know the other “winning” school’s coach in the recruitment, so he called the other coach to verify the offer, which was accurate. The other coach verified the offer and said it was a position of need at the time so we had to spend a little more on that player. The runner up coach then suggested that they may not be able to get to 15 with roster money. Maybe 12. 

Programs without bigger money  need to do everything it can when identifying, recruiting, and landing high school players, The portal is much more of a supplemental place than Men’s revenue sports. and this applies to other Olympic sports as well. 

[courtside]

On 4/12/2025 at 6:31 PM, courtside said:

Zoe Best committed to Charlotte.

Some other locals in the portal: Jayla Murray transferred to Ole amiss from Wichita St. Averaged 12 and 5 as a 6 foot Forward.

Shannon Dowell, 5’10 guard at Illinois State, had an 18 & 5 season as a Sophomore. She visited Missouri this weekend. 

Eliza Maupin from K-State is in the portal. 
…………..

Laura Ziegler from St. Joe’s visited Louisville this week.

………….

Contact is allowed during dead periods, just not in person, and no visits. It was a short dead period. There are still 11 days left for any player to enter the portal. 

Last count was roughly 1350 players and counting in the portal, and 210 portal commits and counting. 

There are roughly 25 programs with zero players in the portal And that might be less as the portal continues another 11 days..

And there are more than 60 programs with at least 7 players in the portal. (SLU has 5, none have committed elsewhere yet)

Regional landscape:

Dowell committed to Missouri yesterday after also considering U of A and ASU. They also picked up a Reisma from Cleveland State. 

Former Dayton Head Coach, and current Illinois Head Coach, Shauna Green, is having a good portal season. She landed Maddie Webber, a good 2nd Team All Big East guard from Villanova. And, she landed Aaliyah Guyton from Iowa. 

Gift Uchenna, is one of the better rebounders in the country at SIUC, averaging 15 and 13. She recently transferred to Wisconsin. 

There are still good players entering the portal daily with 1 week left to enter. Total players in the portal closing in on 1400. Commitments are roughly 325.