I agree with this, you got to have some role players and convince them they are valuable because they are.
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2024-25 Roster/Rotation Additions
- Thread starter Cyforce
- Start date
When the players starting ahead of them are all freshman, its hard to paint a picture for a future expanded role.
Agreed. Last year was concerning. This year is understandable. At the end of the day, if a player like Natabou wants to play significant minutes, it's basically just lying to her saying that she'll have opportunities for more. Crooks is our answer and it became very obvious last year by January. Convincing a senior to take 8-10 minutes a game on what may be their last chance to play basketball is tough.
We had practically the same thing happen with the departures on the men's team this offseason, do.we have a culture problem there too? This is just the unfortunate era we live in with the transfer portal where if you don't play enough then you can just transfer. Last year was a little different losing 2 starters. That didn't work out too well for Fritz and the rumor was Donarski may have left for academic reasons and she didn't have any better of a season at UNC than she did at ISU.
But times have changed. In the past you would lose eligibility when transferring except you moved down to lower division. It was a factor in the past.
Now you don’t lose that eligibility.
I think it also depends on what these players want to be. In the past we had Shellie Mossman (Haluska) and Anna Florzak for example who were ok being contributors from the bench. Some preferred to keep on playing.
With Natabou the problem I see is she wasn’t developing fast enough - her learning curve is still really steep especially compared to how seamlessly Audi has integrated and adjusted as a freshman.
You would see similar situations at other programs. I wouldn’t call this alarming
She gave us some size on defense and she moved her feet better that Crooks. With the size around the country we need to find a way to match them.
Feel like this is just the era we are in with NIL and immediate transfers. There are a lot of valid reasons why a player can transfer. And it's easy to understand why they decide to make a change when the time commitment is so great. If you're going to put in the time, you might as well play!
as you look at the portal entries it’s so different from last year when we lost key front line pieces. Now we are losing depth pieces. Natabou will end up back at a smaller school in a lesser conference where the competition isn’t as tough. She will get to play out her career as a bigger fish in a small pond. As such I wish her all the best. She was a good teammate and nice member of this year's squad.
Now the fun part begins. I will be majorly shocked if there are any other defections at this point. So…who are the players the staff are going after? Will be fun to see. Recruiting depth players like Natabou is tougher than recruiting role players like Belanger.
Now the fun part begins. I will be majorly shocked if there are any other defections at this point. So…who are the players the staff are going after? Will be fun to see. Recruiting depth players like Natabou is tougher than recruiting role players like Belanger.
TJ was able to convince Ward to come back in a very similar situation last year. It benefited the team greatly.
Convincing someone to come back and compete against BRE vs Audi Crooks is a different conversation.
TCU transfer Sydney Harris is an interesting name to watch. Not sure if ISU has a realistic shot.
I don’t think anyone knows what her college game is going to look like except those at practice. I’m hopeful.
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If she plays more against Stanford we had a,chance to win. With Audi having an off game a change of pace may have helped. We kept forcing it in to Audi instead of using the,whole team.
Losing Natabou is a bummer. Will be interesting to see what they get for a backup big for next year
