2023 Recruiting - WBB

Rylee may very well be a more realistic complement to Abbie than #4 Breya Cunningham from La Jolla. Are you aware of any film on Rylee?

 

Nothing extensive but this is from this past weekend…


She has been making the rounds this fall also visiting Florida, FSU, N Carolina, NC State, SMU and Oklahoma.

 

Based on the limited social media I've seen, Rylee seems very partial to NC State.

For us, she's good friends with DeYona; so, hopefully that's a factor, especially if she wants to stay in state (and close to family).

We need more size/bulk inside for 2023-24. The majority of the Top 10 programs have at least 2 talented post players on their rosters.

 

So, size/bulk or size/athleticism? We'll have Aaliya Moore and Deyona, plus Femme, right? Abbie will be a freshman, so maybe not playing all that much. 1,2,3 will be solid so able to take pressure off of 5. Also, we're new to top 10 and so haven't yet shown we'll put anchor there. Once we do, as most of us expect, we'll have the major players looking for us, rather than the other way around. I definitely think we're on the right track.

 

You're leaving out our most likely post player of the future, Natasha, with Femme as a backup. At last, Texas will be front-court deep beginning next year.

 

You are right! Brain fart on my part. I really like her!

 

Both!

I mean, Aliyah Boston's don't grow on trees; but, we don't really have anyone close to matching up with her type of talent (nor do most teams). There's a reason why SC killed us inside last season, and that was even with Collier.

Moore is an undersized (height) power forward; Gaston is having to play some minutes at Center (and undersized there). Femme is athletic, but not an elite post player.

I think most would agree we are least talented at Center, and that won't be addressed by the 2022 recruiting class (as of yet).

 

I agree. The positive note is that we are improving on the perimeter. Last year teams could focus on Charlie. That's becoming less and less the case. We are a more well rounded team. And, as Zig pointed out, Natasha has tremendous potential. Just hoping that her skinny legs can stay healthy, and that S&C can put some muscle on them.

 

I have no idea who Natasha is.

 

While I appreciate everything Joanne, Audrey and Lauren have done, with their graduations, this team will see another step up in athleticism and length with the addition of Ndjakalenga, Amina and Jordana. Add another year of S&C and hopefully health for Aaliyah, Latasha…Vic thought he had a tough time getting teams to come in this season, wait until he starts scouring the country for next season. At least we know Princeton will be a year 1 Moody opponent.

 

Lattimore!

 

Latasha Lattimore is not a Center.

 

I know you've seen her. Long and smooth and quite the shot blocker. She wears a knee brace from a knee injury and is reportedly working on trusting the knee. if it works out, she could be awesome.

 

This brings up an interesting point. What is a center? Is it someone who takes up space and is not quick enough to play outside the lane? Or could it be a a tall enough player who is athletic enough to challenge inside shots? And who can take the opposing center out of the lane because they have to guard the outside shot.

 

On the defensive end, a Center guards the other team's Center. That's what a lot of players (like Charil, Tiffany Jackson, Joyner Holmes, etc.) didn't want to do as they didn't like the physical aspect playing down low.

On offense, those same (stretch-four) players wanted to mainly float around the court and take perimeter jump shots). Joyner also wanted to handle the ball thinking she was a guard.

So, the above are NOT Centers, and needed to find out the hard way they were power forwards and not wing players.

 

The lack of a true Center is why I think Breya Cunningham will be a priority for the 2023 class. Our coaches are doing a good job on social media of showing Cunningham love by liking and retweeting her Tweets and IG stories. It will be challenging to pry her away from her home state of California, but I have confidence in Coach Phillips and Vic that they will make sure that Texas is in contention.

If not Cunningham, hopefully the transfer portal will provide a few options as there aren't many elite posts/centers in the 2023 class.

 

The old time true center is de-valued in some leagues. In the NBA, big guys who post up on the blocks offensively but defensively can’t guard anybody outside ten feet are examples. Marjanovic with Mavs, Drummond with 76rs, are a couple. If you play a big slow guy, teams will kill you by moving somebody like Embid or the Denver big outside. In the NCAAW game, it is still good to have a big defensive center when the other team has a big like Lee with Kansas State. Ebo may be be able to negate Lee sometimes. For that situation, give me a 6’-6” center who has enough heft and length to not be dominated. And rebound. The Tennessee center did a good job against us this year. The Miss, State big that Schaefer had a few years ago are other examples. Lee might go off on us this year. The other ways to defend someone like Lee is double down on her …….and/or pressure the passers to make entries hard. If you double down it leaves the three point shooters open. I don’t know if KState has the scary three point shooters. My guess is Schaefer will first pressure the passers hard and see if that does the trick. I still think Schaefer wants that aircraft carrier big defensively. He hasn’t been able to get one. Yet.

 

Lee was almost 1/2 of their offensive output last game. I would think we focus on shutting her down, i.e. double team her, and see if anyone else can step up. Sounds like, from Vic's press availabilty today, that both A Mo and Deyona will be available. Perhaps some combination of them with Ebo can impact her. Also, and this is a wildcard in my mind, what can Latasha do? I see her as a skilled player who is not (yet?) a banger. It will certainly be an interesting matchup.

 

According to my cable guide, KBVO in Austin will be airing tonight's basketball game between Liberty Hill and Cedar Park. So, a chance to watch CP's Gisella Maul.

 

Nice catch! If you have Spectrum, it's channel 1215. Never knew this channel existed.

How to find KBVO

• AT&T U-Verse: Channel 1007 (HD) – Channel 7 (SD)
• DirecTV: Channel 51 (HD) – Channel 909 (SD)
• Dish Network: Channel 51 (HD/SD)
• Grande Communications: Channel 818 (HD) – Channel 18 (SD)
• Northland Cable: Channel 101 (HD) – Channel 10 (SD)
• Over the Air: Channel 14
• Suddenlink: Channel 107 (HD) – Channel 7 (SD)
• Spectrum Cable: Channel 1215 (HD) – Channel 7 (SD)

 

I watched the first half of the Cedar Park/Liberty Hill game. CP lead 32-3 at halftime. Gisella Maul had 23 for the game. She is clearly a smart, heady and strong player. She shared the ball and didn’t try to do too much! Hard to get a gauge on how good she is in this game. She is the best player on a very good CP team that has won 50 straight games going back to November 2020. She is not a point guard but she reminded me of watching high school film of Celeste Taylor. Would love to see her play at Texas if Vic has a spot for her talents.

 

In that 1st half, Gisella took an unusual shot. She was dribbling well beyond the arc, half-way between the arc and half-court. There was no urgency to shoot, it was early in the shot clock, and she was unguarded. She picked up her dribble and let loose a shot that appeared to leave her body as a two-handed wrist shot. Nothing but net.

What's up with that?

Edit: After watching it again, it's clear that that distance is in her 3-pt range, unknown to her defender who was at the arc. However, the shot leaves her body from a low release point, so it is feasible only when unguarded. Not going to translate to the next level.

 

Grays mentions at the end that she wants to head out of state for college. That would explain why she took so many unofficial visits out of state already.

 

I really like Grays' potential at the 4 but that is 1 position where the Longhorns have stockpiled good, young depth at. That means a lot less in the era of the Transfer Portal but I'd say any of the other 4 positions are higher priorities (at the moment).

 

I did see that Grays took an unofficial visit to Baylor a couple of weeks ago, and she did visit us back in December, I think. So, you never know when a recruit (like Charli) who seems destined to go out of state for college has a change of heart due to some family priorities.

I guess it's a true statement that we currently have 3 freshmen power forwards (Gaston, Moore, and Lattimore) on the roster, and will be adding Muhammad in 2022; but, they are each so different from each other physically and in their skill sets.

That's like 4 underclassmen power forwards on next season's roster (including Gaston due to her COVID season). Unfortunately, just based on how attrition is happening everywhere, the chance all 4 finish their careers at Texas is not all that high. So, the coaches have to continue recruiting those high school recruits (just in case).

It's a luxury when some of your power forwards can play the Center position based on the opponent's matchup. Lattimore has the best height, but not the bulky frame. Grays actually seems like she could play some at Center in college; but, she might not want to.

 

Abby Boutilier had 2 points in Flower Mound’s close loss to Plano East last night.

 

Very under whelming! Not sure she can move that well.

 

Ellen Bayer redux?

 

I’ve never seen Boutilier actually play. Crazy that we have a player that has always been all-in for the burnt orange….and committed…..and goes to school 10 minutes from me and I won’t make the effort. I certainly hope she can mature into a good role player. Maybe I’ll go see a play off game Flower Mound is in close by. And see for myself. But just from box scores, not much impact offensively. Perhaps she’s affecting play defensively. If so that’s great until her offensive game comes around.

 

So, 2 points is not awesome. What were her other stats? Did she have any effect on the game?