2022 Transfer Season

Now do you understand why I said in a earlier post that Vic had politely asked our 3 seniors to not return to the team for their Covid year. Some disagreed but it’s clear that Vic had a plan and has upgraded the team by a quantum amount.

 

Former BYU Cougars star Shaylee Gonzales transferring to Texas Longhorns - Deseret News

 

Really good pickup of Gonzalez. It takes some of the sting off of losing Matharu. Although three point perimeter shooting is still a question mark. She gives the team another high caliber scorer with good size.

Which was an area the the team lacked last year and should help when it comes to guarding bigger perimeter players and rebounding.

Also the fact that she's a true point guard with the ability to play off the ball helps to take some pressure off of Rori.

You can obviously play her at the point if Rori's in foul trouble. Or play both at the same time and slide Rori off the ball to give her a breather and give her the ability to focus on scoring the ball if the team needs it.

 

I posted this a couple of days ago:

- July 11 is the first day of classes at Texas for second summer session; hoping Khadija Faye will be enrolled and begins practicing with her new teammates

- Shaylee Gonzales hasn't posted anything on social media regarding a transfer school destination; no indication that she's graduated from BYU after 3 years and will be a grad-transfer. From what I could gather, BYU has one summer session which runs from June 13 to August 9. So, assuming she's enrolled at BYU for summer classes, she won't be enrolling at her new school until later in August
__________________________________________________________________

2018-19 Freshman season at BYU
2019-20 ACL injury; medical redshirt season
2020-21 COVID redshirt season
2021-22 Fourth year academically at BYU

It would make sense that she's graduated from BYU. But, have not seen it on her social media. That dictates her next move as far as when she can enroll at Texas (today) or for the Fall semester.

Shaylee was in Chicago this weekend for the WNBA All-Star game (according to her IG stories). Would be rushed to get settled at Texas and begin classes today or later this week.

 

I love a good reverse jinx!

 

Can anyone take a shot at this question? What former Longhorn WBB player does this transfer remind you of?

Shaylee Gonzales will remind you of:
Taylor Jones will remind you of:
Sonya Morris will remind you of:
Khadija Faye will remind you of:

I can't watch a short 30 second video and understand what I'm seeing.

 

Shaylee is marketable

 

https://www.deseret.com/2022/1/25/2...obison-jeff-judkins-paisley-harding?_amp=true


“She can score in so many ways — on the drive, on the pull-up and on jump shots. She gets offensive rebounds and putbacks and defensively, she makes steals and layups,” said BYU coach Jeff Judkins. “If she stays for the next two years, I think she will break the record.”

“I try to be super aggressive,” Gonzales said. “My motor makes me go. When the team sees me getting aggressive, they get aggressive.”

Paisley Harding is in her third season playing alongside Gonzales.

“She never stops moving,” Harding said. “The energy follows the ball and there is a magnet on the ball that attracts Shaylee. She is such a special player. If she doesn’t break the (scoring) record, I will be shocked.”

 

Seems like Shaylee is still in Chicago. I don't get the feeling she'll be attending the second summer session. Plus, Texas hasn't even put out an official release that she has signed her ASA paperwork.

 

"When speaking last month about securing his third offseason commitment from the transfer portal, Texas basketball coach Vic Schaefer insisted that “I might not be done.” He was not bluffing."

Ain't that the truth!

Texas picked as destination for BYU basketball star Shaylee Gonzales

 

Had Shaylee stayed at BYU for 2 seasons, she was on pace to finish as the top scorer in school history.

 

My sting is already in the distance. I just keep thinking 18ppg vs. 12ppg. I'm good...

 

A friend and I were comparing our current roster to last season's. We agreed that, not only will we see significantly more scoring punch and rim protection in the paint, but on the perimeter we now have several scorers. I personally think Morris is every bit the shooter and scorer that Matharu is (again, I hate she left but...) and she brings good size also. Gonzalez also brings a scorer's mentality and, although lacking Matharu's jackrabbit quickness, what she does significantly add is another competent facilitator (Morris is a capable one also). With that said, even with the loss of Matharu we remain in a place that will force opponents to guard us straight-up. They won't be able to key on Rori to disrupt offensive flow with other facilitators on the floor. IMO that's a huge plus from last season.

 

I keep thinking about Vic's press conference prior to the Stanford Elite 8 game when he said that he wasn't concerned with our defense, he was concerned about scoring points against Stanford. I believe he also discussed that our inability to score points was a key factor in the loss to Stanford in the post-game press conference.

Although I don't have evidence to prove it, I have a hunch that Vic may be shifting his mindset (ever slightly) to put more importance on our offensive production. Although he'll still be a coach who has a "defense first" mentality, I won't be surprised to see more wrinkles and ingenuity in our offensive sets next season. As @brnkj points out, we have several new players who have a scorer's mentality. Teams will pay a price if they try to double team Moore, Harmon or Jones. Hopefully, we will have an effective counter-response when an opponent shifts to a zone defense against us during a game.

Vic is passionate about winning and getting back to the Final Four. He may be an old dog but he does learn new tricks.

 

I forgot to add I also think we will be far more mature in the backcourt this season. Not only does Rori have that outstanding freshman season behind her, but adding Morris and Gonzalez should bring much more maturity and stability than what we would have had without them.

 

Your sting also shot below 30% from the three point line. It's not rocket science. If you can't shoot the ball well from the perimeter it affects any and everything you do offensively.

Yes, both Gonzalez and Morris are great scores, but try being a great scorer when the opposing team doesn't respect your teams jump shooting.

Let's also not forget that both players come from Coaches/systems that run very good offense.

And in Morris' case, a coach that plays a wide open, shoot until your arm falls off system with Doug Bruno. Which is also why only pointing out PPG average isn't very smart when it comes basketball.

 

Gonzales seems to score in multiple ways inside the arc: good driver/finisher at the basket, good mid-range jumper, can get putbacks on offensive boards thanks to her size at her position, and a very good FT shooter.

As far as Vic's offense, he had a couple of MSU teams that were among the Top 10-15 in the country. Defense will always be his bread and butter but I'm sure he'd gladly trade giving up 5-7 more points a game if his team is reliably scoring 10-12 more. That's the trajectory I see for this team - the average points given up will increase a bit but the offensive gains will more than cover that.

 

Not sure I’m tracking what you mean here. Gonzalez was still a great scorer despite her % from BTA. She also was very effective against good opponents, having scored 20+ points against Utah, WVU, FSU and OU despite going a combined 3/18 from BTA in this 4 games (BYU went 3-1 in these games)

 

Meaning when you don't have consistent three point shooters as a TEAM it's very difficult to score if they don't respect it. EVERY year no matter who the coach is Texas forgets how to play on offense when an opposing team like Tennessee goes zone because they don't respect our three point shooting.

On paper the best three point shooter coming into this year will be Morris at around 34% to Matharu's 40 plus. And as I mentioned, BYU ran really good offense. Which is why you see many of Gonzalez's points are of her cutting /curling to the basket within the offense for a layup.

Also since you brought it up, another reason that PPG isn't always a good way to view or compare players is because Matharu played against better competition as a whole than either Gonzalez or Morris.

 

Matharu is gone. I hate it…..really hate it…BUT I’m excited to move forward. We have upgraded offensively at every position except Matharu. Truth be told, we have not been a good 3 point shooting team for a while. Joanne, Audrey, etc were just not what I call great shooters and were inconsistent from 3 point land. I fully expect Hunter to fill Matharu’s role of coming off the bench. Argue all you want about Hunter only had one good game, or it’s different in practice than in a game…whatever makes you happy, but you don’t hit SEVEN 3 pointers in 8 minutes if your not a pure shooter. Her upside is off the charts, and she stayed and is working hard to be ready. She WILL be an outstanding player for Texas, mark my words. The depth we have now in our front court is outstanding. We will be a much better offensive team and have much better rim protection.

 

Kurupt…..you’re right on regarding three point shooting…everything is harder without that threat. I do think Horns penetration inside the guts of a zone will be better this fall. Gonzalez appears to be that slasher that will cause a zone to collapse from penetration. I’m optimistic that Morris will come close to replacing the microwave shooting that Matharu provided/threatened, as well as penetration and better passing. I still have my doubts about Hunter getting the minutes to scare teams away from a zone…..but she has the ability. Our forward/center players appear to me to be better shooters this year. Jones from elbows and short corners against a zone appear to be upgraded. Gaston is good from there…..and Moore will be a terror from the elbows either shooting or driving. I’m not being dismissive of the three freshmen; however, I’m not counting on their contributions early. I’m optimistic that Harmon will be better attacking a zone after a year of experience. All this fun discussing our opinions is just that….fun. Schaefer’s unidentified alien assistant coaches will have a huge impact in making the pieces all work…..assuming they are hired before the season is over. New players/coaches better get on campus soon as the trip to Storrs is right around the corner. I can’t wait to see what Schaefer comes up with. Until then, I’m not sweating three point shooting.

 

I guess this ends my greed of having Gabby Connally join our program:

 

Yeah, glad we can put this to bed. Never really thought this had much of a possibility, but was impressed with video I saw of her.

 

Wow, thanks for the insult, Kurupt. If you disagree, why don't you just disagree rather than throwing in a little dig? I think we'd had 3 more wins had we had 6 more points a game...no matter where those points came from on the court. Additionally, I think the players have four or more months to work on their 3-point shooting skills. I think we have the players to fill in any slack caused by Matharu's departure. In any event, my post wasn't about being smart...it was about being cute and optimistic.

 

The biggest takeaway for me in all this portal and roster maneuvering is how relieved and pumped I feel that the program is being lead by a person that has a plan that works and knows what he is doing. Might I go so far as to say that he knows a bit more than all of the Monday Morning QBs that attempt to critique every micro-move and every coaching decision?

Vic will lead this program to elite levels for years to come. That was not always appreciated by many who were often critical during Vic's two transition years while working with an inherited roster. (At this point, only Shay is a KA holdover.) All he accomplished during this period was back-to-back E8 finishes....what a slacker.

Without the portal, the transition might have taken three years, so we can be thankful that Coach is adept at recruiting both HS and college players that want to play for a winner and are 100% bought-in to the system.

 

You're right, I just should have said that I disagreed and stated why. And agree with you that hopefully the other players on the team improve and work on their perimeter jump shots.

I also think that if Aaliyah shows that she can shoot the ball from the three point line at a solid level, Vic should allow her to take them in games. Having a stretch 4 would help the team tremendously.

With the additions of Gonzalez and Morris along with the post players that were brought in, they have the potential to be better offensively and defensively on paper. But for me the offensive part is a wait and see process because every year we're optimistic about the offense, especially when it come to shooting the ball.

And then a team will decide to play zone against us and we always seem to not be able to function. Which then basically tells the other coaches that we're going to play that they should probably play a zone against us too.

 

Nor can I. Your question, a good one, is a tall order at this point. I can answer it after watching the intra-squad scrimmage and exhibition game in November. That will give us our first opportunity to see how all four function in our offense and defense, something that has not been possible until then.

Pure guessing, but I imagine Shaylee will appear to be a cross between Jo and Rori. Sonya may look a lot like Aliyah.

 

I think Shaylee will be more like a cross between Ariel Atkins and Brianna Taylor. I think Sonya will be more like a cross between Sug Sutton and Lashann Higgs.

 

None of us (self included) know for sure how the new freshmen and transfer players are going to adapt/fit into Vic's system until they do. I'll be excited to see how it all unfolds. What we see in the beginning may or may not look like what we see at the end. In his first two seasons, Vic has held true to his promise that his teams get better as the season progresses.