2021 Transfer Season

Yea she's just a young person expressing frustration right now. Having watched that game, KM repeatedly asked her guards to feed her the ball! Uconn did a heck of a job of taking that away.

 

In the words of the great Dick Vitale, "Just win baby!"

 

I really need some good news today. The men's team has been absolutely killing it in the portal and that's how I thought the women's side would be but we have been pretty quiet thus far. I know it's early but I'm getting anxious and nervous.

 

I'd like some good news, too!

But, of the uncommitted transfers currently in the transfer portal, the only one I see us potentially targeting is Nancy Mulkey; and, she's most likely headed to Washington, IMO.

So, still waiting from some realistic targets to enter the transfer portal.

 

Hopefully our staff is waiting on some type of perfect timing regarding situations we aren't privy to.

 

Oh, gosh!

TexasWBB twitter account started following Syracuse transfer Karmilla Cardoso. That account rarely follows anyone unless it's serious.

https://twitter.com/TexasWBB/following

 

In the last three WNBA drafts, Vic and his staff have produced a #3 pick in 2019 and a #1 pick in 2021. Both of those were centers, and one of those centers was 6'7"

Come on down Miss Cordoso.

 

Another transfer to Duke.

 

That's an apples and oranges comparison there. The men were down to 3 scholarship players and Shaka's incoming class was in shambles. Beard needed to be making hay in the transfer portal. You guys act like there are unlimited scholarships next year. The NCAA just approved a one-time transfer rule, they didn't totally exempt the transfers from scholarship limits.

 

I'm salivating...

How Cardoso went from preps phenom to ACC's top rookie, defender

Syracuse, N.Y. — Keisha Hunt received a phone call one day in 2016 from a friend in her network of college coaches to inform her that a kid from Montes Claros, Brazil, was coming to America to play basketball.

Kamilla Cardoso was a preteen and stood 6-foot-5 around the time her game film was sent to Hunt, who marveled at the fact that someone that tall could move so quickly.

Hunt showed the video to the former athletic director and principal of Hamilton Heights Christian Academy in Tennessee. He was more in tune with men’s basketball and had little familiarity with women’s athletes, but he had to sign off on approving scholarships — and he scoffed at her.

“Why would you want her? She’s terrible,” Hunt said he told her. “All I saw her do is miss all these shots.”

“Do you not notice that’s a 6-foot-5, 12- or 13-year-old running up and down the floor as fast as the guards are?” said Hunt, who’s coached the Lady Hawks for the past 12 years.

In the very same clip, Cardoso missed a free throw and retrieved her own rebound before the other team even knew the ball was in the air.

“I said, ‘We can teach her how to put the ball in the basket,’” Hunt said.

And they did. Long before Cardoso used her overwhelming defensive presence against the most talented players in the ACC, the young Syracuse center dominated the high school basketball scene at Hamilton Heights.

Cardoso thrived during her four years as a team captain and became the No. 1 player at her position by her senior season. She averaged 24.1 points, 15.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 9.2 blocks that year, earning McDonald’s All-American and Jordan Brand Classic honors.

“I am so glad that you didn’t listen to me and you insisted on getting her over here,” the principal told Hunt shortly after a month into Cardoso’s tenure at Hamilton Heights.

After making her college debut on Nov. 29 with 14 points and seven rebounds in Syracuse’s win at Stony Brook, Cardoso was asked if she has any expectation to perform right away given her status as the No. 5 recruit in the country.

“No. I came here to grow and improve myself,” Cardoso said.

***

When Cardoso arrived at Hamilton Heights, her height and speed was unfathomable, but her technical skills were raw, her high school coach said.

“It became a crutch to her because she only relied on that,” Hunt said.

The polished post moves she’s displayed at Syracuse just weren’t there. She had difficulty guarding older centers -- even if they were shorter -- as a freshman, especially since Hamilton Heights was a nationally ranked program and faced elite talent on a nightly basis.

Hunt told her talented center that if she wanted to reach the highest level and play in the WNBA someday, she would have to put in the work.

“She’s really competitive and she’s really smart,” Hunt said. “She realized that, ‘OK, my height is not cutting it out over here.’”

Cardoso became one of the best passers on the team because defenders would constantly double team her, allowing her to realize she had a teammate open for a 3-pointer.

Despite her height, Cardoso has never dunked in a game, only in practices.

Cardoso could quickly run baseline to baseline naturally, but Hunt and her staff taught her where and why she needed to run toward the rim during games. Her rare talent of being coordinated enough to catch the ball at full speed and finish was a strength that was exploited early and often.

“If you see Kamilla at that rim, you better give her the ball,” Hunt told her guards.

By the time Cardoso left high school, she was touted as a dominant low-post prospect that patrolled the lane, altered shots, rebounded and could deliver accurate outlet passes. Labeled as outstanding in transition, she was bouncy and quick with an emerging soft touch around the interior.

It was enough to garner the attention of Ohio State, West Virginia and former Syracuse assistant coach and recruiting coordinator DeLisha Milton-Jones, who told Orange head coach Quentin Hillsman they had a chance of landing Cardoso.

“She’s a kid that we couldn’t pass up,” Hillsman said before the season. “Those are once-in-a-decade kids. Before that, it was Sylvia Fowles and Britney Griner.”

Cardoso moved to the United States to improve her basketball skills, but in order to be successful, she had to learn how to speak English, too, since Portuguese was her native language.

Hunt previously coached a couple of players from Brazil and one of them, who played with Cardoso’s older sister, returned to Chattanooga, Tennessee, for work. She often would come to practice and translate plays and directions for Hunt, who also relied on the Google Translate app.

By the end of the Cardoso’s freshman season, she was fluent in conversational English, Hunt said. And by her junior and senior years, Cardoso had improved drastically in reading English through her textbooks.

“She picked it up pretty fast,” Hunt said.

It also helped that Cardoso spent all four years of high school living in the same house with Hunt and her family, including Keisha’s daughter, Treasure, a freshman guard at Kentucky and her father, “Papa,” who was just an inch shorter than Cardoso. The Hunts served as the hosts for about seven other girls on the team.

While living with her teammates, she also learned to braid hair, a style she’s flaunted all season with various colors ranging from blue to blonde to pink. As a senior, Cardoso would cook dinner — usually a Brazilian dish made with beef — for the family and her teammates.

“I think my fondest memory of her is her sense of humor,” Hunt said. “She is the sweetest kid. She can be fiery, too. She’s got that Brazilian passion. But she made me laugh almost on a daily basis.”

***

On Dec. 20, the Orange’s freshman phenom put the ACC and the rest of the country on notice with a breakout performance against Boston College.

The 6-foot-7 Cardoso had her most efficient game of the season at that point with 24 points and seven rebounds on 10-for-11 shooting from the field.

Once Syracuse returned from its 28-day layoff due to a positive Covid-19 case within the program, Cardoso pulled together a stretch of her best basketball of the season. She was named the ACC Freshman of the Week for three consecutive weeks, becoming the first player to accomplish the feat since 2012. She also made the top-10 cut for the Lisa Leslie Award, given to the nation’s best center in women’s college basketball.

Cardoso led the ACC in field-goal percentage (.595), blocks per game (2.8), and ranked second in offensive rebounds per game (3.5). She finished the regular season as Syracuse’s second-leading scorer with 14.3 points per game, which ranks second among freshmen in the ACC.

The league announced Tuesday that Cardoso was named the ACC’s rookie (the first Syracuse player to earn the honor) and defensive player of the year, but anyone close to the Syracuse program knows the DPOY title unofficially was hers on Jan. 31 against Notre Dame, when she notched a career-high nine blocks and two steals. She became the first Orange player with nine rejections in a decade.

“We guarded the ball, and any mistakes we made, Kamilla erased them,” Hillsman said after the game. “That’s why you pick up a post player that can block shots and change the game defensively down the stretch.”

Cardoso has the size. She has the talent and work ethic. The accolades are there.

And she’s just getting started, which is scary for the rest of the country.

 

In saying, "you guys" you mean him. Because I've always said that Texas needs/has to be very selective in who they try to bring in because of the scholarship limit. If you can get a talented SF and a PF/C do that, then call it a day. The SF is at a position of need and the only two PF's that will be on the roster for next year are coming off of surgeries and may or not be ready to practice or play until the start of the actual basketball season.

 

Just in case, I'm practicing: "Kamilla Cardoso". No "r" in "Kamilla." I looked it up to be sure. This is the only name I know of currently in the transfer portal that really excites me. I think I'm going to be really mad at Moooooo if this turns out to be much ado about nothing.

 

If my count is correct, Texas women's basketball has 3 scholarships available before reaching 15. Could stretch it to 4 without Precious.

 

Our team needs are merely a player or possibly two, and I believe most have mentioned that in some way or another. People are simply enthusiastic and hoping for some news that will address those needs. There's also been plenty of banter regarding the number of available schollies, how things affect future recruiting classes, etc., etc.

 

We were over one scholarship before everyone departed. We have lost 5 players this off-season and picked up 1. We will be at 13 players so far next year. I do expect us to add more depth than what we currently have. I didn't mean it literally when I compared them to the men's team adding 5+ players. I was saying I expected us to add more than 1 player so far. I'm going to just sum it up to our targets have not enter the portal yet or there are deals being made that we don't know yet

 

I know that some were wondering if Shay Holle would be back for another season. Coach Dionnah started following her Mom and Dad on twitter last week or so, and vice verse; that tells me she's staying at Texas.

 

I was talking to a player's dad (not in WBB) who told me he'd been chatting with Holle's dad. Shay's locked in with the Longhorns and is happy there. And then, I dropped the bomb on this dad that Celeste just entered the portal. Of course, he was shocked. I don't think this dad remembered that Shay's father played for Texas as a LB. Eric Holle. I actually saw him play! You know she's been going to Longhorn games since she was a tot.

 

As far as Instagram, TexasWBB account started following Kamilla Cardoso, as well.

 

How quickly I had forgotten about Aliyah Matharu as a signing. So Texas has 2 scholarships available at the moment.

 

Taking a page from @Moooooo when it comes to Twitter stalking but this is the first tweet (Moody Center construction) Kamilla has ‘liked’ since entering the Portal Sunday.

 

I thought I was good at stalking but some in here are just superior we could definitely start a P.I firm and make some serious bank with the detectives we have in this thread

 

Poster on UConn board posted "look for Kamilla Cardoso to Texas". Have no idea how valid this is; one poster replied "Texas or MD".

 

Did not know this about grad-transfers. Guess that means Lexi Gordon won't automatically be eligible at Duke without filing for a waiver.

 

we could use this sorta good news! Hopefully this somehow means we have an assistant lined up too? Just not announced? A fan can dream right haha!

 

Also applies to Karisma.

 

Wondering if it matters that Lexi and Karisma already sat out one season after their first transfer . . .

 

Good point.

 

LK who started following Kamilla on twitter:

https://twitter.com/CatenHyde