Hunter will play quite a bit this year primarily for 2 reasons. The first being that Vic just has no choice since she is currently the only backup PG we have and the team only has 4 guards in total as things stand today. Secondly, I expect her to be better just by virtue of another year/offseason of experience. All of you who are able, I encourage you to go watch what few clips there are from JAT and Audrey as freshman…….if you don’t remember, let me remind you that they were awful lol. She’s right where she needs to be at this stage in her career
Okay, back to actual transfer discussion. The available transfer currently highest on my wish list is former Georgia PG and San Antonio native, Gabby Connally. She can play PG, shoot the three, and as a 5th-year senior, I certainly hope she has good defensive skills; she certainly looks to have quickness. Hopefully, she's on our radar, and vice verse.
Since Gabby wants a job with the Secret Service, she just might be available next season. Those jobs are like chikens teeth. Perhaps she can get her foot in the door. Maybe an alternative would be some of ya’ll on this forum with lots of money, get her a NIL job as a CIA agent undermining recruiting of those schools working on Cunningham. Gabby is the sort of one-year back-up point guard that is needed.
Would love to know the backstory of Esmery signing with LSU and then signing with AZ a few weeks later.
I'd like to know the backstory of Esmery signing with Texas like 3 years ago, being added to our official roster, and then ending up at West Virginia. Looks like she's become an expert at this! Bait and switch?
My memory is foggy, didn't she also sign with Mississippi State in between signing with Texas and later, West Virginia?
She signed her LOI out of high school with Vic and Miss. State. Then, she was released from her LOI (some think it was because oversigned) by MSU. She ended up signing an Athletic Scholarship Agreement (ASA) with Texas. Apparently, only the LOI binds a student-athlete to a school and vice verse. And ASA only binds the school to the student-athlete, but not the student-athlete to the school; think that was the same situation with Harvard transfer, Katie Benzan signing an ASA with Texas, but then ending up at Maryland.
Looks like she went to school right down the road from where I live. Her stats over a 4 year career are excellent, as are her highlight vids. Looks like she didn't play this last season, probably so she could do the internship. She played Vic's MSU bunch 6 times during her first 3 seasons, so she would be pretty familiar with his teams already. Question is whether we have even reached out to her. There's still a ton of players in the portal, but there's no way of knowing who we are in contact with. But this one looks like a real player for sure.
Read an article that stated Connally played on the same summer club as Kyra Lambert; so, that's a good Texas connection for us. Without knowing Connally's criteria in finding a grad school to continue her education, I would think her familiarity with Joni Taylor could put A&M in the driver's seat; but, I don't think they currently have an open 'ship; I could be wrong, or that could obviously change between now and when Gabby is ready to make a final decision.
Not necessarily. IMO, all this does is open up a spot for Reese. I don't care how much she wants to play on the perimeter, she's a natural PF.
As long as both Reese and Martinez aren't at LSU this coming season, I'm happy about it. That would have been a lot of rebounding ability for them, regardless of the position each actually plays.
One of those players wouldn't have gotten enough playing time to impact rebounding because they play the same position. It's basically the same for her at Arizona with them returning really good front court players in Reese and Ware. There's only but so many minutes in a game, so somebody has to sit the bench.
Seems crazy for a school (or any party to a contract, for that matter) to sign an agreement that is binding on them, but not the other party. I guess this is maybe what LSU did with her? If that is the case, I don't see how a coach would have any certainty that they could shut recruiting down at a particular position. Seems like you'd only take an athlete who is willing to sign a binding LOI rather than the non-binding ASA.
She couldn’t sign LOIs with Texas or LSU - outside of the signing period. Vic released her from her LOI with MSU. As mentioned before, Financial aid agreements are just the school saying they have a scholarship, no real commitment from the athlete until they attend their first class.
So when is the next signing period (or is there one at all for portal jumpers)? Because if there is no real commitment from the athlete until they attend their first class, then we haven't even seen the craziest part of NIL yet. That means everyone who portaled out and "signed" can change their mind and "sign" with someone else who offers better NIL money before they attend their first class. That's a lot of time for more chaos to ensue.
@kurupt was correct with forecasting Reese to LSU. The addition of Reese with the other transfers and the addition of Flaujae will make LSU one of the toughest teams in the SEC and nationally (assuming the team chemistry good).
Eh. As I stated before, glad she didn't also land Esmery Martinez in addition to Reese. And, definitely glad Baylor didn't land Reese (as some of their deluded fans thought was a possibility). Better that these transfers spread out among different teams, IMO. Unless they're coming to Texas, of course.
LSU will be talented but not as good as last year IMO. They had a ton of EXPERIENCE and chemistry. Those two things will be lacking a bit this season
April Phillips doing her part to empty the portal a bit. I think Semaj Smith, Arizona center, was the only one mentioned previously in this thread.
April has build a solid roster that should allow them to be much more competitive in the Mountain West
Tasha Lattimore did a little tease on an instagram story today in a Baylor T-shirt. Also from something I saw several days ago it sounds like she plans to announce a decision around June 1
