Aah, my favorite soap opera, "HVL" now has a new episode to watch. It's truly amazing to see how much time all of the sports talk shows spend on her. TCU just got itself nationwide attention that only HVL could bring. Tune in same time next week for the next episode of HVL.
If you look at Iowa's roster they should probably be a Top 25 team if not a top 15 team. Olsen will help with the scoring loss of Clark (not replace but help) but I think McCabe might be an upgrade in shooting over Gabbie Marshall (but will take a hit on defense, Iowa was never a great defensive team but Gabbie was a fairly good defender against guards). Affolter who was put into the lineup after Davis's injury, but Affolter's game is more similar to Kate Martin. I think if they go small Feuerbach will take Davis's slot, and Afoltter will fill Martin's role. Now if they want to go bigger then you likely see McCabe, Olsen, Affolter, Stuelke, (then the next spot is either McGrady, Heiden (incoming highly recruited Freshman), Gyamfi, or maybe another has a break through). But if they go small I think that 5th spot Feurbach has the most experience. But the player to watch is McCabe who shoots like 46% from 3pt range. Olsen was 3rd in country in scoring but her 3pt percentage was down, mainly because teams doubled her and ran peole at her with a shooter like McCabe if Iowa's young players that have sat behind their seniors progress Olsen may see her 3pt range return to the 36%+ it was the year before and still keep her scoring over 20pts. If it works Iowa will be a solid team in the 15-25 range in the rankings.
Mulkey should have started HVL as a 2 guard, and let Hailey play the point in some situations and in blow outs, so she could gradually learn the position with no pressure, and in year two, she could start at the 2 guard.
Yes. Iowa definitely won the transfer lottery for guards. The problem is, they have no more scholarships to offer and they still don't have a big that can help them get to the promised land. Stuelke is good, but has problems with bigs that have a distinct height advantage over her.
Sometimes the grass is more burnt on the other side then it is greener. Joining a team cause they paid ya well doesn't always mean ya should go there. Van Lith was NEVER goin to work at LSU, it didn't fit her culture, her style of BB, or her BB abilities. Jamming a square into a circle just cause it looks cool isn't going to fit right no matter what ya do to it just wasn't made to. Van Lith wasn't made for LSU or Mulkey n there was NEVER a way to make it work right.
Coach Bluder will be revealed as the actual "coach of the year" over the last years. While she did have Caitlin, the rest has been/is a hand selected group of three star players, average in talent yet highly coachable - Bluder coaches them into styles reminiscent of Steve Nash's Phoenix Suns, with less dribbling and better shooting. She does more with less than anyone else and we're going to see something special. - look for Lucy to challenge as top scorer in the wncaa and her assists to go up a lot. - the UConn game doesn't matter because she had a lackluster team and UConn fields an All-Star team, we all see what happens with the talent monopolies. - We should stop comparing Juju and others to Caitlin because Caitlin had the skill set of two top-tier players and it's too much pressure. - Hannah Stuelke is underrated, her game is built on speed, not sitting on the block.
The Big East is cooked. Losing Lucy Olsen to Iowa, Liza Karlen to probably V Tech, Emma Ronsiek to Colorado State, and Unique Drake to graduation severely limits the non-UConn star power in that league. That's 4 of the 5 non-UConn unanimous Big East first-teamers.
Just a thought - there is no blame between HVL and Mulkey, it takes time to learn the PG position, specifically the 1 guard - two years at lease in a tough conference like the SEC - but there other issues and concerns for HLV - size, strength, defense at the next level (WNBA) - the two guard with her stature in the WNBA will be Hella difficult
I think Mulkey's offense is also not that good for point guard development (at least the last 3 years), name the last point who average 6+ assists under Mulkey. Haily was 3.6 APG (which led the team), Alexis Morris was just 4.1 (which led the team), Pointer the year earlier was 5.25, and @Baylor 20/21 DiDi Richards was the last PG under mulkey to have 6 assits per game 6.3. Part of the issue is the offense because Mulkey wants to get out and run she allows any guard to bring it up and she allows players the freedom to take it off the dribble. There were alot of times that the first time HVL saw the ball was when the clock was under 5 or 6 sec.. (Not to mention they needed to get the ball to Reese in the post more but that is just part of the issue.) If she wants to learn point in a crash course she needs to go to a school where they will have her bring the ball up about 60-70% of the time not 30% of the time. LSU only averaged as a team 16.2 ast per game with 15.3 TO per game a 1.1 ratio , and the year they won the title was not much different 14.9 Ast /13.7 TO and 1.1:1 A/TO ratio (they win because they have +15 reb margin both seasons). By comparion Iowa averaged 20.8 ast/pg (led nation) and UConn averaged 19.6 Ast/pg and both teams had a much better A/TO ratio Iowa 1.507:1 and Uconn 1.51:1 . Even when Baylor was in the elite 8 in 20-21 the AST-TO margin was 1.26:1 ..Mulkey's teams always defend well and rebound well their offense feeds off that - it is not a highly efficient offense in the halfcourt compared to other top teams. So HVL was not so much a bad fit for LSU but they were not a good fit for what HVL wanted to accomplish..Now this does not mean it is a bad thing to only average 3.6 Asts...Ohio State who is another top 10 team had Jacy Sheldon only averaged 3.8 and she led the team (and was drafted #5) ...they like to press and generate offense off of defense and don't run a PG focused halfcourt offense similar to LSU. So I am not going to say HVL cannot be a point..but we were not going to find out at LSU. Her numbers went down because the other guards on the team are every bit as good if not better than her, at Louisville that was not the case, she was more often the focus of the offense...but lacked scorers to get the ball too. At TCU if Sedona Price is back healthy she may get alot of assists.
HVL got a lot to prove next year, not sure TCU is the place to do it. Seems like she gets a lot of press relative to the real top tier guards (point or shooting, it’s getting blurry…) like Hidalgo, JuJu, KK Arnold, Olsen, Fair, Fudd, PaoPao etc.
I wish more people could look at things as you do. It's not a blame game.like you said she's just not a point guard. It's called life and learning about yourself.
So they practice in Deerfield and they play in Chicago….unacceptable. It’s not that close….might not be so bad if it was in Evanston or somewhere closer
As a Texas fan, I can definitely say that TCU is on the rise. They were looking like one of the best teams in the country until they were hit so hard with injuries. With Texas and OU’s move to the SEC, TCU and Iowa State are the teams to beat in the Big 12. Btw - Texas is right behind SC in the SEC 😎🤘🏽
HVL is not a top tier guard. Everything at Louisville was geared to and for her. She has absolutely no clue about defense. Can she shoot yes. If she’s not being defended.
The Cut! If the Black Aces don't want the white Kate Martin on the team, why did they draft her? Are black players just about racism and not what is best for basketball?
Did you just make that up? If not, what's your source? Natalie Williams is the GM for the Aces. She's African American (one of the "Black Aces" I suppose). As the GM, I'm sure she had more than a little to do with Martin being drafted.
wHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. 3 OF iowa'S SHOOTERS ARE GONE. ARE YOU ACTUALLY WATCHING THE GAME... THEY WILL NOT BE BETTER. SHES THE ONLY ONE ON THE TEAM THATS WHY HER AVERAGE WENT UP.
