i don't like this move. the addition of Curry sure ain't gonna help Van Lith develop PG skills – and i can't see her being effective as a 5-7 SG in the W – but maybe they just switch off initiating the offense and both end up getting theirs. still, i'm skeptical.
now this one's a BIG shock. even crazier when you consider Sabrina Ionescu is part of the wbb support staff now. Graves is still recruiting good high school talent, but is he still somehow running his program into the ground little by little? kinda looks like it. with only 5 returners and 3 freshmen slated to be on the roster next year, he'll be digging into that transfer portal himself for sure.
meanwhile, Paopao is from the San Diego area, so while she could certainly go anywhere, i'll look for her to transfer closer to home – specifically USC, where she'd help run the show for Juju Watkins.
Curry and Van Lith could be really fun to watch or a fascinating hot mess to dissect or possibly both simultaneously.
Oregon has serious problems with talent retention and we have *plenty* of examples of Oregon transfers flourishing at other schools (Mikesell, Parrish, Shelley). Sooner or later, surely this is going to catch up to Kelly Graves and his recruiting.
I don't take complaints of coaches about transfers at face value. Of course it's somebody else doing something wrong if their own players leave but it's perfectly fine if they use the portal to get players.
I don't think the 'professionalization' of US women's college basketball is surprising, especially given the revenue earned by colleges from selling media rights and the large budgets spent on women's college basketball programs. Even before NIL was allowed, major US college sports were already acting like a professional sports operation - it's just that athletes couldn't benefit from it financially. Now there's an imperfect system in place to allow athletes to get some financial benefits for their labour, but it's creating other equity problems in the system. If people didn't want college sports to end up like this, then they should've supported not treating it like a massive commercial operation much earlier than now.
Paopao had a bad year. Was it mainly because of Oregon's coaching staff or maybe because of some things she did or didn't do?
No one outside Oregon knows, of course, but she's shown flashes of excellence. It will be interesting to see where she lands and how she plays in a new situation.
This is the second coach now to publically state that teams are calling people who aren’t in the portal
So you have a job, and another employer calls you up and asks if you're interested in getting a different/better job. The problem with this is ...?
The problem is there are recruiting rules in place that are allegedly not being followed. If the rules were "open season, contact any player at any time," there wouldn't be an issue.
The larger problem is, the rules the NCAA have established are unenforceable. Follow them and you're potentially at a disadvantage to other programs. Don't follow them and you risk getting caught and sanctioned.
This is nothing new in college sports obviously. But the recent changes with NIL and the transfer portal have clearly started a new era. Loopholes and such that need to be ironed out.
Adia Barnes and Kelly Graves can form a transfer portal support group. They should trade players!
Also apparently two of Arizona's assistants are no longer listed on their website and their jobs are being advertised. Might as well clean the house good.
just makes you wonder what exactly went so wrong for Arizona that they found themselves cleaning house like this anyway. it's not like the Wildcats totally crashed & burned on the court this year, certainly not more than Oregon did for a month's worth of time there. but these sort of things don't tend to get revealed, for better or worse!
her at the 4 and Cardoso at the 5 would be ridiculous for SoCar
the rich won’t stop getting richer in the age of transfer portals and NIL deals – without any regulations to either
I hate seeing teams -- not just South Carolina but teams in general -- with 5 star talent riding the bench recruiting over that talent through the portal. I just want to see the best players actually get playing time!