Missouri State's coach, Amaka Agugua-Hamilton has been named HC at Virginia. She's originally from Herndon, VA. She's left big shoes to fill there, as she was 74-15 in three seasons.

Dayton also losing their coach, as she has been named as taking the Illinois job. Wonder if any Dayton players will elect to go into the portal?

Loyola-Chicago has let their HC go, former BGSU star Kate Achter. They were 18-12 this year, but they are moving to the A10 next year, and probably think they need a coach with a bigger resume.

Lots of coaching changes going on now, so there will be more portal entrants and decommit from the FR class, so that possibly opens up some options for UT even to pick up a decent HS recruit. Loyola had 2 Toledo kids on their roster this year, Bre Heyward-Bay, whose eligibility is up now I think, and Jala Johnson. Another native Toledoan, Olivia Simms is in the portal out of Oakland. Don't know if any of those are fits for UT or if UT has any interest at all. I also saw a highly touted '22 guard from IL, MacKenzie Hare has decommitted from St. Louis after they fired their HC. Again, no knowledge of whether there is any interest there from either side. But it would be nice if UT could sign a FR or two so as not to have a completely empty class going forward.

UT has 2 fully open scholarships (Bolser's and Perdue's), plus Lance's which they can really only use to sign a 1 year transfer as of today, since her spot gets taken up by one of the '23 verbals. (Unless of course, you assume someone else will leave in the next year.) Ideally, I'd like them to find a backup PG (this could be the 1 year rental, since they have the heir-apparent PG coming in '23) and a true stretch 4 (Sammi-type who can hit the three but maybe a little more size 5'11 or 6') and maybe another depth add wherever the best quality is.)

It must be hard to recruit transfers when you return five starters. Freshman may be willing to wait a year or two for their chance to start, but I'm guessing that transfers generally want an opportunity to be on the court right away.

(03-24-2022 04:15 PM)Lester Wrote:  It must be hard to recruit transfers when you return five starters. Freshman may be willing to wait a year or two for their chance to start, but I'm guessing that transfers generally want an opportunity to be on the court right away.

Yes, probably for some, but players transfer for a lot of reasons, playing time is only one. Some of them to get closer to home, or to get away from a bad fit with the team/coach, or to catch on with a more successful team. Jansen for example said she had multiple offers from D1 schools, but chose UT because of the fan base and the opportunity to play on a team with a real family atmosphere. She clearly did not have a guaranteed starting spot waiting for her.

What UT can offer is a championship caliber team that should still be so next year, and one of the best fan bases in the country to play in front of. That may be enough to attract some players who can maybe be a glue player or an additional puzzle piece. That might be enough to attract some. And I am not willing to give up on the possibility UT can attract a star player who can come in and surpass somebody on the team. Still wonder why JT couldn't convince his sister Emma to pick UT over OSU.

Academics can also still come into play even in these times where college athletes get pegged as only being interested in sports - like the tennis player that transferred just last month to UT reportedly mostly because of the 1-year Masters in Economics UT offers. So that may be another possibility for attracting a transfer.

It's official, Legette-Jack named HC at Syracuse. Huge loss for the MAC.

If Fair and Woolley follow her there, which I would estimate to be highly likely, what will be left of Buffalo next season?