WBB Departures - Staff and Players
KBA has always talked about preparing her staff to move up the ladder...during her tenure here she's had a number of assistants leave to take over as head coaches at Xavier (Melanie Moore, who was actually just let go), SMU (Toyelle Wilson, who WILL be a star), Harvard (Carrie Moore, ditto), and Marquette (Megan Duffy, rumored for Minnesota and Sparty jobs). She's also got former assistants on the staffs at New Mexico and Ohio State, plus players on the staffs at Johns Hopkins, Clemson, and Drexel. She's no stranger to turnover, is what I'm saying.
Lead assistant Erin Batth - a superb recruiter and high-energy assistant - has left after a single season to take over at Providence, which is as moribund as can be and desperately needs a jolt of her relentless positivity. I expect her to be very good.
Unfortunately, she's also hiring away Val Nainiima, a part of the Dawn Staley tree and who coached the guards and played a pretty great point herself. AND, she's hiring Reyna Frost as an assistant, the former MAC POY and honorable mention All-American at CMU who was KBA's lead manager.
in other bummer news:
- Michelle Sidor has grad-transferred to Depaul: This is, frankly not unexpected. Sidor was a serious scorer coming out of high school but never broke through here. She was rumored to be up for a major bump in minutes this year but was injured early and eventually shut it down.
- Ari Wiggins has entered the portal: also not completely unexpected after the minutes she might have gotten in Sidor's absence didn't materialize with Leigha Brown's shift to the point. She still has two seasons, and her combination of lightning quickness and defensive tenacity is going to make a mid-major very, very happy.
- Maddie Nolan has also entered the portal: this one is really unexpected - KBA offered her after just about every other school in the country backed off following a major senior-year knee injury, and UM trainers got her on the floor. The rumor is that she's just doing it to see what's out there, similar to what Emily Kiser did following last season, but we'll see. She's been a huge personal favorite since her breakout in the 2019 B1G tournament, so I hope she comes back.
- I'd also note that I haven't heard a single word about Izabel Varejao, who has had a snakebit a career as I can remember here, between various injuries and a year spent in lockdown in Brazil while her peers continued playing in the bubble. When healthy, she was a nice rebounder and rim protector who has at least one more season of eligibility. She disappeared from the bench about halfway through the year and didn't return.
KBA has, as I said, not been a stranger to turnover, but man...it's been a week.
Nolan's also graduated and isn't going to be playing professionally presumably, so that might actually be an academic thing as she picks a grad school.
Still it's kind of like I'm choking out a "happy trails. . . wish her all the best" after a sucker punch.
Yeah, I'm a selfish fan.
that's definitely a possibility. she's a multiyear academic all-B1G and CSC all-district, so she could pretty much go anywhere she wants. her major is sports management, though, so it's hard to imagine a better place in that regard, particularly given KBA's history of staff development and general connections.
i think if she did leave it would be somewhere like florida-gulf coast, where the team is firing up 35-40 threes a game and where she'd have an everlasting green light.
as far as professionally, there are a few former KBA players that have played overseas that, frankly, i wouldn't have necessarily predicted to have pro careers. i suspect there's a market overseas for a smallish guard that can shoot out the lights when she gets rolling.
March 28th, 2023 at 10:15 AM ^
I’d assume she’s just keeping her options open as she waits to hear if she’s been accepted into her desired grad program at UM. No harm in having fall-back plans in place and this is one of the extremely positive aspects the portal has allowed.
Well not all bad news in Michigan land
JD comin' in 3 days!
2025 top 3 QB's are all visiting, including just announced George MacIntyre, this likely applies pressure to one of them to get in first (fingers crossed its BU thats cracks)
Just like Baby Pep is on our periphery, may I also introduce everyone to baby ghost (JG2.0)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWJRuYXv5dq/
1214
Cheers
A serious lack of abbreviations GoJ
Hijacking a WBB thread to write this cryptic post about football (I assume)! Not good.
Please do not hijack threads about other sports or events. If you feel that this information is important enough to share, then please do so in a unique thread. Otherwise, you're the ass at the party that breaks into a perfectly lovely conversation asking if people wish to see their cyst.
Depending on the conversation, you could pencil me in as yes.
March 28th, 2023 at 10:10 AM ^
congrats, GoJ, handsome family.
March 28th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^
Myes, MGoBlog spends entirely too much bandwidth on WBB, drowning out all other topics, that it's only fair game that you threadjack with news from the long-neglected football recruiting front.
March 28th, 2023 at 12:17 PM ^
Congratulations!
March 28th, 2023 at 10:32 AM ^
Nolan’s is pretty surprising. She got 30+ minutes a game this year and would likely get the same next year. She’s very limited athletically and thus wouldn’t sniff the floor at any of the top 15 programs. Unless she’s looking to go to a great grad school, I can’t imagine she’ll end up at a better basketball school via the portal.
March 28th, 2023 at 11:02 AM ^
Going to be a very different looking team next year, with all these departures plus Kiser and Brown. Laila Phelia is going to be asked to carry a heavy load.
IIRC the recruiting class was highly touted, hopefully the new blood and the bench are ready to seize the opportunities that will definitely be there.
March 28th, 2023 at 11:08 AM ^
Three top 100 players coming in, but no top 50.
March 28th, 2023 at 11:20 AM ^
I forgot that Olivia Olson is a 2024. Still, particularly excited about Macy Brown in the 2023 class, she can play.
March 28th, 2023 at 11:16 AM ^
Incoming class has three girls rated in the typical KBA range around 60-75th in the country. They would be roughly the 9th, 16th, and 18th best players Michigan has gotten under her based on ranking in their high school class.
In the past that range has given Michigan Naz Hillmon, Hallie Thome, Michelle Sidor, Nicole Munger, Katelynn Flaherty, Sierra Thompson, Ari Wiggins, Emily Kiser for whatever the small sample and high school rankings are worth.
Phelia has looked capable of handling a huge load. They just need to surround her with enough decent talent.
Other players really need to step up, because Leigha and Emily had something like 18 ppg each. It can't be all Laila.
I'm not super worried about it against most of the schedule, but to really break through we need more women as athletic as Phelia. She could actually get to her spot against LSU in a way that no one else could (in fairness to Brown, she was on a bum ankle).
March 28th, 2023 at 11:34 AM ^
Good thread matty blue, glad to see some coverage and discussion of our WBB team.
Coach Barnes-Arico seems to be slowly but surely building towards having a team that can compete on a national level; early this season they looked like they were on the verge of a breakthrough season until injuries took their toll.
Question for you though: Do the incoming youngsters have the athleticism and more consistent shooting ability from behind the arc that I believe we need?
i'm no recruitnik, certainly - i'm sure others can answer better than i. i'd be guessing and watching old youtube videos.
at a guess, probably none of them are as purely athletic as laila phelia or jordan hobbs, but KBA seems less interested in raw athleticism than in developable skills and a willingness to bust ass. also, length. lots of length.
Let's be really honest, we need a kid who can dribble through the press!! Did anyone watch Virginia Tech??
March 28th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
If assistants are leaving to get head coaching gigs, it should make it even easier to bring in top talent to replace them.
March 28th, 2023 at 12:58 PM ^
Bummer about Nolan but probably an academic decision which totally makes sense in her situation. Hope she changes her mind!
Next year could be tough, we have the best recruit in program history (Olivia Olson) but not until 24, so next year could be tough. Probably need to hit the portal.
Departures: Kiser, Brown, Nolan, Sidor, Wiggins.
Projected Minutes:
Guards: Phelia (35), Kampshroeder (30), Hobbs (25), Clarke (10), Freshman (20)
Bigs: Williams (30), Stuck (20) Crockett (15), Evans (10), Varejo (5)
Portal Needs: Proper center, guard depth.
I will Venmo you $1 if the split in minutes per game between Williams and Evans is anywhere close to 30/10.
Evans’s minutes steadily increased throughout the season as Cam’s dropped at the same time. Cam was already a starter in name only this year, often the first to come off the floor. I expect her minutes to increase significantly with Kiser gone, but I think Evans will play every bit as much and that you’ll even see some high-low combos with both on the floor.
The rumor is that she's just doing it to see what's out there, similar to what Emily Kiser did following last season, but we'll see.
IDK, but I struggle with this one. I'm not a fan of using people this way. If there's something toxic going on, fine, transfer.
But if Nolan is dipping their toes in the water just because, and after the loyalty and care Michigan showed you, good riddance.
But then again, that's maybe why in my career I'll never make C-level.
Again, outside of football/basketball/hockey, these kids really are students and she's done four years and will be getting her undergrad degree in a month. So if you want to keep playing of course you do this to see what your grad school options are like. Speaking from experience: a year of grad school ain't cheap.
"good riddance" is a fairly not-cool thing to say about someone that is simply trying to make a decision in her best interest, who you've (presumably) never met, for reasons that we don't know.
Without knowing the situation and operating that this rumor is true, I see this side of view (but not with the word choice). Assuming Michigan has the grad program she wants (which, likely is very high level and well respected), I'm not sure what else is out there to see. Michigan grad degree is top notch, Michigan is a top 25 program, and gives you 25-30 minutes a game.
Now if you want to go to a program that is a lower level to shoot more, and that's the case, so be it. If you're trying go to a higher level program, good luck. If you truly just want the very best grad degree you can get and it's not about sports and that elsewhere suits you better, I respect it.
Assuming Michigan has the grad program she wants (which, likely is very high level and well respected), I'm not sure what else is out there to see.
Well, her desired program also has to admit her. While football, men's basketball, and, to a degree, hockey may have enough pull to get anyone admitted to just about any program, I am not sure women's basketball can exercise that degree of influence. Somewhere farther up the chain, another posted implied that Maddie Nolan is waiting for an admission decision from Michigan. She entered the portal so that if she does not get into Michigan, she can transfer to her backup school and continue playing.
I know the School of Social Work has accepted a ton of gymnasts for their fifth year recently.
Are we referring to the post that said "I’d assume she’s just keeping her options open as she waits to hear if she’s been accepted into her desired grad program at UM" because I would not say that it was implied that that's all she's doing from anyone who has information to suggest so, though that may be the case and am not faulting that speculation.
The only one who implied anything was the original poster, who said she's just keeping her options open like Emily Kiser did. Which, is fine, but as also noted above in the thread says Maddie Nolan is also academic all big ten and CSC all district (which if the criteria for GPA is the same as academic all American is a 3.5) and as noted above should be good enough to get her into any grad program she wants. Emily Kiser is currently working on a masters in management at Ross, and would assume Maddie could get into that or a master's in Sports Management in the school of Kinesiology where she already is, is succeeding, and probably fits with her desire to be a coach in the future.
March 29th, 2023 at 12:35 PM ^
Leigha Brown had exhausted her eligibility so this isn't a surprise, but she's officially submitted her name for the WNBA draft. Be curious if she can make a roster somewhere as a big guard with enough passing to make her capable of running an offense.
March 29th, 2023 at 12:56 PM ^
the athletic had some anonymous scout / gm stuff about the draft and had leigha as one of three bigger big ten guards that might get drafted, along with grace berger and taylor mikesell.
berger is a better ballhandler, and mikesell is a better shooter, but, while leigha doesn't have that one overarching skill, she does a nice wide range of stuff she does well. her defense comes and goes depending on her interest, but she's got a shot.