Saniya Rivers has hit the portal!!!

[funkraider]

USC no.1 recruit from last year, Saniya Rivers, has hit the portal. This off-season is getting very interesting!!!

​

 

[HuskyMJ]

USC no.1 recruit from last year, Saniya Rivers, has hit the portal. This off-season is getting very interesting!!!

​

Its not so interesting that it couldn't go in the thread with over 500 replies about transfers.

 

[DeeHusky]

Wow

 

[GCKSFN4L]

Yeah she wasn't the #1 recruit either

 

[bballnut90]

Not very surprised, although I thought Feagin was more likely to hit the portal than Rivers (who knows, time will tell). Rivers doesn't have a shot to start until her junior year and never looked comfortable on the floor for SC. I think she'll be a much better player than she's shown so far. Also wondering if this paves way for a player like Barker, Blackwell or Reese to come to SC.

 

[jchusky]

I remember asking to a gamecock fan if Reese + Owusu was a duo coming to SC, reply was not enough scholarship player spots available. Well, I think those spots are available. Wonder if Saniya knew 1 or both were coming to SC.

 

[Alydar]

Not very surprised, although I thought Feagin was more likely to hit the portal than Rivers (who knows, time will tell). Rivers doesn't have a shot to start until her junior year and never looked comfortable on the floor for SC. I think she'll be a much better player than she's shown so far. Also wondering if this paves way for a player like Barker, Blackwell or Reese to come to SC.

Or maybe she was told that Owusu was coming?

 

[bballnut90]

Or maybe she was told that Owusu was coming?

I don't see anyway Owusu is coming since they just signed Fletcher.

 

[visitingcock]

Or maybe she was told that Owusu was coming?

Or read it from some reliable journalist

 

[Basket]

USC no.1 recruit from last year, Saniya Rivers, has hit the portal. This off-season is getting very interesting!!!

​

Love it. Need some more action moving on for SC. Share that talent!

 

[JstVisiting]

She was second in our class to Raven Johnson and would likely rate lower than that if you evaluated them now.

I’m glad she chose us and wish her luck in her career, but I’m not scared of facing her in the future.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

Hate that.

She will be good.

 

[shiverz45]

Not very surprised, although I thought Feagin was more likely to hit the portal than Rivers (who knows, time will tell). Rivers doesn't have a shot to start until her junior year and never looked comfortable on the floor for SC. I think she'll be a much better player than she's shown so far. Also wondering if this paves way for a player like Barker, Blackwell or Reese to come to SC.

SC will have plenty of room next year. Almost half the roster will be moving on. SC will need another top class in 23 or 24.

 

[Geesworld]

Dawn played Saniya in the two final four games and I felt it was a ploy to keep Saniya. Saniya hadn't had much playing time prior and it seem odd that she was asked to play big minutes against Louisville.

These athletes need to seriously take a look at what they are signing up for before they sign to these schools. These coaches including top coaches/programs are just hoarding players. If you aren't ready made, they aren't looking to groom you with playing time. Dawn is running for Nat Chips and it looks attractive to these portal players, so she will always get the right transfers to plug and play with her core players right away and that will be at the expense of her young talent that is recruited.

Amihere, Cardoso, Brisset are another puzzling situation. They all could easily average 20 plus minutes anywhere else. Classic case of wait your turn and good things will come.
UCONN and Stanford similar situations.

 

[Wbbfan1]

There's a tweet saying Saniya is heading to the Lady Vols. Lady Vols will be a dangerous team if the rumor is true.

 

[jumpstart]

Dawn played Saniya in the two final four games and I felt it was a ploy to keep Saniya. Saniya hadn't had much playing time prior and it seem odd that she was asked to play big minutes against Louisville.

These athletes need to seriously take a look at what they are signing up for before they sign to these schools. These coaches including top coaches/programs are just hoarding players. If you aren't ready made, they aren't looking to groom you with playing time. Dawn is running for Nat Chips and it looks attractive to these portal players, so she will always get the right transfers to plug and play with her core players right away and that will be at the expense of her young talent that is recruited.

Amihere, Cardoso, Brisset are another puzzling situation. They all could easily average 20 plus minutes anywhere else. Classic case of wait your turn and good things will come.
UCONN and Stanford similar situations.

Dawn makes it clear to the athlete and their family that playing time is earned and that high school minutes won't be college minutes. These athletes are used to being "the" best player on the team. They get to college and they are not the best player and that reality hits them in the face. They become maybe the sixth or seventh best player and in South Carolina's case maybe lower than that. If they are wanting more playing time....go to a program with less talent in front of you.....but that only means South Carolina still has better talent than the ones they transfer to....

 

[GCKSFN4L]

Dawn played Saniya in the two final four games and I felt it was a ploy to keep Saniya. Saniya hadn't had much playing time prior and it seem odd that she was asked to play big minutes against Louisville.

These athletes need to seriously take a look at what they are signing up for before they sign to these schools. These coaches including top coaches/programs are just hoarding players. If you aren't ready made, they aren't looking to groom you with playing time. Dawn is running for Nat Chips and it looks attractive to these portal players, so she will always get the right transfers to plug and play with her core players right away and that will be at the expense of her young talent that is recruited.

Amihere, Cardoso, Brisset are another puzzling situation. They all could easily average 20 plus minutes anywhere else. Classic case of wait your turn and good things will come.
UCONN and Stanford similar situations.

I highly doubt Dawn would give someone heavy minutes in a final four game for the sake of trying to keeping them. She was suspended from playing in at least the first 2 games of the tournament and in the sweet 16 it was in unclear if she was suspended still or if she didn't make the rotation due to how tight the game was.

In that final four game Zia was uncharacteristically bad with ball in that game and was giving Louisville opportunities to score in transition. Rivers was brought in because imo she's a better ball handler, passer and provided size. Her minutes seem more based on the situation and matchup moreso than a last ditch effort to keep her.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

There's a tweet saying Saniya is heading to the Lady Vols. Lady Vols will be a dangerous team if the rumor is true.

I thought they were supposed to be dangerous the last two years? Changing teams does not cure 25% shooting unless the player commits to working on fixing it. She could have done that at SC. Good luck to Saniya. I hope she doesn't turn into one of these players who join 4 teams in 4 years. Right now...that's the vibe I'm getting.

 

[amb3096]

I thought they were supposed to be dangerous the last two years? Changing teams does not cure 25% shooting unless the player commits to working on fixing it. She could have done that at SC. Good luck to Saniya. I hope she doesn't turn into one of these players who join 4 teams in 4 years. Right now...that's the vibe I'm getting.

Tennessee would have been better this year if not for the injuries. They started off the season strong, had some solid wins, and were a legit FF threat. Maybe not good enough to beat a SC or UConn, but they were easily a top 5 team. I know all the teams deal with managing injuries, but unfortunately they just didn't have as much of a buffer to absorb injuries as well as the deeper teams did.

Adding Jackson is an upgrade to Burrell and they now have a legit experienced PG. If they can find a dependable back up C that won't give up too much once Key comes out of the game, they will be a top 5 easily...as long as the chemistry is there.

 

[visitingcock]

Tennessee would have been better this year if not for the injuries. They started off the season strong, had some solid wins, and were a legit FF threat. Maybe not good enough to beat a SC or UConn, but they were easily a top 5 team. I know all the teams deal with managing injuries, but unfortunately they just didn't have as much of a buffer to absorb injuries as well as the deeper teams did.

Adding Jackson is an upgrade to Burrell and they now have a legit experienced PG. If they can find a dependable back up C that won't give up too much once Key comes out of the game, they will be a top 5 easily...as long as the chemistry is there.

Top five is a big jump. Not saying the Vols can't do it but it takes talent, depth of talent, coaching Xs and Os and team strategy, player cohesiveness and motivation.

I expect Vol improvement this year. Elite 8 appearance? Very possible. Top 5? Maybe a stretch. But, as you note, if the chemistry is there . . .

I felt like the Vols' chemistry eroded when Burrell came back from injury. Bad juju between her and Horsten? I don't know but that's how it looked. The loss of Green was much more damaging than it should have been, and I feel like that contributed to the erosion of chemistry at the same time Burrell returned.

 

[Geesworld]

I highly doubt Dawn would give someone heavy minutes in a final four game for the sake of trying to keeping them. She was suspended from playing in at least the first 2 games of the tournament and in the sweet 16 it was in unclear if she was suspended still or if she didn't make the rotation due to how tight the game was.

In that final four game Zia was uncharacteristically bad with ball in that game and was giving Louisville opportunities to score in transition. Rivers was brought in because imo she's a better ball handler, passer and provided size. Her minutes seem more based on the situation and matchup moreso than a last ditch effort to keep her

Dawn makes it clear to the athlete and their family that playing time is earned and that high school minutes won't be college minutes. These athletes are used to being "the" best player on the team. They get to college and they are not the best player and that reality hits them in the face. They become maybe the sixth or seventh best player and in South Carolina's case maybe lower than that. If they are wanting more playing time....go to a program with less talent in front of you.....but that only means South Carolina still has better talent than the ones they transfer to....

Can't argue your point because that's exactly how Dawn and few other top tier coaches operate. That is why I said The recruits have to do better by themselves and find a program that is less crowded if they're wanting playing time. Dawn has the luxury to hold that mindset because they know the cupboards are full. Empty the cupboards and then see if Dawn starts to worry about losing talent.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Tennessee would have been better this year if not for the injuries. They started off the season strong, had some solid wins, and were a legit FF threat. Maybe not good enough to beat a SC or UConn, but they were easily a top 5 team. I know all the teams deal with managing injuries, but unfortunately they just didn't have as much of a buffer to absorb injuries as well as the deeper teams did.

Adding Jackson is an upgrade to Burrell and they now have a legit experienced PG. If they can find a dependable back up C that won't give up too much once Key comes out of the game, they will be a top 5 easily...as long as the chemistry is there.

Until all of the transfer activity ceases, in particular, the best 20 in the lot settle in with a team, I think it's a bit too early to anoint ANY team as top 5. I thought Tennessee ended the year right about where they started as far as expectations. I also thought that their schedule was a bit backloaded so their early rankings weren't a true reflection of how good or bad they were. Yes, they played Stanford and Texas ( full disclosure: I thought they got shafted by calls...intentional or not having relevance here). But, they also had some head-scratching losses to basement SEC teams in which they were taller than at every position.

I guess Jackson is an upgrade to Burrell, the injured one, other than that I would give Burrell the edge on the defensive end. And on the offensive end...how much of a difference in point production are we talking about? A few? And ABSOLUTELY..chemistry is everything. Other questions or obstacles are fitting in a new PG. Taking the ball out of Horston's hand...will she be comfortable? Will she be more efficient? She scored a lot of points, but she wasn't very efficient, especially considering her size versus opposing defenders. She shot 39%. You can absorb that in a high-volume shooter, but her shot attempts will decrease with Jackson, Jazmine, and maybe Pissott having an impact in her first year. Horston did, use that to her advantage in rebounding. Kudos to her. The thing about offensive rebounding is....it only presents itself on missed shots. So, it looks good, but is it good? Usually, the score tells the story. You win by 5 and get 15 offensive rebounds, then something is wrong because you should win by 15 to 20.

But, again, I agree...can Harper make all these new and existing pieces click, even with an addition of Saniya. I'm assuming at this time she left SC over minutes. Will Harper give her significant minutes shooting 25%? I wouldn't and if, I'm playing behind her...I'm out of there. Tenn. needs a new offensive identity because they don't have the luxury of building it around a single dominant player. Horston is just not efficient or consistent enough to carry a team...at this point anyway. When you have this much to sort out, I don't see where there can't be growing pains along the way.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

Dawn played Saniya in the two final four games and I felt it was a ploy to keep Saniya. Saniya hadn't had much playing time prior and it seem odd that she was asked to play big minutes against Louisville.

These athletes need to seriously take a look at what they are signing up for before they sign to these schools. These coaches including top coaches/programs are just hoarding players. If you aren't ready made, they aren't looking to groom you with playing time. Dawn is running for Nat Chips and it looks attractive to these portal players, so she will always get the right transfers to plug and play with her core players right away and that will be at the expense of her young talent that is recruited.

Amihere, Cardoso, Brisset are another puzzling situation. They all could easily average 20 plus minutes anywhere else. Classic case of wait your turn and good things will come.
UCONN and Stanford similar situations.

Rivers was suspended.

Her playing time when she came off suspension was consistent with what she was getting Pre-suspension.

You must not think much of the the rest of the field if you think Staley was worrying about future rosters while playing for a championship.

 

[amb3096]

Top five is a big jump. Not saying the Vols can't do it but it takes talent, depth of talent, coaching Xs and Os and team strategy, player cohesiveness and motivation.

I expect Vol improvement this year. Elite 8 appearance? Very possible. Top 5? Maybe a stretch. But, as you note, if the chemistry is there . . .

I felt like the Vols' chemistry eroded when Burrell came back from injury. Bad juju between her and Horsten? I don't know but that's how it looked. The loss of Green was much more damaging than it should have been, and I feel like that contributed to the erosion of chemistry at the same time Burrell returned.

They were a top 5 team until the injuries derailed them. And that was pretty late in the season. Losses to Auburn, Florida, UConn, Alabama, SC and LSU to close out the reg. season. If not for the injuries, I'm confident that they would have won at least half of those games (with SC and UConn being losses and LSU being 50-50).

They need a good backup post though. Need to have some options in the paint besides Key.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

They were a top 5 team until the injuries derailed them. And that was pretty late in the season. Losses to Auburn, Florida, UConn, Alabama, SC and LSU to close out the reg. season. If not for the injuries, I'm confident that they would have won at least half of those games (with SC and UConn being losses and LSU being 50-50).

They need a good backup post though. Need to have some options in the paint besides Key.

What did the Vols add other than Jackson?

I think the right additions could make them a major threat, but I don't think they were really a top 5 team at any point this past year.