2025 NCAA Portal Champions

[jdote33]

Yeah there's no official banner though I do like @triaddukefan artwork. It cracks me up every time. To me it's just another bball discussion and look on who capitalized on the portal. I just like hearing ppls perspective on teams acquisitions. Since there is no official champion it's interesting to hear how ppl assess which team did the best in the portal.

 

[Vowelguy]

Pfft. I did grocery shopping with my 2 year old toddler in the early stage of labor. Pat Summitt famously went on a recruiting trip to see Michelle Marciniak a day or two before she gave birth. We ain’t made of glass

I believe she started labor in Virginia but demanded they still fly back to Tenn.

 

[CL82]

The rivalry refuses to die

I was thinking the same thing.

There is a thread on the men's board asking whether St. John's is our new "rival" because they got the better of us last year and are going to be very good this year. No doubt they'll be good this year but rivalries aren't a day-to-day varying thing based upon the relative success of other programs.

I am guilty of saying that the lady Vol rivalry was dead due to their recent lack of success, prior to last year. But the truth is, they are the program that we love to hate and I suspect that that is mutual.

 

[jdote33]

Maybe deserved it's own thread but sortve in topic.

Women’s college basketball’s post-transfer top 25: Is UConn still on top? Did LSU jump?

How did UCLA lose its freshmen but not lose ground in the rankings?

www.nytimes.com

 

[Basingstoke]

Perhaps, it's time for a reevaluation of who won the portal....

 

[EricLA]

Perhaps, it's time for a reevaluation of who won the portal....

+100. Quality over quantity. It's been a mantra I've hummed for many years as a UConn fan. Serah and Kayleigh are not only perfect fits, but make the roster 100% complete (meaning extremely high quality depth at ALL positions)...

I totally get that UConn often plays positionless basketball but...

1's: KK, Kayleigh, Kelis
2's: Azzi, Ash, Allie
3's: Blanca, Morgan, Carol
4's: Sarah, Ice, Ayana
5's: Serah, Jana, Gandy

That's just an unreal amount of depth at every position.

 

[triaddukefan]

Perhaps, it's time for a reevaluation of who won the portal....

I'll can post my cash app in case any of y'all want to help me with banner expenses.

 

[jdote33]

I didn't know where to post about this but I'm all in on Gal Raviv who transferred to Miami this off season. I just watched most of the 4th quarter in the Euro basket u20 game between Israel and Lithuania. It was a great watch. Her and Daniele Paunksnyte (who I had never heard of but dropped 43 points) were basically going back and forth. But Raviv also has great passing skills, is really good with ball screens, was attacking with both hands. She played well in the u19 Fiba tournament earlier this summer as well. Miami lost a lot this off season to graduation but they got some good ones in the portal

 

[Rooster C.]

According to ESPN the portal winners are as follows:

#1 LSU #2 Ole Miss #3 SC #4 LSU #5 TCU #6 MD #7 OK ST #8 BAY #9 LOU #10 SMU

#11 ILL #12 VA #13 MIA

 

[Rooster C.]

I didn't know where to post about this but I'm all in on Gal Raviv who transferred to Miami this off season. I just watched most of the 4th quarter in the Euro basket u20 game between Israel and Lithuania. It was a great watch. Her and Daniele Paunksnyte (who I had never heard of but dropped 43 points) were basically going back and forth. But Raviv also has great passing skills, is really good with ball screens, was attacking with both hands. She played well in the u19 Fiba tournament earlier this summer as well. Miami lost a lot this off season to graduation but they got some good ones in the portal

I agree about Raviv. She pretty much single-handedly defeated two-time defending champions France behind her 32 points in their Top 16 match up. They bowed out in the round of 8 against Italy who had a serious height advantage and pressed Israel from the opening whistle. Raviv still had 25 points in a losing effort but Israel had a far better FG %, 3-point %, and FT % but were destroyed on the glass. They trailed nearly the entire game sometimes by 10+ points and yet took the lead with 6 minutes to go and were tied with 2 minutes remaining. Iowa recruited Raviv hard but in the end she chose Miami. Surprisingly ESPN did not have her ranked among the top 35 players in the portal.

 

[oldhusky]

Perhaps, it's time for a reevaluation of who won the portal....

Every team portal ranking has to start with some criteria as to how to judge them. Is it just who brought in the most overall talent, regardless of needs or how they might fit? Some teams have huge losses due to graduation and or portal losses. Of course they will have more quantity of portal recruits.

Others have one or two issues to address, may find a perfect fit for what they need but not rank near the top because they don't have several high level transfers. The very best teams that are likely championship contenders don't usually have that many holes to fill. At the other end some programs bring in lots of talented transfers because they couldn't keep the players they already had that left in the portal.

The portal issue goes both ways, so maybe portal incoming minus portal outgoing is a better overall measure, and even then fit should matter. The number, positions and quality of players that did graduate also matters as does the same for the incoming freshmen class. There is no way to do a good portal class ranking in isolation that doesn't take all of those factors into account.

Teams have incoming, recruits and portal additions, and outgoing, graduations and portal losses, and all four of those are related in terms of what a team needs to do to get better, and how well they have done. Years ago the incoming was almost all based on the recruiting class, and the outgoing was mostly the graduating class.

With the ability to change schools without a one year wait, the tremendous rise in the number of transfers, and the new impact of greater NIL opportunities at other schools, the portal factor is now right up there with incoming and graduating classes in importance to many programs.

 

[Alydar]

+100. Quality over quantity. It's been a mantra I've hummed for many years as a UConn fan. Serah and Kayleigh are not only perfect fits, but make the roster 100% complete (meaning extremely high quality depth at ALL positions)...

I totally get that UConn often plays positionless basketball but...

1's: KK, Kayleigh, Kelis
2's: Azzi, Ash, Allie
3's: Blanca, Morgan, Carol
4's: Sarah, Ice, Ayana
5's: Serah, Jana, Gandy

That's just an unreal amount of depth at every position.

It's deeper than even your list. Geno has a roster of versatility.


1's: KK, Kayleigh, Kelis + Morgan, Azzi
2's: Azzi, Ash, Allie + Morgan, Carol, Blanca, Kayleigh
3's: Blanca, Morgan, Carol + Sara, Azzi
4's: Sarah, Ice, Ayana +Sera, Carol
5's: Serah, Jana, Gandy + Sara

Sara, Azzi, Carol, Morgan and I suspect Blana are all 3 position players and I won't discount Sara at any of the 5 positions.

 

[EricLA]

It's deeper than even your list. Geno has a roster of versatility.


1's: KK, Kayleigh, Kelis + Morgan, Azzi
2's: Azzi, Ash, Allie + Morgan, Carol, Blanca, Kayleigh
3's: Blanca, Morgan, Carol + Sara, Azzi
4's: Sarah, Ice, Ayana +Sera, Carol
5's: Serah, Jana, Gandy + Sara

Sara, Azzi, Carol, Morgan and I suspect Blana are all 3 position players and I won't discount Sara at any of the 5 positions.

I only listed each player once. Obviously there is a ton of flexibility from almost every player. Side note - who is "Sara"? I've never seen her name spelled that way, and on the official UConn website roster, it's Sarah.