Lauren Betts in the Portal

[BobbyJ]

Lots of fans are going to be calling "dibs" on her, lol

From what I understand, Iowa doesn't have scholarships to spare, though that won't stop fan speculation about big name frontcourt transfers.

I feel like the obvious suspects here are ND and SCar, maybe UConn, but UConn has more frontcourt players in the pipeline.

Obviously, from an Irish fan perspective, she makes a ton of sense at ND. Minutes should be available right away with Ebo departing. She knows Citron and Miles from USAB. Her sister has visited South Bend. ND recruited her hard the 1st time and Niele has had success getting some players she originally recruited out of HS as transfers. Lastly, ND seems to take a Stanford transfer about every other year.

Shush up! Don't be talking like that.

 

[VA Huskie]

What about South Carolina as a Boston replacement?

Isn’t that Cardozo?

 

[FormerCTrez]

The only way I see Betts coming to UConn is with an understanding that she's in an understudy role to Edwards/DeBerry/Brady, and that the staff will not make promises of PT nor upset the already existing chemistry that the players have both on and off the court. The ol' sacrifice a little, be part of something big.

On edit - imagine if this is what Geno was referencing?

@BRS24, I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Tonyc]

Lets think about this. She was the number 1 recruit out of HS and didnt see much time. Why at 6'7 didnt she see much time. I have to wonder whats going on behind the scenes. Im sure at 6'7 and with all the bigs Stanford has some body had to be working with her. There alot we dont know. Remember the girl from NJ at 6'10 and the girl from the midwest at 6'9 and neither saw much time. Why?

Geno has alot to work with over the next few years and adding a girl who was a HS number 1 at 6'7 is temping but why didnt she see playtime at Stanford? Remember she didnt play at Stanford and she was the number 1 recruit out of HS and 6'7. Tara isnt stupid. There is something we dont know.

 

[ochoopsfan]

Lauren can see how effectively UConn integrated Dorka and Lou, both of whom absolutely LOVED their UConn experience.

We’d love to get to know you, Lauren!

With posts like this I see why you go as "The Voice of Reason"

 

[ochoopsfan]

Lauren has a younger sister, Sienna/2025 who is #1 ranked in Colorado.

 

[oldhusky]

OK I just want to put this in perspective a little bit. This former #1 recruit only played about 10 minutes per game, 318 total this year. Is that a pretty modest sample size, sure but it would be about equivalent to starting 10 games. So that is still enough to form an opinion, so how did she do?

Well using the one comprehensive stat, player efficiency ratio (PER) that takes into account all game statistics and adjust for the pace of the game, this is how she stacked up on the season compared to other bigs you probably know. An average score is 15 for all division 1 players, but it doesn't adjust for the level of competition. For example Ayanna and Amari were around 12 but are probably at least average because Uconn plays a way above average schedule as does almost everyone on this list.

Angel Reese 44.6
Lauren Betts 41.2
Mackenzie Holmes 40.6
Alissa Pili 39.2
Cameron Brink 39.0
Kamilla Cardosa 38.7
Stephanie Soares 38.7
Aliyah Boston 36.3
Taiyanna Jackson 35.7
Aneesah Morrow 33.8
Elizabeth Kitley 32.1
Aaliyah Edwards 28.9
Dorka Juhasz 27.3

Modest sample but still extremely impressive, so don't judge her on playing time behind a superstar C like Brink is my point.

 

[hoopsfan22]

@BRS24, I was thinking the same thing.

So you were thinking Geno broke NCAA rules by recruiting a player from another team? Or are you thinking Geno's just a slippery kind of coach that operates on the margins?

 

[Huskie02]

Now HER I would like to get. We tried pretty hard for her before.

We need to get her! Does anyone know if she is friends with any current team members? Did she play AAU ball with any of them? Is she following any UConn team members on social media?

 

[Heytherego]

Lauren has a younger sister, Sienna/2025 who is #1 ranked in Colorado.

Who was spotted at a Notre Dame game a couple months ago. Might also make sense for Betts academic wise

 

[tkaes]

You guys have like 3 bigs already. It’ll be Stanford all over again. She’ll get ZERO playing time. Lol.

WRONG! Betts would come in and start in Dorkas' place.

 

[Carnac]

Would love for her to commit to UConn. But the Stanford to ND pipeline is hard to ignore. So I won’t be holding my breathe with this one

She’d get more PT at ND than she would at UConn. If she didn’t impress Tara enough to play more than she did, could she possibly impress Geno? I’m not trying to throw water on anyone’s interest or desire for Betts, but there’s a reason she didn’t play more than she did. Since she’s leaving, the prospects of her playing more in the near future may not have been related to her by the coaching staff. I realize she’s 6’7”, but I’d pass on her. I’d rather have a player the size and skill set of Angel Reese.

 

[VA Huskie]

Lets think about this. She was the number 1 recruit out of HS and didnt see much time. Why at 6'7 didnt she see much time. I have to wonder whats going on behind the scenes. Im sure at 6'7 and with all the bigs Stanford has some body had to be working with her. There alot we dont know. Remember the girl from NJ at 6'10 and the girl from the midwest at 6'9 and neither saw much time. Why?

Geno has alot to work with over the next few years and adding a girl who was a HS number 1 at 6'7 is temping but why didnt she see playtime at Stanford? Remember she didnt play at Stanford and she was the number 1 recruit out of HS and 6'7. Tara isnt stupid. There is something we dont know.

We’ve seen consistently with UConn that it takes bigs longer to adjust to the college game. Remember Tina’s 1st year plus? Look at Amari’s struggles. So that’s probably part of the answer.

 

[Longtime fan]

Wow. I would love for Uconn to get her. I know we were on her final list of schools.

Before we get all giddy about this possibility, I think we owe it ourselves to ask. " why did she enter the portal?" I watched a number of Stanford games ( Pac-12 tournament and NCAA Big dance ) and was shocked to note that Betts rarely played. No one mentioned an injury. Somehow, the broadcasters didn't speak much about it. So I have no idea, except that she was the grand prize of that recruiting class, along with Kiki Rice at UCLA. Even in Stanford's last game, Tara played Cameron Brink all game, and Cameron looked like she had the flu and should be abed. We need to hear from a Stanford fan before jumping with hope to acquire Laura Betts. Caution, everyone. Caution.

 

[Longtime fan]

Betts is the most attractive to me as well, with a caveat.

I never used to watch any high school footage until Bueckers came along. I still do not watch much, but I watched a little of both Brady and Betts. Out of those two I thought Brady was more skilled. I understood Betts being #1 due to her height, but Brady really seemed to know what she was doing.

We have one spot left and I can see using it on Betts, but not to the detriment of developing Brady. One way or another I suspect Brady will be a major contributor for us, with or without adding Betts.

That was the plan. If we had Ice Brady and Paige all season, we could win it all. It didn't work out.

 

[Longtime fan]

Lauren’s younger sister visited ND (the only one she visited besides Stanford—that I know of…) ND needs a BIG BAD. With the options of Morrow, Prince, and Betts (possibly with younger sister-play together for 1 year), ND has some options.

I could DEFINITELY see Iowa in the mix (for all 3 of those I listed). Who wouldn’t want to play with Clark?! LOL.

UCONN as well, but you have Patterson and Edwards still (with one more year after this one possibly). We shall see…

From what you have seen in year one of her play, why do you think " Uconn as well...but you have Patterson...( and Edwards) " is a deterrent to Laura Betts? Edwards is an All American, of course, but Patterson has not been on the court much.

 

[FormerCTrez]

So you were thinking Geno broke NCAA rules by recruiting a player from another team? Or are you thinking Geno's just a slippery kind of coach that operates on the margins?

Haha @hoopsfan22, none of the above. While I‘m aware that some coaches may be NCAA rule breakers, I believe most don’t intentionally engage in such dishonesty. And I would be surprised if Geno, Dawn, and Tara purposefully cheated.

 

[UCTitleTown]

The 6'7" player I've been saying we need.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Haha @hoopsfan22, none of the above. While I‘m aware that some coaches may be NCAA rule breakers, I believe most don’t intentionally engage in such dishonesty. And I would be surprised if Geno, Dawn, and Tara purposefully cheated.

Betts went into the portal in the last 24 hours, so how could Geno know about it last weekend unless he was tampering? This is your conjecture, not mine.

 

[darrell]

She’d get more PT at ND than she would at UConn. If she didn’t impress Tara enough to play more than she did, could she possibly impress Geno? I’m not trying to throw water on anyone’s interest or desire for Betts, but there’s a reason she didn’t play more than she did. I realize she’s 6’7”, but I’d pass on her. I’d rather have an Angel Reese type of ability player.

Do we know the reason, though? Because any time she’s gotten time, she made the most of it. Grabbing rebounds, easy lay-ins and ran the floor pretty good.

 

[BRS24]

So you were thinking Geno broke NCAA rules by recruiting a player from another team? Or are you thinking Geno's just a slippery kind of coach that operates on the margins?

No, however unless we know exactly when she entered the portal, it's hard to say. Also, a lot of conversations happen behind the scenes that are "legal". Then again, thinking about this, perhaps there's a bunch of 24/25 players coming in, and Betts is a surprise to everyone.

 

[Carnac]

Sign her up, right now!

If we do get her, how many minutes per game do you think she would get?

 

[Carnac]

What about South Carolina as a Boston replacement?

Definitely.

 

[hoopsfan22]

No, however unless we know exactly when she entered the portal, it's hard to say. Also, a lot of conversations happen behind the scenes that are "legal". Then again, thinking about this, perhaps there's a bunch of 24/25 players coming in, and Betts is a surprise to everyone.

We do know when she entered the portal because there are less scrupulous people with (indirect) access to the system that happily publish their "findings."

 

[Longtime fan]

Definitely.

They have one 6'7" player already, why not a couple more?