Lauren Betts in the Portal

[MilfordHusky]

I think players are seeing that Tara is just a symbol now. Players are leaving not being prepared for the W. Assistants doing all the work. PAC 12 is struggling to stay together. USC and UCLA gone.

I've read that Kate Paye does most of the talking in huddles now. Can the Stanford folks confirm or refute that?

 

[Hayven]

Mom’s Twitter seems to like Dawn Staley, SC, UCLA, and LSU

 

[jbc021592]

My bad. And I also see UNC. So that’s Stanford, UNC, UCLA, UNC, and ND.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Unless she wants to be in the Western part of the country. Where is she from?

Colorado, and the Buffs have become pretty good.

 

[MilfordHusky]

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

And #4 in the nation.

 

[BobbyJ]

More shocked than Betts leaving? Plus, In Brink's case there's a major draw: she might get to play with her buddy, Paige. It's easy to underestimate the draw of playing with friends.

I also just look at it the way a player might -- What the heck is left of that team now? She's gotta be looking around at the remaining and incoming roster and thinking, "No way I get to the NC here."

Brink could have played with her "buddy" when she came out of HS since she and her parents thought enough of UConn that they came to Storrs at their own cost for an unofficial visit. But she picked Stanford for the education and because of deep friendships and family connections. I don't see her tossing all that aside for a season to chase a NC, one of which she already has.

The Deep Roots and Family Ties Between Stanford Basketball Star Cameron Brink and Stephen Curry

Steph Curry is a goal-oriented, confident person," Cameron Brink's mother said. "And I see that developing in Cameron more and more all the time."

sfist.com

 

[MilfordHusky]

Brink is likely 1 year from a Stanford degree. I can't see her leaving. As noted, she apparently loves the Farm.

 

[CL82]

You beat me to it. No questions here, have to go for it, forget about Aneesah and Sedona for now and find out if we have a chance here. She put up huge numbers considering her limited minutes behind Brink. Kind of at the level of Cardosa behind Boston. Since she has only played one year, she would impact more the playing time of Ice and Jana down the road, but they can play the 4 as well and Aaliyah presumably departing after this year.

Unless I am missing something you have to go hard for Betts.

I think you look at all 4, but Lauren is the best of the Betts.

 

[BobbyJ]

If everything plays out, Sienna might have to wrestle with Big Sis for that uni number.

 

[Huskiefan23]

Mom’s Twitter seems to like Dawn Staley, SC, UCLA, and LSU
View attachment 87045

Good thing she’s not her mom!

 

[Heytherego]

UNC would also make a lot of sense (to me). I wonder if her and her sister are a packaged deal

 

[BobbyJ]

If Betts is in the portal it’s only a matter of days before Brink shows up too. That’s who we really want.

Good job. You actually made this look like you were serious.

 

[Hayven]

UNC would also make a lot of sense (to me). I wonder if her and her sister are a packaged deal

I would hope not as there doesn’t seem to be any interest between UConn and her sister

 

[Huskiefan23]

UNC would also make a lot of sense (to me). I wonder if her and her sister are a packaged deal

Aren’t they getting Toomey though?

 

[Heytherego]

Aren’t they getting Toomey though?

Yeah but isn’t she more of a 4? Betts is a 5

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[Cuango]

If Betts picks UCONN it'd put UCONN in a somewhat unprecedented territory, as they will have nabbed 5 of the last 6 #1 recruits (2017: Walker, 2018: Williams, 2020: Bueckers, 2021: Fudd, 2022: Betts)

I think Betts best destinations to take on a big role and play for a title contender would be UCONN, Notre Dame, Iowa or UCLA. All of those programs could use a center and have 4 of the best PGs in the country (Bueckers, Miles, Clark, Rice).

Yeah, I think UCLA needs more (or perhaps less) than any of those four! I’ll be shocked if they even sniff the finals over the next three years.

 

[Martin]

So there’s definitely still interest, from Morgan or the Coaching staff in general.

The first person she’s followed since the portal opened. I hope Coach Valley can pull it out the same way she did with Lou.

Maybe Bill Murray will be in town when she visits.

 

[VA Huskie]

there’s a lot we can see. She’s a lumbering 5 without intuitive scoring or shotblocking skills. That means she’s a project. She’ll get there eventually. But time is a commodity to kids.

Would you compare her to Kara Walters… another 6’7” lumberer?

 

[ConnMotors]

I'm on board with this young lady. All Betts are on Lauren. Geno roll with it.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Yeah, I think UCLA needs more (or perhaps less) than any of those four! I’ll be shocked if they even sniff the finals over the next three years.

UCLA just added Kendall Dudley, the #13 recruit in 2024. She played with Kiki Rice in high school.

 

[bballnut90]

Yeah, I think UCLA needs more (or perhaps less) than any of those four! I’ll be shocked if they even sniff the finals over the next three years.

I'm not sold on Close as an elite coach but they'd have Rice/Betts together for 3 years which would be a very good combo. After seeing what Clark/Reese were able to do for their respective teams, I wouldn't be surprised if Betts or other top transfers want to make their mark at an up and coming program rather than join an elite program where they wont be the standout.

 

[bballnut90]

UCLA just added Kendall Dudley, the #13 recruit in 2024. She played with Kiki Rice in high school.

FWIW (which is probably nothing), Mama Betts liked a lot of twitter posts about Dudley. She also liked a lot of Iowa related posts referencing O'Grady from last weekend, and also liked a lot of Dawn Staley posts.

 

[oldhusky]

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.

I agree, everybody assumes if she was any good she would get plenty of playing time. Not true, she performed well, just look at the numbers. Tara decided not to play twin towers together. The reason Betts didn't play is pretty elementary, it is Brink. I guess Clingan can't be any good because if he was, he would get many more minutes. Hurley also pretty much refused to use twin towers with Sanogo, even if Clingan was no worse than the third best player on the team.

If Olivia Miles was on Uconn and getting 10 minutes a game backing up Paige, some of you would say she can't be any good either, even if she was a very high recruit and in fact putting up very good numbers when she was in the game, just like Betts. Is it possible there is something concerning behind the scenes? Sure, but assuming something must be wrong just because a player doesn't get time behind one of the best C's in the country doesn't make sense.

Some of the minutes that Brink was sitting also went to other bigs and that is the closest to a legitimate concern. But even then, those were pretty much proven very good players that were seniors, with different skill sets, including the versatile Haley Jones a sure early draft pick, Prechtel a 6-5 girl who can shoot threes, and Bilibi a sensational 6-1 PF that can dunk. They might have received a little bit of senior entitlement minutes too vs. the freshmen.

Whether Betts should have gone to a program so loaded with bigs and in particular a C in Brink that might be ahead of her for two seasons? Maybe not, maybe she thought Tara would use them together and then she didn't. Some of the same concerns might have applied to Cardosa going to South Carolina. She knew she had Boston ahead of her for two years, and that she could have started at all but a handful of other schools, but went there anyway. Apparently that was not an issue for her, and Dawn made it considerably easier by trying twin towers a significant part of the time, and also by resting her starters a lot more than most coaches in blowouts.

 

[PacoSwede]

Betts left to get playing time. Brink isn’t leaving, sorry to break it to you.

you don't know this. there could oodles of reasons for this move. maybe she was encouraged to leave by tara. maybe she hates palo alto. maybe despises a teammate. etc etc

you are making an uninformed assumption.

 

[RedStickHusky]

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

I'll tell you in 20 minutes that it's probably 20 minutes.

 

[bovwa10]

you don't know this. there could oodles of reasons for this move. maybe she was encouraged to leave by tara. maybe she hates palo alto. maybe despises a teammate. etc etc

you are making an uninformed assumption.

I think it's a pretty astute assumption, given that she likely would've been backing up Brink again next year. Either way, Brink is not leaving Stanford with just one year left. There's no way she's giving up that Stanford degree. She already has a national championship and she's really close with the Curry family.

 

[PacoSwede]

I think it's a pretty astute assumption, given that she likely would've been backing up Brink again next year. Either way, Brink is not leaving Stanford with just one year left. There's no way she's giving up that Stanford degree. She already has a national championship and she's really close with the Curry family.

well, i'm sure she's heading for east jerusalem state.

good old ejsu.

they need some bigs.

 

[Cuango]

Not feeling it! I don’t think we’ll be seeing Betts in Storrs. Truthfully, I think we’re fine and her addition might end up causing problems with our current roster. By problems, I mean transfers and or unhappiness. This team is loaded and,I believe, will be a top 3 team for several years at least. It is highly skilled and has great chemistry. Let’s be satisfied with what we have and take no unnecessary chances on affecting that chemistry.

 

[bballnut90]

I agree, everybody assumes if she was any good she would get plenty of playing time. Not true, she performed well, just look at the numbers. Tara decided not to play twin towers together. The reason Betts didn't play is pretty elementary, it is Brink. I guess Clingan can't be any good because if he was, he would get many more minutes. Hurley also pretty much refused to use twin towers with Sanogo, even if Clingan was no worse than the third best player on the team.

If Olivia Miles was on Uconn and getting 10 minutes a game backing up Paige, some of you would say she can't be any good either, even if she was a very high recruit and in fact putting up very good numbers when she was in the game, just like Betts. Is it possible there is something concerning behind the scenes? Sure, but assuming something must be wrong just because a player doesn't get time behind one of the best C's in the country doesn't make sense.

Some of the minutes that Brink was sitting also went to other bigs and that is the closest to a legitimate concern. But even then, those were pretty much proven very good players that were seniors, with different skill sets, including the versatile Haley Jones a sure early draft pick, Prechtel a 6-5 girl who can shoot threes, and Bilibi a sensational 6-1 PF that can dunk. They might have received a little bit of senior entitlement minutes too vs. the freshmen.

Whether Betts should have gone to a program so loaded with bigs and in particular a C in Brink that might be ahead of her for two seasons? Maybe not, maybe she thought Tara would use them together and then she didn't. Some of the same concerns might have applied to Cardosa going to South Carolina. She knew she had Boston ahead of her for two years, and that she could have started at all but a handful of other schools, but went there anyway. Apparently that was not an issue for her, and Dawn made it considerably easier by trying twin towers a significant part of the time, and also by resting her starters a lot more than most coaches in blowouts.

Betts problem is she picked 1 of 2 schools that had no use for her (the other being South Carolina). When Betts got minutes, she played quite well. It didn't matter if she was playing a mediocre team or a ranked team, the numbers were consistent across the board when she got playing time, and she never got into foul trouble. She moved well, rebounded well, finished consistently around the rim. She only played 10 minutes per game, but if you take her numbers and average them across 30 minutes a game, she was averaging 18 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks on 60% FG. Those are excellent numbers.

She had a great stretch of basketball in February, and then somehow wound up in the dog house her last 5 games (where Stanford went 2-3). When she started playing more, I thought Tara was slowly bringing her on and then was unleashing her at the end of the season so Betts would avoid the freshman wall and peak at the right time. I thought it was brilliant and that Betts would make the difference down the stretch for Stanford. But then she stopped playing Betts. In regards to Betts and Brink playing together, the one game I saw them on the court for extended minutes was against Arizona, and they were scary good together. Brink thrives as a 5 but has the skills to play the 4 with her face up game, passing and ball handling. They paired really well together, and I was hoping we'd see this combo more as the year went on but Betts' minutes fizzled and they were upset in the 2nd round.

Ultimately I get why some players may have been frustrated at Stanford last year. They were basically a 2 woman team with a 3pt specialist, and then has a slew of talented role players that Tara cycled in and out but without consistency. It seemed like she was more focused on keeping minutes equal among a group of 7-8 than establishing a set rotation and building off of it. I am guessing a lot of those 7-8 players had no idea if they were going to play 2-3 minutes in a given game, or if they'd play 20. Hard to find a flow and consistent play and it showed in their product.