Non-UConn recruiting thread - 2025 | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Non-UConn recruiting thread - 2025

jbc021592 said:
Saniyah Hall just committed to USC on ESPN. Whenever JuJu comes back, they will be unstoppable. Hall, Davidson, Smith, and Watkins.
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Lindsay has been killing it in recruiting, but struggling to hang on to her recruits. Ironically, losing Juju to the portal after next season might be a blessing in disguise.

Next season the team will belong to Jazzy and Kennedy. If Juju returns in February (a big if) either she’ll disrupt whatever chemistry the team has built and resume as the dominant figure or she’ll be the odd woman out and transfers. The latter possibility may be the better one for USC as well as for Kennedy, Jazzy and Saniyah.

The third option, that Juju subordinates her stats to the team seems like a vanishing possibility to me. And for Juju, transferring to a program that can feature her may be too valuable in terms of draft position and NIL to ignore. That points to LSU as an obvious destination, but other possibilities like TCU or Oklahoma could also be attractive to her. An outlier could be Vandy if she wants to be seen to lift a second program to the top of D1 WBB.
 
Gamecockfan77 said:
I'm not sure how Juju transferring could be a blessing in disguise. That seems like some haterade more than anything realistic.
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I see. So do you really think two seasons from now Juju will be able to share the ball with Jazzy Kennedy and Saniyah? Or that Lindsay will be able to design an offense that features the others over Juju?

Having a player like Juju on your team is decidedly a mixed blessing. She’s an amazing player but can be a trying teammate. She can lift a program from mediocrity and raise it to the elite eight. Whether she can carry a team further than that is unclear. But it would be cool to see it.
 
Bone Dog said:
I see. So do you really think two seasons from now Juju will be able to share the ball with Jazzy Kennedy and Saniyah? Or that Lindsay will be able to design an offense that features the others over Juju?

Having a player like Juju on your team is decidedly a mixed blessing. She’s an amazing player but can be a trying teammate. She can lift a program from mediocrity and raise it to the elite eight. Whether she can carry a team further than that is unclear. But it would be cool to see it.
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I think any team would be happy to have her and better for it.
 
Gamecockfan77 said:
I think any team would be happy to have her and better for it.
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I agree and never said otherwise. But not every coach would be in a position to limit her role on their team. The teams I listed earlier would be especially good landing spots because she'd be able to take on a ball dominant role on them without disrupting team chemistry. Geno or Dawn would fit her into an existing concept without difficulty for them, and require her to modify her game to fit the team's needs. And this is probably why she'd never choose either UConn or SC.
 
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Bone Dog said:
Lindsay has been killing it in recruiting, but struggling to hang on to her recruits. Ironically, losing Juju to the portal after next season might be a blessing in disguise.

Next season the team will belong to Jazzy and Kennedy. If Juju returns in February (a big if) either she’ll disrupt whatever chemistry the team has built and resume as the dominant figure or she’ll be the odd woman out and transfers. The latter possibility may be the better one for USC as well as for Kennedy, Jazzy and Saniyah.

The third option, that Juju subordinates her stats to the team seems like a vanishing possibility to me. And for Juju, transferring to a program that can feature her may be too valuable in terms of draft position and NIL to ignore. That points to LSU as an obvious destination, but other possibilities like TCU or Oklahoma could also be attractive to her. An outlier could be Vandy if she wants to be seen to lift a second program to the top of D1 WBB.
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One thing I recall about Juju is that her family has deep roots in the Los Angeles community and are very involved. Believe it dates back to her great-grandparents. This is a big thing for the family and I thought I read somewhere that Juju was staying close to home because she was going to continue giving back and help serve as an example to the community.

Yes, she can still contribute financially and when she is home, should she transfer somewhere else. Gut feeling is that transferring seems unlikely though.
 
jbc021592 said:
Saniyah Hall just committed to USC on ESPN. Whenever JuJu comes back, they will be unstoppable. Hall, Davidson, Smith, and Watkins.
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Yes, but they will still have to play with only one ball, which must be shared (& this will be a new coaching experience for Gottlieb, having to divert a good deal of her attention from Juju).
 
Almost a guarantee that in 26-27 one of those three scorers will not be at USC.
 
Bone Dog said:
I see. So do you really think two seasons from now Juju will be able to share the ball with Jazzy Kennedy and Saniyah? Or that Lindsay will be able to design an offense that features the others over Juju?

Having a player like Juju on your team is decidedly a mixed blessing. She’s an amazing player but can be a trying teammate. She can lift a program from mediocrity and raise it to the elite eight. Whether she can carry a team further than that is unclear. But it would be cool to see it.
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This scenario reminds me greatly of Notre Dame from last year. Hidalgo is a very dominant persona and when Miles returned from injury they were able to make it work......for a season. There was a reason why Miles and the other players transferred out at the end of the season. I believe they were a Final Four team that ultimately under performed. I hope USC can avoid a similar fate but I have serious doubts. Geno is one of the few who seems to be able to hold a group of such talented players together for multiple seasons.
 
I'm curious to see who the 2026 recruit is that Maryland has landed. J.Jackson maybe ?
 
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Bone Dog said:
I see. So do you really think two seasons from now Juju will be able to share the ball with Jazzy Kennedy and Saniyah? Or that Lindsay will be able to design an offense that features the others over Juju?

Having a player like Juju on your team is decidedly a mixed blessing. She’s an amazing player but can be a trying teammate. She can lift a program from mediocrity and raise it to the elite eight. Whether she can carry a team further than that is unclear. But it would be cool to see it.
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Willnett Crockett is USC’s recruiting coordinator since August 2023. So, kudos also to Willnett (re: USC’s recruiting coups).

On your third option, maybe Juju’s forced timeout and the lesser expectations would be an opportunity for a hard reboot for Gottlieb from her “Let Juju be Juju” Icarus path.

This forced Juju timeout could serve a delicate balancing act:
  • (1) building gravitas, despite the recent out-transfer fiasco, so other great recruits will be tempted to join the Big 4 and the middlings;
  • (2) conditioning Juju by letting her observe how things can be better without turning her off.
Very tall tasks, for sure, especially for a coach for whom such predicaments are still somewhat new. USC can be a poster child or a cautionary tale for the new paradigm (portal+NIL).
  • And I agree with you that Juju transferring could actually be not a bad outcome for USC and Gottlieb if USC’s program could become more sustainable as a result.
 
Bone Dog said:
I agree and never said otherwise. But not every coach would be in a position to limit her role on their team. The teams I listed earlier would be especially good landing spots because she'd be able to take on a ball dominant role on them without disrupting team chemistry. Geno or Dawn would fit her into an existing concept without difficulty for them, and require her to modify her game to fit the team's needs. And this is probably why she'd never choose either UConn or SC.
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I don't know that it would look all that different at SCar.

a little more efficient probably. Fewer minutes.
 
5'8 guard Aaliah Spaight (2026) of Nevada seems to have blown up on the AAU circuit this month. Saw that she just received offers from South Carolina, Texas, North Carolina, LSU, and Vandy to name a few. This is pretty late for schools to be extending offers to any 2026 recruit they hope to sign in November. Will be interesting to see if she signs with a school who offered her months/years ago, or a school who just barely threw their hat into the race.
 
Juila Scott (#25 in 2026 ESPN Hoopgurlz—from NY) has a top 3 of ND, Clemson, and Michigan. Ivey needs a mobile big—I’m praying she’s Irish. ☘️
 
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southie said:
5'8 guard Aaliah Spaight (2026) of Nevada seems to have blown up on the AAU circuit this month. Saw that she just received offers from South Carolina, Texas, North Carolina, LSU, and Vandy to name a few. This is pretty late for schools to be extending offers to any 2026 recruit they hope to sign in November. Will be interesting to see if she signs with a school who offered her months/years ago, or a school who just barely threw their hat into the race.
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She went off at the Nike Nationals, averaging 28+ in the six games leading up to the finals where her team came up short. She scored 42 in one of those six games. Has released a final 10.

 
Oliviyah Edwards is locking in her official visits with announcement to come before November (per her recent tweet)
-TN (Sept 12-14)
-SC (Sept 19-21)
-LSU (Oct 9-12)

Previously visited USC for official visit this season. General thought is she ends up in SEC somewhere. I wonder if Washington gets an official visit somewhere
 
CajunHusk94 said:
Oliviyah Edwards is locking in her official visits with announcement to come before November (per her recent tweet)
-TN (Sept 12-14)
-SC (Sept 19-21)
-LSU (Oct 9-12)

Previously visited USC for official visit this season. General thought is she ends up in SEC somewhere. I wonder if Washington gets an official visit somewhere
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Hey, I shut down the Northwest to Tennessee pipeline already, didn't she get the memo? The rest of the SEC can keep their hands off too.
 
The HG Top 100 2026 class is going fast. 24 have announced their commitments and another 24 have known finalist lists. One has re-classified to 2027 so I guess that will be addressed in the next class ranking update. Interestingly only 5 of the top 25 have announced which school they've committed to so far but another 12 have put out their finalists list.
 
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