Did Notre Dame pursue the other Stanford point guard jana van gytenbeek? I liked her and she doesn't have the injury issues that Brown had and she has shown some nice shooting from 3 in limited minutes. Brown just seems like the easier pick up because there is pre-existing relationship and she was once committed to the Fighting Irish but I would have rolled the dice and tried to get Jana instead to continue the Stanford pipeline to ND
@DefenseBB : Per your observation: "...at a position the Irish are already stacked at."
The move is all about playing time (and lack thereof). Let's set the stage: Olivia Miles is Notre Dame's floor leader. She's going to be on the floor most of the time. And, yes, Miles is the reason this transaction is not the biggest deal the Irish need to make this off-season.
Yet, I believe Miles was wearing down a bit when Niele had her out on the floor 35 minutes, so the coaching staff wanted to find someone good enough to spell her. That person was not Dara Mabrey.
However, Olivia Miles is only a sophomore next year and will get the bulk of the minutes for the next three years. Van Gtytenbeek wants playing time and lots of it, I presume. She wasn't going to get it backing up Miles. Brown, to the best of my knowledge, only has one year left to play. So, she gets started on a masters, backs up Miles for 10-12 minutes per game (which is a heck of a lot more than she was not playing), gets coached hard by Ivey and is a bridge to the 2023 point guard that ND is trying to land (see Hannah Hidalgo, Lisa Thompson, etc.).
The most important move Coach Ivey needs to make is finding someone to play the middle for the Irish.
Would like to see her roll the dice on that and find someone who can spend multiple years in South Bend.
Don't want to see the Irish fill this year's needs with all grad transfers and then have to do this again next year to some degree.
Thanks for both your points. Always happy to discuss Irish hoops on the one concentrated thread for this team.
