Future Rosters

[OldHare]

Lexi Donarski from the Iowa State WBB is in the portal. She is 6' guard/wing. She played 35+ minutes/game with about 32% 3pt average.

[jackdaniel]

Saw that ESPN ranks her as the 17th best player in the portal. She will likely draw bigger offers than the Summit schools that have been mentioned. Sounds like she missed all of this season with a knee injury.

Lauren Ware is a 3yr eligibility transfer, that messes up our roster for '24 - '25 where we have a full 15 for that season. Unless there's some kind of work-around. Right behind her listed at # 18 is Frannie Hottinger Lehigh, a senior with 1 covid yr of eligibility left, from Minn, a 6'1" F who last season scored 20.4ppg, 9.7 rpg in the Patriot League. You might recall, we played against her and Lehigh early in our season which we won 91- 73. She was Lehigh's top scorer in that game with 25 pts. To me she would fit much better and would make more sense for next season and then our roster would return to normal afterward.

I don't know if AJ would feel the same way or not, and, I don't know if offered she would accept. Who wouldn't take Lauren Ware for 3 yrs, but I don't know how we could unless, as I've mentioned , there's some kind of work around to not mess up our roster for '24- '25 . I now see I'm a little late with this post, just noticed SteelSD already posted about her, my bad.

[bigticket1]

Hopefully we have made a few calls. Hottinger from Lehigh would be a nice addition. Minnesota girl who got to experience playing in Frost this last year.

ESPN has her ranked in the top five portal players. You have to think that Dawn is going hard after her being a Minnesota native.

[SteelSD]

Hopefully we have made a few calls. Hottinger from Lehigh would be a nice addition. Minnesota girl who got to experience playing in Frost this last year.

[bigticket1]

Former Bismarck ND 6’5 in portal from Arizona…. Lauren Ware

Saw that ESPN ranks her as the 17th best player in the portal. She will likely draw bigger offers than the Summit schools that have been mentioned. Sounds like she missed all of this season with a knee injury.

[jackdaniel]

Thank goodness it didn't become a Fatal Attraction

Ha, thank goodness

[jakejc795]

thks..... that was a Close call

Thank goodness it didn't become a Fatal Attraction

[jackdaniel]

FIFY; Glenn was too busy with Baba Yaga

thks..... that was a Close call

[jakejc795]

I was thinking about her, even though it would be a stretch to go from P-5 to mid-5 (we are a high mid-major I think we've earned that distinction). The connection to her would be the time AJ & Cori Close of UCLA coached that group of young women from the USA National U19 to the Championship in the U19 2021 World Cup. That team had a loaded roster, I'm sure AJ would take anyone off that roster. It's a brief time I know, but it is a connection. Both UND and Bison have their heart set on her though, I don't know if they'd have a chance or not.

I wonder if AJ is next in line to be the coach of the next USA National team in the next World Cup, he was one of Close's assistants in 2021 the other being Joni Taylor, if he'd want to do that given the chance to.

FIFY; Glenn was too busy with Baba Yaga

[rimmer]

Former Bismarck ND 6’5 in portal from Arizona…. Lauren Ware

she's had injuries.....plus, read where there might be some parental issues there too. not sure it's a good fit. the height is no doubt an issue if you want to advance in the NCAA's. height and wide body.

[jackdaniel]

Former Bismarck ND 6’5 in portal from Arizona…. Lauren Ware

I was thinking about her, even though it would be a stretch to go from P-5 to mid-5 (we are a high mid-major I think we've earned that distinction). The connection to her would be the time AJ & Cori Close of UCLA coached that group of young women from the USA National U19 to the Championship in the U19 2021 World Cup. That team had a loaded roster, I'm sure AJ would take anyone off that roster. It's a brief time I know, but it is a connection. Both UND and Bison have their heart set on her though, I don't know if they'd have a chance or not.

I wonder if AJ is next in line to be the coach of the next USA National team in the next World Cup, he was one of Close's assistants in 2021 the other being Joni Taylor, if he'd want to do that given the chance to.

[Hip2daHop]

Couple of openings if math is correct

[LetsGoRabbits]

I keep thinking what if the center neb stole from us changed her mind and wanted a runnin the tournament and came to her senses.

I LOVE this thought!!! that would give us an unbelievably good 3 player rotation in the post!! i think that would probably be the most talented group we have ever had in the post. i REALLY want to believe there is a chance she could come to the realization that she made a mistake!!! but i have no idea what the reality of that would be


this is a great example of, IF it is the right player, the position would NOT matter. obviously AJ believed she was a good fit for our program before so the FIT should not be a question!! someone like this that AJ already knows well is definitely the most obvious answer. my guess is that if the FIT is not obvious AJ is more than happy to go into next year with current roster, but i do think they would be vulnerable to an injury to one of B Meyer or Kallie. we could get through conference play fine but would really struggle in the post against the best teams without both of those two healthy

[LetsGoRabbits]

A post would be low on my wish list of portal possibilities. A wing player who can shoot the three and a back-up PG would be my priorities.

well i guess this question depends a bit on priorities or perspective??

if you look at roster construction in general as it sits today-

we have 6 perimeter type players who have a decent amount of playing experience, or more, and 2 incoming freshman (at least i think Hopp is a perimeter type. i know she had a lot of rebounds but unless i am way way mistaken she is definitely not a pure post player. Hillary is also definitely not)

we have zero post players who have ever played 20 minutes a game coming back
that said if B Meyer and Kallie stay healthy all year our post play should be at least solid and potentially very very good
Tori can obviously play some minutes here but she has not played a LOT of minutes as a post in her career. she has guarded posts and she scores in the post but never played the majority of her minutes as a 4 or 5
in my opinion, Mesa could give us decent minutes as a backup and i would love to see her develop her game and be more than that, but i dont think we can guarantee she will

but at this moment if something happened to B Meyer or Kallie we would be in some trouble in the post. could we still win the summit?? i think probably. i think Mesa probably is a starter for -some!!- summit teams. and Tori could definitely get by playing the 4 for the summit season. she would look a lot like Myah in that role, BUT at this moment she also might be our backup PG so???

point being roster construction / makeup wise it seems we are FAR more in need of another post player as compared to our need for a perimeter player

but if you are looking at in game NEED. our biggest need is scoring. i do agree it seems like we need more perimeter scoring and, in my personal basketball philosophy you can NEVER have too many good shooters, but ANY type of scorer would be a benefit to this team. that seems a bit strange for a team that scored 80 points a game last year, but we did not score 80 against the best teams we played and we just lost BY FAR our best scorer / offensive player

so i guess take that as you will. i dont know? we have more room for a post but our biggest need is scoring. i guess if you ask me if we can get a player who can score we can make the roster and playing rotation work regardless what position they play, but the best fit kind of seems like it would be a player who would be a stretch forward type. she could guard posts on defense and offensively step out to the perimeter and draw a defender out in very much the role Paiton played two seasons ago. that opens up the lane for kallie or brooklyn to work in the post or paige or HT to drive. Ronsiek is obviously that type of player but there has to be zero chance she is leaving her current team or darn close to zero. (not saying i particularly want her either but that is the type of player for sure)

all that said, i think the players we have on the current roster have the potential to develop and grow and i think we could have an incredible team next year even if we add nothing (and i feel like there is a decent chance nothing is added) but i also believe if AJ sees the right player right FIT become available he would bring them in. i DO NOT think AJ puts as much emphasis on offense as i personally do, or what most fans do!! so i could see the "right fit" to AJ being something other than a scorer, i cannot say what it would be (again according to current playing experience, another post seems more likely)

actually after a little more thought, i think the biggest thing AJ will look for is size. we are losing 3 players who are 6' or more and bringing in only one (at least as i recall Hopp is not 6 feet) and she probably will not play too much next year. so my guess is size regardless of position because we definitely have room for another post!! but we have always had big perimeter players and we will be smaller than normal next year so i could also see him bringing in a longer perimeter player. my guess is AJ thinks he / we can get enough scoring out of the team we currently have -personally i would emphasize scoring and seems the consensus for most of our fans is we want more 3pt shooting, but my guess is that AJ thinks the current roster will be able to score enough



one other thought does occur to me
IF we bring someone in who is going to definitely take playing time, WHO do they take time away from and how does that person respond?

it seems to me that Mesa and Maddie V have kind of made the decision that they are Jacks until the end, no matter what, so if we got another post that kept Mesa in a role similar to this year, she would probably stay in that role and be a good teammate

but if we add another guard who pushes a starter to the bench or a bench player further down the pecking order, that could mean one or both of Maddie M or Ellie or both dont get on the floor much next year?? would they both stay in that scenario

[Hip2daHop]

Former Bismarck ND 6’5 in portal from Arizona…. Lauren Ware