Looks like Akron picks up JUCO transfer, 5'8 G Jaela Davis from Northwest Florida State. Originally from Tampa. Stats (if you can believe them) are not all that stellar - 5 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, although she did reportedly shoot close to 40% from three and was 2nd team all-conference. NWF was very good, going 30-4 this season, making it all the way to the JUCO national championship game before losing to Hutchinson CC.

Interesting announcement with a Toledo tie, as former UT assistant Tiffany Swoffard has been named head coach at Canisius. Recall that she was let go from her UT job back in 2019, mid season. No specifics were ever reported. Whatever it was, it has not held back her career as she is now a DI head coach.

(04-15-2024 04:50 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Right now, I am not sure if this is a '24 or a '25 commit, since she was a freshman this year, but Buffalo adds JUCO G/F, 6'1 Makenna Shaffer from Florida Southwestern State. Averaged 12 and 8 last year as a freshman shooting 36%. Also had an offer from BG. Originally from Greenly Colorado.

Shaffer is now a confirmed '24 commit, as Buffalo has announced that she is signed.

updated the original post, with what I hope is the correct and latest info. If anyone sees any errors, let me know.

A couple big MAC signings:

Ball State nabs UM transfer Elise Stuck. A 1 year rental easily fills the whole left by Rauch's graduation. I know UT recruited her out of HS (not sure how hard) and would have loved to see her in a Rocket uniform, but a 1 year rental doesn't help UT that much.

Not to be outdone, Kent State signs 6'4 Riley Rismiller, transfer from Dayton. Got decent minutes at Dayton but was not a big contributor on a pretty bad team. But she was only a freshman and so has upside potential.

Also, Buffalo announced that they have signed 5'10 incoming freshman Samairah Thompson out of Columbus Afrocentric. She had verballed last summer, but did not sign in the fall. Apparently that has been remedied now.

Some news too on some former MAC players:

- Lauren Ross picks PFW. Seems like a step down for her, but the PFW coach is an up-and-comer who has really turned that program around in a hurry.
- Rachel Loobie picks Long Beach State. (I respect a player taking their last year somewhere there is sun and surf.)

It's funny to me that these two, plus Stuck & Rismiller are just the kind of players that Akron, Miami, CMU, EMU could use to start building their rosters again. Any of them would be major pieces for those teams I would think. So you wonder, are they not going after these players (and others like them) or just not succeeding in convincing them to come to their schools.

It looks like the MAC should take a step in the right direction next year. After 2022-23, the conference returned only 6 of its top 25 scorers. (One of those was Chelby Koker, who ended up not playing this year due to injury.) Next year, 15 of the top 25 return, plus Lexi Fleming and Koker. Also, pretty early in the transfer season, the MAC has already done pretty well in attracting new players.

(04-18-2024 08:59 PM)Lester Wrote:  It looks like the MAC should take a step in the right direction next year. After 2022-23, the conference returned only 6 of its top 25 scorers. (One of those was Chelby Koker, who ended up not playing this year due to injury.) Next year, 15 of the top 25 return, plus Lexi Fleming and Koker. Also, pretty early in the transfer season, the MAC has already done pretty well in attracting new players.

I agree. Its looking like the league overall should be better although the bottom four seem to be making minimal progress. If we are right it will be a bigger slog for the lady rockets unless they are able to get a couple of significant transfers. And they certainly need to retain the four recruited freshmen.

Lots of announcements today:

EMU Coach Sahar announced she is bringing the whole top half of her Canisius team with her to Ypsi. In addition to previously announced Eleko, the new additions are:
5'9 JR G Athina Lexa 12 points a game. Originally from Greece
5'5 SR PG Mackenzie Amaliea 8 points and 4 assists. Previous transfer from Robert Morris
6'0 SO W Brooklyn Thrash. From nearby Wayne, OH, averaged 6 points a game.
5'11 SO F Adrien LaMara Played only 9 games due to a season ending injury. From Philly.

Also announced that Castro commit FR Olivia DiFranco is still committed. Also, two of last year's players have been added back to the on-line roster: SR G Ashley Hassett and JR G ZaNiya Nelson. So it looks like they are up to 14 players now, with 1 or 2 open scholarships still available. Still will be quite thin on front court players.


NIU announced the addition of:
5'11 SO G Reagan Barkema from Bradley. From Story City, IA. Averaged 6 points and 3 boards last year. Bradley was 5-26.


CMU announced 2 transfers:

5'11 FR F Mayla Ham from Georgetown. From Detroit, Wayne Memorial HS. Barely played as a freshman, 8 total points. Georgetown was a WBIT team.
6'3 rSO C Natalie Lathrop from Nevada. Averaged 2 points & 2 boards over 2 seasons. Originally from Oregon. Nevada was 15-16

Miami adds one of Emmi Rinat's teammates from the Israel U20 team last summer, in 5'6 PG Tamar Singer. Averaged 10 points and 7 assists in the European U20 Champs last year. Has been playing for Maccabi Haifa with similar stats. She's already 20 years old, so a bit more experienced.

Macey Fegan is now in the portal, posted on her social media. wbbblog is also reporting that Ella Doherty is also in the portal.

So, a couple more slots open with the Rockets.

(04-20-2024 07:52 AM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Macey Fegan is now in the portal, posted on her social media. wbbblog is also reporting that Ella Doherty is also in the portal.

So, a couple more slots open with the Rockets.

I'm a little sorry to see Fegan go. She is a talented offensive player who wasn't good enough defensively to see the floor under Cullop. I wouldn't be surprised to see her have a successful D1 career somewhere.

(04-20-2024 08:28 AM)Lester Wrote:  

(04-20-2024 07:52 AM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Macey Fegan is now in the portal, posted on her social media. wbbblog is also reporting that Ella Doherty is also in the portal.
,
So, a couple more slots open with the Rockets.

I'm a little sorry to see Fegan go. She is a talented offensive player who wasn't good enough defensively to see the floor under Cullop. I wouldn't be surprised to see her have a successful D1 career somewhere.

Yea, I suspected she wouldn't hang around if she didn't get minutes last year. My guess is she will be an attractive option for other teams. Now that she has four spots to fill the easy thing to do is fill at least some of them with the Monmouth players in the portal. I dont see any of them as adding much to the mix.

Looks like Miami G Maddy Huhn has landed at UTRGV. That's a lot closer to her home in California.

Former CMU Chip Sydney Harris has committed to Iowa State.

Akron is adding 6'0 FR G Ella Wigal from Liberty. From Granville, OH, but played her senior year at IMG Academy in FLA. Averaged 3 points and 3 rebounds for the Flames last year, shooting 29% from the floor.

EMU named 2 assistants today, both coming from Canisius with Coach Sahar. They include Shareese Ulis-McBrayer, former Waite HS standout and 2x Blade PoY.

Miami adds 5'9 rSO G Enjulina Gonzalez, transfer from Mercer. Originally from Miami ... Florida. As a freshmen, she averaged 10 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists for the Bears, but last season was injured in game 3 and missed the rest of the season. She entered the portal after long-time Mercer HC Susie Gardner resigned.

Another tidbit about a MAC team ... it looks like Ball State FR G Ashlynn Brooke is in a full leg brace from pictures at their post-season banquet posted on-line. She was a very highly regarded recruit, but had multiple knee injures during high school. She appeared in only 6 games as a freshman.

NIU's Grace Hunter to North Florida.

The MAC seems all-in on JUCO players this year, as CMU adds 6'3 FR C Taylor Johnson from The College of Southern Idaho. Originally from Minnesota. Averaged 6 points and 5 rebounds for the 28-6 Golden Eagles.

MAC coaches also looking very far afield for transfers this year, garnering players hailing from Florida, Colorado, Maryland, Iowa, Oregon and now Minnesota, so far.