DWBB: Summer of 2025

scottdude8

scottdude8

Moderator, front page and podcast contributor
Wanted to start a designated thread for this. Our women put up a heck of a fight against South Carolina today… but in the end, battle-tested experience won out. But barring unexpected portal action (which is always a possibility) our Blue Devils could enter next season with almost every major contributor who saw the floor today (thank you Reigan Richardson and Vanessa de Jesus!), plus Top 10 freshman Emilee Skinner. Next year could be the year the program gets over the hump.

While we also need to track offseason stories and movement, I also want to discuss how we can turn Cameron back into Cameron for the women. Seeing a mostly empty student section in most telecasts this year was frustrating, especially given how the women’s game has grown. If we can rebuild a home court advantage, on paper our program has everything to ascend to the next tier (given how excellent Kara is by all accounts). How do we make that happen?
 
I've been trying to give equal attention to the men and women this season: monitoring and recapping foreign trips in the summer, preparing preseason info on all non-conference opponents, writing game previews, providing game day links, tracking announcers and referees, participating in DBR Chat, and rounding up postgame content. (I wish I could do more with high school recruiting and the transfer portal for the women, but the information just isn't as widespread.)

If I still have my physical and mental health next fall -- not always a given -- I'd make one change. There should still be a general WBB thread, but I would recommend splitting off actual Duke WBB games into their own threads. I think it's time. I've already prepared for this in one obscure way: whenever someone carelessly posts men's content in a women's basketball thread, I'll post this image as a response.

ladyfootlocker1b.jpg

But @brevity, you're thinking, what if the opposite happens, and someone carelessly posts women's content in a men's basketball thread? I'm way ahead of you.

menswearhouse1b.jpg

You'll like the way this looks next season. I guarantee it.
 
brevity said:
If I still have my physical and mental health next fall -- not always a given -- I'd make one change. There should still be a general WBB thread, but I would recommend splitting off actual Duke WBB games into their own threads. I think it's time. I've already prepared for this in one obscure way: whenever someone carelessly posts men's content in a women's basketball thread, I'll post this image as a response.
Click to expand...
This has been tried before. Well, more like forced on us as opposed to "tried". Mods jammed it on us last year, and it really didn't work well. The game threads aren't as populated as the men, so a single thread that lasts throughout the season works much better.

Hopefully things stay as they were this season.
 
This was not a team with star power. I think we were the only E8 team with no players on the All-American teams
1) really highlights the incredible job that was done this year by the team and the staff
2) not that this is a good excuse or anything, but I think having a star will draw more fans. The women's game has really grown these past few years on the backs of the superstars like Bueckers, Clark, Reese, etc. Toby can become that.
 
smumustang said:
not sure if this goes here SMU let go womens coach and here are the top 5
www.lonestarlive.com

5 possible coaching candidates for SMU women’s basketball’s first ACC hire

The Mustangs parted ways with coach Toyelle Wilson on Sunday after four seasons.
www.lonestarlive.com www.lonestarlive.com
Click to expand...

This seems like the right thread to discuss all of WBB in the offseason.

I hadn't realized that SMU was pursuing a coaching change. From what little I saw, I liked Coach Wilson.

smumustangs.com

Change In Leadership For SMU Women’s Basketball - SMU Athletics

DALLAS (SMU) - SMU Director of Athletics Damon Evans has announced a change in leadership for the Mustang women's basketball program. A national search for a replacement
smumustangs.com smumustangs.com

The article you posted was rare in that the replacement suggestions made sense. I'm not really sure why Shea Ralph would leave an SEC job, especially right now with a star freshman on board. I also wonder if Aaron Johnston, who mostly recruits in South Dakota and neighboring states, would want the culture change in a bigger budget, more national program.

I once wrote that SMU really transformed the men's game last year in unexpected ways when they made their coaching change: "Last spring SMU let go of second-year head coach Rob Lanier despite a 20-13 record; he's coaching at Rice now. This set off a bigger chain reaction in the coaching carousel that anyone could have imagined: Andy Enfield left USC to take the SMU job, Eric Musselman left Arkansas for USC, John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas, Mark Pope left BYU for Kentucky, and Kevin Young left his assistant job with the Phoenix Suns for BYU. What else might have happened because a mustang flapped its wings? Duke's loss in the Champions Classic? The college commitment of top 2025 recruit AJ Dybantsa? The fight on the Auburn plane that forced the team to turn back? I'd argue that all of those events took place because of the coaching change at SMU."

It would be interesting to see if SMU's move in the women's game causes anything close to a similar butterfly effect.
 
I'm repeating this post in this thread, where it is probably more appropriate:

CameronBornAndBred said:
...I just don't see how three PGs competing for playing time works out for even the same amount of minutes for Vanessa that she had this year. (I'll take her on the court as often as we can, but the math doesn't work out for keeping all three of them happy.)
Click to expand...
We won't have three PGs, at least not right away, IMO. There are only two PGs on the current roster, Mair and De Jesus, and if Vanessa stays, that's what we'll have next year, too.

Skinner is listed in some places as a PG, but most places have her as a "combo guard", and her game footage from high school shows what some people call a "lead guard", i.e. someone like Haley Gorecki, who handled the ball a lot but who's primary job was to score rather than manage the game and create for others. Under Kara's tutelage, of course, I expect her to learn how to do the game-management part, but my point is that I expect that part of her game to be a work in progress for a while. I can easily see a need for a steadier, more experienced game manager like Vanessa while Skinner grows into the role. We can argue about what "plenty of playing time" means for Vanessa, but I was mostly thinking that her playing time would stay mostly the same, or possibly decrease very slightly to maybe ten mpg or so, at least until Skinner matures. If Vanessa wants to accept that, I think it's there for her.

I'm not entirely sure what we have in Riley Nelson, TBH. She was a very highly ranked recruit, but she wasn't great at Maryland, and now she's missed a year and half. Hopefully she's fully healed, but I have no idea what that will mean in terms of how she plays. At 6'2", it's more than possible she gets put into more of a forward role. In any case, as a guard, she is strictly an off-ball player, not a game manager, so she shouldn't be directly competing with V and T for playing time.

In any case, it would be a nice problem to have, if we actually have it.
 
brevity said:
This seems like the right thread to discuss all of WBB in the offseason.

I hadn't realized that SMU was pursuing a coaching change. From what little I saw, I liked Coach Wilson.

smumustangs.com

Change In Leadership For SMU Women’s Basketball - SMU Athletics

DALLAS (SMU) - SMU Director of Athletics Damon Evans has announced a change in leadership for the Mustang women's basketball program. A national search for a replacement
smumustangs.com smumustangs.com

The article you posted was rare in that the replacement suggestions made sense. I'm not really sure why Shea Ralph would leave an SEC job, especially right now with a star freshman on board. I also wonder if Aaron Johnston, who mostly recruits in South Dakota and neighboring states, would want the culture change in a bigger budget, more national program.

I once wrote that SMU really transformed the men's game last year in unexpected ways when they made their coaching change: "Last spring SMU let go of second-year head coach Rob Lanier despite a 20-13 record; he's coaching at Rice now. This set off a bigger chain reaction in the coaching carousel that anyone could have imagined: Andy Enfield left USC to take the SMU job, Eric Musselman left Arkansas for USC, John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas, Mark Pope left BYU for Kentucky, and Kevin Young left his assistant job with the Phoenix Suns for BYU. What else might have happened because a mustang flapped its wings? Duke's loss in the Champions Classic? The college commitment of top 2025 recruit AJ Dybantsa? The fight on the Auburn plane that forced the team to turn back? I'd argue that all of those events took place because of the coaching change at SMU."

It would be interesting to see if SMU's move in the women's game causes anything close to a similar butterfly effect.
Click to expand...
we were able to lure President from texas,bbcoach from USC and AD from Maryland. So lets see if we can get one more from SEC
 
Phredd3 said:
I'm repeating this post in this thread, where it is probably more appropriate:


We won't have three PGs, at least not right away, IMO. There are only two PGs on the current roster, Mair and De Jesus, and if Vanessa stays, that's what we'll have next year, too.

Skinner is listed in some places as a PG, but most places have her as a "combo guard", and her game footage from high school shows what some people call a "lead guard", i.e. someone like Haley Gorecki, who handled the ball a lot but who's primary job was to score rather than manage the game and create for others.
Click to expand...
I'm just going by Lawson's words, where she said in her post game that we have "incoming point guard Emilee Skinner".
 
Phredd3 said:
I'm repeating this post in this thread, where it is probably more appropriate:


We won't have three PGs, at least not right away, IMO. There are only two PGs on the current roster, Mair and De Jesus, and if Vanessa stays, that's what we'll have next year, too.

Skinner is listed in some places as a PG, but most places have her as a "combo guard", and her game footage from high school shows what some people call a "lead guard", i.e. someone like Haley Gorecki, who handled the ball a lot but who's primary job was to score rather than manage the game and create for others. Under Kara's tutelage, of course, I expect her to learn how to do the game-management part, but my point is that I expect that part of her game to be a work in progress for a while. I can easily see a need for a steadier, more experienced game manager like Vanessa while Skinner grows into the role. We can argue about what "plenty of playing time" means for Vanessa, but I was mostly thinking that her playing time would stay mostly the same, or possibly decrease very slightly to maybe ten mpg or so, at least until Skinner matures. If Vanessa wants to accept that, I think it's there for her.

I'm not entirely sure what we have in Riley Nelson, TBH. She was a very highly ranked recruit, but she wasn't great at Maryland, and now she's missed a year and half. Hopefully she's fully healed, but I have no idea what that will mean in terms of how she plays. At 6'2", it's more than possible she gets put into more of a forward role. In any case, as a guard, she is strictly an off-ball player, not a game manager, so she shouldn't be directly competing with V and T for playing time.

In any case, it would be a nice problem to have, if we actually have it.
Click to expand...
OK, so I'll (more or less) repeat this post too, so the discussion is all in one place.

Whether she's a PG or not, Emilee Skinner's scouting report suggests she's very athletic and a good or "savvy" defender. I expect her to get a lot of minutes next season, though as you suggest, she may be coming off the bench.

With regards to Vanessa DeJesus, she only played 12 mpg this season and if she returned I'd expect that number to go down, with both Emilee Skinner and Riley Nelson coming into the rotation. You can't really give more than 10 players real rotation minutes, and I'd expect Vanessa to be 11th or 12th.

Ashlon Jackson
Taina Mair
Jadyn Donovan
Oluchi Okananwa
Toby Fournier
Delaney Thomas
Arianna Roberson
Emilee Skinner
Riley Nelson
Jordan Wood
Vanessa DeJesus
Emma Koabel

Looking at the above list, I don't think Vanessa plays ahead of any of the top ten. I suppose it's possible a player or players might transfer out, but this group seems to really enjoy playing together, so I hope that doesn't happen.

Overall, I think "plenty of playing time" for DeJesus might be a stretch. Even 10mpg for the 11th woman in the rotation sounds like a lot more minutes than will be available. This season, for example, the 8th, 9th, and 10th women in the rotation saw 12, 12, and 8 minutes per game. The 11th woman only saw mop up minutes. The year before, the 8th and 9th women saw 15 and 12 mpg, and the 10th and 11th women saw only mop up minutes. Next year, it's hard to imagine any of the top 8 seeing fewer than 15 to 18 mpg, and if Riley and Jordan are 9th and 10th, I expect they'd see at least 8 to 10mpg. There won't be much if any room for an 11th rotation player.

Plus, Vanessa took a senior day, which suggests her mindset (at least at that time) is to start the rest of her life.
 
The women's McDonald's game is tomorrow. Looking at the rosters, I see that Stanford is sharing the lead of the pack with THREE reps. That's eye opening, given that they sat home for the first time in forever this tournament. Tennessee also has three.

Duke of course has Emilee Skinner playing, while Carolina, Cal, and Notre Dame are the other ACC schools, each with one player.

www.espn.com

Breaking down the 2025 McDonald's All American girls' game

Everything you need to know about the 2025 McDonald's All American girls' game on Tuesday (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
Nell Fortner retires. Now two ACC schools -- SMU and Georgia Tech -- have WBB head coaching openings.

ramblinwreck.com

Fortner Announces Retirement

Women’s basketball coaching legend steps away as one of the sport’s all-time greats
ramblinwreck.com ramblinwreck.com

Associate head coach Blanche Alverson was hired as San Diego's head coach last week. Did she know?

Tonie Morgan, recently named to the All-ACC Second Team, entered the transfer portal today. Dani Carnegie, Sixth Player of the Year and a member of the All-Freshman Team, announced a transfer on Thursday. Ariadna Termis and three reserves declared even earlier. A lot of changes in Atlanta right now.
 
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