Jump to content
SiouxSports.com Forum

Summit League WBB


Recommended Posts

This off season has seen many changes already for the Summit League with three coaching changes already and over 20% of players transferring this year. The next thing will be if there is additional transfers with Dawn Plitzuweit leaving South Dakota for West Virginia.  You have to wonder about Aaron Johnson now at South Dakota State if somebody comes calling because Plitzuweit nearly tripled her salary with this move. He probably would have to look seriously if he got similar or even better offer because that is life changing money.  I wonder now if Aaron Johnson will now make a jump with them reaching WNIT championship game and would leave the program in great shape to win the conference next year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/31/2022 at 11:15 PM, ND-fan said:

This off season has seen many changes already for the Summit League with three coaching changes already and over 20% of players transferring this year. The next thing will be if there is additional transfers with Dawn Plitzuweit leaving South Dakota for West Virginia.  You have to wonder about Aaron Johnson now at South Dakota State if somebody comes calling because Plitzuweit nearly tripled her salary with this move. He probably would have to look seriously if he got similar or even better offer because that is life changing money.  I wonder now if Aaron Johnson will now make a jump with them reaching WNIT championship game and would leave the program in great shape to win the conference next year.

Stu Whitney of the Argus wrote this article during SDSU Sweet 16 run in 2019 https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/columnists/stu-whitney/2019/03/28/aaron-johnston-south-dakota-state-womens-basketball-coach-stu-whitney/3300706002/.  Stu has since retired from the Argus Leader, but he was a great writer.  Although he tended to like to stir the pot much in the same manner of McFeely.

At the time when SDSU Men's Basketball was struggling in the transition, he wrote some articles about Scott Nagy that maybe it was time for Jacks to move on from Nagy.  Obviously the Jacks stuck with Nagy, and to the credit of Stu, once Nagy righted the ship at SDSU, he wrote some great articles of how in the end SDSU was right in sticking with Nagy.  As you all now Nagy did eventually move onto Wright State of Horizon League, but that was probalby in part to get closer to home as he is from Illiniois.

Anyway, this arricle from 2019 provides some insight into the reasons why AJ is still at SDSU.  Now that being said, AJ probably gets offers every year.  However, it would appear the new Power 5 hires for Women's Basketball have all been women.   Is that a factor?  Who knows...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SDSU will come in as VERY heavy favorites next year.

USD will still be a strong 2nd.

After that... 

UND should be in the mix of teams that is vying for that 3rd spot.  That is the next logical step.  Get to the top 3-4 in the Summit... and stay there. Become that established 3rd team in the conference. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was thinking similarly but with loss of Olivia Lane and transfer portal this may have become a larger goal than i thought. Even when you do good job of recruiting and develop players if you can't keep them build on that it becomes very big mountain to climb. Yes i know all other schools are dealing with the same and i believe that is true for 8 of the teams in conference but i don't think it is quite the same for the two South Dakota schools. With Conference tournament in Sioux Falls and both Schools close to the venue and it is there prime recruiting area its perfect fit for recruiting and retaining their recruits. They are close to home for parents to come and see them play at schools and then again for the conference tournament which like playing at home in front partisan crowds. Bernhard appears to have done good job recruiting talent but if that talent leaves early we are in this vicious circle of getting over hill because we never get to the last steps of winning  and dancing to big tournament. We will see how this play itself out over next few years will we become power in the Summit or Bernhard if has some success moves on like the coach at KC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ND-fan said:

I was thinking similarly but with loss of Olivia Lane and transfer portal this may have become a larger goal than i thought. Even when you do good job of recruiting and develop players if you can't keep them build on that it becomes very big mountain to climb. Yes i know all other schools are dealing with the same and i believe that is true for 8 of the teams in conference but i don't think it is quite the same for the two South Dakota schools. With Conference tournament in Sioux Falls and both Schools close to the venue and it is there prime recruiting area its perfect fit for recruiting and retaining their recruits. They are close to home for parents to come and see them play at schools and then again for the conference tournament which like playing at home in front partisan crowds. Bernhard appears to have done good job recruiting talent but if that talent leaves early we are in this vicious circle of getting over hill because we never get to the last steps of winning  and dancing to big tournament. We will see how this play itself out over next few years will we become power in the Summit or Bernhard if has some success moves on like the coach at KC.

She didn't recruit Lane as a head coach. I'll worry more if her recruits transfer. Also coach Bernard has more ties to UND then the KC coach so I think it would take a special type position for her to move.  

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You have to wonder if the now departed womens head coach’s son will stay with mens program?  You would think USD would of liked one of the assistants to hang around for transition and for contact purposes with present recruits. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

South Dakota lost Watson and Krull to the portal and this will mean they will have whole new starting 5 come next season plus whole new coaching staff. The only two programs that are remaining pretty much in tack are SDSU and WIU and up till this past week we would have been considered with these teams. The loss of Lane now puts into question where we stand on front line for the coming season. We have recruited some talent to help on front line with the girl from Wisconsin (Nakiya Hurst) looks to be force inside from recruitment videos. The question they will have scholarship now to pursue another player and wonder if go  for transfer or another high school graduate. I wouldn't be surprised if they used on high school talent like Demers from Grafton. They also have McCarthy and Vanderwal freshman with Vanderwal redshirting and McCarthy playing limited minutes. This has to be big concern for Bernhard coming into this next season without any proven talent on front line now and not alot of depth at that area

It still surprises me that Lane left when she was going to be front line person to go to for this coming season. Also this team will have very good chance to play in post season next year. The final issue will be with so many transfers what type of offers she will get and i wouldn't be surprised she may have drop down to division II and if she will get full ride for the coming year. I might be wrong on this but i have my doubts especially if you want to place close to family and etc.

This off year is going to be critical developing this team by adding new players and getting them to mesh together and find their team roles for this coming year. I believe this team could establish itself behind SDSU in the Summit Conference and build foundation to where it can become competitor to them in coming years after that if they can retain and continue to add talent to this team. But key to that is retaining their talent and building program to where recruiting becomes a choice of talent wanting to play here from our recruiting area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't talk about players in the portal as if they are already gone.  Some end up returning to their school.  I don't know what the percentage is, but it happens.  I mean, right now there are over 1,000 women in the transfer portal.  That's something like 20% to 25% of all available D-1 Scholarships!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When there is a coaching change some players enter the portal to protect themselves and setup a plan in case they don't like the new hire. The new coach knows this and meets with them to present her/his plan for the team and to invite the player to stay.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, kiyoat said:

I wouldn't talk about players in the portal as if they are already gone.  Some end up returning to their school.  I don't know what the percentage is, but it happens.  I mean, right now there are over 1,000 women in the transfer portal.  That's something like 20% to 25% of all available D-1 Scholarships!

Unless it is a unique situation (a family issue, for example), very few players who enter the portal are welcome back at their original school. Coaches aren't pleased that the player leaves after the staff has spent a lot of time recruiting and developing them.  As important and just as big of a factor, teammates feel these kids have abandoned the team and would not welcome them back. 
There was a lot of talk that Bruns might change his mind after the coaching change at USD. That wasn't going to happen due to the reasons mentioned above!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...