The Chronicle published a story on Stanford WBB adjusting to life in the Gold Rush Portal Era.
As always, context is key when discussing individual cases, but the general case for Stanford needing to adapt is accurate. There's a limit to how much they can, though. We offered Iriafen a lot of money to stay. USC came back with more and a much better roster. Betts didn't mesh with Stanford and refused to wait. Nivar left three years ago for better NIL opportunities; she'd be helpful this season but not enough to raise our ceiling. Emma-Nnopu was a grad transfer, and I don't know if she got into a program at Stanford. We also don't know which transfers Stanford pursued last off-season but couldn't get because of academics—an area where they receive far less support than football from admissions.
The article correctly hails the incoming class as a group that will get us back on the winning track. However, the author omitted our best recruit, point guard Hailee Swain. Swain, Somfai, and Eschmeyer were named McD AAs today. All three have risen in the rankings every time they were updated in the last two years. The consensus is that the three AAs are projected to be instant-impact players.
Swain posts highlights regularly on her Instagram. She seems like an exceptional talent to me—what you'd expect from a top-five guard. I'm optimistic about how she and Ijiwoye can transform our perimeter defending next season and "off the bounce" scoring. Paye's comments about Amborn suggest she thinks the wing has a better chance to help next season than her ranking (middle-ish of the Top 150) indicates. I've said this before, but Nora Ezike's highlights make me think she's a clone of Nunu Agara.
As always, context is key when discussing individual cases, but the general case for Stanford needing to adapt is accurate. There's a limit to how much they can, though. We offered Iriafen a lot of money to stay. USC came back with more and a much better roster. Betts didn't mesh with Stanford and refused to wait. Nivar left three years ago for better NIL opportunities; she'd be helpful this season but not enough to raise our ceiling. Emma-Nnopu was a grad transfer, and I don't know if she got into a program at Stanford. We also don't know which transfers Stanford pursued last off-season but couldn't get because of academics—an area where they receive far less support than football from admissions.
The article correctly hails the incoming class as a group that will get us back on the winning track. However, the author omitted our best recruit, point guard Hailee Swain. Swain, Somfai, and Eschmeyer were named McD AAs today. All three have risen in the rankings every time they were updated in the last two years. The consensus is that the three AAs are projected to be instant-impact players.
Swain posts highlights regularly on her Instagram. She seems like an exceptional talent to me—what you'd expect from a top-five guard. I'm optimistic about how she and Ijiwoye can transform our perimeter defending next season and "off the bounce" scoring. Paye's comments about Amborn suggest she thinks the wing has a better chance to help next season than her ranking (middle-ish of the Top 150) indicates. I've said this before, but Nora Ezike's highlights make me think she's a clone of Nunu Agara.
