Turning the page on this disappointing season. With the transfer portal opening soon, I thought I would track roster movement again. I have a feeling that we may see a lot of movement this -

Savannah Henderson -RS Soph
De'Mauri Flournoy - Sr
Fatima Diakhate -RS Soph
Amiya Evans - Jr
Miyah Verse - RS Fr
Asia Avinger - Sr
Trinity Turner - Fr
Mia Woolfolk - Fr
Summer Davis - Fr
Indya Davis - Fr
Nyah Leveretter - RS Sr

I have to say this because no one else will. Did you know that there are 8 McDonald's All Americans from Georgia playing in the NCAA right now and none are at UGA. That is horrible and totally unacceptable. Doing the Andy Landers days, we always got the majority of the best from Georgia. Raven Johnson and Sania Feagin at South Carolina, Olivia Cochran at Louisville, Flaujae Johnson at LSU, Jillian Hollingshead at Tennessee, Courtney P Ogden at Stanford, Janiah Barker at Texas A and M and Essence Cody at Alabama makes up the 8. And now there are others out there who just missed. What is so sad is none are at UGA and nobody is saying anything. If this was the Football program Kirby would be ran out of town. Joni got Jillian Hollingshead and Janiah Barker who is playing for her now. Hollingshead is at Tennessee. That is 25 percent which very poor, but all the talent left when Joni left. Coach Abe has 5 assistants but none from Georgia. They need to be covering every area in the state and evaluating these kids and let them know that UGA wants them. You can't wait on the state Championships and try to recruit a kid who has been recruited by other programs all year. If I was Coach Abe, every assistant would be going to some school every week to watch the best players to let them know that UGA wants them. If recruiting doesn't change, Coach Abe will not be at UGA to much longer.

I get what you are saying but Barker was born in Georgia but played ball in Florida.

I believe that we all agree that Andy Landers was one of the best coaches to ever coach the game, and signed some of the best players to ever play the women's game. He will forever be beloved in my heart for signing players like Teresa Edwards, Katrina McClain, Janet Harris, the Miller twins, and on and on. However, folks tend to forget that Connecticut and some other schools began to dominate prior to Andy's retirement. We were 0-10 on McDonald's All-Americans from the state of Georgia from 2007-2015, Andys last years before retirement. Ashley Houts was the last McDonald's All-American from Georgia that Andy signed, and that was in 2006. As far as out-of-state McDonald's All-Americans, we signed two during those years - Jasmine Hassell and Ronika Radford.

From 2015-2021, Joni was 0-8 on McDonald's All Americans from Georgia until she signed Jillian Hollingshead. There were four McDonald's All American's that year from Georgia and we only got Jillian, but did also sign Reigan Richardson from S.C. as well. So during Joni's UGA career, she ended up signing 1 of 14 Georgia McDonald's All Americans.

It is hard to ridicule Abe for not signing Georgia McDonald's AA, when we were 1 for 24 on these players from 2007 to 2021.

You cannot place too much emphasis on McDonald AA. A good coach and their staff earn their coins in finding talent that developed into good and sometimes great players. That is what I am expecting from Coach Abe and her staff. I just hope she gets the time to achieve that. I also understand that we cannot have too many more seasons like the one we just had.

Barker played at Montverde in Florida for high school. She is from Marietta Georgia and Joni had a relationship with her from AAU ball through high school. That is what you have to do. I am not putting the blame on coach Abe for this past season, but what I am saying is you have to get out and get on these kids early. Danielle Carnegie is a player we could have gotten but the recruiting services had her way down the list before she left Rockdale County and went to Grayson. And now she leads Grayson to its first state championship and undefeated season. I think back after the Miller Twins were graduating and we needed a point guard, Sherrill Baker was virtually an unknown, Landers evaluated her quickly and offered. She committed to us without hesitating and signed, we also got Alexis Kendrick and the next year we got Janese Hardrick. But all that happened because he was getting to those young ladies games and he didn't depend on magazines to recruit them. Tech got Carnegie and 3 others out of the state top 6 players. We have yet to get one. We have to get the foundation of our team from Georgia and if we can get some good talent from the rest of the country, great. It is the same with every sport at UGA. Tubby Smith was the last coach of the Men's basketball team to leave on his own terms. He stayed in my hometown recruiting one of the best players to come out of my hometown, Jurmaine Jones and there were a couple of other highly ranked kids that would have went to UGA if he had stayed. That is the kind of recruiting Coach Abe will have to do. I like Coach Abe, but you have to have talent to win in the SEC. I hope she realizes that you have to build relationships and get on the best kids early. 2025 has some good kids that are not rated high at the moment, Jessica Fields is one. Her brother was Justin Fields who signed with UGA before transferring to Ohio State and there is another sister playing softball at UGA. Why wait until the last moment, ask Jessica for a commitment now. She is better than any forward that we have now. Aubrey Beckham is really a Coach Abe type player. She is outstanding on defense with adequate offense. I would tell her she can get on the floor as a freshman because of her leadership. Why wait and give others a chance to recruit these kids.

Smith and Ingram into the portal. Removing them.

I forgot to add Nyah Leveretter last week.

Janiah Barker has left Joni and entered the portal, am I correct? What are our chances?

Slappy Sloppy15 said:

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Janiah Barker has left Joni and entered the portal, am I correct? What are our chances?

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She is in the portal, but her recruitment has been pretty quiet. There's a lot of internet speculation involving Texas, LSU and/or Maryland, but no confirmed visits that I know of.

Sadly this program has fallen so far. I don't see Abe lasting past this year. She's not a great recruiter in the portal. I look for this coming year to be worse than this past season.

I have been saying the same thing all season. Sports today is all about recruiting and you have to have a staff that relates to the kids of today. Joni had a bad recruiting staff until she hired Chelsea Newton plus Joni did a lot of recruiting herself. Coach Abe has none and this will be her 3rd year and she has yet to sign one high schooler from the state of Georgia. That spells failure in any sport in Georgia.

dawg212003 said:

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Sadly this program has fallen so far. I don't see Abe lasting past this year. She's not a great recruiter in the portal. I look for this coming year to be worse than this past season.

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I don't know how the upcoming season will go as far as record but I do know with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas, It didn't get any easier. I also think that talent wise we are better than last years roster but the experience will be worse with all the freshman. I was on record early last season saying that it was one of the worse if not worst rosters talent wise in UGA women's basketball history.

I think two things really killed last season - the injury to Smith, and Lewis deciding to go pro, but that is on the past now.

Coach Abe values player development, so she will have to prove that this season. There are all the players she brought in to play in her system.

I feel like we need another wing/taller guard and a proven scorer in the post from the portal. There are still some good players out there.