I hate to state the obvious, but the latest transfer news really, really stinks for Iowa women’s basketball.
Last year was a wonderful year for the program. It reached heights never before seen in Iowa City. It was so close to winning the national championship, but was unable to overcome a roaring LSU Tigers team.
It was nothing to be ashamed of, though. Caitlin Clark and Co. broke records while introducing the game of women’s basketball to a new audience.
With Clark back for another year, hope was extremely high for the Hawkeyes going into the offseason. Sure, they lost star big Monika Czinano, but we have a transfer portal now! A stacked transfer portal, might I add. One where you could make a national championship-contending roster. Surely, Iowa could pull in a star to pair with Caitlin Clark and try to usurp LSU next year, right? RIGHT?!
Nope! You’re absolutely wrong! I hope you had fun with the party in the NCAA Tournament last year because all that is gone now. See, normally, the team that wins the national championship isn’t supposed to get better.
However, LSU decided to buck that trend and assemble one of the greatest rosters in women’s basketball history. That’s on paper, of course. We haven’t seen them play, but come on now. People tried making the argument that Kevin Durant going to the Warriors wouldn’t work out, and they only ended up winning two more NBA Finals with him.
So the reigning national champion LSU Tigers not only are keeping stars Angel Reese, Flau’jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams. Now, through the transfer portal, they add star guard Hailey Van Lith and All-American Aneesah Morrow.
Let me just repeat that for you.
The reigning national champions just added an All-American and a proven NCAA Tournament star, while keeping the 2023 NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
I’m not going to bash Morrow or Van Lith for their decisions, because frankly, that would be childish and stupid. The entire point of this game is to win, to be great. This LSU team has the chance to go down as one of the greatest squads ever assembled, one that we look back on in 15 years and say, “How the heck did we let this happen?” This is most likely the best decision for their careers. Shout out to them. Go and do your thing.
For Iowa, this just feels like a harsh reality check. Sure, we’ll have our years. There will be times, like last year when we find that magic and contend for the big one. Eventually, though, the game will reset itself. Some team will use their advantages in NIL, with the transfer portal, to capitalize and create a super team.
Meanwhile, we will still be lil ol’ Iowa. We’ll try to cope and talk about doing things the right way, about character and hard work, but at the end of the day, this is the new way of college sports. It’s an unfair game, especially if you are not willing to conform to the times.
The game is the game though, and sometimes it just really stinks. It feels like the same gut punch when Kadyn Proctor flipped to Alabama. That’s my final summation of this situation. It just really stinks for us. Let’s see how we respond.
Several others out there felt the same and shared those sentiments on social media.
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