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Especially because Fitz hired Iowa’s longtime recruiter whose areas included NW Iowa.

Ko Kieft was an Iowa high schooler without an Iowa offer. Turned out pretty good for the Gophers. Also, Iowa high schools have had a relatively high NFL rate recently. https://www.footballscoop.com/2025/03/03/theres-a-very-surprising-midwest-state-churning-out-nfl-talent

Like PJ, Ferentz and company are persnickety when it comes to recruiting. Ferentz has passed over time on a number of high-rated Iowa kids or legacy kids. Some of those passed-over players have had good careers, some not. That’s recruiting. Also, as near as I can tell from reading...

If I’m reading this right (hope I am), team Phoenix with McKinney and new Iowa player Carnegie won the tournament, beating team Tempe with Braun and Ava Heiden in the championship. Couldn’t find any stats. If anyone else does, please post...

Braun and McKinney news:

USA Today also has a way-too-early top 25. Gophers again top 20. 1. South Carolina 2. USC 3. UConn 4. Duke 5. Michigan 6. Vanderbilt 7. LSU 8. Oklahoma State 9. UCLA 10. Notre Dame 11. Iowa 12. Louisville 13. Texas 14. Ole Miss 15. North Carolina 16. TCU 17. West Virginia 18. Kentucky 19...

ESPN out with its mostly post-portal ranking. Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska are the material differences between ESPN and the Athletic. While ESPN may set expectations, Sabreena Merchant from the Athletic is an AP Poll voter, and Charlie Creme from ESPN is not. Merchant has also been leading...

ESPN also high on the Gophers in early (4/28) Bracketology for the '27 Tourney, but a little less sanguine than the Athletic. BIG schools and seed by ESPN: 1. Michigan 2. USC 2. Iowa 3. Washington 4. UCLA 5. Minnesota 5. Ohio State 5. Illinois 6. Maryland 7. Nebraska 7. Oregon Guess ESPN will...

Conference schedule in terms of home/away opponents should drop this week. It’s year 3 of the BIG 18, so don’t know if it’s just the reverse of last year. If the schedule is just flip-flopped from last year, Michigan would be the big loser, with USC, UCLA & MN on the road, and 6 roadies...

Badger NFL draft streak ended yesterday.

Hoopla's Gopher rankings track the Big Ten coaches, who voted GG and McKinney 2nd-team All BIG, Battle 3rd-team All BIG, Braun Honorable Mention, and Battle and McKinney All-Defensive Team.

UCLA, Minnesota & Iowa with the 3 best BIG portal classes, to date.

A serious fan of BIG WBB puts out this list, 3 times a season. The season-ending list has GG # 17, McKinney # 22, and Battle # 37. Braun was 1 of 5 players who just missed the cut. Merkle is # 33. https://hooplanewsletter.beehiiv.com/p/hoopla-40-2025-26-end-of-season-rankings

Ga Tech coach Karen Blair had been on the Maryland staff that had offered Ode a scholarship. Georgia Tech also snagged a Maryland player.

Agree 100%. She will also help improve the team's shooting percentage, which has been the continuing offensive weakness of Coach P's Gopher teams. The Gophers have been 13th, 11th and 10th (2025-26) in FG% in conference games during Coach P's tenure. Sophie Hart shot 55.4% in BIG play this...

Agree 100%. Coach P's defensive and ball-security strengths should also help minimize 2 of Merkle's chief weaknesses, namely defense and turnovers. Penn State was a disaster on defense (worst in the BIG), and Merkle was part of the problem, but far from the whole problem. Merkle's turnover...

Speaking of schedule. Gophers should already have Kansas (at home), Kansas State (Sioux Falls) and at Marquette on the schedule. Hopefully, the Kansas/Kansas State games will be the 3rd and 4th toughest games on the non-conference schedule, with a couple of marquee games to be added. Perhaps...

Hoping Michigan (or another traditional BIG school) can compete with USC so we avoid another LA beatdown of the midwest BIG. Agree that Gophers will be in the group of teams that can compete for 3rd. USC then Michigan sure seems like the clear 1 then 2.

Oregon is such a bad fit for Merkle. She should be a Gopher.

Her in-conference field-goal percentage this year is the highest conference FG% in Big Ten history. She shattered the previous record of 70.7%. .726 Gracie Merkle (119-164) 1. .707 Brionna Jones, Maryland (130-184) 2017 2. .703 Monika Czinano, Iowa (135-192) 2023 3. .694 Star...