Last I checked this is the known offers/looking for at Minnesota.
2020:
Paige Bueckers-Hopkins-6’0 Guard-ESPN Ranked #1-(not a guess, guarantee by far top kid for MN 2020)
Alyssa Ustby-Rochester Lourdes-6’2 Guard/Forward
McKenzie Kramer-St. Michael Albertville-5’8 Guard
Lauren Jensen-Lakeville North-5’9 Guard
2021:
Kendall Coley-St.Louis Park-6’1 Guard
Sophie Hart-Farmington-6’4 Center
Adalia McKenzie-Park Center- 5’10 Guard/Forward-(my guess for top MN kid for 2021)
Jenna Johnson-Wayzata-6’2 Forward
Tamia Ugass-Roseville-6’3 Post
Ellie Dague-Henning-5’9 Guard
2022:
Maya Nnaji-Hopkins-6’3 Forward -(my guess for top MN kid for 2022)
Mallory Heyer-Chaska-6’2 Forward
Amaya Battle-Hopkins-Hopkins-5’10 Guard
unsure if this is updated or if they have lost interest in any of these kids to date. also unsure if any of these kids have released a list that doesn't have gophers on it. for 2020 this is the known list of out of state offers:
Treasure Thompson, 6-3 C, Bolingbrook HS (IL) ESPN Ranked #44
Destiny Salary, 5-10 G, Jonesboro HS (AR)
Sasha Goforth, 6-1 SG, Fayetteville HS (AR) ESPN Ranked #21
Angela Dugalic, 6-3 W, Maine West HS, (IL) ESPN Ranked #33
Leilani Kapinus, 5-10 G, Madison Memorial HS (WI) ESPN Ranked #9
Shelby Calhoun, 5’11 G, Christian Academy of Louisville (KY) ESPN Ranked #29
Ra’Shaya Kyle, 6’6 Forward, Marion HS (IN) ESPN ranked #39
Halle Douglass, 6’1 W, Lake Forest HS (IL)
Lauren Ware, 6’3 PF, Century HS (ND) ESPN ranked #38
My guess is the class of 2020 (even without bueckers) is the class that the staff is looking at making the biggest splash with.
Sounds like some good candidates, and sounds like Lindsay and assistants are doing a good job recruiting thus far. But I'm intrigued by a potential problem of "what if Lindsay has too much success recruiting?" It's the problem that, you have to over-offer since not all are going to accept, but what if more accept than you expected? In that case do you have to "un-offer" a player and say "oops, my bad, the math didn't work out the way I thought it would." It seems like a better problem to have than "nobody accepts," yet it does seem like a tricky potential problem. As shown below, the critical years are 2021 and 2022.
To simplify things, let's assume that Hubbard get's healthy in time to play later this season and thus does not red-shirt this year. Let's also (optimistically) assume that all players offered, accept and matriculate.
We start out now with 12 (out of 15 max) players. In 2019 we graduate 4 {Bell, Kaposi, Lamke, Perez} and bring in 5 class-of-2019 players already signed, making 13 players total.
Then in 2020 we graduate 4 {K. Bello, T. Bello, Brunson, Hubbard} and bring in 4 class-of-2020 players {Paige Bueckers, Alyssa Ustby, McKenzie Kramer, Lauren Jensen}, still making 13 players total. Note well that as long as this is a hypothetical scenario anyway, I'm optimistically assuming that Paige will accept and become a Gopher (as well she should, I might add).
Then in 2021 we graduate 1 {Pitts} and bring in potentially as many as 6 class-of-2021 players {Kendall Coley, Sophie Hart, Adalia McKenzie, Jenna Johnson, Tamia Ugass, Ellie Dague}. Here's where we get the first "it does not compute." If all 6 offered players do accept, then we get 13 minus 1 plus 6 = 18 players total. We're short scholarships for 3 of them.
So are we essentially assuming that 3 of the 6 do not accept? That would make the math work out fine. But what if all 6 accept? Furthermore, what if Paige's buddy Azzi Fudd wants to come to Minnesota to play with her? Surely we would have an offer for her, right? Nope. That would make us short 4 scholarships (or short 1 if only 3 out of 6 accept). Don't we need to reserve one of these spots for Azzi - I mean, just in case?
If you've already offered someone, and they accept, but you then don't have a scholarship for them, what happens? Do you have to un-offer them? Is all fair in love and war and recruiting? There could be potential down-side consequences to Lindsay Whalen's own high-level of recruiting success!
So let's assume that one way or another we only accept 3 players from class of 2021. Then in 2022 we graduate 3 {Byrne, Staples, Tomancova} and since we were at 15, we have room to offer only 3 scholarships. In the 2022 list given above, there are 3 listed up-top that seemingly we are the most interested in {Maya Nnaji, Mallory Heyer, Amaya Battle}. But then below that there is a list of 9 more that we maybe are interested in.
Well obviously we can't offer and accept all dozen of them. We only have room for 3. So I'd say we need to get our priorities straight for 2022, lest we have to un-offer a bunch of players who have already accepted (with the only other alternative seemingly being to fire the rest of the team just to make room for the dozen freshman we made an offer to, and that they accepted).
So, I know you have to over-offer. There's such competition for the best players that they receive multiple offers, and just by the laws of probability only a fraction are going to accept a Minnesota offer, and same elswwhere. But one can never know in advance what percentage will accept an offer. So how do you plan in the face of such chaos? Do you need to mathematically predict in advance the fraction you think will accept, so that you can then compute the optimal over-offer factor? It seems like a puzzling problem. Did Lindsay realize that she needed a PhD in Statistics when she accepted the coaching job?
