Recruiting


In terms of the Super 60 ones I would put it as follows..

I say cross Vukosa, Hall, Bjorn, Byles all off the list of possibilities. Likely going top 5-7 teams.

Maddyn I would sadly say less than 5% chance they land her and that might be generous

Kussow- Heard Iowa the favorite but would put at less than 20-25% chance they get her

Unknown in Cradle.

Sheplee and Koupal I would say around or just under 50% chance at. Sheplee likely staying close to home (Iowa, Wisconsin, Iowa State, Gophers)

and Koupal has a long standing connection with our staff back to their south dakota days but every school is after her.

Lee Lee Bell--hard to read so unknown chances but they are recruiting her hard.

Tori Oehrlein is likly their best chance at a top 60 player at this time. Likely among the favorites to get her.
Kusso should be a top priority. However, I’m hearing Michigan.
 

Here is the known offers for classes 2025 through 2028 for in-state and out. These are just the publically known offers and updated finalists lists if that has been released. Gophers staff has noted they could add up to two more for the 2025 class in addition to the two they already have commited.

2025:

Out-of-State Offers:

Jordan Speiser,
6’1 G, Luther HS (MO) (ESPN Top 100-#20)

Kaelyn Carroll, 6’2 W, Tabor Academy (MA) (ESPN Top 100-#29)

Cearah Parchent, 6’2 W, Canada (ESPN Top 100-#39)

-Final Four of Gophers, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan

Henley West, 6’4 P, Hammon HS (OK)



2026:

Offered/In-State:

Maddyn Greenway,
5’9 G, Providence Academy (ESPN Super 60-#21)

Tori Oehrlein, 6’0 G, Crosby-Ironton (ESPN Super 60-#46)

-Final Six of Gophers, Michigan, Maryland, Utah, Florida, Virginia Tech



Out-of-State Offers:

Olivia Vukosa,
6’4 P, Christ the King HS (NY) (ESPN Super 60-#2)

Saniyah Hall, 5’10 G, Laurel HS (OH) (ESPN Super 60-#4)

Addison Bjorn, 6’0 G, Park Hill South (MO) (ESPN Super 60-#9)

Amari Byles, 6’2 W, DeSoto HS (TX) (ESPN Super 60-#13)

Natalie Kussow, 5’10 G, Arrowhead HS (WI) (ESPN Super 60-#15)

Ashlyn Koupal, 6’3 F, Wagner HS (SD) (ESPN Super 60-#20)

Ariyana Cradle, 5’8 G, Westerville South HS (OH) (ESPN Super 60-#32)

Adaline “Ady” Sheplee, 6’3 F, Rice Lake HS (WI) (ESPN Super 60-#39)

LeeLee Bell, 6’1 W/F, Minot HS (ND) (ESPN Super 60-#59)

Jayla Williams, 5’10 G/W, Ankeny HS (IA)

Ellie Muller, 6’2 F, Dowling Catholic (IA)

Lillian Barnes, 5’10 G, Valparaiso HS (IN)

Giselle Janowski, 5’9 G, Pewaukee HS (WI)



2027:

Offered/In-State:

Mya Wilson,
6’0 G, Hill-Murray HS

Amisha Ramlall, 5’11 G, Rosemount



Out-of-State Offers:

Jayla Forbes,
6’5 P, Thompson HS (AL) (ESPN Terrific 25-#16)

Katie Muller, 6’0 G, Dowling Catholic (IA)

Brinley Altenburg, 5’11 G, Sioux Falls Jefferson HS (SD)



2028:

Offered/In-State:

Chloe Johnson,
6’0 PG, Duluth Marshall

Ari Peterson, 6’1 W, Minnetonka

Sahara Wilson, 6’2 P, Lakeville North



Out-of-State Offers:

Nyajuacni “Nya” Riak,
6’2 G/F, Madison Lafollette HS (WI)

Ella Peper, 6’3 G, Dexter Southfield (MA)

 



6’7 8th grader

Her Instagram profile says she's Estonian. Exchange student or did her family relocate?

It also appears that she's going to play for All Iowa Attack for AAU, which I guess makes sense since she's a high school teammate of Chloe Johnson, who also makes the trek to Iowa for AAU. I have noticed probably a dozen young but showing signs of being elite level Minnesota players who are saying they're AIA players for next season. If Minnesota is going to purge its AAU players to Iowa, those players are going to wind up in the AIA recruiting pipeline...which doesn't include winding up as a Minnesota Gopher.
 


Keep/start winning and they will stay. I do think the schedule needs to improve starting next year. It's good to have a few so called easy games; but, top kids want to play against the best and to get on the national stage. With next years team and experience we need to see a much stronger non con!
 

Keep/start winning and they will stay. I do think the schedule needs to improve starting next year. It's good to have a few so called easy games; but, top kids want to play against the best and to get on the national stage. With next years team and experience we need to see a much stronger non con!
Hopefully have a good year and some other top teams will be accepting if we ask to put them on the schedule.
 

Hopefully have a good year and some other top teams will be accepting if we ask to put them on the schedule.
The Gophers didn’t end up with their pitiful non-con schedule because they couldn't find better teams to play and better multi-team events/tournaments to play in. Coach P is playing the teams she wants to play. Kim Mulkey makes it work playing a weak non-conference schedule, and I am optimistic that Coach P can make it work this year as well.
 

The Gophers didn’t end up with their pitiful non-con schedule because they couldn't find better teams to play and better multi-team events/tournaments to play in. Coach P is playing the teams she wants to play. Kim Mulkey makes it work playing a weak non-conference schedule, and I am optimistic that Coach P can make it work this year as well.
Yes, there is just less margin for error. You want to bring attendance up, better atmosphere for the players, better for recruiting you need to get at least a couple better opponents in the non conference play.

https://www.warrennolan.com/basketballw/2023/sos-rpi

Many top teams with strength of schedule. LSU is 55 which is low, I agree and makes it work.

Maryland - 5th
Iowa - 6th
UCLA - 12th
Indiana - 13th
Ohio State - 20th
Nebraska - 30th
Michigan - 33
Washington - 44
Purdue - 57th
USC - 58th - little shocked this low
Rutgers 63
Penn State - 66
Northwestern - 73
Minnesota - 81
Wisconsin - 87
Michigan State - 93
 



Yes, there is just less margin for error. You want to bring attendance up, better atmosphere for the players, better for recruiting you need to get at least a couple better opponents in the non conference play.

https://www.warrennolan.com/basketballw/2023/sos-rpi

Many top teams with strength of schedule. LSU is 55 which is low, I agree and makes it work.

Maryland - 5th
Iowa - 6th
UCLA - 12th
Indiana - 13th
Ohio State - 20th
Nebraska - 30th
Michigan - 33
Washington - 44
Purdue - 57th
USC - 58th - little shocked this low
Rutgers 63
Penn State - 66
Northwestern - 73
Minnesota - 81
Wisconsin - 87
Michigan State - 93
Confused why you posted 2023 schedule info. Minnesota had a weak 2023 schedule with Whalen trying to save her job.
 

Confused why you posted 2023 schedule info. Minnesota had a weak 2023 schedule with Whalen trying to save her job.
Oops...my mistake Good Catch. Somehow mine went back to 2023.

2024 Minnesota up to 56 so making some improvements, but still behind many other Big 10 schools. Iowa, UCLA, USC, Maryland all in the top 10, which helps MN schedule strength. Be interesting to see just non conference strength of schedule, but I can't find that anywhere.

https://www.warrennolan.com/basketballw/2024/sos-rpi
 

While at South Dakota, Coach P always scheduled as tough as possible. In 21–22, they had the toughest non-con schedule in the nation. I believe that she will be continue to do this for the future for the gophers, but it does take time to get other teams to want to play you.
 

. . .but it does take time to get other teams to want to play you.
IMO this is malarkey. Last year the excuse was she just got the job. This year there is no excuse.
Creighton, Drake, South Dakota State & Northern Iowa would all love to play Minnesota. Those teams are all an upgrade from this year's schedule. Instead we hunt for teams like UMASS Lowell. Texas was begging for teams to play them this year, and South Dakota State agreed.

Robyn Fralick in year 2 at Michigan State is playing Cal today (RPI 20), Alabama (#23 AP poll) and possibly Vanderbilt (RPI 26) in their multi-team events. Coach P chose the weakest multi-team events she could find.

In Shauna Greene's 2nd season at Illinois, they played Notre Dame (NET 7, RPI 16), Marquette (40/58) and Arkansas (75/77) in the non-conference season.

The Gophers don't have a single current RPI top 100 team on their 2024-25 non-conference schedule, but they do have 4 300+ RPI teams and another 4 200+ RPI teams.

Warren Nolan currently predicts (11/26/24 at 1:00 p.m.) that the Gophers will finish the year with the 91st ranked RPI strength of schedule (there are 68 Power 4 schools). Predicted season-end RPI schedule strength for the BIG this year is as follows, with Minnesota finishing a distant dead last:

Iowa 3
Oregon 6
UCLA 7
Indiana 8
USC 9
Northwestern 14
Purdue 15
Maryland 16
Ohio State 17
Michigan 26
Penn State 34
Nebraska 35
Wisconsin 37
Rutgers 41
Illinois 43
Washington 47
Michigan State 53
Minnesota 91

I am a believer in Coach P as a real deal coach. Organization, defense, ball security, recruiting, she has already shown out in these areas. I am an optimist about the Gophers this season. But I am not a fan of her non-conference scheduling. Still, like Kim Mulkey, I hope Coach P can make it work.
 
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While at South Dakota, Coach P always scheduled as tough as possible. In 21–22, they had the toughest non-con schedule in the nation. I believe that she will be continue to do this for the future for the gophers, but it does take time to get other teams to want to play you.
A lot of great teams would like Minnesota to be their cupcake rather than Mid-major U because they will sell more tickets. However, Minnesota does not want to be their cupcake. There is an unwritten rule that a 20 win season gets you into a post season tournament. Therefore, teams stock up on cupcakes. The RPI knows strength of schedule for seeding purposes. However, after the season is over, the record books show a 20 win season, which does help with image and recruiting. As the basketball program strengthens, the Gophers will schedule tougher pre-conference teams or cupcakes.
 

IMO this is malarkey. Last year the excuse was she just got the job. This year there is no excuse.
Creighton, Drake, South Dakota State & Northern Iowa would all love to play Minnesota. Those teams are all an upgrade from this year's schedule. Instead we hunt for teams like UMASS Lowell. Texas was begging for teams to play them this year, and South Dakota State agreed.

Robyn Fralick in year 2 at Michigan State is playing Cal today (RPI 20), Alabama (#23 AP poll) and possibly Vanderbilt (RPI 26) in their multi-team events. Coach P chose the weakest multi-team events she could find.

In Shauna Greene's 2nd season at Illinois, they played Notre Dame (NET 7, RPI 16), Marquette (40/58) and Arkansas (75/77) in the non-conference season.

The Gophers don't have a single current RPI top 100 team on their 2024-25 non-conference schedule, but they do have 4 300+ RPI teams and another 4 200+ RPI teams.

Warren Nolan currently predicts (11/26/24 at 1:00 p.m.) that the Gophers will finish the year with the 91st ranked RPI strength of schedule (there are 68 Power 4 schools). Predicted season-end RPI schedule strength for the BIG this year is as follows, with Minnesota finishing a distant dead last:

Iowa 3
Oregon 6
UCLA 7
Indiana 8
USC 9
Northwestern 14
Purdue 15
Maryland 16
Ohio State 17
Michigan 26
Penn State 34
Nebraska 35
Wisconsin 37
Rutgers 41
Illinois 43
Washington 47
Michigan State 53
Minnesota 91

I am a believer in Coach P as a real deal coach. Organization, defense, ball security, recruiting, she has already shown out in these areas. I am an optimist about the Gophers this season. But I am not a fan of her non-conference scheduling. Still, like Kim Mulkey, I hope Coach P can make it work.
I don't believe she is scared to play the big fish at all. We don't know if any of these games were already set. But sounds like you are in the know of it all and how she works her schedule.

Looking at the scheduling from when we was at South Dakota this was not the case at all. Number of times playing the #1 team in the country.

I also am not a fan of this schedule, but I also believe we have to give it some time. Now, if we don't see a huge improvement by next year, especially with the experience then there's issues.
 

IMO this is malarkey. Last year the excuse was she just got the job. This year there is no excuse.
Creighton, Drake, South Dakota State & Northern Iowa would all love to play Minnesota. Those teams are all an upgrade from this year's schedule. Instead we hunt for teams like UMASS Lowell. Texas was begging for teams to play them this year, and South Dakota State agreed.

Robyn Fralick in year 2 at Michigan State is playing Cal today (RPI 20), Alabama (#23 AP poll) and possibly Vanderbilt (RPI 26) in their multi-team events. Coach P chose the weakest multi-team events she could find.

In Shauna Greene's 2nd season at Illinois, they played Notre Dame (NET 7, RPI 16), Marquette (40/58) and Arkansas (75/77) in the non-conference season.

The Gophers don't have a single current RPI top 100 team on their 2024-25 non-conference schedule, but they do have 4 300+ RPI teams and another 4 200+ RPI teams.

Warren Nolan currently predicts (11/26/24 at 1:00 p.m.) that the Gophers will finish the year with the 91st ranked RPI strength of schedule (there are 68 Power 4 schools). Predicted season-end RPI schedule strength for the BIG this year is as follows, with Minnesota finishing a distant dead last:

Iowa 3
Oregon 6
UCLA 7
Indiana 8
USC 9
Northwestern 14
Purdue 15
Maryland 16
Ohio State 17
Michigan 26
Penn State 34
Nebraska 35
Wisconsin 37
Rutgers 41
Illinois 43
Washington 47
Michigan State 53
Minnesota 91

I am a believer in Coach P as a real deal coach. Organization, defense, ball security, recruiting, she has already shown out in these areas. I am an optimist about the Gophers this season. But I am not a fan of her non-conference scheduling. Still, like Kim Mulkey, I hope Coach P can make it work.
Mmmm Man you sure know a lot about D1 Scheduling.... your head coaching job is where?

Let's clear up a few things..

Oregon State tournament contract was signed/completed last November/early december. Now lets look at how Oregon State looked last year... oh right top 15 team in the country.

SDSU- Gophers and and SDSU agreed before last year to play preseason closed scrimmages last year and this year (Gophers won both BTW) so couldn't schedule non-con game.

Vermont expected to win or be in 2nd in their conference- the same team that beat Missouri this year and Purdue last year AT PURDUE.

SMU is still an ACC team so SMU and Vermont will look at least respectable come march.

Also... with the new schools coming in... added UCLA/USC to the schedule....so adding two top 5-10 ranked teams automatically to the schedule.

Let's look at our most recent win... completely owned Montana. Same Montana who beat Washington by 14. The same Washington who 24 hours ago was 2 second away from knocking off LSU. Suddenly that montana win would of looked amazing. Also it happened without Mara.


So unless you have the gal to go up to Dawn herself to talk about schedule or the respect to talk to the coaches about the scheduling, let it go.
 

Mmmm Man you sure know a lot about D1 Scheduling.... your head coaching job is where?

Let's clear up a few things..

Oregon State tournament contract was signed/completed last November/early december. Now lets look at how Oregon State looked last year... oh right top 15 team in the country.

SDSU- Gophers and and SDSU agreed before last year to play preseason closed scrimmages last year and this year (Gophers won both BTW) so couldn't schedule non-con game.

Vermont expected to win or be in 2nd in their conference- the same team that beat Missouri this year and Purdue last year AT PURDUE.

SMU is still an ACC team so SMU and Vermont will look at least respectable come march.

Also... with the new schools coming in... added UCLA/USC to the schedule....so adding two top 5-10 ranked teams automatically to the schedule.

Let's look at our most recent win... completely owned Montana. Same Montana who beat Washington by 14. The same Washington who 24 hours ago was 2 second away from knocking off LSU. Suddenly that montana win would of looked amazing. Also it happened without Mara.


So unless you have the gal to go up to Dawn herself to talk about schedule or the respect to talk to the coaches about the scheduling, let it go.
Yeah I think Coach P thought her schedule on paper a little tougher than it is going, still some room to grow with her players before tough big 10 season comes in. If the Gophers find themselves in the top tier of big 10, it will be easier for Coach P to schedule going forward with more options likely available.

Also have to give the Gophers credit for some dominance. I thought that Montana game would be closer for sure and was impressed with the performance. Be fun to see some games against Duke, Tennessee, Kansas State, Iowa State etc. When you look when Gophers had UConn here, it brought a good crowd and Gophers played well for the most part.
 

Mmmm Man you sure know a lot about D1 Scheduling.... your head coaching job is where?

Let's clear up a few things..

Oregon State tournament contract was signed/completed last November/early december. Now lets look at how Oregon State looked last year... oh right top 15 team in the country.

SDSU- Gophers and and SDSU agreed before last year to play preseason closed scrimmages last year and this year (Gophers won both BTW) so couldn't schedule non-con game.

Vermont expected to win or be in 2nd in their conference- the same team that beat Missouri this year and Purdue last year AT PURDUE.

SMU is still an ACC team so SMU and Vermont will look at least respectable come march.

Also... with the new schools coming in... added UCLA/USC to the schedule....so adding two top 5-10 ranked teams automatically to the schedule.

Let's look at our most recent win... completely owned Montana. Same Montana who beat Washington by 14. The same Washington who 24 hours ago was 2 second away from knocking off LSU. Suddenly that montana win would of looked amazing. Also it happened without Mara.


So unless you have the gal to go up to Dawn herself to talk about schedule or the respect to talk to the coaches about the scheduling, let it go.
It can be true both that the Gophers thought this schedule was going to look better and that it is a terrible schedule, unworthy of this team. I'd bet if anyone did talk to the coach about this, she'd agree that she wishes they were being challenged more (at least I hope so). The lousy schedule is going to be an albatross around this team's neck all season, especially if they don't manage to win a couple games they "shouldn't win" (Maryland, the Californias, etc.). Not letting that go. It didn't have to be this way.
 

It can be true both that the Gophers thought this schedule was going to look better and that it is a terrible schedule, unworthy of this team. I'd bet if anyone did talk to the coach about this, she'd agree that she wishes they were being challenged more (at least I hope so). The lousy schedule is going to be an albatross around this team's neck all season, especially if they don't manage to win a couple games they "shouldn't win" (Maryland, the Californias, etc.). Not letting that go. It didn't have to be this way.
South Dakota State just took down Oregon. Two teams at the 21 ranked now they took down. Gave Duke a run for their money too.
 




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