Iowa Girls...

[907CY]

BF went to Texas for most of next years freshman. I checked HoopGurlz and only one player (Shey Kellogg) from Iowa was listed in either 2012 or 2013. Is this because they lack talent or that the players that get noticed play in the summer and the big tournaments during the season. Iowa girls can't go to out of state tournaments unless the Association gives them permission. So, I pulled the early season stats from the Ouickstats sight just to see how the Iowa talent was doing after only 8 to 10 games. Here they are and it looks pretty good on a small scale.

Name...Class... School... Games Played...Total points... Ave per game.

Kiah Stokes Sr. Linn-Mar 8 223 27.9
KJ Veldman Soph. Spirit Lake 4 104 26.0
Beth Sieleman Jr. Tri-Center, Neola 6 146 24.3
Karen Hutson Sr. Logan-Magnolia 7 167 23.9
Virginia Johnson Sr. Iowa City, City High 8 179 22.4
Antonea Stuckey Sr. Davenport North 4 89 22.3
Katelyn DeWulf Sr. Tipton 6 133 22.2
Taryn Barz Soph. Hampton-Dumont 7 153 21.9
Carlee Grunder Sr. Wilton 7 152 21.7
Katelynn Tracy Soph. Moravia 3 64 21.3
Taylor Shull Jr. Mount Pleasant 7 148 21.1
Laura TerHark Sr. Algona 8 168 21.0
Courtney Burr Sr. Lone Tree 7 144 20.6
Abby Lasher Sr. Charles City 7 142 20.3
Maggie Marnin Sr. West Central Valley, Stuart 8 162 20.3
Kalli Richardson Sr. Northeast Hamilton 9 182 20.2

Name...Class...School... Games... Ave. rebounds per game...

Kaleigh Strong Sr. Ankeny Christian Academy 8 16.3
Onica Jacobs Sr. Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 5 16.0
Kiah Stokes Sr. Linn-Mar 8 14.8
Gabi French Jr. Red Oak 6 14.7
Taylor Burdette Soph. Central Lee, Donnellson 7 14.6
Anna Sweeting Sr. Highland, Riverside 7 42 59 101 14.4
Taryn Barz Soph. Hampton-Dumont 7 14.1
Maggie Marnin Sr. West Central Valley, Stuart 8 14.0
Antonea Stuckey Sr. Davenport North 4 13.8
Sara Neighbors Soph. Council Bluffs T J 6 13.5
Kayla Hemann Sr. Saint Ansgar 6 13.2
Katie Dentlinger Jr. Coon Rapids-Bayard 7 13.1
Kailey Kladivo Jr. North Tama 7 13.0
Layne Grgurich Sr. Chariton 5 13.0

Name... Class... School... Games... 3's made...Attempted... Percentage...
Laura TerHark Sr. Algona 8 32 95 33.7%
Whitney Van Wyk Jr. Southeast Polk 8 25 58 43.1%
Grace Rehnstrom Sr. Sioux Central, Sioux Rapids 10 25 63 39.7%
Bailey Ellerbeck Jr. Denison-Schleswig 8 23 57 40.4%
Elizabeth Reuter N/A Dubuque Senior 9 22 54 40.7%
McKenna Brown Jr. Des Moines, Hoover 8 20 51 39.2%
Lexi Friesen Jr. Osage 7 20 54 37.0%

I not saying we should recruit any one from these lists. It just shows that we do have some scorers, rebounders, and three point specialists in the state.

[redrocker]

It is not often I see Sioux Rapids mentioned

[HOTDON]

It is not often I see Sioux Rapids mentioned

Same with Spirit Lake. They were completely helpless during my time there.

To speak to the point of the OP, Shelley Mosman, Iowa's Miss Basketball coming out of high school, spent 4 years on the bench. She was an outstanding student and loved being a Cyclone, but she was named biggest fish of a small pond. BF is finding the best in the country, and you just aren't going to find that in Iowa too often. It happens, but a pipeline in Texas is a much safer bet talent-wise.

[Tornado man]

To speak to the point of the OP, Shelley Mosman, Iowa's Miss Basketball coming out of high school, spent 4 years on the bench. She was an outstanding student and loved being a Cyclone, but she was named biggest fish of a small pond. BF is finding the best in the country, and you just aren't going to find that in Iowa too often. It happens, but a pipeline in Texas is a much safer bet talent-wise.

???? From Iowa, we've gotten stars like:
Stacy Frese
Monica Huelman
Anne O'Neil
Nicky Wieben
Alison Lacey
Tracy Paustian
Lisa Kreiner
Abby Reinert
Jocelyn Anderson
Kelsey Bolte
Toccara Ross
Hallie Christofferson

I can think of just one - Tracy Gahan - from Texas. Am I missing someone?

Iowa is a much "safer bet" for recruiting players than Texas. Keep in mind, we're never going to sign recruits from there who've also been offered by Baylor, Texas, or A&M.

[ty4cy90]

Same with Spirit Lake. They were completely helpless during my time there.

To speak to the point of the OP, Shelley Mosman, Iowa's Miss Basketball coming out of high school, spent 4 years on the bench. She was an outstanding student and loved being a Cyclone, but she was named biggest fish of a small pond. BF is finding the best in the country, and you just aren't going to find that in Iowa too often. It happens, but a pipeline in Texas is a much safer bet talent-wise.

Not sure where you've been but Spirit Lake has had some success in the last 10 years in Women's basketball. Amber Kirschbaum starts for UNI, as well as Kaisha Brown for Northern Colorado, and another at St. Cloud.

[BoxsterCy]

???? From Iowa, we've gotten stars like:
Stacy Frese
Monica Huelman
Anne O'Neil
Nicky Wieben
Alison Lacey
Tracy Paustian
Lisa Kreiner
Abby Reinert
Jocelyn Anderson
Kelsey Bolte
Toccara Ross
Hallie Christofferson

I can think of just one - Tracy Gahan - from Texas. Am I missing someone?

Iowa is a much "safer bet" for recruiting players than Texas. Keep in mind, we're never going to sign recruits from there who've also been offered by Baylor, Texas, or A&M.

The three Texas schools you mention had a total of 6 Texas gals in their incoming freshman classes this year. We have more incoming Texans than any one of those schools. If we had to settle for the seventh best player in Texas that won’t be so bad.

BTW, I don’t think the post you are replying to is dissing Iowa gals as much as it is pointing out there are a LOT of good players in Texas. The #10 player in Texas is likely to be better than the #10 player in Iowa just based on demographics (population of Texas is 8 times that of Iowa). We are going to have increased exposure in Texas starting next year when we will be playing all of the Texas schools twice a year. The Big 12 audience is going to be Texas based population wise so it’s a great locale to recruit.

[mred]

???? From Iowa, we've gotten stars like:
Stacy Frese
Monica Huelman
Anne O'Neil
Nicky Wieben
Alison Lacey
Tracy Paustian
Lisa Kreiner
Abby Reinert
Jocelyn Anderson
Kelsey Bolte
Toccara Ross
Hallie Christofferson

Lacey may have played her senior season in Iowa, but she wasn't a typical "Iowa girl" recruit, obviously. Four of the players on the list (Frese, O'Neil, Ross, Anderson) didn't attend ISU straight out of high school. Reinert was a walk-on.

[twistedredbird]

honestly, I think both states will continue to be a priority. I imagine BF will continue to try and recruit the best players in the state of Iowa, but see more reward from efforts in Texas.

[mred]

Going back to 01-02 (the earliest stats on cyclones.com), the number of top-5 scorers on the team who attended ISU straight from an Iowa high school:

01-02: 0 (highest was #6 Paustian)
02-03: 1 (#3 Kriener)
03-04: 2 (#4 Kriener, #5 Junod)
04-05: 0 (highest was #9 Paustian)
05-06: 0 (highest was #6 Wieben)
06-07: 1 (#2 Wieben)
07-08: 3** (#1 Lacey**, #2 Wieben, #4 Bolte)
08-09: 3** (#2 Lacey**, #3 Wieben, #4 Bolte)
09-10: 3** (#1 Lacey**, #2 Bolte, #4 Poppens)

**how to classify Lacey is debatable

[Tornado man]

Lacey may have played her senior season in Iowa, but she wasn't a typical "Iowa girl" recruit, obviously. Four of the players on the list (Frese, O'Neil, Ross, Anderson) didn't attend ISU straight out of high school. Reinert was a walk-on.

Lacey, though, was already at Ballard when BF "discovered" her. He didn't recruit her out of Australia.
The rest of the players you mentioned still attest to the strength of Iowa high schools.
On the flip side, Whitney Williams came here from Ft. Worth with lots of hype, including from the ISU coaching staff. Things didn't work out so well. There are several guards every year in Iowa who are better than Whitney Williams.
I just wonder about the real strength of Texas after the elite players are picked by the Stanfords, Baylors, and Texas'. Look at A&M - their stars are from KC, including Adams.

[clonestar12]

The three Texas schools you mention had a total of 6 Texas gals in their incoming freshman classes this year. We have more incoming Texans than any one of those schools. If we had to settle for the seventh best player in Texas that won’t be so bad.

BTW, I don’t think the post you are replying to is dissing Iowa gals as much as it is pointing out there are a LOT of good players in Texas. The #10 player in Texas is likely to be better than the #10 player in Iowa just based on demographics (population of Texas is 8 times that of Iowa). We are going to have increased exposure in Texas starting next year when we will be playing all of the Texas schools twice a year. The Big 12 audience is going to be Texas based population wise so it’s a great locale to recruit.

More often than not, the #10 player in Texas is better than the #1 player in Iowa. The Iowa girls have been pretty good historically, but the Texas players play more games.

[907CY]

I started this thread not to compare Texas and Iowa but as a comment on the National Ratings of HoopGurlz and their competitors. If a young lady doesn't play in the summer for some reason and Iowa teams can't play in out of state tournaments are they less talented than some other state's girls? We have the Stokes, Greenfields, and Kelloggs but the talent doesn't stop there. Remember BF's first two star recruits were from Iowa... Montezuma and Bettendorf. They led us to a lot wins and got this program off the ground. I agree with all the posts and think that with the realignment of the Big12 our exposure will be different. I will trust in BF and staff to bring in good players from all over the globe. Maybe Israel...or Peterson, Iowa.