Same Faces, New Places
Hoopla is moving! So did some Big Ten players to other Big Ten teams!
Well, howdy! It’s been a nice offseason break, but I’m excited to get back to taking ball. I think it’s time we do that in a newish location.
As I’ve said on here prior, Substack has too many issues for me to stay here. This is something I do for free and for fun, so there’s no reason to post on this site if there are similar alternatives with less moral dilemmas.
The plan is to, starting next week, make the move to Beehiiv. I like what I’ve read about it, and it should be a relatively seamless transition. For those of you reading this through email, you may not even notice! If you have been reading through the Substack app, I will be posting the links on Bluesky and the email subscription will remain free through the transition.
The subscribe button below should get you on the Beehiiv email list until the next post. As always, thanks for reading Hoopla. :)
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Sticking with the theme, let’s talk about some familiar players that made an in-conference move this offseason. There have been 13 instances this year of a Big Ten player entering the portal and going to a former Big Ten foe, and I think they are a great starting point to look at because, well, we have a better base on how they will fare within the conference.
I’ve split the 13 players into three tiers based on my general expectations: Players that I think immediately raise the level of the teams they joined to a new height, players that should make an immediate impact and ones that, while currently not fully proven, could thrive in a big way on a new team.
Players are listed in alphabetical order of the team they went to (Illinois additions are first, Wisconsin additions are last, etc.)
Expectation Risers
Yarden Garzon (Indiana → Maryland)
Avery Howell (USC → Washington)
Maryland is among the best in the country at retooling every season, and a move like the Yarden Garzon acquisition is a big reason why. Garzon’s departure from Indiana was part of a large exodus from Bloomington, but no move was more significant.
Garzon has been a knockdown shooter all three seasons at Indiana, hitting north of 40 percent of her threes despite a continual growth in volume. She’s a solid rebounder, has averaged at least three assists per game every season, and averaged nearly two stocks (steals and blocks) a game as her defense continues to expand. She’s got the size that Maryland loves to utilize, and will expand their perimeter presence in a dramatic way.
The other name I included in the highest tier is Avery Howell, despite not having outlandish numbers in her first collegiate season. Howell’s freshman year at USC still had so much to like: 7.5 PPG on 43.1/39.9/82.9 shooting splits in about 20 MPG off the bench. She averaged one turnover per 40 minutes, which ranked top 10 in the entire country, as did her 129.1 offensive rating. She was an instant impact player for them, and continued to improve as the year went on.
The move to Washington really excites me. Pairing Howell alongside another sharpshooter in Elle Ladine and a great point guard in Sayvia Sellers should open up both her game and the Huskies’ overall attack that was already so strong last season. Howell will also have potentially three seasons with Washington to continue to develop her potential, and I think this pairing might get the best out of each other.
Immediate Impact
Rashunda Jones (Purdue → Michigan State)
Hailey Weaver (Northwestern → Nebraska)
Kiyomi McMiller (Rutgers → Penn State)
Londynn Jones (UCLA → USC)
Yulia Grabovskaia (Michigan → Washington)
I'm excited about this set of players and the contributions I believe they can make in their new landing spots. Each of them feels like they will play a sizable role quickly to varying degrees, and should have the opportunity to make big leaps as well.
Starting where we left off in Washington, I love the move to get Yulia Grabovskaia. Her numbers are the least notable of the bunch here, and you could argue she deserves to go down a tier with that in mind. However, Washington has a vacancy at forward with Dalayah Daniels gone, and Grabovskaia gave the Wolverines some critical minutes down the stretch of last season. She was one of the nation’s best offensive rebounders (7th in NCAA in OREB%) and should be a terrific fit for what the Huskies need.
Londynn Jones is likely making some enemies with the move within state lines to USC, but she should thrive as a perimeter option, both before and after JuJu Watkins is available to return. She’s experienced and provides a spark when the shots are falling. Hailey Weaver did not play last season, but was a very solid scorer for Northwestern, averaging 7.9 PPG on 36.0% three-point shooting in just over 20 MPG. She’s also active at forcing steals defensively and should give Nebraska yet another perimeter weapon to add to the rotation.
The other Jones on this list — Rashunda — could be a quietly massive get for the Spartans. She possesses so much potential, and we saw some of that start to blossom last year on an otherwise underperforming Purdue team. She’s a proven interior scorer who became a much better passer as a sophomore, and I think Jones could be the exact type of player that works in a Robyn Fralick system, especially if her three-point shooting can make a slight improvement.
Finally, there is Kiyomi McMiller, who clearly showed the superstar ceiling that she can reach as a freshman. McMiller’s gifts are undeniable, but they were often overshadowed by off-court drama, and a lack of turning those abilities into winning basketball plays. That makes the move to Penn State, one of the only teams that struggled more than Rutgers in the Big Ten, all the more interesting.
McMiller, Gracie Merkle and Moriah Murray, two key players who decided to ultimately return to the Nittany Lions, makes for quite an exciting trio on paper. But the rest of the roster remains a huge question mark, and I primarily want to see McMiller keep that gaudy scoring output in a new system with better co-star scoring options in her sophomore season.
Unproven Potential
Aaliyah Guyton (Iowa → Illinois)
Zania Socka-Nguemen (UCLA → Indiana)
Kendall Dudley (UCLA → Michigan)
Emily Fisher (Maryland → Nebraska)
Avary Cain (UCLA → Oregon)
Shay Bollin (Illinois → Wisconsin)
These players all should see minutes boosts at their new homes, and most of them were highly regarded talents coming out of high school.
The UCLA trio listed here are all names to watch. Kendall Dudley saw the most significant action of the bunch, and has the clear size and rebounding prowess to make quick contributions while her scoring continues to grow.
On the scoring front, Aaliyah Guyton is the clear name to watch for me. She was a spark plug for the Hawkeyes and shot 37.3% from deep on the season, but didn't yet have the consistency to earn a larger chunk of minutes. Illinois is starting fresh in a lot of ways, and a talent like Guyton makes a ton of sense to develop and see what’s there.
Emily Fisher and Shay Bollin have both seen sporadic action through their first two seasons, with Fisher flashing some rebounding ability and Bollin bringing some solid three-point shooting thus far. While Nebraska has a longer list of talent to deal with, Bollin should be a major factor for the Badgers with new head coach Robin Pingeton. Experience at Duke and Illinois should give Bollin a solid foundation, and I hope we see her get involved more as the Badgers look to build up for a new era.
A WNBA Detour
The WNBA regular season is off to the races, and currently the Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty are lapping the field. That’s not really Hoopla related, but it’s the facts of the matter.
What is Hoopla related, though, is Veronica Burton, one of this newsletter’s all-time favorite players. She was in Dallas Wings jail, started to show some flashes elsewhere, then got nabbed by Golden State in the expansion draft. The results so far?
Not bad!
Burton’s scoring hasn’t even been efficient yet, but she’s been an outstanding facilitator with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.65, while also adding 1.6 steals on the defensive end. This AST/TO ratio is low for Burton, of course, because she has led the WNBA in that category each of the past two seasons. She is, and has been, a tremendous point guard that needed the right system to fully thrive. The Valkyries have absolutely been that so far.
The other name I wanted to highlight was Kiki Iriafen. She had a good season with USC, but I felt that she left a little to be desired on the whole. So far in Washington she has been nothing short of tremendous, with 14.6 PPG and 9.4 RPG on 52.8% shooting. She’s a Rookie of the Year frontrunner along with her teammate, Sonia Citron, as Paige Bueckers has missed time with a concussion.
I won’t lie, I did not expect these types of immediate returns on Iriafen. I thought she was a first-round talent, but that there would be an adjustment period after what I saw with USC. I was wrong, and I’m happy I was as her, and the Mystics on the whole, have been a delightful early surprise to the season.
See you next week: Same content, new location. It’s been a time, Substack. I wish you didn’t support Nazis.
Photo Credit: Indiana Athletics
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Love the back court burglar aka pride of Newton, Massachusetts Veronica Burton. After the Wings she was a Connecticut Sun before getting picked by the Valkyries in the expansion draft. Hope she continues to ball out in Ball-hala.