Destiny entering transfer portal

okay...thanks. don't disclose this often.  But Deven H. is granddaughter. 

I’m not sure that our style was ever the best fit for her. I can also assert that her style may not have been the best fit for us. Uptempo, higher-risk basketball is what made her a top 10 prospect out of high school and the national freshman of the year. I feel like she spent her first year of eligibility here trying to figure out how to rein it in to fit what we do, and this past season trying to consistently turn it up a notch because we needed her to be the dynamic player that she was when she arrived. She was very good for us both years, but almost seemed more tentative at times the longer she played for us.

Sometimes we lament not being as “athletic” as most of the other elite programs. The interesting thing is when we play teams that are deemed more so than us and lose, that opponent has players that play loose and on the edge of control. They make mistakes, but the upside is that they can just go off at anytime. They play loose and confident.

Our system here is very disciplined and deliberate. We play tough defense, and our best teams really have taken care of the ball and value every offensive possessions. We’re not a high-risk driven system. The women who star for us have the ability to go off, but it is a controlled going off. Destiny is a classy, high-character young woman, but she was a different type of player than typically fits our mold.

Any top player could have a great career at OSU, but I’m not sure that this is the best fit for every top player. I have always been a little hard (maybe a lot at times) on Sabrina I, and I really did not like the way that she announced her decision to play in Eugene over the Beavs and a couple of others. When she talked about SR telling her how she would be a key cog in helping the Beavs to continuing to rise to elite status, but that Graves told her that they would build the program around her, I went right to thinking how selfish she was. Maybe she was just being wise. Things turned out very well for her and the ducks with that decision. While she would have been just as great here and we would have benefited on the floor, I’m not sure we would have had the cohesiveness and connection throughout the program had she come here.

SR is all about finding young women who are a good fit all the way around, and the list of really good players who have also been outstanding people that contributed to a great culture as well as on-court success is impressive. I feel that Destiny very much fit our program, but if we’re going to have players who play a similar style to her’s, we may need to evolve in our system approach.

A lot of smart people on here who probably saw the women play far more than I did this past couple of years may disagree with my observations. That’s fine. I’m really just kind of bringing my perspective and trying to figure this out. This was the only option that I really didn’t expect to see her choose.

At any rate, I really appreciated getting to watch Destiny play for OSU, and getting to know her a little bit as a person. She is a great player, and a fantastic human being with a wonderful zest for life. I wish her nothing but the greatest success moving forward. Thanks for choosing OSU!

We know each other ...

I was forgetting about Mannen, so there is one more guard on the roster than I was thinking. She had her moments, will she be ready to be a regular rotation player next season?

I remember a game this last season where Aleah and Rueck were not in synch.  Almost everytime Aleah did look over Rueck was otherwise occupied.   Then coach would want to call a play and Aleah wasn't looking over.  FWIW, we won that game.