Sometimes you think of a good title for a piece. When Utah sophomore Lani White hit the transfer portal, I thought: “Lani, we hardly knew ye”, a play on the 1972 best-selling Kennedy memoir Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye.
I couldn’t think of much in support of the title, though.
If any of the 2023-24 Utes needed a change of scenery, it was Lani White. She and Ines Vieira faced sudden media and fan scrutiny in the absences of starters Gianna Kneepkens and Issy Palmer.
Vieira flourished, a candidate for the Pac-12 most improved player award. White shot 1-for-11 in the second game of the season, and that was while those two starters were still on their feet. She never regained the mojo that made her the most impressive of Utah’s 2022-23 freshmen. (I assumed Teya Sidberry transfered out at least partly for feeling pushed aside with White’s emergence, even if playing different positions on the floor! Sidberry had a fine year for Boston College, leading the Eagles in scoring and rebounding.)
I’ll hand it to the Huntsman Center crowds — they never turned on her, and she remained a fan favorite.
That’s been on my mind for days. Then Stanford’s Iriafen and half the Oregon State Beavers — Beers, most notably — entered the portal, and that, I’m sorry to say, is bigger news.
Among Atlantic Coast Conference observers, how many are sorely disappointed that Stanford signed the contract with Coach VanDerveer, Kiki Iriafen, and perhaps a fifth-year Cameron Brink, but the team that’s coming to play lost all three of them?
And if you’re a supporter of the West Coast Conference, might you feel a little jilted after half of Oregon State’s elite eight team jumped ship instead of joining you?
I called Coach Roberts to ask if she’d already talked to Raegan Beers, because, hey, problem solved! Who could possibly replace Alissa Pili as Utah’s inside threat? How about Raegan Beers!?
I giggled throughout the phone message. Coach Roberts might wonder what I thought was so funny. I thought it was comical that a suitably powerful scorer and rebounder so conveniently presented herself, and would not have been surprised if Beers’ first caller was Utah.
I thought Marquette’s Liza Karlen might be a good fit, but the prospect of Beers made me giddy. (Then there’s Oregon’s VanSlooten, thought I can’t remember her running the floor in an outstanding way. That might be because Oregon couldn’t make it a priority.)
And I wonder if Oregon State’s distance shooter Lily Hansford is also among Utah’s interests. On the rare possessions Hansford drove the ball instead of launching it, she was surprisingly good. I thought if the Utah program could cultivate Hansford’s attacking game the same way it transformed Alissa Pili, Hansford would be a good get.