Bendu Yeaney enters Transfer Portal

[pc in NM]

Surprising!!

Report: Bendu Yeaney, Semaj Smith in transfer portal out of Arizona women’s basketball

On the day that Arizona officially signed McDonald’s All-American Paris Clark, reports also came out that Bendu Yeaney and Semaj Smith are in the transfer portal as grad transfers. The development was reported by Raoul of wbbblog.com who tracks recruiting and transfers across women’s basketball.

The addition of Smith to the portal is not a surprise. Head coach Adia Barnes said before senior day that Smith would not be back, but that the coach would help her find a good place for her final year if she wanted to play the extra year granted by the NCAA due to COVID-19. Smith had stayed at Arizona for four years despite getting little playing time after her sophomore year.

Yeaney is a bigger surprise. It was known that she would be back for a final year midway through the season and she announced as much after the senior day game. Yeaney has already removed references to Arizona and Tucson from her social media bio. About 9 p.m. on April 12, she cryptically tweeted, “You can’t trust everyone that’s my biggest lesson learned.”

It will be Yeaney’s second transfer of her career. She came to Arizona two years ago from Indiana and started for most of the past two seasons. She averaged 6.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game this season. That was up from 4.1 ppg the year before. She becomes the first player who has significantly contributed on the court to transfer from the program.

Arizona now has six returners and four incoming freshmen on the roster for next season. That leaves five available scholarships.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/basketbal ... aris-clark

This doesn't look so good. Adia's loyalty in doubt???

[84Cat]

Wow, that's a disappointment. Hope she finds a good team where she can excel

[gronk4heisman]

Based on the timing, it sounds like she was informed that some new people would be coming in and potentially taking her starting spot.

[Irish27]

Definitley some transfers coming in. Plus, with a very talented recruiting class coming in, no surprise many have left. Adia wants the best talent.

[gronk4heisman]

Definitley some transfers coming in. Plus, with a very talented recruiting class coming in, no surprise many have left. Adia wants the best talent.

Taylor Chavez is gone too?

[84Cat]

Adia wants to add 3 from the portal

[Irish27]

Surprising!!

Report: Bendu Yeaney, Semaj Smith in transfer portal out of Arizona women’s basketball

On the day that Arizona officially signed McDonald’s All-American Paris Clark, reports also came out that Bendu Yeaney and Semaj Smith are in the transfer portal as grad transfers. The development was reported by Raoul of wbbblog.com who tracks recruiting and transfers across women’s basketball.

The addition of Smith to the portal is not a surprise. Head coach Adia Barnes said before senior day that Smith would not be back, but that the coach would help her find a good place for her final year if she wanted to play the extra year granted by the NCAA due to COVID-19. Smith had stayed at Arizona for four years despite getting little playing time after her sophomore year.

Yeaney is a bigger surprise. It was known that she would be back for a final year midway through the season and she announced as much after the senior day game. Yeaney has already removed references to Arizona and Tucson from her social media bio. About 9 p.m. on April 12, she cryptically tweeted, “You can’t trust everyone that’s my biggest lesson learned.”

It will be Yeaney’s second transfer of her career. She came to Arizona two years ago from Indiana and started for most of the past two seasons. She averaged 6.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game this season. That was up from 4.1 ppg the year before. She becomes the first player who has significantly contributed on the court to transfer from the program.

Arizona now has six returners and four incoming freshmen on the roster for next season. That leaves five available scholarships.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/basketbal ... aris-clark

This doesn't look so good. Adia's loyalty in doubt???

[azcat49]

Not sure how you make a tweet like that and not expect it to raise eyebrows.

Her portal entry raises enough questions as is and her explanation about her tweet answers little.

Wish her well and everyone will move on and hopefully succeed in attaining their goals

[EastCoastCat]

We have a monster class coming in so not too worried.

Also, didn't realize UCLA, Oregon and Oregon State have top 10 classes coming in.

[Merkin]

Schools are not obligated to honor scholarships once a player enters the portal.

After throwing shade at the UA WBB program like that wonder if she realized she may not be able to come back.

[Chicat]

She’s not coming back and I’d be willing to bet her tweet was 100% about Adia.

Sometimes kids don’t hear what they want to in postseason meetings. Like that next year they are going to be the focus of the offense and will get to put up as many shots as they want.

[Longhorned]

I haven't showered in a month.

Nobody will come near me.

There's no correlation between the two statements above. Please stop making assumptions. Everyone is unfair and I smell great!

[TheCatInTheHat]

Well, from P.J. Brown's story in the Star this morning, Adia was unhappy with more than one of the players who are not returning. Adia expressed unhappiness with the team's competitiveness over the last few weeks of the season. Now, Reese, Ware, Pellington, Pueyo, and Conner are the only listed returning players. In the story today, Adia says much of the turnover is her decision. She says: "Some things should have been nipped in the bud." "You can never compromise your culture, values, and integrity." "You need people aligned with those in every way, not just one way." That's pretty strong phrasing. We should always be careful not to paint with broad brush strokes. At least one player just decided she didn't want to pursue basketball any more, some want to be closer to home, others may have decided they'll never get to play here. No harm; no foul. But, it's also pretty clear that Adia at the least nudged out some players who weren't capable of moving the program forward, and she also pretty clearly didn't like some attitudes. As to the timing of the Yeaney thing and the Paris Clark LOI, Clark verballed a while ago. Maybe there was some thought she'd still go elsewhere, and maybe Adia wanted to hang onto Yeaney as an insurance policy, whether she got Clark's signed paperwork or not. Coaches do that. But any player who insists on a guaranteed starting role, to not have their position recruited, and doesn't want to compete against all comers to improve the team would seem to have a questionable attitude. You can't expect a nice, easy, comfortable environment if you're trying to win championships. There are at least two sides to every story. Maybe Adia made assurances she shouldn't, and told somebody else something else. I've had that happen to me. In any event, some times cleaning house is a good thing. Jedd did some of it on the football team, and I imagine at least one or two affected players are unhappy. But, while it happens every year in football, it's a bit more traumatic with the smaller rosters in basketball

[84Cat]

Well, from P.J. Brown's story in the Star this morning, Adia was unhappy with more than one of the players who are not returning. Adia expressed unhappiness with the team's competitiveness over the last few weeks of the season. Now, Reese, Ware, Pellington, Pueyo, and Conner are the only listed returning players. In the story today, Adia says much of the turnover is her decision. She says: "Some things should have been nipped in the bud." "You can never compromise your culture, values, and integrity." "You need people aligned with those in every way, not just one way." That's pretty strong phrasing. We should always be careful not to paint with broad brush strokes. At least one player just decided she didn't want to pursue basketball any more, some want to be closer to home, others may have decided they'll never get to play here. No harm; no foul. But, it's also pretty clear that Adia at the least nudged out some players who weren't capable of moving the program forward, and she also pretty clearly didn't like some attitudes. As to the timing of the Yeaney thing and the Paris Clark LOI, Clark verballed a while ago. Maybe there was some thought she'd still go elsewhere, and maybe Adia wanted to hang onto Yeaney as an insurance policy, whether she got Clark's signed paperwork or not. Coaches do that. But any player who insists on a guaranteed starting role, to not have their position recruited, and doesn't want to compete against all comers to improve the team would seem to have a questionable attitude. You can't expect a nice, easy, comfortable environment if you're trying to win championships. There are at least two sides to every story. Maybe Adia made assurances she shouldn't, and told somebody else something else. I've had that happen to me. In any event, some times cleaning house is a good thing. Jedd did some of it on the football team, and I imagine at least one or two affected players are unhappy. But, while it happens every year in football, it's a bit more traumatic with the smaller rosters in basketball

This is why I posted the press conference above. She said most of it was her doing. She says the portal works both ways so she can decide who comes back. Also she said she will never have 15 players again. There was no way that she could keep every one happy in regards to playing time. Said the culture really took a hit this year

[Merkin]

That is very Lute-like. Well done Adia.

[azcat49]

I am still mystified how you don’t nip that in the bud early. The first hint was players not knowing the plays.

I get what she said about some players leaving for certain reasons but Yeaney got a ton of minutes and was looking to be a strong contributor next year. She certainly could have not tweeted her comment out and simply said she is looking for an expanded role. Instead she threw a dart and now is trying to clarify her comments.

I applaud Barnes for making the changes she needs to. We struggled to score and you wouldn’t say Yeaney is a great shooter or a great scorer. Just to bad the tweet makes it look like the color has come off the rose

[EastCoastCat]

It wasn't going to get easier with higher expectations. Just growing pains.

We have entrusted this program to Adia but she's also figuring things out now that expectations are so high.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Well, Yeaney may well have started, alongside Paris and Pellington. Chavez would have played some off the bench, and Sanchez probably not so much. So, Yeaney is a hit. But, as you say, not a great scorer. Considering the recruitment of Kailyn Gilbert to take two PGs, maybe that was part of it, with all the personnel there. Yeaney could say "I'm a senior, and I transferred here, and I deserve to start." And Adia could come back and say "Then you'd better improve a lot in the off-season, because we need to improve our backcourt play." And maybe Yeaney thinks she did fine and shouldn't need to improve any more, which wouldn't be the right idea. With 9 players currently on the roster, it sure looks like we'll be active on the transfer portal. Don't know who's available, and I know Adia said she wouldn't go with 15, but I'd bet she'd add 3 more to get to 12.

[Chicat]

I’d like to make a couple of points…

1) Our championship game appearance was both somewhat a fluke and the result of being carried by a once in a generation player.

2) Anyone who is not that generational player but is using that year’s results to justify an expanded role on the team or to say they deserve something should definitely transfer because they don’t know what being on a team truly means.

3) Adia needs to be careful in looking to replicate the results of last years tourney by making wholesale personnel changes because Aari truly was one of a kind. Adia found someone with just as much desperate yearning to win as she had, but not every kid is like that, and expecting them to be can lead to trouble and discontent.

4) Social media is the Devil.

[84Cat]

Asia has already said she is adding 3 from the portal

[EastCoastCat]

Just get some damn scorers.

[84Cat]