We got two transfers, that makes 10 total from the portal.
Good grief, yes: I missed Haley Howard--a starting midfielder for Louisville last year. Had four assists, no goals: Maybe that makes her a defensive mid? Very possibly. Louisville has a very respectable program--a mid-tier or mid-upper-tier ACC program, typically. Team was 3-5-2 in the ACC last year in what was a down year for conference that, year in and year out, is the toughest in the country.
Cincy, like Louisville, played respectably in a difficult Big12 conference---2-3-5. Had a win and a tie against Baylor, lost by a goal to excellent Pitt team and by a goal to perennially strong TCU. Tied BYU. Lost by a goal late against unbeaten Texas Tech in Cincy's second Big12 tourney game. Rath, by my calculation, averaged about 33 minutes a game---her playing-time going up late in the season.
So perhaps two solid picksups. They bring the number of new players on the squad come late-summer training camp to a ridiculous 19, with 9 incoming freshmen. Seriously, Kirt has gone a little crazy with all the new pickups. I wish him and the staff good luck managing what is now a huge roster. Maybe there's an understanding with a couple of the transfers that they won't play much--but most were either starters or got a considerable amount of playing time with good programs. Transfers will have an expectation of playing, typically, and so will your best incoming frosh prospects, and so will some/many of last year's best freshman who are now sophs and more eager than ever to get more playing time. This is going to be a difficulty for the staff. It's really not cool to sign big freshmen classes and then bring in a lot of transfers, as you make it difficult for the players your recruited to develop. That was the point that St. made recently. If we see Kirt start the same players every game in the non-conference part of the season, as he did last year, then we will know there is a serious problem, as there is no way any staff could astutely analyze the capabilities of 30+ players in 2.5 weeks or whatever the length of the pre-season camp--it's short---especially when 19 of them are new. There should be major player rotation, different lineups--even going into the SEC schedule--until you get a chance to see who can really help you win games, and which players show some chemistry together.
