Michigan signs Dallas Loughridge! Nolan And Hobbs Ep 31 with WNBA updates & NCAA rule changes!

[From Crisler Center to courts around the world, they wore the maize and blue. And now they’re bringing you the game inside and out. Hail Media presents Nolan and Hobbs, the Women’s Hoop Home Court podcast, hosted by Maddie Nolan and Jordan Hobbs.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Nolan and Hobbs podcast with me, Maddie Nolan, and my co-host, Jordan Hobbs.

Today we are super excited because last week Michigan announced a new player for the 2026-27 season. So we’re going to dive into her a little bit and what she is going to bring to the team, as well as do a quick overview of the WNBA and the Commissioner’s Cup and just update you guys on that front.

Yeah, and before we dive into that, I saw one of the comments was like, “Where have you guys been?” So, Jordan, why don’t we just explain a little bit why we went on a little bit of a hiatus there?

So, I was lucky enough after my season ended to travel a bit around Europe. I did Spain, I did Italy, I did France. My family came and we did Austria and the Czech Republic. So, I returned home like June 18th, I think it was, and so that’s why we hadn’t recorded together in a while. And then Jordan also had some other exciting things going on.

Yeah, I just was busy doing some stuff basketball-wise, training, but also doing a 3×3 tournament in Spokane just this last weekend. So, focusing on that a little bit, as well as doing some traveling and just spending some time with my family. My nephew is just a little bit over three months old, so spending some quality time with my brother and sister-in-law and him.

So, yeah, it was hard to be away from our family. So, it was nice to spend that time with them and just be able to reset a little bit. And it was kind of a good time as Maddie was traveling and just able to do that.

So, we’re really excited to be back, though. And it’s fun to have each other on the other side of the screen because we would talk about after some of our videos where it was just us alone, we were like, man, monologuing isn’t the same as when we can banter back and forth.

It’s not as fun. And Jordan and I also, it’s just a nice way for us to catch up, too. Obviously, we text outside of this a lot, but to FaceTime a little bit almost is always nice.

But, Jay, do you want to tell them a little bit about your experience in the 3×3 and just what it was like to play against that really good competition? You obviously got to see Leigha as well.

For sure. I had never done 3×3 before. It was a completely foreign game to me. And so we got to Spokane on Wednesday, practiced on Wednesday night, and then two times Thursday, and then had three pool-play games on Friday.

So, the practices were really hard. The first day they had a scrimmage at the end and I was so tired. Like, I could not catch my breath. We got smacked like 21 to 12 or something. It was bad.

And we came back the next day at practice and we scrimmaged two more teams and we won both of them. So we were feeling pretty good and just kind of connecting.

My team, the biggest name that you guys would know is Dara Mabrey, sister of Marina and Michaela Mabrey, who are big names in the women’s basketball world. So, it was fun to just get to connect with them.

There were 32 athletes total, eight teams of four, and it was just a really fun event. Spokane hosts this 3×3 tournament called Hoopfest, and it’s from ages like five to as old as maybe people in their 50s if they want to play, and all skill levels from really low to elite levels.

And over 200,000 people come.

Yeah, over 200,000 people come into Spokane for this either to play or watch. So, the streets were crazy and it was so fun to play outside. They put up so many hoops, and everywhere you turned was basketball.

And actually, I got to see Michigan wheelchair basketball play. They went out there and played 3×3, which was so cool.

Yeah, it was so fun. That was my first time watching wheelchair basketball. And I mean, normally they play five-on-five. It is so physical. Like, if you guys ever get a chance to watch it, it is so fun and very fundamental, and their passing and vision is really cool.

So, I highly recommend going to watch it. It was one of the highlights of my trip, getting to go watch them.

But yeah, Leigha and I got to hang out quite a bit and just talk about our lives. We haven’t seen each other in maybe a year and a half, two years. And so just catching up about basketball and everything in between, which was really fun.

We didn’t get to play each other, unfortunately. I was really hoping we would, but it didn’t line up that way.

But in pool play, we went 1-2. We were really close in one of the games, lost by like four. And they hit a two at the end of the game, too. We were only down two. They hit a two to get to 21.

And then on Saturday we played tournament games and we lost our first game, unfortunately, only by like two or three. So, they were all really close games. But I’m hoping there are some more 3×3 opportunities in the future because I think it’s a really fun game and really fast-paced. I just really enjoyed it.

Cool. That sounds like such a great experience. And like I said, I’m so excited you and Leigha got to meet up. I didn’t realize it was a whole event with all types of levels and 3×3 and everyone playing.

That sounds like way more fun than I thought. Just like a bunch of 12 girls, 12 women going up there to play in a tournament. So, it seems like they did a really good job of making it a whole experience for you guys.

Oh, 100%. I didn’t realize either how big of a deal it was until I got there and all these streets were shut down. It was just bustling everywhere that whole weekend.

So yeah, if anyone’s a basketball fiend, definitely hit up Hoopfest in Spokane one year. It’s a really good time.

It sounds fantastic. Maybe I’ll have to go next year and cheer you on.

True. That’d be fun. I was going to say you could play, but maybe not. Probably not outside. Maybe not on the sport court with that.

Yeah. No, it’s been funny. My brother, he just graduated college and he runs now. He never used to run. He played football, and he’s like, “Why can’t you run outside?” And I’m like, “Dude, did you forget? I don’t have cartilage in my knee. I can’t run on the concrete.”

Anyway, as we mentioned before, Michigan women’s basketball, with, in my opinion, a late pickup for the 2026-27 season, but it seems from what Jordan and I have been able to find so far, a really, really good and promising pickup that’s going to hopefully add some depth and just allow another point guard and go from there.

But basically, Michigan announced that they picked up Dallas Loughridge. We’re not quite sure how to say that. She is from Australia, so I probably butchered the crap out of that. So, I apologize. Dallas, we’ll figure out how to say your name by the time the season starts. Pinky swear.

But like I said, she’s from Australia. She’s 5-foot-6. She’s played in the WNBL, which is their highest league. She played in NBL1, which is what Greta and Emily are playing in.

And this year, she’s averaging in NBL1, which is their second league technically, 25.5 points, 5.1 assists, 3.1 rebounds, and almost playing the entire game.

And then for the WNBL team, she was averaging 16.4 points per game, almost four assists and like 3.4 rebounds.

So, the WNBL—Naz actually played in that league a couple years ago before she did Unrivaled—and so they get a lot of WNBA players over there, and it’s a really, really high level. So, for her to be averaging those statistics at that level is super impressive.

Jay, what do you think about this pickup for Michigan?

I really like it. And I also kind of wanted to talk to you about this because I’m not even quite sure this new five-for-five rule has been passed. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Correct.

So, it is you get five years from either when you turn 18 years old or you graduate from high school, whichever comes first. So, Dallas, this applies to her because she’s 22. She was born in 2004, so I believe she will only get one year of eligibility with Michigan.

But this kind of feeds into what I wanted to talk about with why I think she’s such a great pickup.

This year, as we all know, Macy Brown is out with an ACL, and she was slated to be the backup to Mila at the very least. And we all know what Macy brings to the game: a ton of energy, a ton of fight, scoring ability, passing ability.

And I think this is a great pickup because it’s a one-year get. They’re not trying to replace Macy, which I think is just confidence for her as she’s going to come back from her ACL, but it’s also a great backup point guard for Mila.

And I also think she could play off the ball as well. She’s clearly a prolific scorer. So, I think there’s going to be ample opportunity for her to get on the court.

I was watching some of her highlights and she has one of the purest jump shots I’ve ever seen. So, I think it’s going to be really good for them.

Obviously, we have great shooters on the team and in our guards. Taylor has developed her shot really well. Syla is one of the best shooters in the country, has one of the quickest releases, and I think Liv is a phenomenal shooter, too.

And I’m missing a few, but I think to add another piece to that, as well as her quickness, is really, like Maddie said, going to enhance their depth. And I’m really excited to see how she clicks with the team and just fits in.

I agree. Adding on to that, Jay, I think what’s going to be really exciting is Michigan can kind of decide if they want to go bigger or smaller this year in a way.

I think we’re going to be still not as big, like in the sense we don’t have a 6-foot-6 girl in the post, but you could play Ashley and Kendall almost together if you wanted to, or you could go small and play Mila and Dallas together and have Mila off-ball or Dallas off-ball.

Or you could play Liv at the three, or you could play Liv at the four. There are endless amounts of combinations of people, and especially if foul trouble becomes a thing, which happened a few times to us last year.

I think this adds just another piece of that and just allows us to attack teams in multiple different ways.

So, I’m going to be really interested to see, first off, how she fits in because coming from playing at that high level, you’re used to a certain type of basketball. Coming into Michigan, who has their system, they obviously have their core people back who have played together.

So, I think her playing at that high of a level, she’ll be able to fit in. I’m sure she has a great basketball IQ if she’s been able to have success over in Australia.

But it’s just going to be really interesting, and something that we should probably look into and maybe be able to explain next podcast, is in the past you haven’t been able to play professionally and still play college basketball. But I’m assuming with NIL that has changed as well.

Yeah, I’m not really sure what the answer is. I think Maddie and I will look into that to give you guys a more clear answer. But right now, as everyone knows, the NCAA is kind of allowing people to do a lot of things.

So, I’m sure it’s being allowed. I mean, wasn’t there someone on the men’s side that had played in the G League and came back and is playing in college next year?

Yeah, the LSU men’s team, I believe, they almost have a starting five, or like four of the five, who were professional players or were from overseas and played pro and are back over.

So, it’s really interesting.

And Jay, I wanted to ask you your thoughts on this new five-for-five rule. Like you explained a little bit, now every student-athlete gets five years to play, but I believe it takes out redshirts to an extent, which is also really interesting.

I’m not sure if I completely agree with that aspect either, but what are your thoughts on it?

Yeah, good point on the redshirts. I forgot to include that. That’s, I think, one of the main reasons they implemented this, because there are college athletes that are 25, 26, that are still in college on like their eighth years, which is crazy to me.

Yeah, it’s tough. I see both sides because there are people that get hurt and they might have like two injuries that are season-ending, and then they only get three years to play their sport, which is really tough.

However, for the most part, with how it’s moving with NIL and how they have been granting eligibility to so many people for just almost no reason, even when kids are playing like 60% of their season or more, and even in other sports other than basketball, and they still are getting this redshirt and getting to play a whole other year, I think that is not right.

So, the majority of me, over 50% of me, agrees with it. But I think for kids that get injured, it’s kind of a tough deal.

And I also think the 2022 class of high school, the class that just graduated this spring, got completely screwed because the rule is implemented now and they do not get a fifth year.

And I think that is really messy. And the NCAA is probably going to get sued for that because they’re already getting sued. I don’t know what reason there is to not include them.

Yeah. So, it’s a rough and messy thing right now. But yeah, I think the majority of me agrees.

What about you, Maddie?

I’ll just start with your last point of the high school grads. Yeah, it’s tough for them, but it’s also, by the time they granted it, I’m thinking of it from a coach’s perspective of like, if you granted all that class their fifth year in the summer or in the spring and they’re like, “Cool, coach, I want to come back,” they’re like, “No, we’ve recruited people to replace you. We were in the portal. We were recruiting kids from the high school level to come in.”

I just think it would have been really messy. But I get it. I mean, there was going to be a lawsuit no matter what because they are getting screwed in a sense.

The thing that I think will be really interesting, and we saw it a little bit with the COVID years as well, and there have already been a lot of transfers to begin with, but how are people going to do this fifth year?

And so there are a couple of ways to look at it, where you have someone like an Emily Kiser who did all five years at Michigan. She graduated in four, took her fifth year and did a master’s program.

You have someone like me who did four years at Michigan, went somewhere else to have a different experience and got my master’s degree there.

You have someone like Leigha Brown who did five years, transferred after her first two, and then instead of trying to graduate in two at Michigan and do a master’s, she just took extra time because she had so many credits and extra things to do that she wanted to graduate in five years instead.

So, I’m just really intrigued to see how, one, this is going to impact the transfer portal, how people are going to plan their school around it. It’s just a lot up in the air. It’ll be really interesting to see how this unfolds in the future.

I don’t love the injury part. I just feel like it should be the same for everyone, I guess, is what I’m trying to say.

The majority of people are lucky enough to go throughout college without having an injury, and now they’re going to be able to play five years instead of four years. Whereas before, the people who were getting the redshirts were not getting to play all four years. And the redshirt was to make up for their years that they lost, in my opinion, for the most part.

And the NCAA did say there were extenuating circumstances. They would allow people to reapply to get a sixth year or get something.

So, I don’t know. This seems to be their solution for the 25-year-olds still playing in college, taking their seventh and eighth years. It’s just the fifth year is going to be really interesting, is all I have to say.

And I’m excited. It doesn’t really impact me as much, more than as a fan, seeing how it’s going to roll out.

Yeah. And I think another point with that is, is this going to make people with injuries rush back because they won’t lose that year?

So, for instance, JuJu Watkins tears her ACL in March Madness and she could have come back potentially in January, February, but she would have lost that entire year of eligibility.

So now she’s coming into the 2026 season, and I’m sure she’s probably feeling really good. She’s probably fully healed and didn’t feel like she needed to rush into it because she got an extra year.

Well, now she didn’t.

But anyways, I’m curious to see if you’ll see more players that are coming back in that February-March time frame that had gotten hurt maybe in the beginning of the year or at the end of the previous year, whereas you wouldn’t have seen them before and they would have announced that they’re out for the season at the beginning of the year.

Yeah, that makes sense. I really hope and pray that is not the case, but that’s a good point if they’re not going to grant them the extra year.

Yeah.

Well, we also wanted to talk about the WNBA a little bit. There was a very exciting game on, I believe it was Tuesday.

Yeah, it was Tuesday. The Commissioner’s Cup game. Jay, do you want to explain to everyone what the Commissioner’s Cup is?

To the best of my ability, I can explain. Basically, it’s just like an in-season tournament, and they get money for whoever wins this game. So, there’s a cash incentive to it.

But you play these games, I guess, before All-Star break, and it’s not every single game, but it’s specific ones in the week. I’m not sure exactly, and Maddie, if you know, please chime in.

They might play every team twice. I’m not really sure what exactly the numbers there are, but they get these points and the top two teams that have the best record play in the championship.

So, it was Liberty and Aces in the championship on Tuesday, and the Liberty won the Commissioner’s Cup. So, they got, I’m sure, a pretty big check, especially after this new CBA. I bet the Commissioner’s Cup went up a little bit.

Half a mil this year. $500,000 split.

Dang.

That must be nice.

But yeah, it’s just a fun way to make things even more competitive before the break for All-Star and just a fun way to see kind of where everyone’s at halfway through the season.

Yeah, it is. Going off what Jay said, just a little more info. It’s like where all the teams play a single round-robin. They play each team in their conference once specifically for the Commissioner’s Cup, and whoever has the best conference record or the most points advances to the championship.

And so, yeah, we got a really—it looked like it wasn’t going to be a great game. A’ja Wilson was out for the Aces on Tuesday and the Liberty had kind of run away with it.

The Aces made a comeback to end the half and then kept the momentum going until the end. And then I think it was like the last three or four minutes, the Liberty went on a 10-0 run, capped off by like a 30-foot Sabrina three. It was so fun.

But Jackie Young, I have to give Jackie Young a shout-out. She’s from Indiana and was just playing out of her mind during that game. It was a really fun game and a fun atmosphere to watch.

But yes, we wanted to give a little update. The W games, they took yesterday off. Games will resume tonight. The Atlanta Dream are playing the Mystics, who are having a pretty good season thus far.

Jay and I highlighted some of the W teams last time. The Mystics were not one of them, but they drafted Lauren Betts and Angela Dugalić from UCLA. They also have Georgia Amoore, who’s coming back from injury. Sonia Citron, they have Kiki Iriafen. So, they’re a really young group.

They had Cotie McMahon, if you guys remember her from Ohio State. They’ve been a program historically the last couple years that have struggled a little bit, but now they’re clawing their way back up behind Sonia Citron.

Shakira Austin is also a big name for them, and they’re really fun to watch. So, I think this Atlanta Dream-Mystics game tonight should be pretty good.

The Dream are coming off three losses, so look for them to turn that around.

Olivia Miles made the All-Star roster. Unless that was fake news, she’s one of 11 or 12 rookies ever to start in an All-Star Game. So, she is unbelievable.

And we’ve highlighted her before, but it’s just really cool that a rookie who wasn’t even the first pick overall is having such an insane season and, I mean, is deserving in every way of her accolades this year thus far.

Yeah, Jay, that’s a really good point. We should go over the All-Star starting pool, but this is my All-Star soda. I’m going to take a drink of it first.

That was actually really good timing because I’m parched and I need a sip. I started coughing after my last talking when I was talking about the Mystics and Dream.

What flavor do you have today?

I have Strawberry Vanilla. I’ve had this one not many times, so I’m kind of excited to try a new flavor. What do you got, Jay?

I got Lemon Lime.

All right. Cheers.

I like this one a lot. Strawberry Vanilla is good, though. That’s probably in my top five.

Cheers.

Cheers. Oh, sorry. Cheers.

I’m also repping my OLIPOP sweatshirt that they sent me in France. I just had to show that off. I thought it was appropriate today, even though it’s really hot.

I don’t know if it’s hot in Colorado, Jay, but in Indiana, I went outside, I sat outside for 20 minutes and started sweating. So, the OLIPOP is also really refreshing for the heat wave that we’re all experiencing right now.

Yeah, it is hot. Not as hot as that. Colorado can cool off a little bit, but on the intro before we even started recording, I said, “Maddie, I love that hoodie. I didn’t even see the OLIPOP.”

She’s like, “Yeah, it’s my OLIPOP merch.”

I’m like, “Oh, lucky you.”

I know. Blessed.

So, All-Star. We have our All-Star sodas, our All-Star favorite sodas for the WNBA All-Star. They’ve only announced the starters so far.

So, I believe it’s 25% of the media vote, 25% fan voting, and then I’m not quite sure. I’m guessing coaches and players are a part of the other 50% or whatever.

But here are the starters: Aliyah Boston, Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark, Natasha Howard, Olivia Miles, as Jordan had just mentioned, Kelsey Mitchell, Jessica Shepard, Breanna Stewart, Gabby Williams, A’ja Wilson.

I know that’s a lot of people, but I mean, it’s 10, obviously.

So, how they’re doing it—they normally do the WNBA All-Star where they have two captains and they do a draft. This year, in honor of the 30th year of the WNBA, they are doing GMs.

One is Team Witherspoon and the other one is Team Cooper, previous WNBA players, legends in the game, who are going to get to craft their own team for this year’s 30th experience.

But going back to the starter pool, Jay, of those names, any surprises of who made it, of maybe who didn’t make it?

You obviously played against Jessica Shepard in Italy this past year, which is kind of cool.

Yeah, very cool to see. I mean, she’s been killing it, recording multiple triple-doubles this year, which is absurd.

The Wings are having a pretty good year so far. I mean, they have two starters in the All-Star Game, which is unbelievable.

As for surprises, I mean, I don’t really see anyone that really sticks out.

I guess from a social media perspective, I feel like I haven’t heard a ton about Natasha Howard and Gabby Williams this year. But Gabby Williams is always going to bring insane defense and do a lot of the intangibles.

So, for her, it’s not as much needing to score. And she’s a great scorer, too. But I think she’s always going to bring things that other people in the league aren’t necessarily bringing every night.

But yeah, it’s really cool to see Jessica Shepard on there because I feel like in the league she’s had kind of a rougher go. You know, she was at Minnesota last year not getting as much run, and this year with a new team, getting a big check now and performing really well.

So, it’s cool to see her on that All-Star starting roster and to have played against her just six months ago.

Yeah. Something that surprised me was the lack of Atlanta Dream.

This is going to sound super biased, obviously, because we’re Naz fans, but the Atlanta Dream are at the top of the WNBA. I’m sure they’re going to have All-Stars for sure, but you’re telling me none of their players are starters?

And then the big thing people talk about is the Fever, who are below average—I believe they’re seventh in the league right now—have three starters.

So, it’s like, well, if you have three WNBA All-Star starters, should you be in the top three at least, if not the top?

And while that, I don’t know, maybe it’s statistics-wise. Obviously, Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell are all amazing players, but that was kind of some things that I had thought of and had seen talked about online that I wanted to run by you as well, Jay, and our fans as well.

If you guys have any thoughts, leave them in the comments.

That’s a really, really good point. It’s crazy to see three people from the same team on the starting list.

But yeah, that’s a good point about Atlanta. I mean, you could argue having Angel Reese, Allisha Gray or Rhyne Howard as a starter. I mean, they’re probably all going to be All-Stars, but yeah, to have them in the top five of each team, it seems like one of them would be a given.

But that is a really good point. And I think, like you mentioned, 25% of it is fan voting, and the Fever have probably the biggest fan base in the country. So, I’m sure a lot of it was because of that.

But to some extent, I mean, Angel Reese has a huge following as well. So, it is really surprising to not see, I think, especially her name in that pool.

Two other people that you could argue for starting, or maybe not as much just based on their team records, but Kelsey Plum is having an insane year.

And then Marina Mabrey, who just came off a 53-point game, the WNBA points record. I believe she tied A’ja Wilson for that record.

I don’t know if you guys have seen that game. Go look up the highlights. Nine for 18 from three, just hitting ridiculous shots. And I believe she went like 10 for 12 from the free-throw line.

It was pretty efficient. It wasn’t like where you see sometimes where she shot like 50 shots to get 53 points. It was cool.

But Marina and Kelsey Plum, maybe your argument is that their teams aren’t in the top or whatever, but they’re both averaging insane numbers this year.

Yeah, I agree. It’s funny you mentioned that because I was in Spokane with Dara when Marina hit 53.

And the next morning I was talking to her and she was like, “I’m surprised you couldn’t hear me through the walls in the hotel. I was screaming and crying.”

She was just so excited for her, which was super sweet and really cool to see her put up those numbers.

I mean, for any person to put up 53 is absurd. Absurd. And to do it shooting that clip, like you mentioned, is really impressive.

Yeah. So, I don’t know. I mean, I’ll be really excited to see when the full list comes out.

The All-Star Game is in Chicago this year, which I think will be fun. Indy hosted it last year.

But keep an eye on that and let us know if you guys have any thoughts in the comments.

All right, that is all we have for you on today’s episode of the Nolan and Hobbs podcast. Thank you for tuning in.

Happy Fourth of July to everybody. Make sure to watch the World Cup. USA has been killing it, so it’s been fun to watch some soccer.

Yes. And as always, Go Blue.

Go Blue. Go red, white and blue.

Facts.

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