Saw that Nene Sow has hit the transfer portal (she had been honored on senior night and didn’t seem to factor into the plans going forward anyway).
Roster for 2025-2026 as of today:
Senior:
Gianna Kneepkens
Maty Wilke
Sam Crispe
Junior:
Reese Ross
Alyssa Blanck
Chyra Evans
Sophomore:
Brooke Walker
Kylie Ray
Freshman:
Grace Foster (presumably redshirt this year)
Leonna Sneed
Avery Hjelmstad
Ella Todd
If Blanck recieves a scholarship, that will put us at 12, needing 3 more with the expanded rosters. Wouldn’t be surprised to see 1 or more transfers out. Really, really need some size and physicality.
Great post and breakdown. I saw Nene on crutches at the Cincinnati game, so she was injured somehow anyway and no biggie.
You know, the injury to the Michigan transfer Evans really did hurt this year. I wonder how much better the team would have been with her playing regularly.
Kylie Ray didn’t play much this year at all, and I see her as someone who probably wants playing time and might be better transferring down a step. Walker played quite a bit for a freshman this year, and with McQueen gone, she may fill that spot right away.
If they give a scholarship to Blanck, then Petersen hasn’t worked hard enough to fill in the holes on the team, IMO.
In the end, with Evans back, Foster fully ready, and the three recruits, with just that the team may be better. But, those empty spots really need to go to players at least 6’3" and have inside chops offensively and defensively to really make a difference in the tough XII.
Major hit here as Gianna Kneepkens announces she is hitting the portal in a post that doesnt seem to leave room for a return. Not gonna say I called it, because I didn’t, but I went to the breakfast with the team before the year started and a guy next to me asked her is she was going to get an extra year and her answer , not really the words, but the way she said it, made me wonder if this was a possibility even back then.
Yes they can. Whether Gavin can hold the rest together and keep the incoming class will be a big indication of whether the admin jumped too fast into making him HC. I believed it was the right move at the time and there have and will continue to be successful male coaches of women’s teams , but I believe women coaches should coach women’s teams.
I never fault graduates for deciding to go elsewhere for grad school. It would be nice if they stayed but educationally it is often better to go to a different institution for grad school.
Not much more to say than what you all have already said. And you are right that the wording of the message doesn’t leave really any room to come back.
I thought this might be a possibility, especially becuase of: (1) the coaching change; but also (2) Johson and McQueen with no eligibility and I think if those two were still around she may have stayed, I mean, they literally grew up in the program together.
Miles is a 5th year senior (she missed a season with injury) and was projected to be picked in the top 2 in the WNBA draft. This transfer is likely NIL driven because Miles could make more playing that last year in college than she would as a rookie in the WNBA.
Out of curiousity, I went back and looked at the box score from the ND game back in November and Miles only scored 8 points. Also noted that Wilke scored 16 points off the bench which fortifies my thinking she didn’t shoot enough this past year.
Anyway, if our men’s team has trouble landing players because we are behind in NIL, I can’t imagine the women’s team is doing much better.
the great reshuffling. But with WNBA, if you are a top player, it almost always makes sense to stay as long in college as you can as NIL money is better (and can still get endorsements either way, maybe even more likely as a college star than a WNBA role player).
Fwiw…saw on social media that UConn guard Kaitlyn Chen got drafted 30th. Was thinking she looked familiar. Well, then I remembered she played for Princeton, which was one of the teams that Utah defeated in NCAA tourney at the Hunty. I remembered she was a stud and Utah had a hard time stopping her (19 pts).
I looked at the draft results and noticed that (if I counted right) 7 players drafted that the Utes played against this year a bit less than 20% of the draft picks.
New addition to the team. We needed some size, hopefully she can play right away. If my math is right, I believe that is 6 returning players, 4 new freshman, and 1 transfers in, giving us 4 scholarships to work with.