As has been the case for the last few years, the transfer portal and coaching carousel has shaken up the outlook for the next season in women’s college basketball.
When the season ended in Phoenix, Arizona earlier this month, there was much uncertainty surrounding the national champions, UCLA. The Bruins sent their top six players off to the WNBA and were only returning one significant contributor in Sienna Betts. But Cori Close went into the portal and signed Iowa State’s Addy Brown, North Carolina’s Elina Aarnisalo, TCU’s Donovyn Hunter, Arkansas’ Bonnie Deas and Notre Dame’s KK Bransford, assembling a roster that should be able to make a competitive run in March.
Advertisement
Elsewhere, Duke secured a major pickup in Aaliyah Crump from Texas, Michigan reinforced its roster with Courtney Ogden from Stanford, Iowa landed one of the SEC’s best guards in Dani Carnegie, West Virginia signed on strong fits in Zahirah Walton and Skylar Forbes, and LSU got a point guard in Iowa State’s Jada Williams.
Other teams completely rebuilt their rosters. Oklahoma State looks like the biggest winner of the portal after adding a slew of talented players that include Audi Crooks and Liv McGill. At Tennessee, Kim Caldwell brought in 13 transfers. North Carolina, Arizona State, Ole Miss, Louisville and TCU also brought in key additions.
But South Carolina looks like the team that really won April. The Gamecocks didn’t have any of their non-WNBA Draft eligible players enter the transfer portal and Dawn Staley made two key additions after losing in the national title game.
First, she signed transfer guard Jordan Lee away from Texas to fill a hole in her backcourt. A glue player for the Longhorns, was named to the All-Region team in Fort Worth 3 in this year’s NCAA Tournament and is coming off a sophomore season where she averaged 13.2 points, 2.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game while shooting 42% from the floor.
Advertisement
Then, Staley signed Oliviyah Edwards — the sixth-best recruit in the nation according to ESPN’s rankings. The 6-foot-3 forward from Washington who has gone viral for her head-turning dunks was originally committed to Tennessee, but was released from her national letter of intent and reopened her recruitment this spring. The addition of Edwards reinforces a South Carolina team that may have already had the deepest frontcourt in the country.
UConn and USC didn’t make much noise in the portal, but the Huskies bring back Sarah Strong and the Trojans are getting a healthy JuJu Watkins returning to the lineup. Other stars, like Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, return. Texas was hurt by portal departures, but Madison Booker remains to lead a young, new-look roster.
Here’s USA TODAY Sports’ way-too-early top 25 for the 2026-27 season as of April 30:
1. South Carolina
Advertisement
2. USC
3. UConn
4. Duke
5. Michigan
6. Vanderbilt
7. LSU
8. Oklahoma State
9. UCLA
10. Notre Dame
11. Iowa
12. Louisville
13. Texas
14. Ole Miss
15. North Carolina
16. TCU
17. West Virginia
18. Kentucky
19. Minnesota
20. Maryland
21. Arizona State
22. Ohio State
23. Oklahoma
24. Washington
25. Tennessee
Just missed: Illinois, NC State, UCF, Virginia, Fairfield
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Women’s basketball top 25 after transfer portal shuffle: South Carolina rises
