The Washington Huskies women’s basketball team is coming off its most successful season in nearly a decade after winning its first NCAA tournament game since 2017.
Coming off the Huskies’ tournament win in nine years, which doubles as the first win in March Madness for head coach Tina Langley in her career leading a program, the team has bolstered both the roster and the coaching staff.
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The offseason additions to the program, both players and coaches, could have Washington well-positioned to contend for a Big Ten title. If UW is able to win it, it would mark the first Big Ten championship for the program since making the move to the conference before the 2024-25 season and first conference title in nearly a decade. The last time the Huskies won a conference title, either regular season or postseason, was in 2001.
It’s been a years-long rebuild to this point to get Washington back to the point of being perennial NCAA tournament competitors and potential conference rivals. This upcoming season represents a shift to that status, but it’s also the first year without the foundational recruiting class in Langley’s tenure.
Langley’s recruits from the Class of 2022 all ran out of eligibility this past season. One of them, guard Hannah Stines, is currently attempting to earn a fifth year of eligibility in a legal battle against the NCAA, along with other players.
Another guard from the ’22 class, Elle Ladine, had a chance to extend her basketball career after receiving a training camp invite with the WNBA franchise, the Seattle Storm.
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Ladine was unable to carve out a spot on the roster and was ultimately waived by the storm before the start of the season.
The former UW guard is apparently not letting her professional basketball dream end with the WNBA. According to a post on Instagram from Polish professional women’s team AZS AJP Gorzów Wielkopolski, Ladine has signed a contract and will play with the team.
Ladine’s four-year tenure with the team was a well-decorated one. She was named second-team All-Big Ten following the 2023-24 season. In 33 games that year (all starts), she averaged 17 points per game on 47.3% shooting from the field (39.3% from 3-point range) in addition to 4.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists and over a steal per game.
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This past season, Ladine missed the first six games of the season due to an undisclosed injury. She finished her final year of college ball having averaged 9.9 points on 39.6% shooting (31.5% shooting from beyond the arc) in addition to five rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.
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