The Washington Huskies women’s basketball team will enter this season with legitimate Big Ten contender expectations after a solid offseason that saw them add several notable additions via the transfer portal, and add another player via the Class of 2026, four-star guard Amayah Garcia.
The Huskies have developed a solid reputation for recruiting and retaining talent under head coach Tina Langley, and they’re looking to continue their solid recruiting efforts for the Class of 2027.
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Washington has already hosted the top overall player in the ’27 class, Kaleena Smith, on an official visit at the end of July.
The UW women’s basketball team is also on the radar of another top player in next year’s recruiting cycle.
Per an article from On3 Sports reporter Talia Goodman, 5-foot-9 point guard Kaylor Buse has narrowed her list down to five finalists, with the Huskies included among her list. Buse is ranked as the 52nd-best overall player in the country and a four-star point guard, per ESPN.
The West Linn (Ore.) High School guard has already taken her official visit with Washington, and has official trips scheduled with her four other finalists: the TCU Horned Frogs (Aug. 28), Utah Utes (Sept. 11), Oregon Ducks (Sept. 18) and South Carolina Gamecocks (Oct. 3).
In her junior season with West Linn last winter, Buse averaged 15.2 points across 29 games on 46% shooting from the floor. She also averaged 6.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.6 steals and 1.3 blocks per game with just 3.2 turnovers per contest.
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“The official visit was great,” Buse said in Goodman’s article about UW. “I don’t think really an official visit can go badly, just because you kind of get spoiled, but it was great. It was not surprising at all. I think Washington is just a super down to earth program and you can tell they just do things the right way. I really, I really enjoyed it there. Just amazing staff and the girls were amazing. That official was great.”
Smith and Buse both play point guard, which could either mean that UW doesn’t feel confident in its pursuit of the former, or Langley and the rest of the coaching staff are looking to hedge their bets and potentially land two players who could take over for first-team All-Big Ten guard Sayvia Sellers.
Sellers earned her first-team honors after a career-best season last year. She played and started in all 33 of Washington’s games and averaged 18 points on 47.3% shooting from the floor (35.4% from 3-point range) in addition to 3.9 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals.
Sellers will be eligible to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft, but will be able to return in the 2027-28 season under the NCAA’s new 5-for-5 eligibility rules.
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If Sellers does opt to pursue the pros, landing a combination of either Buse or Smith, in addition to landing Garcia this year, could give Langley options in trying to find a replacement for her all-conference point guard.
