UCLA women’s basketball made its first move of the transfer portal season with the addition of Arkansas sophomore guard Bonnie Deas, who averaged nearly a double-double in her first season in the SEC.
The 5-foot-9 combo guard averaged 10.2 points and nine rebounds last season with the Razorbacks along with 1.5 steals per game. The Australian will have three years of eligibility remaining and could be in the Bruins’ starting lineup next season.
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Coach Cori Close said before the team’s NCAA tournament championship win that she expected to bring in at least five transfers to replace the six senior and graduage students who exhausted their eligibility, including the full starting lineup.
Deas started 32 games as a true freshman, was second on the team in scoring and was only one of two players averaging double-figure scoring.
Arkansas guard Bonnie Deas, left, is joining the UCLA women’s basketball team. (Michael Woods / Associated Press)
As a guard who can rebound, Deas could fit into the role Gabriela Jaquez played for the Bruins this season.
Deas helped lead Australia to a silver medal at the 2025 FIBA Under-19 Women’s Basketball World Cup when she averaged 12.3 points and 7.7 rebounds.
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UCLA is returning just guards Christina Karamouzi, Lena Bilic as well as forwards Sienna Betts, Amanda Muse and Timea Gardiner and bringing in freshman Spanish guard Somto Okafor.
Gardiner is likely to slot back into a starting role after coming back from injury, while Betts and Bilic could claim starting roles after having regular rotation spots in the postseason. The Bruins could still use some more size and another playmaker before having next year’s roster locked in.
Recruiting push
UCLA forward Sienna Betts guards California Baptist player Sofia Alonso during the first round of the NCAA tournament on March 21. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Michelle Betts, mother of Lauren and Sienna Betts, has been active on social media urging transfer players to pick UCLA.
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“Parents and kids, if you are entering the portal and are considering UCLA and have any questions you know where to find me,” she posted on X on April 5.
On Tuesday she wrote in a post to Texas freshman Aaliyah Crump, “Baby girl, do you like beaches, sunsets, driving around with the wind blowing through your hair, In n Out, sunshine all year round, hanging out with people who make you laugh? Nobody is funnier than Sienna and you know this!!!”
Read more: Here is who decimated national champion UCLA could target in the transfer portal
She also made an X post toward Stanford transfer sophomore Lara Somfai before she committed to TCU earlier this week.
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Lauren Betts previously transferred to UCLA after playing her freshman season at Stanford.
Kiki Rice’s mother, Andrea, shared one of Michelle Betts’ posts, adding, “Choosing your school is a big decision. I am also happy to share how we, as her parents, and Kiki approached it.”
Big Apple invitations
Five of the six UCLA players who declared for Monday’s WNBA Draft were invited to attend in New York next week. The league invited 15 players overall.
The only Bruin who didn’t get a call was Charlisse Leger-Walker, who is projected to go in the second round. Lauren Betts, Jaquez, Angela Dugalic, Gianna Kneepkens and Kiki Rice will be in attendance alongside fellow college stars Olivia Miles and Azzi Fudd.
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Read more: UCLA crushes South Carolina to win NCAA women’s basketball national championship
The Dallas Wings have the first overall pick, followed by Minnesota, Seattle and Washington. Most mock drafts project Betts to go in the top five, quickly followed by Rice, Jaquez and Kneepkens.
Dugalic arguably saw her draft stock rise the most during the NCAA tournament, even though she was coming off the bench, because of the versatility she showed playing in a role after starting the past two seasons for the Bruins. She is projected to go late in the first round or early in the second.
Ratings boost
UCLA’s blowout win over South Carolina for the national championship on Sunday was the third-most viewed women’s championship game since ESPN acquired the rights to the game in 1996, the network announced on Thursday.
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The Bruins’ 79-51 victory drew an average of 9.9 million viewers on ESPN and ABC and was the most-viewed sporting event of the week, according to Nielsen Ratings, and was a 15% increase from last year’s UConn championship win over South Carolina.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
