The Washington Huskies women’s basketball team is coming off its best season in over a decade, winning its first NCAA tournament game since the Kelsey Plum-led Huskies of the mid-2010s.
Coming off the Round of 32 berth, which ended with a 72-69 overtime loss against the TCU Horned Frogs, Washington spent the offseason adding and bolstering its roster in hopes of exceeding where last season ended.
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The Huskies’ 2026-27 roster will feature several new transfer portal additions, including 6-foot-6 forward Tylda Trigger (transferred from North Carolina State), and returning All-Big Ten honorees including senior guard Sayvia Sellers, junior guard Avery Howell and sophomore forward Brynn McGaughy.
UW also landed a commitment from four-star Class of 2026 guard Amayah Garcia.
If Washington is able to surpass the level it reached last season, it has already started to lay the groundwork to continue to keep talent coming to the program next season.
The Huskies are one of the teams in the thick of the recruitment for the No. 1 player in the Class of 2027, point guard Kaleena Smith.
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Smith, the consensus top player among the ’27 graduating class, is set to undergo a string of official visits.
The 11 programs Smith is set to visit over the rest of the season include: Washington (July 31), Baylor (Aug. 28), Oklahoma (Sept. 4), Georgia (Sept. 11), Tennessee (Sept. 25), Arizona State (Oct. 9), Miami (Oct. 16), Southern California (Oct. 23), UCLA (Oct. 30), UConn (Nov. 6) and Texas A&M (Nov. 13).
Washington has stiff competition if it wishes to land Smith but the program increased its recruiting profile in recent seasons under head coach Tina Langley.
In addition to landing 2025-26 All-Big Ten honorable mention guard Howell in the portal last offseason and recruited Sellers, who was named preseason All-Big Ten before last season began and followed through on that honor by being named first-team all-conference.
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McGaughy, who was named to the Big Ten’s All-Freshman list, was a consensus five-star recruit and McDonald’s All-American. She was the highest-rated recruit in Langley’s era as head coach of UW.
The Huskies were also one of the final teams initially considered by consensus top-five Class of ’26 player Oliviyah Edwards, who originally considered to Tennessee before flipping her commitment to South Carolina.
Washington will need a player to take over reigns at point guard for Sellers after she plays her final year this upcoming season and going from Sellers to Smith would likely be a seamless transition. It would also mark arguably the biggest recruiting wins in UW women’s basketball history.
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