← No Offseason: The Athletic Women's Basketball Show
No Offseason: The Athletic Women's Basketball Show
Where Will Audi Crooks, Kymora Johnson, and Other Top Players End Up?
00:49:09
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- [00:00]
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- [00:31]
Sabrina Merchant
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- [01:58]
Chantelle Jennings
Hello everyone, and welcome to no off season. I'm Shantelle Jennings.
- [02:01]
Sabrina Merchant
And I'm Sabrina Merchant.
- [02:03]
Chantelle Jennings
And today on the show, the women's basketball transfer portal opened on Monday and more than 1200 Division 1 players have already entered their names in, which is more than an entire NCAA Tournament's worth of rosters. So with all of those names, who are the biggest players looking to make moves? Which names landed as a surpr and how our program's planning to reload. Now that the portal is wide open, we're taking a deep dive into the portal, breaking down how it works, the strategy behind it, and all of the players who could shake up the next NCAA season. But first, a little housekeeping. We've got another YouTube live stream planned for Monday night right after the WNBA draft. If you're not familiar with our YouTube channel, go check it out. If you're not subscribed, we've got to fix that. Hit the subscribe button. And for those who only listen on audio, know that we'll also have that episode ready to go for Tuesday morning on the podcast feed. Okay, I think we should first jump into transfer portal 101, Sabrina. So we're going to do things a little bit differently today. We're just going to dive right into our big topic. Because in this moment, that big topic and the more newsy things happening in the college space are one and the same. And I'm talking, of course, about the transfer portal. This is something that has completely transformed college basketball in the last few years. Players have more freedom than ever to switch schools and chase opportunities or find a team that's the right fit for them. That kind of movement was not common in earlier eras of college sports, and it's completely shaking up how coaches build their rosters and how teams plan for their seasons. First things first, though, Sabrina, for listeners who might not be familiar or for folks who need a refresher, what exactly is the transfer portal and how does it work?
- [03:43]
Sabrina Merchant
Right, so the transfer portal is essentially an online database where college athletes can enter their names so that they can be contacted and recruited by other schools. Of course, you could put yourself into the transfer portal as a do not contact, which means you actually cannot be contacted because you already know where you're going to your next school. But, yeah, essentially it's just a list of all of these names and coaches and agents just scour through it and figure out who's in the portal and who they want to recruit to their new team. And as you mentioned, it is absolutely popping with names at this time of year because in previous iterations of college sports, you had to sit out a season when you transferred before getting back onto the court or the field or whatever, and now you can transfer willy nilly and not miss any time.
- [04:28]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah, it's just kind of wild because I think the idea of the transfer portal, you know, when I talk to people and they're like, there's 1200 players in there. Well, I'm so glad that players are going to find a new opportunity. And I'm like, well, it's, it's not just for, like, players who are like, oh, I'm not getting what's mine. At the current school, you know, there is the same percentage roughly of players in the Portal who played more than than 30 minutes a game last year and players who played fewer than four minutes a game. Like the spectrum of players who are in the portal is vast. Same thing where more than half of the players in the portal right now played at least, played in at least 25 games last season and only 22% played in fewer than 10. And so I think there's this idea of like, you have those huge stars that are jumping into the portal and we'll talk about all of those players soon. But like in, it's a really wide range and it's not just the stars and it's not just the players who are like at the very end of the bench that are trying to transfer maybe out of the power conference into a mid major. Players who are mid majors trying to get into the power conference. And I think one trend that we've seen basically stay the same is freshmen. Like, we've just seen a lot of freshmen, year after year jump into the portal. And this is a group where, you know, I, I think maybe there's a little more understanding. Cause it's like you go to your school your first year and it's like, oh, this isn't what I thought it would be. How much of that is the school? How much of that is college basketball? How much of that is college sports right now? Hard to say. And when you have 300 freshmen in the portal, like there is no one size fits all for why these players are doing what they're doing. But it's just kind of fascinating to see how this has all evolved because it was not always this way. As you said, people used to have to sit out a year. And I think that has changed the calculus for the amount of movement we've seen.
- [06:21]
Sabrina Merchant
Yeah, I think it really changes the calculus for the upperclassmen who move because previously I feel like most transfers were freshmen because like you said, you go to your school, you're like, oh my God, this is not what I thought it was going to be. At least if I transfer now, I'll get three more years at my next school. Whereas if you were, you know, already finished your sophomore junior year and there's a coaching change, or like you're just not getting along with the coaching staff or somebody, a new hot recruit comes in, that's going to take all of your minutes and you try to transfer, that's going to completely upend the closing of your college career because you have to sit out a full season before you can finish it out. And now without that lag time, people can just make decisions, really, on a whim, honestly. Basically, all you have to do to enter the portal is just notify the compliance officer at your school and then they put your name into the database and la di da. And technically, you can withdraw your name from the portal and come back to your school, but they're under no obligations to retain your spot if you have already entered your name into the transfer portal. So that's probably why we don't see that all too often. And frankly, if you're going to enter the portal, it's probably after some thought, you know, that you don't want to return to where you're currently playing. But as you mentioned, there's just so many reasons to want to go to the portal, right? Like, do you want more minutes? Do you not like the coaching staff? Do you think that there's a different style of play that's going to suit you? Do you feel like you haven't been winning enough and you'd like to be in that kind of situation, which sometimes results in getting fewer minutes, right? Because you're probably going to be in a position where there's more talent on your team. So just lots of reasons why you might enter the portal, and I think a big one is you want more money. Right? Which was definitely not a part of previous college sports conversations.
- [07:57]
Chantelle Jennings
I know this is. I feel like I've told this story on the pod before, but, like, nothing makes me feel older in this space than remembering that literally during my career as a sports writer, when it must have been in like 2014, 15, the NCAA changed its rules on, of all things, bagels and what it classified as a spread. And I forget if it cream cheese or peanut butter, but it was like, they couldn't have one of those two in earlier, like, NCAA rules. And then the NCAA decided that cream cheese or peanut butter, whichever it was, was a spread and they could now have this on their, on their bagels and their toast or whatever. And I just remember, like, I was covering college football at the time. And so naturally I, like, asked all the linemen, like, how excited are you that you get to have peanut butter? I'm like, now these players are making like half a million dollars. They could buy a freaking peanut butter.
- [08:46]
Sabrina Merchant
Sponsors
- [08:50]
Chantelle Jennings
like, all of this, you know, nothing makes me feel older than the fact that rosters are now constructed with, you know, 3 million, $4 million worth of nil and rev share. Like, we're at the national championship this weekend. Like, all of these players are making. Not all of Them, most of them are making a substantial amount of money, some of them potentially more than they'll make even with this increased CBA and the WNBA next year. Like, it's just kind of fascinating. But, yeah, so I think that's a huge part of why we see transfers and, you know, going to. Speaking with coaches. Rather, like, there is tampering that happens at the college level. Like, again, this is something we heard about a little bit before the Portal and before Nil. It's always happened in college sports, even if it wasn't always talked about. It's always happened even in women's basketball. And I think tampering is also a part of this. That's a word that we hear a lot sort of at the pro level and not at the college level. But tampering would be sort of operating outside of the rules and regulations that exist for proper protocols when it comes to this transferring. And you hear coaches talk about this, and it's sort of like, you know, there's not. There are very firm, like. Like, barriers, I guess, in terms of what is tampering. Like a coach reaching out to a player before they're in the portal. That is tampering. Like, you cannot have any contact with players before they're in the portal. But yet you talk to coaches, and it's like, even in December, there are coaches who are aware, through a mix of conversations with different people, whether that's agents, high school coaches, the rumor mill, whatever, that certain players are testing the waters. And so sometimes it's like you see a name pop up into the portal, and you're like, yeah, I was having a conversation with a coach, and they told me that would probably happen way back in January. And it's like the season is over and the portal opens. And I think that's another thing we should mention, is that the timing of the Portal this year was different. There was so much uproar with the coaches last year. It opened in the middle of the tournament. And I'm talking to coaches, and I'm sure you were as well, through, like, the Sweet sixteen and the Elite Eight. And they're, like, doing film study at night and then ending film study and calling recruits basically out of the portal and, like, trying to balance those two things. And so the NCAA pushed Nia Watson
- [11:11]
Sabrina Merchant
at the tournament this year, and she said that all of the Final Four teams last year were recruiting her while they were in the Final Four.
- [11:17]
Chantelle Jennings
Right. And also, like. So then that's sort of like how the knife cuts both ways on that like, coaches were saying, like, this is really hard. We have to balance all of these things. And then you have these teams that aren't playing that all they have time for is recruiting. And I was like, yes, but you're playing in the final Four, and those teams are not. So, like, who has the better sell here right now for these top recruits? This year, it opened at midnight, the night after the national championship game or the morning after, rather. And within 24 hours, a thousand players were already in there. And, you know, it's been about 100 a day, more or less trickling in. Kind of wild to say that 100 players is a trickle, but in terms of the transfer portal, I suppose it is. And it'll be open for two weeks, and so players don't need to be committed by the end of two weeks. But this is something that happens quickly. But your name needs to be in the portal by those two weeks if you want to transfer. Otherwise the other transfer rules kind of kick in. Unless you have a waiver.
- [12:13]
Sabrina Merchant
Yeah. And I mean, I guess we should talk a little bit more about the money of it all, because part of the conversations with these new coaches when you're in the portal is, okay, well, what sort of nil deals can I get? What sort of revenue share is coming through? Like, I'm playing at a mid major. I'm not really getting a lot here. Maybe I'll come to a Power 4 conference and there's fewer minutes on the table, but also like, a bigger paycheck come in at the end of this. And like you mentioned, the WNBA salaries have gone up significantly with this new cba. But that doesn't mean that most players in college are going to the wnba. Right. Like, this is their prime opportunity to capitalize financially off of their athletic accomplishments and can't really begrudge them for wanting to do that. Right. Like, this is. A lot of people call this a job now. Right? Like the way that they have to prioritize basketball. Like, it makes sense to want to make as much money as possible. So that's a big part of the conversation as much as anything. Like when we talked to Don Staley during the regional round, you know, somebody had asked her, like, do you talk about getting a degree at all when you're talking to players? Like, is that an important part of the conversation because they're moving school so often? She says, really, all we talk about is how much is this going to cost? That's the number one part of the conversation when you're talking to a New player is how much is this going to cost? Can we make that happen? If not, then we move on like degree. All of these things are very low on the priority table. It's, I mean it's all about money, right? Like it's been all about money for coaches and athletic departments for a very long time and now that just has, you know, extended its way into the players.
- [13:43]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah. And I think this is where the fact that there isn't any sort of national legislation for conferences or even like within a conference from school to school, the revenue share salary cap. And so that's the part of when we think of the payments that are being paid to players. Like rev share is what's coming from the universities being paid directly to the schools. Again, I can't believe I ever asked anyone how they felt about getting peanut butter on their bagels when I'm talking about revenue share in college sports now. But that is going to up. It was just over 20 million in this year. It's going to be about 21.3 million next year. But there's no like the NCAA, the College Sports Commission. No one says like you have to give 5% of this to women's college basketball. It's up to the individual school how much they're going to allocate to women's college basketball. So you know, some schools get a large chunk of that money, some schools get a very small chunk of that money. Some schools might get none of that money. Like it really differ and whether you're in the Big Ten and the SEC or the Big 12 or like the west coast conference, like all of this is different. And that revenue share salary cap, like that's the max. Not everyone has to hit that. And so you assume that power conferences are but like these mid major conferences aren't. And then outside of that you have the nil deals. Whether that's you know, sort of the traditional nil stuff that we think of in terms of like a player and like a car dealership that feels like such a cliche example. But I feel like that's a pretty, pretty obvious one that we see in college sports. But then there's also, you know, a lot of these marquee tournaments that we see around Thanksgiving or something or the players era, like there's an nil component to that. So a certain percentage or a certain amount of that money is being used within nil to, to pay the players that are playing in it. And so you have all of this and so teams that maybe aren't getting as Much rev share as other programs. Maybe they're making up for that in a different way, whether it's through these nil or outside deals, or maybe teams that have a ton of rev share, you know, don't have to do as much in terms of the outside nil. And it's just like, money is so important because these players are, you know, some of the most famous in college sports. Like the players that we see in the Final Four. Like, these players will potentially, some of them make more in college than they will in the wnba, as we said, even with this increased CBA in terms of just that, like, these deals, again, are going to funnel over and so it's just going to go on top of their salary. But, yeah, it's just pretty wild.
- [16:20]
Sabrina Merchant
Yeah. And because of all of the movement, you're in a situation where it's really hard for programs to plan ahead, right? Like, you used to see some situations where you'd get a really good recruiting class and just sort of let that build, right? Like, okay, maybe we're not going to make the tournament this first year with all of our best players as freshmen. Or maybe we will, but we'll be an early exit. But, like, it'll allow us time to grow and you just can't bank on that anymore, right? Like, so many teams are just one and done outfits, right? Like, yeah, you might have a really good freshman class, but you better make sure you get in a couple veterans in the portal because, right, you just have to compete right away, right? Like, there's no opportunity to say, like, okay, our guys are going to stick around. And like, I even think about ucla, right? They lost their entire freshman class this past off season. And yeah, it resulted in a national championship because they, you know, backfilled with Gianna Neepkins. And that helps a lot more than, like, you know, Kendall Dudley and Avery Kane. But, like, it's going to change the way they build going forward, right? Like, you can't just rely on high school recruiting and, you know, organically growing a program, like, you have to consistently be restocking and that makes teams look very different year to year. That that's why the transfer portal is, you know, full every year because there are opportunities all across the country to fill in for teams and like, it just, it changes the culture of college basketball, right? Because you're so used to, especially in women's basketball. This is a player I can watch for four years at my school, right? I'm gonna get to know them. I'm gonna get to know their story, I'm gonna get to root for them. And like, those are just few and far between.
- [17:49]
Chantelle Jennings
Right? Well, and I think it's also like people say, like, oh, but this is like how it's been on the men's basketball side forever. And it's like, no, not exactly, because I think on the men's basketball side and you can, you've watch more men's college basketball than I do. But like, even there it's like the coaches know, like, this is a one and done guy. I'm getting him for one year and then he's gone. That's not necessarily the case when it comes to the transfer portal. Like, you might recruit someone and you think you're getting them for four years. I mean, I don't think any coach thinks that anymore, but like, I think they're pleasantly surprised when they get them for more than one year. But like, you know, you would look at a player and you'd say based on their skill level, based on their prospects, like, like, I'm getting him for one year and then he's going pro in the women's college game. Like, you had the constraints of the WNBA eligibility rules and so you never really looked at a player and said, I'm getting her for one year and then she's gone. Now I think it's different where it's like, you're going to have this player for more than one year if you get her X amount in rev share in nil, if you can get her a certain number of minutes because there's going to be coaches or agents or whomever in her ear saying, like, you know, if you go to this school, whatever. And so I think your point about UCLA is really interesting because yes, they lost their entire freshman class. But on the flip side of that, like, I don't know if we're gonna see another group of seniors where it's, you know, I, I know Lauren Betts went to Stanford her freshman year, but I just consider hear her such like a UCLA product. Like, I don't know if we'll have a group of three seniors that played three or four years together at one school, like ever again. And that's pretty wild to say in a college sports landscape where, like, that was what women's basketball was for. But I think looking to the future, UCLA is going to be the exception, not the rule.
- [19:32]
Sabrina Merchant
And like, I mean, I think they're also part of the rule because they had a five player number one class that came in.
- [19:37]
Chantelle Jennings
That's true.
- [19:38]
Sabrina Merchant
Headlined by Kiki and Gabriela Jacques and three of them did not end their careers at ucla. And like I think about a couple years before that, you know, Oregon had a number one recruiting class that incidentally included Angela Dugalic, and none of them finished their careers at Oregon. So that's just the way of the world. Like even good classes, even classes where you know they are foundational to your program, the majority of them did not like finish their careers as ucla. Prudence
- [20:05]
Chantelle Jennings
all right, well, we should probably talk about some of these top players that are in the portal right now. So on the other side of this break, we will look at all the players. Well, not all of the players who are on the move because I don't think there is enough air time for them. Yeah, we'll look at all the top players who are on the move, the programs that are hurting, and the ones that might benefit the most.
- [20:28]
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- [20:58]
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- [21:28]
Sabrina Merchant
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- [22:09]
Chantelle Jennings
Okay, Sabrina, let's get into what's been happening over the last few days. Some really big names are on the move, and a few teams have lost a ton of, if not close to, their entire rosters. I think the best place to start here is your top 25. You're way too early. Top 25. How are you feeling about that?
- [22:30]
Sabrina Merchant
I mean, it's called way too early for a reason, so I feel very good about the branding. Yeah.
- [22:37]
Chantelle Jennings
What school do you feel like was maybe even within minutes of the portal opening? Which one was still too early to put too high?
- [22:47]
Sabrina Merchant
Yeah. So number one on this list, Texas is reeling. Reeling, I think, is the appropriate way to describe this. You know, I looked at Texas and I thought, hey, Matty Booker, Justice Carlton, Jordan Lee, Aaliyah Crump, Brianna Preston. Like, what a group of talent coming back. And based on the portal, it looks like Madison Booker is the only one who's coming back out of that. So Texas is, I think, the number one team that has been hit real hard by the portal, and I say number one because this was a legitimate national championship contender with the amount of talent they were bringing back, and now they have a lot of work to do to get back to that point.
- [23:18]
Chantelle Jennings
Brianna Preston isn't actually in the portal yet, but it sort of feels like there are these programs where the exodus happens after one player leaves, and it's sort of like, you know, again, everyone leaves for a different reason potentially. But you do look at a program like Texas, where you build from year to year, and historically, you'd look at them and think, like, wow, they have such young, talented core coming back. They have a core that feels really well built and suited for that system. Two Final four appearances in a row. What a successful program. What a successful group of players, young players. And suddenly, you know, you're looking at a Texas team that it's like, are you guys going to be able to play 3 on 3 next week at all in the gym? Like, I don't know. Like, it's just. It's wild how quickly things can change. Are there any other teams in your top 25 that you put that feel Texas adjacent?
- [24:15]
Sabrina Merchant
Well, I feel like there's sort of the flip side of that where I did not put TCU in my top 25. Because they had practically nobody when the season ended, you know, and now, you know, that was obviously with the understanding that, hey, Mark Campbell does this every year. He's talked about the last five seasons of him being a head coach in college basketball. He's added at least six transfers a year. And I'm pretty sure that by the time this podcast posts, there will be news about Mark Campbell having added some excellent players roster. I think the rumor right now is Lainey Grant is going to be on her way from North Carolina to TCU and Lara Shoamfail from Stanford. Another rating of the west coast conferences, Stanford to tc.
- [24:55]
Chantelle Jennings
That's a well worn.
- [24:56]
Sabrina Merchant
I don't know that ACC is necessarily a West coast conference anymore, but yeah, that was one caveat that I'd made like, hey, I assume good things will happen in the portal for tcu. They just hadn't happened yet. And that's the, the other side of the coin to what's happening in Texas.
- [25:12]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah, I think it was last year the portal opened on Mark Campbell's birthday and I remember him saying like, well, happy birthday to me. And everyone was kind of like, yeah, this is how you build. And I think that's, you know, we talked a little bit about coaches and, and I do think that in this era of player autonomy, there's a lot of good things, like players should be able to leave, players should be able to make money. I think I also think about coaches because I've talked to so many of them. Some have talked publicly, some have talked privately about like, this is, it's like, are you building a team or a program? What is sort of the point of college athletics anymore? Like, even in the pros, players sign long term deals and long term being three years, which would feel like a lifetime in college sports at this point.
- [25:52]
Sabrina Merchant
Well, they do sign them in college. They don't just always honor them, you know.
- [25:56]
Chantelle Jennings
Exactly. And so it's like, but like to have a player that, you know, it's just like rebuilding year to year. And then I think you have a coach like Mark Campbell who's just sort of accepted that this is how it's going to work and has made deep runs so far in the NCAA Tournament at TCU using a model where it's like, I'm going to run a system that allows not plug and play necessarily, but I'm going to run a system that allows me to find the right players and allows them to be creative in the system and play in the system to the best of their abilities. And like, frankly, that might not be good enough to win a national championship because, like, the teams that we've seen win national championships during the NCAA Nil era are still teams that have, like, a cor that stays together. But I'm not necessarily of the disbelief that that's not something that can get a team to the Final Four, at least, or the Elite Eight, like Mark Campbell's proven. Like, you can get deep in March with using sort of a rotating door of players. And it'll be interesting, I think, also to see as this continues and as there's fewer guardrails around all of this, like, how many coaches retire in the next few years? You know, we were at the Final Four this weekend, and I ran into a young coach, and, sorry, I should say I ran into a coach who was with someone that I assumed was a younger coach. And I was like, oh, you know, are you working with him? And she was like, no, no, no. I got out of the game, like, a few years ago. And I'm like, you're, like, 30. Like, you haven't even been in it that long. And she was like, this isn't, like, what I wanted to do. And I was like, yeah, I totally get that. Because if you spend your entire career sort of understanding this is how you build a program, this is how you have success in college sports, and then the portal comes in at nil and, like, coaches and programs, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing, like, but there are, you know, there are both sides to this that coaches are like, this is not like, you know, this is just different and in some ways harder than the pros, because, you know, in the pros, like, you can kind of look at your books and say, this is who we have this year, next year, and two years from now. And those things can change. But it's not like you wake up one morning and seven of your players are in the portal, and they're like, see you, coach. Thanks for everything.
- [28:09]
Sabrina Merchant
Yeah. You know, just thinking about Texas, I think about when we were at the Final Four and the most despondent that I saw, Vic Schaefer look the entire weekend was not when they lost to ucla. It was not when Madison Booker and Rory Harmon were coming off the court or even when he had to give the press conference after that loss. It was when somebody asked him about Bill Fennelly and the situation at Iowa State. That was when he put his hands, like, literally just on his face and just, like, sat like that for a good 10 seconds and was just so Full of despair for what his good friend, you know, was going through at Iowa State with his entire roster basically transferring out and the change in college athletics. Right. Because Vic Schaefer's been around for a long time and has been around pre portal and tried to build teams that way. And it's, you know, he's obviously had success in both situations, but, like, he's going through it now. Right. Like, he's going through a situation where everybody but Madison Booker, you know, we'll see how the rest of the portal shakes out, is, you know, might be gone from Texas. And his reaction to just, like, the empathy that he has for Bill Fennelly was really just made an impression on me because, like, this is something that never used to happen before. And this, like you said, sometimes you just wake up and all of a sudden seven of your players are gone and there's nothing you can do about it. And, like, we're just seeing a lot of teams go through that. Like, we already mentioned Texas, Iowa State is on that list. Tennessee is on that list. Tennessee teams that had coaching changes. You know, it's a little bit of a different situation because you didn't bring all these players into your program, but, like, there are gonna be big exoduses out of Virginia, and, like, we've seen some good players come out of Florida. So I think just the way coaches react to this, like, I. I wouldn't be surprised if Fix Schaefer realized, like, he couldn't do this anymore because, again, like, how. How do you go to sleep, like, on the night after the Final Four and then wake up the next day and think, like, oh, crap, like, the. The team that I thought I was building for this next season is entirely gone.
- [29:59]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah. And it's also like, one of the things that I talked to with some coaches last year. I haven't had a chance to talk with that many coaches because we've been in WNBA free agency time since we all got back from Phoenix. But I remember talking to coaches last year, and they were saying, especially when the portal opened during the Sweet 16, it was like you never got a chance to celebrate what your team did that year. And so I think of Texas specifically, where what. What an incredible season they had to do, what they did to go to a second straight Final Four. Obviously not the performance that they wanted to have in that Final Four game against ucla, but still so much to celebrate Rory's incredible career there. A great season for Madison, great seasons for a lot of players. And it's like, are they going to Have a banquet. Like, are they going to celebrate this season? Because I just don't know if that happens. And last year, specifically, when the portal opened during the tournament, and I remember talking to coaches who made the second round or the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight, and it was either the first time their program had done it or the first time they had done it or whatever. It was all of these coaches who had done something or these programs that have done something. And it was like, you don't get to celebrate the players. You don't get to celebrate the program that did it because it's like immediately that team is gone and it's really. Yeah, I guess there's just sort of that part of it all that is changing, and I don't necessarily think it's completely a bad thing. Again, I believed in player autonomy. They should be able to leave if they want to leave. They should be able to make more money if they can make more money. But I'm also kind of sad that this Texas team, which I had a ton of fun watching, they should be celebrated.
- [31:39]
Sabrina Merchant
Well, speaking of this Texas team, some of the names that are in the portal already, Justice Carlton, Jordan Lee, Aliyah Crump, I assume are pretty high on your list of top transfer portal targets. I think that's on the site today. Who else is on that list that we should be thinking about? Chantel?
- [31:54]
Chantelle Jennings
Well, Adi Crooks. She was one of a number of players. Again, with the portal opening later, we had a lot of players who sort of announced preemptively, like, I will be entering the portal. Our list, I should say, is only players who have actually entered the portal. Because I also think there is sometimes that players say, like, I'm going to enter the portal. And then schools react and say, like, what? What would it take to keep you here? So our. I think we're at a top 20 right now. We tried to pare it down from 1300 to 20, which is a real task. I think Adi Crooks, for me, is just such a fascinating player. Obviously, some defensive limitations there, but I think in the right system, which she was in at Iowa State, to a good extent, she can thrive. Such a unique player can score great footwork. So fascinated to see where she might end up. It reminds me a little bit of Regan Beers leaving Oregon State, where it sort of felt like Reagan was in such a good situation. At Oregon State, they played in this drain, the shot clock system with Scott Ruick, and then she leaves there to go to Oklahoma. And it was like, how is this gonna work? I think mixed results ultimately, especially when her other finalist was UConn and you sort of think systematically maybe a better fit with that. So I do wonder with Audi being a dominant center as she is, like, does she try to go into a different system to, you know, whether that's because it's something she wants, whether it's something she feels like she needs to put on tape for the W, whether it's something, you know, money related, like whatever it might be. Like, where does she end up? So I think Audi's really interesting. I think Liv McGill out of Florida, like a bucket getter, instant offense for anyone who wants to put her on the roster and can find the right spot. She's somewhere that you and I had talked about. You know, you're sort of like trying to like, read through things as you're seeing it. And she was at Tammy Reese's introductory press conference, which initially both of us were like, oh, that's a good sign for Tammy, if Tammy can retain her. Yeah. Something happened between the press conference and her portal entry that caused that to, you know, not be a good sign, I guess, apparently. And so Liv is now in the portal. Kahmora Johnson, like, you know, a breakout star of the NCAA tournament, Virginia kid through and through. I will be fascinated to see if she ends up at South Carolina. Like, if you're going to leave your dream school, the school you grew up being a ball girl for, like, you might as well go play for the coach who made that school so much of what it is on a national stage. And so I think those are a few players, to me, that really stand out in terms of, you know, they're going to be hearing from a ton of programs.
- [34:42]
Sabrina Merchant
Yeah. And we should mention some of the players who have already announced their commitments. Like, I thought Talisha Cooper was going to be a big name in the portal, and she is already committed to Ole Miss.
- [34:49]
Chantelle Jennings
Race fit at Ole Miss. Great fit.
- [34:51]
Sabrina Merchant
Great fit. Yeah, we mentioned, you know, a couple of the players that TCU has landed. I think, you know, Jada Williams is going to attract a lot of interest. You know, as a senior guard. Did really good things at Iowa State after her time in Arizona. A lot of players obviously coming out of Iowa State. I think Addie Brown is going to be a big name just because of her ability to be multi positional and she was kind of the glue to that Iowa State team. You saw how much even Audi Crook struggled when she was off of the court. And then I think Donovan Hunter is also another name. I realize I'm mentioning a lot of veterans. These are all players with only one year of eligibility left. But again, this is the one and done era of college basketball. And if I want somebody who I know is going to be able to hang in a late tournament game, then, yeah, Donovan Hunter has played in three consecutive Elite Eights and I'm sure she'd like to get to a Final Four at this point. So, yeah, those are just some of the other players who may not be total star potential, but I think they're really good connective pieces that any team would want to add in the portal just to supplement what they already have going.
- [35:50]
Chantelle Jennings
I want you to put your college coach or college GM hat on. And if you're in the portal and you're looking at players because I think, you know, again, like, all of this cuts both ways, where it's like you can look at a player like Aaliyah Crump, Minnesota native who went to Texas, left Texas, she has three years of eligibility on the table. Incredible player. I think she just scratched the surface of what she could do at Texas this year and still was really, really impressive. Do you see three years of eligibility as like, yes, let's go after this player because she has three years of eligibility? Or do you go after someone like a Jada Williams who has one year left, knowing, like, again, looking at sort of the men's college basketball NBA model where you're like, I have this player for one year. This is what's happening. That's great. Rather than having someone where you're like, we could have three years or we could have one. How do you sort of weight those two things in your mind?
- [36:45]
Sabrina Merchant
Well, I think most programs try to balance them, right? Like, TCU is obviously an exception to this role. They seem to just get whoever is available. And I guess they've got a couple of youngins coming through. Like, they got Clara Silva out of Kentucky last year and Lainey Grant has a couple years of eligibility coming out of Carolina. But yeah, I think it's just a matter of like, your roster needs to have some sort of a mix. You know, I think UCLA is going to be very attractive transfer portal target this off season because they have so many minutes available. They just won a national championship, so you know, you can trust that coach. And yeah, playing in LA during November, December, January is a lot more attractive than playing in Michigan, for example.
- [37:19]
Chantelle Jennings
So I think, well, and theoretically, I feel like we have to note like the money, like, if there is such, if there's any school out there that can say, like, look, the money translated to a national championship. It's ucla like, whatever they spent on Rev Share and nil, like, if they can sort of recreate that in a way to create another roster, like bring another Final four national title home to Westwood. Sorry, keep going. I just feel like the money we have to keep talking about it.
- [37:44]
Sabrina Merchant
I look at all of the gaps on the UCLA roster and I think like, well, maybe I'd want some younger players with a little bit more eligibility so they can pair with Sienna Betts for the long haul here. You know, like, there's a lot, there's just so much empty on this roster that like, I don't want to have to keep doing this for the next three years. Whereas like usc, you've already brought in Jazzy Davidson, Saniyah Hall, Sataya Fagan, you know, juju Watkins is coming back. I don't really mind taking a flyer on a one year player because this is the window now, right? Like, I need to find a player who I know can handle the pressure of playing in NCAA tournament. Whereas I just think every school is like in a different situation. So I think Aaliyah Crump's, you know, three years of eligibility is certainly an asset to some teams. And some teams are like, well, I kind of want somebody who started an NCAA tournament game, you know, and maybe that's, that's totally fine. Fine.
- [38:33]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah, it'll be interesting too. I had a story up on the site during the season about, for or during the NCAA tournament about Virginia. Like that's a program that I look at as I think, you know, their athletic director, director Carla Williams is a former women's basketball player in college. Like you would imagine, the Rev share there is pretty decent in comparison to other programs. Alexis Ohanian has donated a significant amount of money everywhere. Like, what is Aaron Roussel going to do with that money? Is there anyone in the portal that he could convince to come? Is he going to, you know, he had a ton of success at Richmond, sort of mining the Northeast and the east coast for those players who could play in the NCAA tournament. Do you sort of try to bring some of those players in? Do you? Yeah, I think it's. Every program is in a different situation and I do wonder if first year coaches maybe how their situation differs because it'll also be like, you know, he hasn't gone through something like this before. Whereas Corey, Lindsey, Gottlieb, like they've all experienced this for a few years now at the power conference level.
- [39:34]
Sabrina Merchant
He doesn't have the mom of any of his star players tweeting at every recruit across the country, making sure that they understand what it's not. How nice it is to play alongside the beaches all year long.
- [39:45]
Chantelle Jennings
Listen, it's not a bad recruiting pitch. I looked, I saw the videos. I'm like, yeah, I mean, you're in la. Like, you can pitch it all the time. I'm, I'm here in Minnesota, like, a little bit harder of a sell Don Plitza White trying to be like, hey, Minnesota in January. It's great. All I know is in Minnesota and
- [40:03]
Sabrina Merchant
I will say not get an Audi sponsorship this year. Like, something has gotten saying this for years. How is this not a thing yet?
- [40:10]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah, I've been saying this for years. It was like Angel Reese, like the Reese's Pieces. I was like this immediately. And I'll have, like, this is the most obvious, like, perfect partnership. Audi crooks. Come on. Like, I. If someone looks, I swear I have an article on the site from like three years ago that was like, Audi of Ames. It has to exist, right? Or somewhere in Iowa. Like, what are you doing? This is one of the most exciting players in college basketball. Give this girl an nil deal. Let's go.
- [40:40]
Sabrina Merchant
Are there any, like, sort of lower under the radar players that we haven't talked about who you think could make a really, you know, good fit in the transfer portfolio?
- [40:49]
Chantelle Jennings
You know, I think we've seen a lot of success for the Ivy League transfers, whether that was with, you know, Lindsey Gottlieb at usc, took a few of them a few years ago. We saw Caitlin Chen win a national championship, full season starter with UConn. Madison St. Rose is a player who's coming out of Princeton. Carla Baruby took the Northwestern job. So I think she's someone. And because of Ivy League rules, like, can't, can't stay in the Ivy League, literally, so she has to leave. So she's actually been in the portal longer than most because of the. Her own conference's eligibility rules. And so, you know, I think a place like UConn makes a lot of sense when they've had success with Caitlin Chen. Does she follow Carla Baruby to Northwestern? I think that's obviously a possibility. But at the same time, Notre Dame has a ton of minutes to go around potentially. And Notre Dame, because of their own academic structures, we've seen them take a ton of graduate transfers because of how credits transfer into Notre Dame and so could she academically. Is there like a one year program at Notre Dame? Notre Dame she might be interested in. So, yeah, I would say the LA schools, Notre Dame, UConn, Northwestern, I think those are schools that make a lot of sense. And she's the IV2 power conference. We've seen it a lot. And so that makes me feel pretty optimistic about what she's going to do. I think Tilda Trigger out of NC State, she's a sophomore, six six center. Not necessarily someone that we've seen be like a huge name, but at the end of the day, you can't teach six six. And I think they're. If last year and this year have anything in common, it's going to be like those centers and those larger forwards are some of the most coveted in the portal. Like, I was talking to coaches last year that were saying, you know, they've got. There's like, players who've hardly played at all, and it's like they are earning six figures based off of potential or the fact that they happen to be a certain height, like, well into six figures. And so someone like Tilda, who a mother of a UCLA player was tweeting at to come to ucla, like, is this a situation where Tilda, you know, she has tournament experience, she has good ACC experience, she's 6 6, she's a solid player. Could we see her get a lot of interest, more so than when she would have coming out of high school, simply because of sort of the rarity of a player like that being in the portal? Is there anyone else that I guess you, I haven't brought up yet that you think should be highlighted?
- [43:24]
Sabrina Merchant
Yeah, I'm not sure if they should be highlighted, but this is a player who literally everybody who doesn't know much about women's college basketball is constantly asking about. They're like, is this going to be, like, the next Superstar of the WNBA? And that is Kiyomi McMiller, because her highlight tapes are insane. And she's already been at two schools for the first two years of her two years. Yep.
- [43:45]
Chantelle Jennings
Not that rare. Not that rare.
- [43:47]
Sabrina Merchant
Not that rare. But she's in the portal again, so it's a little bit more rare. Um, Rutgers and then Penn State. I don't think she's played in a Big Ten tournament game, let alone an NCAA tournament game. So it's not like there's been a lot of team success either way. Uh, she obviously has, like, prodigious individual talent. I mean, nicknamed herself the product. Uh, but, like, how she fits in any team context is still a very, very open question. Um, but I'm just Fascinated by her because she's so popular. She resonates beyond, like, the average casual women's basketball fan. And she just hasn't made it work so far in, like, two very different situations. So I think you have to be very careful when you go after a player like that because it could, you know, sort of blow up the chemistry of your whole team. But we see time and time again, like, coaches are willing to take a chance on talent. And I'm wondering which coaches are going to take a chance on Kiyomi, because, again, like, just you watch her. Like, there was a game against USC at the end of the season where she just like, casually put up 40 points. Like, not a lot of players in college basketball can do that.
- [44:49]
Chantelle Jennings
So I'm curious. So she's played two schools, two years, same conference. Then you look at players like, you know, let's. Similar profile, like Danny Carnegie. Two schools, two years, different conferences. Georgia Tech and Georgia. Alina, Arnisalo, Big Ten acc, both guards. Is there a value, do you think, to these guards who've played multiple years but in different conferences, like, getting to see them play? Like, Alina, she played through a Big Ten schedule and then played through an ACC schedule. She's on the move again. Is there a value in that sort of versatility of experience, do you think?
- [45:24]
Sabrina Merchant
Yeah, I'm not entirely sure, because the team's changed so much. I don't know that these conferences even really have an identity anymore. We hear coaches talk so much about, well, the beauty of our conference is that we get to see so many different styles of play. Right. So I don't know that necessarily you, like, learn how to do something these days in the ACC that you wouldn't learn how to do in the Big Ten. I just think it's interesting that, like, these players have moved around and they still can't find a place that they, like. So to be fair, with Danny Carnegie, this is her second coach who has left or been fired. So that does prompt changes.
- [45:58]
Chantelle Jennings
Unrelated. Unrelated.
- [45:59]
Sabrina Merchant
There's just. There's a lot of reasons why people go into the portal. A lot of reasons, like, I'm going to the Portal. And as we mentioned, like, all of these players are searching for something different. Right. I don't know if they're all gonna be able to find it. That's kind of like, the dark side of this is, like, I don't think it's possible for 1300 people to find a better situation. I mean, the grass just isn't always greener. And, you know, I'm gonna regret not seeing that Texas team again. I'm gonna regret not seeing this Georgia team, honestly, again with Danny Carnegie and what they were able to accomplish getting a seven seed in the tournament, even if they did lose in the first round. Like they're just cool young cores that have been able to develop and you know, that's what makes like the Michigans and the Nebraska's even like all the more special because you get to see them progress over the course of a couple years. But that just isn't the case with college basketball. And frankly, it's not the case in pro basketball anymore. We see giant trades all of the time. But on the subject of pro basketball, we do have a WNBA draft coming up, so why don't we close out our discussion of the portal here and on the other side of the break, Chantelle and I are going to be making some predictions for that WNBA draft on Monday.
- [47:10]
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Sabrina Merchant
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Chantelle Jennings
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Sabrina Merchant
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- [48:57]
Sabrina Merchant
All right, so the 2026 WNBA Draft is coming up on Monday in New York. The Dallas Wings hold the number one pick for the second consecutive season. Chantelle, any final predictions of who we think the Dallas Wings are going to select to pair with Paige Beckers as their number one pick?
- [49:12]
Chantelle Jennings
I mean I think it's really generous of you to let me go first considering you've done all of the mock drafts and I sort of feel like
- [49:20]
Sabrina Merchant
everybody knows what I think already.
- [49:22]
Chantelle Jennings
I know and that's why I'm like, well I'm not going to go against you in this one. Like I do think it's going to be our fam. Like I think it makes sense to go with the versatility of that position to go with someone who's played professionally already to have that partnership with Paige moving forward. You have a long term situation there to have a new coach in Jose Fernandez coming in. Like I just think there's a lot of new that is going to be exciting there and I think AWA makes the most sense in terms of of that fit six four center. Like she just reads the floor really well. I think her ability to pass is going to be a nice compliment in addition to everything else that she does really well with Paige Beckers. Have I stolen all of your points that you were going to make or can you I guess expand on it or do you want to break some news here and depart from what I have said based off a lot of
- [50:14]
Sabrina Merchant
I obviously have had AWA as the number one pick this entire cycle. A lot of other players have been in that conversation, you know, Olivia Miles, who I just don't think is quite good enough defensively or quite interested enough defensively to warrant being a number one pick. Az Fudd, obviously the UConn connection, but I don't think she has the offensive upside of like being a number one option that you would want to use on a number one pick. I do think Lauren Betts has made herself a bigger part of this conversation than I would have considered a couple months ago because just defensively I don't really know that she has that many weaknesses and I know there's some questions about like what does the jumper look like? Can she she backed down WNBA centers and score in the Post. I really think if you're 6 foot 7 and you're a center, your most important role is just offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding, and then protecting the paint. And she does all of those things so very well. And we saw her do them in the tournament on the highest stages against the highest level of competition. You know, all of her averages basically went up in the NCAA tournament. I think a lot of her box score, the box scores that people were looking at were, like, getting a little concerned about were just because she was playing fewer minutes this year than she was last year. So I think. I'm not saying that I would necessarily expect Lauren to be taken over awa, but it's become a more potential outcome than I would have considered even three weeks ago. And when you have, I think, a little bit more certainty with what she showed at UCLA, whereas AWA's still a developing entity, I do think you have the time, like the Runway here, you can take the opportunity to take a younger player, bank on her potential. But, like, knowing what you can get out of Lauren, if you think Paige is ready right now to be the best player on a championship team, maybe that's, you know, something that you want to just secure in this moment.
- [52:02]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah. I was talking with a GM during the tournament who said, you know, they didn't think there were very many players that had sort of played their way more into a favorable light than Lauren Betts from the beginning of her senior season until the end. Just because I think, you know, even, like, the fire that we saw on her at the end of the season, like, I loved seeing that and the consistency, like, all of the good things that she put on tape. And like, you've said a million times, like, there's just so much tape on these players, and so you get a sense of who they are, but there's so much tape. But, like, I really do think Lauren, by the end of her senior year had sort of. I don't think there's, like, doubters necessarily in the wnba. Like, that sort of feels to me like the LSU team the year after they won the national championship, being like, no one believed in us, and being like, everyone put you as the preseason number one. What are you talking about? But I do think sort of the question that might have existed around Lauren have kind of gone to the side with her performance, especially down the stretch. Like, she just looked so, so good and so prepared for this next level.
- [53:04]
Sabrina Merchant
Yeah, absolutely. And luckily, we don't have to wait very long to test out these predictions. So, you know, come along with us on Monday because that's all we have for today, but we do have a live stream on Monday night. Be sure to head over to YouTube after the draft and join us as we react, recap and break down everything that went down. And if you haven't already, please follow our show. If you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe. Tell your friends to check us out. While you're at it, Give us a rating 5 stars. Please drop us a comment we love to hear from you. On behalf of the Athletic and Chantelle Jennings, I'm Sabrina Merchant. Thank you for listening and we will see you next time. No Off Season is hosted by Zena Kada with Chantelle Jennings, Sabrina Merchant and Laja Clarendon. It's produced by Tanika Burrell. Our executive producer is Andrea B. Scott. Monica Compton is our video editor and Charles Childers is our social video editor. Our theme music is by Marcus Bogala. Shannon Ryan is managing editor of Women's Basketball at the Athletic. Tim McMaster is our director of operations and Jesse Burton is global Head of Cell.
- [54:20]
Capital One Bank Announcer
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Sabrina Merchant
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Chantelle Jennings
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