Transfer Portal 2026

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Gophermangeek said:
Per Skim, Audi got 1.4 million from OK State. Every team in the top 15 said no to her. (I’m assuming the gophers are included in that)
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My house is basically worth what the houses in my neighborhood are worth... with a few adjustments. Merkle must be in the same neighborhood as Crooks.
 

Gophermangeek said:
Not sure this means anything at all because I rarely use Instagram and maybe she was doing this the whole time. Merkle is friends with the whole gophers team. Including the big returning starters, deep bench players like Bershers and the new gopher Leah Harmon.
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In the currency of that generation, I think/hope its huge; I can’t imagine her doing that if she was going to quack like a 🦆
 

It can't hurt. But my college age kids are friends with tons of people on Instagram they might meet once in person. And same for adults in the business world on LinkedIn. But still, it's not a bad sign!
 


Today is the last day to enter the portal. Assuming you are not a Grad Student (Braun probably is this). So this is the last day for any last minute change of heart
 












AllEars said:
Not trying to build a case for either Merkle or Crooks, but...
Penn State was a very poor defensive team and that reflects on Merkle. They also played a very up tempo offensive game which wouldn't work well with her transition game... given that her transition would be slow, can't argue with her shooting percentage.
I have watched parts of several Iowa State's games. To me, Crooks appeared to be "half in/half out", certainly wasn't in the Precious Presence... appeared disinterested.

$$$ aside, my vote would go for Merkle. The style of play Coach P seemed to prefer this year, getting the ball up court quickly looking for quick opportunities... but if no opportunities, settling into a more patient half-court game... would suit Merkle well and she is a back-to-the-basket post. She is also taller than Crooks.

I think big time sponsor would have to step-up for either.

Support our team with your $$$.
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Thoughts have not changed... Merkle over Crooks, period. Glad $$$ were there.
 

AllEars said:
Top half getting packed: USC, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, OSU, Maryland, Illinois, Oregon, Nebraska... and not to forget Indiana, Washington, Michigan State, and UCLA.

My first nine not in any particular order... believe someone posted earlier that we were picked 9th... before the portal opened.
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Anyone care to 'throw-out' a guess as to the top half? My guess is above.
 

AllEars said:
Top half getting packed: USC, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, OSU, Maryland, Illinois, Oregon, Nebraska... and not to forget Indiana, Washington, Michigan State, and UCLA.

My first nine not in any particular order... believe someone posted earlier that we were picked 9th... before the portal opened.
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I first nine are above... maybe with Iowa coming here... we finish third.
Anyone else?
 

AllEars said:
Thoughts have not changed... Merkle over Crooks, period. Glad $$$ were there.
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My wife was playing Merkle's highlights from various games tonight, streaming it to the TV and I was impressed. She wasn't backing down from UCLA's bigs and did pretty well against them. 15 points I think (6-6). I see these posts saying she padded her #s playing for Penn State. You don't pad your numbers against Lauren Betts. You earn them. I agree and think getting Merkle was the best case scenario. I would 100% select her over Crooks.
 

From The Athletic:​

Women’s college basketball transfer portal winners and losers: Audi Crooks, Iowa, Texas​

Winners​

Oklahoma State​

Iowa​

The Hawkeyes lost five players to the portal. Only freshman Addie Deal had played more than 15 minutes a game during the season, and her production can be replaced by the returning guards and incoming freshman McKenna Woliczko. Even so, coach Jan Jensen went into the portal to bring more depth and talent to the Iowa backcourt with the additions of Dani Carnegie and Amari Whiting.

Adding Carnegie is particularly promising because she and Chit Chat Wright — who started 31 games in 2025-26 — played together as freshmen at Georgia Tech. They logged more than 250 possessions together that season. The only Iowa guard combos who played at least 250 possessions together in 2025-26 were Wright and Taylor Stremlow and Wright and Kylie Feuerbach. Wright and Carnegie’s experiences together should help establish a baseline for a team heading into the 2026-27 season eager to rewrite its early March Madness exit.

Hannah Stuelke’s graduation will hurt — she started 96 games the past three seasons — but Ava Heiden can be the interior centerpiece as Iowa continues to fill out the rest of the floor with talented guards and wings.

In: Dani Carnegie (Georgia), Amari Whiting (Oklahoma State)

Out: Addie Deal (Wisconsin), Teagan Mallegni (Wisconsin), Callie Levin (Northern Iowa), Kennise Johnson, Emely Rodriguez

Louisville​

TCU​

LSU​

Duke​

Ole Miss​

South Carolina​

Losers​

Texas​

Iowa State​

Stanford​

Tennessee​

www.nytimes.com

Women’s college basketball transfer portal winners and losers: Audi Crooks, Iowa, Texas

Count Oklahoma State, Iowa and TCU among the teams who capitalized most from the transfer portal.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 

Gophermangeek said:
I can tell slight panic and negativity is starting to creep into this board. Everyone just needs to take a deep breath because it’s all going to work out.

I’m a sicko and read last years transfer and roster threads because it’s been about a year since I joined this board and was curious how last year around this time went.

My big take aways were every transfer we got (Glenn/Tonga/Bershers) came out of nowhere, not mentioned once on here and all of a sudden they were gophers. So we have no idea the caliber or how close players are to committing.

Some of the comments from that thread “Hart needs to come off the bench”, “Tonga: another practice player”, “gophers are projected to take 13th in the B10 you having them at 4th, I think you are overrating them a bit”. There was disappointed we missed out on a Mississippi St big that ended up averaging 1 and 1 at Nevada

I got huge into girls basketball a couple years ago because one of my family members was playing against all of the top girls in the state for multiple years, and I have other connections with coaches in the state because some of my really good friends are Head coaches on good programs in the state.

The one thing I trust is Dawn talent evaluation, she turned Tori and Grace, 2 borderline top 100 recruits into all conference players, she recruited Hart hard to transfer WV, she got undervalued/unknown players in Tonga and Stewart to play big roles on solid teams. Got Glenn a 3 year starter to come off the bench.

Whatever Dawn is doing now I think she has earned our trust that it is going to work out.

I know he hasn’t posted in awhile but I also appreciate bb_Czar sources
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Dawn did a great job landing Grace and Tori but Whalen recruited Hart and landed her. Dawn did a great job developing her. But she didn’t land her.
 

She did convince her to stay though. After the loss to OSU in the tournament, the one broadcaster (can't remember her name, but she played in Big 10 last year) noted, Sophie Hart told Dawn, paraphrased "I'm a good player. I can help a team win." And Dawn made it clear she would play a lot if she stayed here.
 

Jordan Ode to Geogia Tech. That team was 14 and 19. Must have been playing time available.
 


MNGolfer said:
Dawn did a great job landing Grace and Tori but Whalen recruited Hart and landed her. Dawn did a great job developing her. But she didn’t land her.
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Yep, however Sophie mentioned in an interview this year that Dawn recruited her hard at West Virginia when Sophie entered the portal, she didn’t want to live in WV however and wanted a big city. She mentioned her familiarity with the staff was a reason she stayed after Whalen was let go
 

Just because it’s local Zahra Bishop sounds like is going to Aubrn

Also sounds like Daniels from Wisconsin got hurt in the WBIT and will miss the season so she entered the portal to get a higher pay day
 

Gophermangeek said:
Just because it’s local Zahra Bishop sounds like is going to Aubrn

Also sounds like Daniels from Wisconsin got hurt in the WBIT and will miss the season so she entered the portal to get a higher pay day
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Daniels has withdrawn her name from the transfer portal.
 




Ayianna Johnson has signed with Arkansas. She switched her West Virginia commitment to follow Coach P to Minnesota for her freshman year. Spent her sophomore season at Colorado (Boulder). She played last season at D2 Univ. of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
 

Lynx said:
Ayianna Johnson has signed with Arkansas. She switched her West Virginia commitment to follow Coach P to Minnesota for her freshman year. Spent her sophomore season at Colorado (Boulder). She played last season at D2 Univ. of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
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I will always be bummed about her career here. It really seemed like she was getting ready to contribute, but it has to be hard to do that in a meaningful way when you're at a new school every season.
 

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