Other B1G team notes 2025-26

Kylee Kitts commits to Ohio State women’s basketball

Reports out of Florida have the No. 25 recruit of the 2025 class heading to Columbus

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The transfer portal closed for NCAA women’s basketball players on April 23 and it's been quiet for Ohio State women’s basketball since April 15, when Boston College guard T’Yana Todd committed to the Buckeyes. On Tuesday, that changed when On3 sports reported that redshirt freshman guard/forward Kylee Kitts chose the Buckeyes.

Originally the No. 25 prospect in the 2025 class, Kitts reclassified as a member of the 2024 class. Kitts is the younger sister of South Carolina Gamecocks post player Chloe Kitts, who won a national championship with head coach Dawn Staley in 2024.

Ohio State’s new forward brings needed height to the program at 6-foot-4, helping fill the void left by graduates Taylor Thierry, Ajae Petty and now Ole Miss forward Cotie McMahon. Like Thierry, Kitts is a hybrid guard/forward who can play both inside and out. The only question surrounding Kitts is how she will adjust to the full court press style of head coach Kevin McGuff’s system

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For a while, UCLA looked like one of the big losers of women’s college basketball’s transfer portal season.

After making the Final Four for the first time ever, the Bruins saw several key players depart Los Angeles via the portal, including starting guard Londynn Jones and crucial off-the-bench contributors in Janiah Barker and Elina Aarnisalo. Jones went to UCLA’s rival, USC, while Barker landed at Tennessee and Aarnisalo ended up at North Carolina. Young players like Avary Cain (Oregon), Kendall Dudley (Michigan) and Zania Socka-Nguemen (Indiana) left too and ended up at fellow Big Ten programs. Suddenly, UCLA’s highly touted 2024 signing class was gone

The exodus warranted some cause for concern for Cori Close’s side, but the Bruins are still bringing back four starters, including All-American and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts. They’ll also have Charlisse Leger-Walker finally healthy — the Washington State transfer missed this past season with a knee injury — and the Bruins’ incoming freshmen class includes Betts’ 6-foot-4 younger sister, Sienna, the second-best-ranked recruit in 2025.

For the glass-half-full crowd of UCLA fans, more good news came Friday. For the glass-half-empty folks, some worries were washed away.

The Bruins landed a commitment from arguably the best 3-point shooter in the transfer portal in Utah’s Gianna Kneepkens.

A fifth-year wing from Duluth, Minnesota, Kneepkens ranked ninth nationally in 3-pointers made per game this past season with 3.1. Among the players who attempted at least five 3s per game, Kneepkens had the ninth best shooting percentage from deep range, knocking down 44.8 percent of her attempts from the behind the arc

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The UCLA Bruins team saw several key players leave through women’s college basketball’s transfer portal season. Some of the big names the team lost were starting guard Londynn Jones, Janiah Barker, and Elina Aarnisalo, who were crucial off-the-bench stars.

Meanwhile, the team has also received its home and away opponents for the 2025-26 Big Ten Conference season. While the upcoming season will be UCLA’s second year competing in the Big Ten Conference, curiosity regarding which players will step forward to contribute to the team this season has risen

Gianna Kneepkens – Guard​

Giania Kneepkens was one of the most efficient scorers in the nation last season. The 22-year-old recorded 19.3 points per game on average, which was the 29th-best in the country. In addition to this, the three-time first-team all-conference guard also shot 44.8% from 3-point range and 89% at the free-throw line.

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Northwestern women’s basketball has certainly been active in the transfer portal in recent weeks.

Wildcat head coach Joe McKeown recently brought in two new players for his farewell season, welcoming 5’9 Furman guard Tate Walters and 6’3 TCU forward DaiJa Turner to Evanston. The incoming pair will attempt to fill the shoes of Kyla Jones, Taylor Williams, Caileigh Walsh and outgoing Virginia Tech graduate transfer Melannie Daley. Those departures have left the ‘Cats with major holes on a roster that already finished 2-16 in the Big Ten last season.

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thatjanelpick said:

OSU's McGuff charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Not a great look for a leader of youth.

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McGuff, 55, was cited for operating a vehicle while impaired, a misdemeanor. In a Tuesday hearing, McGuff's attorney pleaded not guilty in the coach's behalf, according to Fox 8. His license was initially suspended, but a judge temporarily reinstated his driving privileges during the same hearing.

According to the police report, McGuff was driving a 2013 Toyota Sequoia when another driver called the police around 8 p.m. because he had allegedly hit several curbs and partially driven through a yard. When the police found him, he took at least two minutes to open the door or roll down the window.

The coach was asked where he was coming from and he responded he had dinner at a restaurant but did not consume any alcohol. He also denied taking any medications that could cause impairment.

The police report said some of his responses were delayed and he smelled like alcohol. McGuff performed poorly during both in-car and field-sobriety tests, and refused a breathalyzer test. Police took his license and his wife picked him up at the Dublin Police Department.

From The Columbus Dispatch:

An officer asked McGuff to perform several field sobriety tests at the scene, including a test where McGuff was asked to recite the alphabet from D to R. The report says the officer had to repeat the instructions to McGuff three times.
"Kevin could only say 'D' and could not recite any other letters," the report says.
McGuff also showed indications of impairment on several other tests, and the report noted the officer smelled alcohol on McGuff when he got out of his vehicle, police said. The coach refused a breathalyzer test.
McGuff has been the Ohio State head coach since 2013 and has guided the Buckeyes to eight NCAA tournament appearances and four Big Ten regular season titles (2017, 2018, 2022, 2024) and was the conference's Coach of the Year in 2024

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thatjanelpick said:

OSU's McGuff charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Not a great look for a leader of youth.

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Police body cam video is a terrible look for Big Ten women’s basketball coach

Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff was arrested for operating a vehicle while impaired on May 6. Footage of the incident released by police is troubling.

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It is also worth noting that the former athletic director who protected McGuff during previous missteps, which included NCAA violations that led to wins being vacated and a one-year postseason ban, is no longer there. Ross Bjork succeeded Gene Smith in that job last year.

While Bjork’s work as an athletic director is more known in the college football space (see also: Houston Nutt, Hugh Freeze, Jimbo Fisher, Mike Elko) from his time at Ole Miss and Texas A&M, he also made notable women’s basketball hires at those schools. At Ole Miss, Bjork fired Matt Insell and replaced him with Yolett McPhee-McCuin, who has taken the Rebels to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments and two Sweet 16 appearances. This spring, via the transfer portal, she landed one of Ohio State’s best players in Cotie McMahon. Bjork also poached Joni Taylor away from Georgia to succeed Gary Blair at Texas A&M.

Bjork also has a potential in-house candidate in Katie Smith, who joined McGuff’s staff this past season. Smith — a two-time All-American and one of Ohio State’s greatest players ever — has real coaching bonafides after spending a decade on WNBA sidelines as an assistant and head coach with the Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty. As a player, she won two WNBA titles, was the scoring champ in 2001, won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA, was named to the WNBA’s 25th Anniversary Team, and was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2018.

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Ohio State women’s basketball guard Kaia Henderson enters the transfer portal

The Upstate New York native appears to be on her way out of Columbus

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Although the transfer portal closed on April 24, 2025, that does not mean that there is no more movement into the system. On Wednesday, On3 reported that Ohio State women’s basketball guard Kaia Henderson entered the transfer portal as a graduate transfer.

The portal deadline is only for players who wish to not sit out a season, with exceptions and Henderson falls into one of them. Players who are graduate level or receive a waiver are eligible to play without missing a season and Henderson is reportedly entering the portal as a graduate transfer.

Despite the 2024-25 season being Henderson’s third season in the program, the guard graduated high school early to enroll early at Ohio State in the 2022 Spring semester. Over three years, Henderson earned enough credits to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication degree this spring, making her eligible to transfer as a graduate.

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