Wisconsin Women’s Basketball Big Ten Transfer Portal Options

Wisconsin women’s basketball has four open scholarships by my count heading into the offseason and I’d recommend that they fill all four of them. The Badgers only had 14 filled this past season for reasons I’m unclear on since another member wasn’t added to the 2024 recruiting class, so hopefully it was being banked for a big transfer portal haul.

Wisconsin has a solid core of returning players but they need a talent infusion at any and all positions if they’re hoping to compete for an NCAA Tournament bid next season. Let’s go over the current roster (and their class) as it stands on April 9, 2024:

PG: Ronnie Porter (Junior); Leena Patibandla (Sophomore)
SG: D’Yanis Jimenez (Sophomore); Lily Krahn (Junior)
W/F: Halle Douglass (Super Senior); Ana Guillen (Sophomore); Gracie Grzesk (Freshman)
W/F: Tessa Grady (Sophomore); Imbie Jones (Sophomore)
C: Serah Williams (Junior); Alie Bisballe (Freshman)

Undecided: Natalie Leuzinger (Super Senior, would replace Grady in starting five)
In transfer portal: Sania Copeland (SG); Tessa Towers (C); Sacia Vanderpool (F)
Graduated: Brooke Schramek (W/G)

Now this isn’t some set in stone depth chart, more of just a visual representation of the players Wisconsin women’s basketball has and where they’d probably play on the court. Here is what I imagine Marisa Moseley and her staff will be looking for in the portal.

Needs: veteran post; shooting at, uh, any/every position; perimeter defender; backup ball handler

With four open spots on the roster Wisconsin women’s basketball COULD meet all of these needs and, since some of these skill sets overlap, they could get multiple players that fulfill them. I have made a pretty sizable list of players I think the Badgers should target, so let’s go through some of them!

We already took a look at some players who are from Wisconsin and might want to return to their home state earlier this week, so now let’s scour other Big Ten rosters and see if there are any players who may want to stay in the conference that would fit on UW’s squad.

The class listed with the player is their class for the 2024-25 season.

Big Ten Transfers Looking To Stay in the Conference

Maryland: Riley Nelson, 6-foot-2, forward, sophomore, Clarksburg, Md.; Hawa Doumbouya, 6-foot-7, center, sophomore, Bronx, N.Y.

As they say, you can’t teach size and Hawa Doumbouya has it in spades. Standing at 6-foot-7, Doumbouya is an imposing figure on the court. It’s tough to read too much into her freshman year stats since she only played 13 games (3.5 minutes per game), but betting on her upside is a reasonable decision to make. The Badgers haven’t had a true backup big for Serah Williams (that Marisa Moseley has been willing to play) in, uh, ever, and Doumbouya would provide size of the bench that could give Williams more of a breather.

Nelson was the highest rated freshman to join the Big Ten last season (ranked No. 18 nationally by ESPN; No. 17 by Blue Star Basketball), a McDonald’s All-American, and the back-to-back Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Maryland. Needless to say, she entered the conference with some hype.

Sadly, Nelson suffered a torn ACL on Jan. 14 and missed the rest of the season. She showed numerous flashes of the player she could be before the injury, scoring 15 points against Niagara and 11 off the bench at Nebraska. Obviously with an injury as serious as an ACL tear a lot of precautions will have to be taken with Nelson, but she has the talent to make all that effort worth it.

Not sure if either will want to come to the midwest, but Wisconsin women’s basketball can’t find out the answer unless they ask!

Michigan: Taylor Woodson, 6-foot-0, wing, sophomore, Minnetonka, Minn.; gotta at least kick the tires on Laila Phelia, Cameron Williams, Elise Stuck, and Taylor Williams too

The Wolverines have a ton of talent entering the portal this offseason. The most likely player for Wisconsin to take a look at is rising sophomore Taylor Woodson out of the western suburbs of Minneapolis. A 4-star recruit (No. 59 nationally) coming out of powerhouse Hopkins High School, Woodson played on the varsity team for six (!!!) years and helped win two state titles.

As a freshman in Ann Arbor, Woodson appeared in 32 games and averaged 8.9 minutes per game. She averaged 1.9 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 0.7 apg, and 0.4 spg for the Wolverines. Woodson is the type of player who could have an outsized impact on a team like Wisconsin, where she would immediately slot into the rotation and have a chance to crack the starting lineup.

Of note, her dad played football at Minnesota and, since she’s from The Land of 10,000 Lakes, she might want to follow in his footsteps and join the Golden Gophers.

Northwestern: Paige Mott, 6-foot-1, forward, 5th year, Philadelphia; Alana Goodchild, 6-foot-2, forward, junior, Sydney, Australia

The Badgers need size to pair with, or backup, potential All-American Serah Williams. A couple transfers from just south of Madison in Evanston, Ill. could fit the bill for what UW is searching for.

Mott has started 52 of 60 games over the past two years for the Wildcats while averaging 8.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.6 apg, and 0.8 bpg in the same time frame. She shot 49.5% from the field on relatively low usage too. Mott isn’t a stretch big (she has attempted 12 threes in four seasons) but she has proven to be effective in limited minutes. Her career-high in points (23) came against Wisconsin as a junior, so maybe I’m using that small sample size to make her a better player than she is…but I don’t think so.

She is the daughter of two professional hoopers (mom played at PSU and then one year in the WNBA; her dad played at Coppin State and then internationally) and I am always partial to bringing more Philadelphians to Madison.

Australia is a hotbed for women’s college basketball players and Goodchild is another solid player from the land down under. The 6-foot-2 rising junior didn’t see the court much in her first two years at Northwestern so she is probably looking for more playing time.

While her shooting numbers aren’t very good, we must remember the size of the sample here. She has a willingness to shoot from long range and would pair nicely in a lineup with Williams by providing some floor spacing. She had a decorated youth career in Australia, playing for the national team as a U15, U16, and U17 player.

Ohio State: Emma Shumate, 6-foot-1, guard, junior, Dresden, Ohio; Diana Collins, 5-foot-9, guard, sophomore, Lilburn, Ga.

A pair of guards from a very good Buckeyes team entered the portal and it would make sense for Wisconsin women’s basketball head coach Marisa Moseley to at least make a call. Let’s start with Shumate, who started her career at West Virginia for a semester before transferring to OSU.

The reserve guard averaged about 10 minutes per game over the last two years while appearing in 57 games. While she played fewer minutes as a sophomore, she was more productive this past season, averaging 4.1 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 0.3 apg, and 0.3 bpg. She shot 43.1% from beyond the arc on 2.5 attempts and when extrapolated out into “per 40 minutes” it makes her one of the best shooters in the country.

While she doesn’t currently bring a ton else to the table statistically, Shumate was a high 4-star recruit coming out of high school and has the potential to be a more complete player, especially with more playing time.

Collins was another highly regarded prospect coming out of high school (No. 70 overall in the 2023 class) but didn’t see a ton of action in Columbus this past year. When she left Brookwood (Ga.) High School she was the program’s all-time leading scorer and she was a state champion, the first in school history for girl’s basketball.

She only appeared in 17 games for the Buckeyes as a freshman, averaging 9.4 minutes per game. She averaged 3.2 ppg, 1.1 rpg, and 0.5 spg on, to be honest, pretty poor shooting numbers. However, I’m willing to be that Collins is a much better player than her freshman year numbers suggest, due in large part to her production in high school as well as the fact that she played for Team Sweden in the FIBA U20 Women’s European Championship in 2023 and averaged 11.6 ppg, 3.3 rpg, and 2.9 apg there.

A random fun fact: her father (Linzy Collins) was a 12th round selection of the Green Bay Packers in 1991 as a wide receiver. He didn’t make the roster…but maybe he has fond memories of the state of Wisconsin???

Penn State: Shay Ciezki, 5-foot-7, guard, junior, Buffalo, N.Y.; Leilani Kapinus, 5-foot-10, guard, redshirt senior, Madison, Wis.

Ranked as the No. 56 player in the 2022 class by ESPN, Ciezki is a sharpshooter that will surely have a number of suitors in the portal. During her two years in Happy Valley, Ciezki shot 41.6% from deep (third best in school history) while averaging 4.5 attempts per game. She was named All-Big Ten Honorable Mention by the media last year.

Not entirely sure what happened to cause Ciezki to enter the portal seeing as she started 59 of the 65 games in which she appeared and averaged over 11 points per game in both seasons for PSU. However, looking at her game log gives you a potential idea as she saw her minutes dip during the Nittany Lions’ postseason run and also saw her not start the final two games of her PSU career. This is purely speculation, but it could explain why she is searching for a new home.

Ciezki is a solid defender and a good distributor. I could see her playing alongside Ronnie Porter in the Wisconsin women’s basketball backcourt or as someone who runs the offense when Porter needs a breather.

We’ve got a bit of a “two-fer” with the last player on this list. While I was writing this portion of my post, Madison native Leilani Kapinus announced she was entering the transfer portal. So, she is a “Wisconsin native who may want to return home” AND “a Big Ten player who may want to stay in the conference.”

She is also, more importantly, an excellent basketball player. In her three seasons playing for the Lady Lions (note: while I don’t like using the “Lady” in front of nicknames for women’s sports, schools like Penn State, Tennessee, and Louisiana Tech do in their official branding) Kapinus has been one of the best defenders in the country. She made the All-Big Ten Defensive Team the last two years as well as being named All-Big Ten Honorable Mention twice.

Kapinus has never averaged fewer than 2.0 steals per game or 1.0 blocks per game in her career and she also averages over 4.0 rebounds per game on the defensive end (6.4 total rebounds per game). She has improved her scoring (9.6 -> 11.2 -> 11.5) and field goal percentage (43% -> 43.8% -> 58%) each season and this past season shot 41% from three on 1.7 attempts per game.

I’ll be honest, I’m not buying the enormous leap in three-point shooting (previous career high was 23.2%) as her free throw shooting has actually gotten worse since she was a freshman, but she finishes well at the rim and should be counted on to score in double-digits regularly. She turns the ball over a bit too much and fouls way too much (a product of her active defense, to be fair) but you live with those flaws due to what a game-wrecker she is on the defensive end.

It would be incredible if the Madison Memorial graduate returned home and played for the Wisconsin women’s basketball team to finish her college career, but she will certainly have a large number of schools reaching out to her.

Wisconsin Women’s Basketball In-State Transfer Portal Options

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