Transfers making impact on women’s Final Four

There have been a huge number of players changing schools during their college careers over the last few years and some of them are having an impact on the women’s NCAA Tournament.

Final Four participants UConn and Arizona both have transfers playing pivotal roles who have helped them advance in the tournament.

Evina Westbrook became a Huskie in 2019 after starting her career at rival Tennessee. Aari McDonald began her playing career at Washington before heading to Arizona with Wildcats coach Adia Barnes.

“She’s been kind of the avalanche that started all of our other recruiting,” Barnes said. “She’s such a gifted player and I don’t think players like her come around that often. I mean, I told her during that process when she was transferring, ‘come here and build something special with me.’ And she’s done that and she’s done a tremendous job. She would have impacted Washington the same way.”

Westbrook just missed a triple-double in the Sweet 16 win over Iowa and McDonald had 33 points and 11 rebounds in Monday night’s win over Indiana to lead the Wildcats to their first Final Four. The two teams will square off Friday night in the national semifinals.

Louisville also has benefitted from transfers over the last few years like Kianna Smith and Liz Dixon.

“The transfer portal, it’s become a way of recruiting,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. “We’ve had players go into the portal and gotten players from the portal. Sometimes players go places to get more playing time and have a bigger role and there’s nothing wrong that.” This trend is not new. Baylor won the national championship in 2019 in large part due to the addition of grad transfer Chloe Jackson. The Lady Bears added another grad transfer this past season in DiJonai Carrington, who almost helped them knock off UConn in the Elite Eight.