{"id":5613,"date":"2025-07-18T13:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5613\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T13:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:56:11","slug":"lsu-ucla-and-the-most-improved-ncaa-womens-basketball-teams-heading-into-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5613\/","title":{"rendered":"LSU, UCLA and the most improved NCAA women\u2019s basketball teams heading into 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

After one final high profile transfer this week that saw former Vanderbilt forward Khamil Pierre land at N.C. State<\/a>, an offseason full of a flurry of moves in women\u2019s college basketball seems to be over.<\/p>\n

Now, we can fully shift gears into looking forward to the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

Since March Madness ended, there\u2019s been a whole lot of teams that got better, either through the transfer portal, good-old-fashioned high school recruiting, or by shuffling their coaching staffs. Some teams, like TCU<\/a> and Ole Miss<\/a> \u2014 two squads we\u2019ll address further in just a moment \u2014 used the portal to replace nearly their entire roster. Meanwhile, teams like UCLA and LSU<\/a> supplemented strong incoming freshmen classes with key portal additions.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a closer look at some teams who got better over the offseason, ranked by how much their rosters have improved from last season to this upcoming one.<\/p>\n

UCLA<\/p>\n

The Bruins lost six players to the portal after making a Final Four run, including a starter in Londynn Jones and key off-the-bench players in Janiah Barker and Elina Aarnisalo. But they could afford those losses because of the talent coming in.<\/p>\n

Via the portal, Cori Close\u2019s side added perhaps the best 3-point shooter available<\/a> in Utah\u2019s Gianna Kneepkens, who is coming off a near 50-40-90 season.<\/p>\n

The Bruins are also bringing in a player who is an early favorite to be one of the best freshmen in the country, Lauren Betts\u2019 younger sister Sienna. The 6-foot-4 forward is currently starring for the U.S. national team at the FIBA U19 World Cup, and recently notched 21 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in a dominant win over China.<\/p>\n

UCLA seems capable of reaching the Final Four again, but a challenging schedule<\/a> will test this roster early<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clemson<\/p>\n

The Tigers exited portal season as a clear winner<\/a> as they head into Shawn Poppie\u2019s second campaign at the helm. After a strong finish to last season, which included an ACC Tournament win over Stanford<\/a>, Clemson added several talented veteran transfers that should help them in a big way this season.<\/p>\n

The group includes former ACC standouts like Georgia Tech<\/a>\u2019s Rusne Augustinaite and Wake Forest<\/a>\u2019s Demeara Hinds, a shooter in Taylor Johnson-Matthews who averaged 14.5 points per game for DePaul, and Rachael Rose from Wofford who was third in the nation in scoring in the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n

Two ESPN top 100 recruits join the Tigers as well in 6-foot-1 Holland Harris and 5-foot-8 Amaia Jackson, both of whom played at Florida\u2019s Montverde Academy.<\/p>\n

Ole Miss<\/p>\n

Yolett McPhee-McCuin has garnered a reputation for doing damage in the portal every offseason. This year was no different as Ole Miss added eight transfers to totally revamp their roster.<\/p>\n

The headliner among the additions is Cotie McMahon, a versatile forward who has been one of the better players in the Big Ten for a few seasons. At Ohio State<\/a> last year, she averaged 16.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game this season and also drastically improved her 3-point shooting, connecting on 38 percent of her looks from deep after making just 23 percent in the previous season.<\/p>\n

Also joining Coach Yo\u2019s Rebels is UCF\u2019s Kaitlin Peterson, who is coming off a season in which she averaged 21.4 points per game, which was 14th-best nationally. Latasha Lattimore and Denim DeShields are among the other noteworthy additions for Ole Miss.<\/p>\n

Miami<\/p>\n

After a disappointing first season in Coral Gables for head coach Tricia Cullop \u2014 where the Hurricanes went just 14-15 and missed the ACC Tournament \u2014 Miami completely transformed its roster. Of the 12 players that saw minutes for the Canes last season, just one of them \u2014 sophomore guard Ahnay Adams \u2014 returns.<\/p>\n

The newcomers include seven transfers and four incoming freshmen who ranked among ESPN\u2019s top 100 recruits for the 2025 class. The transfer class is headlined by former Quinnipiac guard Gal Raviv, who averaged 17.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game while shooting 44.8 percent from the floor and 31.1 percent from 3-point land last season as a freshman. Raviv is also one of the leading scorers at the U19 World Cup, averaging 24.7 points per game for Israel.<\/p>\n

Other Miami additions include SMU forward Jessica Peterson who averaged 12 rebounds per game, 6-foot-6 Florida center Ra Shaya Kyle, and USF guard Vittoria Blasigh. On paper, this looks like a roster capable of making the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

TCU<\/p>\n

Despite the results of their head-to-head matchups<\/a> last season, Olivia Miles is a better player than Hailey Van Lith. In addition to averaging 15.4 points, 5.8 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game last year at Notre Dame<\/a>, Miles shot a career-best 40.6 percent from 3-point land and immediately became the best player in the transfer portal<\/a> once she entered it.<\/p>\n

In addition to making an upgrade at point guard, Mark Campbell filled the void left by Sedona Prince at center with Kentucky\u2019s 6-foot-7 Clara Silva, who recently dropped 37 points and 10 rebounds on Israel in the U19 FIBA World Cup<\/a> for her native Portugal. Another post, 6-foot-7 Kennedy Basham from Arizona State, should help the Horned Frogs in the frontcourt too.<\/p>\n

TCU picked up a shooter with size in Cal\u2019s Marta Suarez, and added to their guard depth by adding Taliyah Parker of Texas A&M<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LSU<\/p>\n

Kim Mulkey\u2019s team lost a few key players to graduation and the transfer portal, like Aneesah Morrow who is now in the WNBA<\/a> and Sa\u2019Myah Smith who is now at Virginia, but the Tigers return lead guards Flau\u2019Jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams. And Mulkey and her coaching staff did all they could in the offseason to surround the duo with talent.<\/p>\n

Through the portal, LSU added a third dynamic guard to the mix by getting the human highlight reel MiLaysia Fulwiley from rival South Carolina<\/a>. Mulkey also went out and got a legitimate center in the 6-foot-5 sophomore Kate Koval from Notre Dame, then added a versatile 6-foot-2 wing in East Carolina\u2019s Amiya Joyner.<\/p>\n

In addition to those high-profile transfers, LSU brings in four ESPN top 100 recruits, including two ranking inside the top 10 in Grace Knox and ZaKiyah Johnson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After one final high profile transfer this week that saw former Vanderbilt forward Khamil Pierre land at N.C.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[438],"tags":[6530,1203,461,6531,49,48,551,547,550,2185,700,6526,6524,6527,4463,6523,525,530,532,531,694,6528,82,6525,1462,6522,1297,4143,6529],"class_list":["post-5613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaab","tag-all-womens-sports","tag-and","tag-basketball","tag-breakaway-playbook-2025","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-college","tag-college-basketball","tag-collegebasketball","tag-com","tag-front-page","tag-heading","tag-improved","tag-into","tag-lsu","tag-most","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-s","tag-sbnation","tag-sports","tag-teams","tag-the","tag-ucla","tag-women","tag-womens-sports","tag-womens-ncaa-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}