Five Women’s Basketball Programs to Watch

This weekend is the last AAU evaluation period of the summer so let’s take a look at five Division 1 women’s basketball programs to keep an eye on heading into the 2023-24 season.

These women’s basketball programs did not make last year’s tournament but should be on your radar for this upcoming season.

1. Cal – The Golden Bears added five big time transfers in the spring, headlined by 6’4’’ center from UC Santa Barbara, Ila Lane, and a 5’10’’ wing from University of San Francisco, Ionna Krimili. Last season for the Gauchos Lane averaged about 12 points an and 8 rebounds per game while shooting 54% from the field. Krimili comes to Berkeley after earning three All-WCC honors for USF; she averaged 16.6 points per game last season, had ten games with 20 points or more, and leaves USF as its fourth all-time leading scorer. Cal also signed Marta Suarez from Tennessee, McKayla Williams from Gonzaga and Anastasia Drosouni from Greece. The staff has also gone through a bit of an overhaul while adding long-time veteran assistant coach and former USC assistant coach Jason Glover – who brings nearly four decades of X’s and O’s experience to Berkeley. Cal finished 4-14 last season in the Pac-12, a conference that sent seven teams to the NCAA Tournament.

2. Colorado State – The Rams fell just a few games short of winning the Mountain West this past season. The biggest news out of Fort Collins is the return of its fifth-year star guard McKenna Hofschild. Hofschild averaged 37.3 minutes per game for the Rams, good for 24th in the country. She registered 20.6 points per game while recording double figure points in every single game she played. Hofschild collected all kinds of awards for her performance last season – Mountain West Player of the Year, WBCA All-Region, AP All-American Honorable Mention, Nancy Lieberman Award Finalist and MW Player of the Week three different times. The Rams finished 20-12 last season and are poised to make a run for the Mountain West and the league’s automatic bid to the tournament. The one big obstacle in their way: defending champs UNLV finished last season 31-3 and have added the top rated freshmen in the Mountain West conference.

3. TCU – First-year head coach Mark Campbell has added six transfers who will be able to make immediate impacts in Fort Worth. Agnes Emma-Nnopu is a grad transfer from Stanford; Sydney Harris from Central Michigan; Una Jovanovic, an All-Big West guard from Cal State Fullerton; Jaden Owens from Baylor; Madison Conner from Arizona; and Sedona Prince, a 6’7’’ forward who most recently transferred from Oregon but started her career at Texas. Campbell came from TCU from Sacramento State, a program that won only three games in the 2020-21 season but finished the 2022-23 season at 25-8. Campbell not only crushed this off-season’s transfer portal but is skilled at quickly turning around programs. The Horned Frogs team finished 8-23 last season and a dismal 1-17 in the Big 12 conference which sent six teams to the NCAA Tournament.

4. Texas A&M – Second year head coach Joni Crenshaw is used to winning in the SEC. Crenshaw came to College Station from Georgia, where she won 140 games over seven seasons and participated in four NCAA Tournaments. The Aggies have added four notable transfers – Aicha Coulibaly from Auburn; Kyndall Hunter from Texas; Endyia Rogers from Oregon; and 6’5’’ Lauren Ware from Arizona. TAMU also signed talented freshmen Kylie Marshall, who ranked #35 in the 2023 recruiting rankings, along with two other four-star recruits, Sole Williams and Erica Moon. Despite only going 9-20 in her first season in College Station, fans should not make the mistake of doubting Joni Crenshaw.

5. UC Irvine – UC Irvine actually won the Big West regular season (25-7 overall; 16-2 in conference) before slipping up in the conference tournament. UC Irvine went on to dominate San Diego State in the WNIT before losing its second round game at University of San Diego. The Anteaters add talented grad student Moulayna Johnson (University of Miami) to its already stout team defense that tied for seventh-best defense in the country, giving up only 53.2 points per game.