UNC Women’s Basketball among transfer portal winners
Courtney Banghart and the UNC women’s basketball program are considered “winners” with regard to the additions they made via the transfer portal.
The transfer portal has impacted essentially every program in Division I athletics, as college basketball athletes seem to be at the forefront of the attention surrounding all the different moves this offseason.
Courtney Banghart and the UNC women’s basketball program were impacted by the portal, as Kennedy Todd-Williams and Destiny Adams elected to take their talents elsewhere. Fortunately, the Tar Heels dove into the transfer portal and brought three very talented basketball players to Chapel Hill to help fill the void.
Recently, Chantel Jennings of The Athletic tabbed North Carolina as one of her “winners” in the 2023 transfer portal:
"Kennedy Todd-Williams, who departed the Tar Heels for Ole Miss, was one of the more surprising transfer entrants, but coach Courtney Banghart reloaded with three impressive additions for UNC. Donarski, a former Big 12 defensive player of the year, and Nivar, a North Carolina native whose skill set went underutilized at Stanford last season, will bring depth to the perimeter on both ends of the floor following Todd-Williams’ departure and Eva Hodgson’s graduation. At 6-3, Gakdeng should help on the glass, especially offensively. Banghart already had a more than solid base with Deja Kelly, Alyssa Ustby and Kayla McPherson, but to add these three transfers as well as three top-100 recruits — including No. 4 Ciera Toomey (6-3) — gets UNC into the top-10 conversation."
Lexi Donarski (Iowa State), Indya Nivar (Stanford), and Maria Gakdeng (Boston College) have the makings of being impact players right away for the UNC women’s basketball program. These additions will join an already talented returning group, led by Deja Kelly and Alyssa Ustby, but will arrive on campus with a highly-touted recruiting class as well.
Just as Jennings noted, this group definitely has the potential to be a top-10 program heading into the 2023 season.
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