UNC Women’s Basketball among transfer portal winners

The UNC Women’s Basketball program spent the offseason recruiting the transfer portal and is expected to have impactful players incoming for 2023-2024.

Coming off a second-round exit in the NCAA Tournament last season and losing some players to the transfer portal, the UNC Women’s Basketball program had to find a way to replace some of the production from 2022-2023. Head Coach Courtney Banghart went immediately to the transfer portal and landed some top talent.

On Tuesday morning, ESPN Women’s Hoops released their top 35 most impactful transfers heading into the upcoming 2023-2024 season, and the Tar Heels saw two incoming commits land on the list, including one in the top 10.

At No.6 on the list is Iowa State graduate transfer Lexi Donarski. With the Cyclones, she averaged 13.2 points per game and was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2022. It is likely that she will replace Kennedy-Todd Williams, who transferred to Ole Miss, in the Tar Heels starting lineup. Here is what ESPN had to say about Donarski and the impact she can have on UNC Women’s Basketball.

"A Cyclones mainstay is moving east after 95 starts, 13.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game, plus a 2022 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. Tar Heels coach Courtney Banghart will lean heavily on that level of experience, and her backcourt, with Donarski joining Deja Kelly, has started 182 combined college games. Donarski’s 12.1 PPG last season was a career low, but if she recaptures the 41.1% 3-point shooting she had as a freshman, it will go a long way toward UNC replacing the production of graduate Eva Hodgson (41.7% on 3-point shooting)."

At No. 19 on ESPN’s most impactful transfer list is Boston College transfer Maria Gakdeng. The former Eagles transfer was named to the ACC All-Freshman team in 2022, including being named Freshman of the Week five times last season. ESPN expects the former McDonald’s All-American to have a huge defensive impact for the Tar Heels.

"Gakdeng was one of the league’s best interior defenders immediately upon her arrival in the ACC. Now she will just be protecting the rim in Chapel Hill instead of Chestnut Hill. The Tar Heels were already the fourth-stingiest defense in the conference. Now with Donarski and Gakdeng, they should be even tougher to score against. Gakdeng’s 1.8 blocks per game ranked third in the ACC, and her 11.3 points per game were second on the Eagles."

Another familiar name that UNC Women’s Basketball fans may recognize that made the list has already been mentioned once, and that is Kennedy-Todd Williams. The former Tar Heel guard left Chapel Hill after last season for Ole Miss and comes in ranked at No. 12 on ESPN’s most impactful transfer list.

Basketball season is approaching soon as the ACC will be releasing the women’s basketball schedule this evening at 7:00 PM on the ACC Network, and we will have full coverage of the schedule release here.

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