TCU among the top women’s Big 12 teams all chasing a title with some high-profile transfers

By Canadian Press on October 21, 2025.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mark Campbell took over a program at TCU a few years ago that had won a single Big 12 game prior to his arrival, but he knew that the creation of the transfer portal provided him with a unique way to turn things around in a hurry.

He mined it for six players the first year, who helped the Horned Frogs win 21 games, and six more last year, including Hailey Van Lith, who helped lead TCU to a 34-4 record, Big 12 regular- and postseason titles, and a trip to the Elite Eight.

Campbell will be relying on another batch, highlighted by high-scoring guard Olivia Miles who transferred from Notre Dame, to keep the roll going.

“We’ve used the portal as well as anyone in the country. We’ve rebuilt it six players at a time,” Campbell said. “This season wasn’t a rebuilt; it was a reload. There’s a foundation that we’ve built and established. There was a core group of returners. And then you add some incredible talent. You have to just keep adding to what we’ve done each year.”

The Big 12 has never been more wide open in women’s hoops, where the departure of Texas and Oklahoma for the SEC prior to last season created a void at the top. No. 17 TCU quickly stepped into it, and now the trick is to sustain. The 3-point shooting of Miles should help, as should the interior play of Marta Suarez, who spent two seasons apiece at Tennessee and Cal.

“It was a difficult process, first of all deciding even if I wanted to come back to college,” said Miles, who likely would have been a high WNBA draft pick. “I really wanted to go somewhere that had family-like beliefs and values and relationship building was at the forefront of what they do and how they operate.”

TCU is the norm rather than the exception. All the top teams in the Big 12 welcomed high-profile transfers.

No. 14 Iowa State, which had enjoyed five years of Emily Ryan running the point, brought in Jada Williams from Arizona. She was certainly familiar to Cyclones coach Bill Fennelly after dropping 17 points on them during a loss in January.

No. 16 Baylor likewise supplemented its roster with Taliah Scott, who averaged 21.2 points at Arkansas and Auburn, but whose career has been beset by injuries. Scott could be the biggest factor in whether Baylor makes a sixth straight NCAA tourney.

Then there’s No. 22 Oklahoma State, which watched Haleigh Timmer score 11 points to knock the Cowgirls out of the NCAAs in the first round, then managed to land her from South Dakota State. She missed the previous season because of a knee injury but showed flashes of stardom last season, and now has one year left to showcase herself at Oklahoma State.

Welcome back

Gavin Petersen took over Utah four games into last season, when Lynne Roberts left to become head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks. He ultimately led the Utes to the NCAA Tournament, where they lost in the first round to Indiana.

Now, the longtime Utah assistant has had a full offseason to get comfortable leading the program.

“(Roberts) was preparing me for a moment when I was going to be given an opportunity to be a head coach,” Petersen said, and then admitted: “Did not have it in our Bingo cards that it would play out the way it did.”

Olympic experience

Kansas State lost 11 players from a team that reached the Sweet 16 last season, including stars Serena Sundell and Ayoka Lee — a group that accounted for 89% of the Wildcats’ scoring. That meant coach Jeff Mittie had to rebuild with nine newcomers around a core of three returnees. One of them is Nastja Claessens, who played for Belgium at the Paris Olympics.

“It’s like a family. Everybody is so nice,” Claessens said. “I want to help the team out where I can.”

Speaking of rebuilds

Arizona hired Becky Burke away from Buffalo after Adia Barnes departed for SMU. The coaching change came relatively late in the cycle, and a wave of transfers left Burke with a single player on the roster that she inherited.

“Complete rebuild from the studs,” said Burke, who brought lead guard Noelani Cornfield along from Buffalo. “This is a complete rebuild. We weren’t hired early in the process by any means. We hit the ground running. We did a tremendous job with hiring a staff, building a roster in the timeframe we had. We are a no-excuses group but let’s be real, it was bare-bones.”

Staffing changes

Texas Tech coach Krista Gerlich made wholesale changes to her staff after the Lady Raiders failed to make the NCAA Tournament once again, a drought that stretches to 2013. She parted with Ashley Odom and Plenette Pierson and hired Adrian Walters from North Carolina and Jaida Williams, who had been head coach at Texas A&M-International.

“We did have some good success late in the season,” Gerlich said, “but we certainly want to build on that, and we want to be playing in the NCAA Tournament, and so you know, we needed to make some changes to be able to help us do that.”

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Dave Skretta, The Associated Press