In contemporary college sports, the transfer portal is essentially a tsunami, crashing down on campuses across the nation and disbursing athletes to new destinations.
Keeping up with who’s now where is dizzying. When tuning into openers, expect to be shocked when seeing that player in that jersey, trying to recall when that signing even happened.
All that chaos, however, creates tons of excitement, with opportunities to see players in new programs where their talents can be differently utilized and
better optimized as they also strive to expand their skill sets. Or, such optimism about an improved opportunity could prove empty, all but guaranteeing another trip into the portal at season’s end.
Among all the familiar faces in new places, these three are the ones that most interest me. In the comments, share your list, letting us know which stars will rise, or fall, in their new hooping homes.
Audi Crooks (Oklahoma State)
I think this one is obvious and unanimous.
Outside of Ames, what will we see from Audi Crooks?
Early last season, as Iowa State got off to an undefeated start that saw them rise all the way into the top 10, Beckett Harrison wondered if it was possible to build a true title contender around Crooks, a player with some of the most extreme strengths and weaknesses in women’s basketball history.
Offensively, Crooks is other-worldly, an incredibly-efficient scorer who is a near-automatic bucket when she gets the ball around the basket. Defensively, she’s close to a non-factor, lacking the foot speed and spatial navigation skills required to serve as a deterrent. That she is a center, arguably the most important defensive position, only amplifies her insufficiencies on that end.
Just as Beckett pondered the highest potential of the Audi-centric Cyclones, it all came crashing down, with Iowa State experiencing a cascade of losses that resulted in them tumbling out of the top 25 and threatened their NCAA Tournament bid. They eventually went dancing as a No. 8 seed, but lost in the first round.
Now, she’s taken her Stillwater, in a widely-presumed well-compensated move to Oklahoma State.
But, how well will it go on the court?
Crooks’ style of play seems antithetical to high-octane, pace-and-space and 3-point bombing Oklahoma State. However, special talents demand special accommodations, and head coach Jaci Hoyt surely has spent all summer scheming ways to take advantage of Crooks’ gifts.
Yet, the compatibility between Crooks and OSU’s other high-profile transfer, Liv McGill, raises further questions about fit, as McGill was a high-usage and on-ball guard during her two seasons at Florida.
Against lesser opponents, the one-two offensive punch likely will be too much. Even in the meat of the Big 12 schedule, the duo likely can drive the Cowgirls to huge victories, as the conference projects as the weakest of the Power Four.
But against the nation’s elite? Can two high-volume players establish an offensive synergy that overcomes defensive issues that, due to Crooks’ limitations, likely can’t be schemed away or around? Back-to-back games against South Carolina and Oklahoma in early December could be ugly, or could prove all this pessimism to be misguided.
Those contests also will serve as a test of Crooks’ pro potential. Because of her prominence, Crooks’ name likely will feature in mock drafts, and she’ll likely have a huge game or two that will inspire conversations about her WNBA future. Right now, however, it’s hard to imagine Crooks surviving on a WNBA court.
But maybe this move was not just about succeeding on women’s college basketball’s bigger stages, but also refining different dimensions of her game that could make her more viable in the WNBA.
All that’s why Crooks is, clearly, the most interesting transfer. The fun begins on Monday, Nov. 2, when she and OSU host Southern (6 p.m. ET).
Talaysia Cooper (Ole Miss)
Last season, now-Washington Mystic Cotie McMahon went to Oxford to finish off her college career, serving as the centripetal star for Ole Miss while improving her professional stock under Coach Yo.
This season, Talaysia Cooper will occupy that role, arriving at Ole Miss after a turbulent junior season at Tennessee. Although the most empowered player within the Lady Vols’ more egalitarian system, Cooper should assume a higher-usage offensive role for the Rebels, allowing her to explore the full extents of her game.
Cooper’s ability to, like McMahon, take a mini-leap at Ole Miss will, most immediately, determine the ceiling for a mostly-refreshed Rebels squad.
More interestingly, her performance will also inform her WNBA prospects.
Cooper was eligible for last year’s WNBA draft, and likely would have attracted first-round buzz had she entered. A 6-foot-0 big guard who can score, handle and pass with a credible-enough 3-point shot, Cooper possesses the kind of versatile skill package most desirable in modern basketball.
She, however, has always come off as a bit stiff, lacking the physical fluidity that will allow her talents to translate against consistently higher-caliber competition in the WNBA. Her uprightness could prevent her from operating as comfortably as an on-ball creator in the WNBA, which would diminish her value and likely consign her to a 3-and-D role at the next level.
Fully empowered at Ole Miss, Cooper will have ample chances to disprove any concerns about her shortcomings, and instead announce that she, in fact, is a near-ideal modern wing who should be in top-five pick conversations.
Coop will make her debut on Monday, Nov. 2 when Ole Miss hosts Alcorn State (12 p.m. ET, SECN+).
Brooke Quarles-Daniels (South Carolina)
Even as head coach Dawn Staley was welcoming birdie after birdie into her nest over the offseason, forming the most stacked team in women’s college basketball, one position remained rather empty.
Staley, a former point guard, seemed have a squad without a trusted PG. Raven Johnson, South Carolina’s longtime floor general, is gone, with one WNBA season already on her resume. Then, the Gamecock in line to assume the controls, Maddy McDaniel, decided to step away from team to prioritize her mental and emotional health.
But, a late-August birdie flew into Columbia.
Brooke Quarles-Daniels, who spent the past two seasons Michigan and served as the Wolverines starting point guard last season, signed with South Carolina. After beginning her college career at Oakland, where she also played for two seasons, Quarles-Daniels intends to play a fifth and final season as a Gamecock. At least, that’s the plan.
Quarles-Daniels is one of 75 athletes suing the NCAA for a fifth-year of eligibility, with these athletes arguing that they should be grandfathered into the NCAA’s new “5-in-5” eligibility system, which was implemented this summer. On Oct. 20, a California-based Superior Court Judge granted a temporary injunction, meaning Quarles-Daniels is currently eligible. The NCAA, however, is expected to appeal. At SEC media day, before the Oct. 20 injunction, Staley was “optimistic” about Quarles-Daniels’ eligibility.
A quick glance at Quarles-Daniels’ stats, however, might raise questions about how much the Gamecocks, despite their point guard deficit, really need her. On a team full of current and future stars with imagined WNBA futures, how much will South Carolina really benefit from a player who averaged less than six points per game last season?
Don’t let such modest stats mask the high impact that could make Quarles-Daniels the skeleton key that unlocks the best version of this South Carolina squad.
Quarles-Daniels is not a great shooter, not much of a scorer and she’s not even a special playmaker, but she’s a steady hand who, as should be expected of any player that attracts the interest of Staley, is elite defensively. Last season, Quarles-Daniels finished second in the Big Ten in steals per game, tallying 2.5 swipes per contest. That defensive activity earned her a Big Ten All-Defense honor. Advanced stats also demonstrate how much she deserved that accolade, as she led the Wolverines in defensive box plus-minus and was second to All-American Olivia Olson in defensive win shares.
That tone setting defensive play, combined with a low-mistake offensive game, might be exactly what this team needs.
Quarles-Daniels did not start South Carolina’s exhibition win over Benedict College, as Staley opted for the ball-handler-by-committee trio of Agot Makeer, Tessa Johnson and Jordan Lee. (Lee, of course, is another transfer who certainly will make a significant impact for South Carolina, coming to Columbia from SEC rival Texas.)
Maybe those three, especially with all of South Carolina’s talent elsewhere on the floor, will offer sufficient enough offensive table setting. Makeer seems poised for a second-year leap, and Johnson are Lee and two of the better guards in the nation who, after sharing the court with other offensive initiators throughout their careers, could possess more primary playmaking skills than expected.
However, I won’t be surprised if Staley more frequently finds herself turning to Quarles-Daniels as the season progresses.
