With the 2025 version of the transfer portal closing at midnight on Thursday, players in the Horizon League and across the nation are now locked into one important annual decision: stay or go. Those already in the portal before the deadline can still commit to a new school at any point, of course, and most have yet to do so. Nevertheless, the milestone seems like an appropriate time to assess how things have proceeded with a few of the HL’s most-affected teams so far.
Motoring Along
Detroit Mercy pulled off a mythical feat in the portal era, on par with anything their mascot has ever accomplished: executing a coaching change while also boasting strong roster retention. The obvious reason for that is the promotion of Kiefer Haffey, Kate Achter’s associate head coach, to the top job, in the wake of Achter’s departure for Western Michigan. Moves like that generally don’t draw headlines, but a program that’s been on a steady upward trajectory for the last couple years doesn’t need headlines, it needs players who can keep things rolling. Haffey, from all available reports, was the roster’s choice to replace Achter, and the payoff was a relatively low-drama spring.
Nine Titans Returning: Shortly after the Haffey news broke, UDM announced the return of a whopping nine players from the 2024-25 squad. It’s an impressive list that includes breakout star Makayla Jackson, who initially entered the portal and then withdrew, as well as all-Horizon selection and team centerpiece Aaliyah McQueen. McQueen’s younger sister, Rayven, will also join the program for the upcoming season, a level of faith that only happens when those inside a program are confident in its direction. Katie Burton, who showed impressive flashes once consistently on the court over the second half of the season, and most of a strong group of now-sophomores are among the nine expected back.
One Stark Exception: HL all-freshman team pick Kailey Starks was resistant to UDM’s retention efforts, as she found a way to achieve even greater coaching continuity than what the Titans offer: following Achter to WMU. The Chicago-area product carved out a solid secondary niche in Calihan Hall as a rookie, ranking sixth on the team in scoring (5.3), fourth in rebounding (3.1), and fourth in steals (0.9).
Detroit’s Davis Decides: One of the earliest portal signings anywhere in the league – it happened even before Achter took the WMU job – was that of former Northern Kentucky guard Kailee Davis, a Detroit native, who will return to the Motor City for the upcoming campaign. Davis missed all of this past season due to injury, but it shouldn’t be forgotten how good she was for the Norse before that, including an all-conference nod and 13 points per game in 2022-23. It’s easy to imagine Davis taking up Emaia O’Brien’s role on the team, as a ballhandler who can be lethal from range.
Old Faces in Youngstown
Much like Detroit Mercy, Youngstown State has kept nearly everyone on board during what can also be a precarious offseason – the one after a new coach’s first year. Nevertheless, Melissa Jackson and company will continue to move forward with a young core that includes HL Freshman of the Year Sophia Gregory, sparkplug Erica King, and numerous others who were affected by injuries for most or all of 2024-25. That latter group includes the likes of Sarah Baker (who was on track to be a rookie of the year contender herself before going down), Dacia Lewandowski, and Ashlynn Van Tassell. They’ve also managed to make a couple eye-popping additions.
Full Circle for Obiazor: Nneka Obiazor was the Horizon League Freshman of the Year at Youngstown State in 2020-21, when she rode an absolutely ridiculous shot (50.3 percent from two, 42.5 percent from three) to 15.3 points per game, though her 8.1 rebounds certainly shouldn’t be discounted. She then transferred to UNLV, and was the Mountain West Conference Sixth Player of the Year on a Rebels NCAA Tournament squad. In fact, UNLV made it to March Madness at the end of each of Obiazor’s three years in Vegas, before an aborted campaign at Grand Canyon this past season. Now, back where it all started, she’ll likely reclaim her place as one of the conference’s best players.
Make it Santoro Time: Jackson also signed Casey Santoro, a player she knows well, given that Santoro began her career with Kent State, and Jackson formerly coached KSU’s arch-rival, Akron. At 5-4, Santoro can often be overlooked, but she is a tough, capable ballhandler who can either start or be the first guard off the bench. She logged the first triple-double in Golden Flashes history during the 2021-22 season, and though her 2023 transfer to FGCU was initially derailed by injury, she bounced back to play 17.5 minutes per game for the Eagles this past season, while showing off some of her old skillset.
The CSU Pipeline: Last spring, the Penguins grabbed both Jackson (a 2023-24 Chris Kielsmeier assistant) and power forward Faith Burch from rival Cleveland State, and YSU kept the trend rolling this year by adding former Viking Paulina Hernandez. Hernandez, once a highly-regarded recruit out of the Milwaukee area, was essentially buried as CSU’s number three post for two years, and sought a change of scenery. If you’re wondering where Hernandez fits in an extremely deep front line that also includes the likes of Burch, Gregory, Baker, and Van Tassell, you’re not alone, but presumably, the Guins have some sort of plan.
Fort Pitt
At first glance, Robert Morris has had precisely the sort of chaotic second-year-coach offseason that YSU avoided, as eight Colonials hit the portal (alongside fairly heavy graduation losses). That list includes a couple legitimate talents like sniper Katelyn Chomko, who has already committed to UL Monroe, and Raissa Nsabua, but it’s also clear that the movement boils down to some garden-variety transitional churn. Chandler McCabe earned a contract extension with last season’s run to Indianapolis, but she has consistently stated that she wasn’t surprised by it (as most outsiders were), and also that the semifinals aren’t the program’s final goal. Somewhat quietly, she’s building the sort of roster that can back up those words.
Malcolm on the Perimeter: Though not technically an addition from this spring’s portal, February signing Aislin Malcolm is a part of Bobby Mo’s incoming transfer class in any practical sense. Malcolm is a local product who spent the first three seasons of her college career at Pittsburgh, averaging 9.3 points and 2.2 assists per game as a regular starter for the Panthers in 2023-24. Though she primarily came off of the Pitt bench this past season, her 38.5 percent rate from three-point range – not to mention her track record of success in the ACC – will serve the Colonials well.
Bailey’s and Cream: After laying down a first team All-NEC performance at Mercyhurst, Bailey Kuhns will head down I-79 to play for RMU, a school about an hour from her Mount Pleasant, PA home. It’s hard to overstate what Kuhns accomplished this past season, despite playing for a Lakers team that was just 9-18 overall. But as a starting point, she averaged 19.9 points per game, a number that placed her among the top 25 scorers in Division I. A good number of those buckets came from the free throw line, trips she earned thanks largely to shooting better than 50 percent from two-point range. Though there are concerns with her defense and ball security, Kuhns is the sort of headlining scorer than Robert Morris hasn’t had in quite a while.
Yinzers Welcome: Though she’s an Orlando native, McCabe has quickly become as Pittsburgh as Terrible Towels, fries on sandwiches, and confusing freeway exits. After RMU consistently relied on international players during the final years of Charlie Buscaglia’s tenure, an overwhelming number of McCabe’s commits over her first two seasons have hailed from the Colonials’ backyard. Within this portal class, that includes Malcolm and Kuhns, and also Ava Leroux (Bridgeville/Elon) and Mallory Daly (Pittsburgh/Buffalo).
Titletown Reloads
Nobody does roster retention and “I’m coming home” posts quite like Green Bay. Millennia from now, anthropologists will still be trying to figure out why no Phoenix players ever seem to leave. That’s true of now-graduated stars like Natalie McNeal, Bailey Butler, and Maddy Schreiber, who were certainly good enough to be paid substantially by a high-major program but, just as significantly, it’s also true of lesser-used depth pieces like Maren Westin and Meghan Schultz, who probably could have contributed more to some other team this past season. On top of that, any active college player from Wisconsin, particularly the northeast corner of the state, seems within reach for GB, no matter where they’ve been or what they’ve done to that point.
Prodigal Daughters: Two examples of that latter phenomenon are Gracie Grzesk and Lily Hansford, former area high school stars who will join the Phoenix after turns with high-major programs. Hansford just completed a rough season at Iowa State, but shot 44.9 percent from three-point range two years ago, while at Oregon State. Meanwhile, Grzesk, who didn’t play much as a freshman at Wisconsin, is billed as a Schreiber-esque three-level scorer. Despite the realities that made them seek to transfer in the first place, both are seen as top-tier pieces who will help keep the Phoenix machine rolling. A third Green Bay native, Carley Duffney, is also transferring home – though her move was a bit more predictable, given that she played for Kayla Karius at South Dakota.
Pepplers Move Upstate: Green Bay has never been above poaching their rivals at Milwaukee (see: Levy, Sydney), and sisters Kamy and Kallie Peppler became the latest Panthers to head north this week. Kamy, a former Wisconsin Miss Basketball, led the charge by entering the portal just before it closed and committing to GB the next day, leading to at least one tampering accusation thrown in Karius’ direction. Nevertheless, she is one of the conference’s top point guards, and should be a capable replacement for Butler, the only Horizon League player to fire off more assists in 2024-25.
Score-Up-Ski: Maddy Skorupski is neither from Wisconsin, nor has any tangible previous connection with Karius. However, neither biographical detail is of much concern with a dynamic athlete who was a bright spot during a tough season at Oakland, and probably would have been a player of the year contender if the Grizzlies had a better record. Though most will gravitate – with good reason – towards her 16 points per game and lethal mid-range jumper, Skorupski’s 2.8 steals per game ranked 16th in the nation.
Abandon Ship
What the heck happened at Cleveland State? Nine of the 12 Vikings with remaining eligibility hit the portal, the sort of percentage typically seen on teams with coaching instability, or that have lost a ton of games. Neither of those things are true of CSU, so it’s certainly a bit jarring to see the school in the same volume category near the top of the league as Oakland (new coach), Robert Morris (coach who just completed her first season and is still trying to remake the roster), and IU Indy (16-44 over the past two seasons). One bit of good news is that 2023-24 Horizon League Player of the Year Colbi Maples stuck around and will try to return to form after an ACL tear wiped out most of her second season in Ohio, but the Vikings will look substantially different in the fall than they have in recent years.
Double Sike: Mickayla Perdue, this past season’s most valuable HL player, committed to Arizona on April 15th. The Springfield, OH native had announced that she was staying at Cleveland State just a few days prior, but quickly reversed course when new Wildcats coach Becky Burke (and a rumored six-figure NIL payment) showed up. Burke, of course, coached Buffalo this past season and got an up-close look at her new guard in the Bulls’ WNIT Fab 4 win over the Vikings on April 2nd. A week later, she was hired by UofA and began plotting to land Perdue.
J-D to M-I-Z-Z-O-U: Though Cleveland State’s guards got most of the attention, Jordana Reisma was truly the Vikings’ fulcrum, particularly on the offensive end. The rising senior broke out in 2024-25 and was, by most accounts, the Horizon League’s best post player. She was even more than that when it came to field goal percentage, leading the nation by making 67.7 percent of her shots. Reisma also topped Division I in true shooting percentage (69.4 percent), thanks largely to greatly-improved free throw efforts. She’ll now help Missouri reboot things with former Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper.
Yes, Even Destiny Leo: If there was ever a CSU player who felt portal-proof, it was Destiny Leo, a homegrown kid who had, in many ways, become the face of the program over the last five years. Instead, she’ll seek to finish her career elsewhere (precise location still to be determined), abandoning what felt like an inevitable race to become the Vikings’ all-time leading scorer. The 2022-23 conference player of the year tore her ACL the following season, but bounced back with a productive campaign that included all-conference honors, along with nearly 12 points and six rebounds per game. Between her injury recovery and a position change, Leo didn’t receive the same notoriety that she collected earlier in her run, but her three-point shot remains among the best anywhere.
