WBB: potential transfer targets from Mizzou for the Badgers
When a head coach changes jobs, oftentimes players from their old team follow their coach to the new team.
The Tuesday announcement of Robin Pingeton as the new head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team was met with shock, confusion, and disappointment from UW fans and other college basketball observers. That’s, uh, not a great start for a new era but that’s where we find ourselves!
I explained my thoughts on the hire in this post:
Drew Hamm
Since I’d assume Pingeton won’t be fired before the season starts it’s probably smart to look at the Wisconsin roster and see what areas need to be addressed via the transfer portal. If you don’t want to read thousands of words about this allow me to sum things up thusly: the Badgers need help/warm bodies at literally any position you can imagine a basketball team having.
Here are the players (as of March 26, 2025 at 10:18 a.m. CT) on UW’s roster and their 2025-26 class:
- Alie Bisballe, 6-foot-4, forward, sophomore
- Reese Jaramillo, 5-foot-8, guard, sophomore
- Lily Krahn, 5-foot-10, guard, senior
- Alba Martin Mesa, 5-foot-6, guard, sophomore
- Leena Patibandla, 6-foot-0, guard, junior
- Jovana Spasovski, 6-foot-0, wing, sophomore
- Inés García Monje, 6-foot-2, forward, incoming freshman
- Leyre Urdiáin Esperanza, 6-foot-0, guard, incoming freshman
- there are also two 2026 verbal commitments (in-state standouts Giselle Janowski and Leah Nordin) that I’ve reached out to about the coaching change but haven’t heard back from yet
There, uh, isn’t a lot of college basketball experience on that 8-player list. The roster has one (1) career start at the collegiate level to their collective names, shout-out to Spasovski randomly starting a game at the beginning of last season, and no one who has averaged more than Krahn’s 14 minutes per game last year. Pingeton and her staff has their work cut out for them to try and construct a roster that won’t be the least talented in the Big Ten.
It is unclear if Pingeton is bringing any of her assistant coaches with her to Madison, but you can safely assume that one or two will join her. Chris Bracey has been on her Mizzou staff since 2018 while the other three assistants have been with Pingeton for three or fewer seasons. You can also safely assume that Wisconsin’s salary pool for assistants will NOT be competitive nor will it probably allow for more than the three assistants Marisa Moseley had last year.
With no insider information on the matter, here are some of the Mizzou players I think Wisconsin should try and poach!
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Nikki Kerstein, 5-foot-8, point guard
the lone member of the Tigers’ 2025 recruiting class
from the Chicago suburbs, not sure which one, but her high school is in Lombard, Ill.
Class 3A Illinois Player of the Year as a senior; led high school to state title as a senior too
Mizzou was her only P4 offer; UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee each offered her in high school
member of the U16 and U18 Greek national team (she is a dual-naional)
older sister plays basketball at Vermont; her mom played at UIC and her dad played at Harper College
Grace Slaughter, 6-foot-2, guard
rising true junior
from Grain Valley, Mo.
2023-2024 All-SEC Freshman Team
has started 60 of 62 games at Mizzou
averaged 15.0 ppg (48.5% FG, 45.9% 3P, 85.8% FT), 3.6 rpg, 0.8 apg, 0.6 spg, 2.3 topg last year
averaged 1.23 points per shot attempt last year which was in the 97th percentile nationally
advanced value metrics peg her as an outstanding offensive player and a suspect defensive one
Abbey Schreacke, 6-foot-0, guard
rising true junior
from Quincy, Ill.
appeared in 62 career games (two starts) averaging 21.1 mpg
averaged 7.5 ppg (38.8% FG, 36.9% 3P, 70.6% FT), 1.2 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.8 topg last year
3P rate of 76.0% (97th percentile) shows she’s an unrepentant gunner
much like Slaughter, she isn’t much to write home about on defense
Tionna Herron, 6-foot-4, center
redshirt junior
from DeSoto, Texas
4-star prospect in 2022 class (No. 69 by espnW)
underwent successful open-heart surgery in August 2022, obviously sitting out her freshman year at Kentucky
transferred to Texas for 2023-24 season, appearing in 11 games
transferred to Mizzou for 2024-25 season, appearing in 12 games
if she doesn’t mind moving again, she will have a clear path to playing time in Madison
Ashton Judd, 6-foot-1, guard
rising senior
from West Plains, Mo.
2022-23 All-SEC Freshman Team
started 28 of 32 games for Mizzou this year and all 30 games last year
averaged 11.6 ppg (39.5% FG, 36.6% 3P, 74.3% FT), 5.0 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.0 spg, 3.0 topg
solid rebounder for her position and an average defender (at minimum)
Ma’Riya Vincent, 6-foot-0, forward
rising redshirt freshman
from Houston
I’m assuming she redshirted this year due to the fact that she has no recorded stats on Mizzou’s website but I can’t find any official announcement anywhere
No. 4 player in Texas for 2024 recruiting class
Averi Kroenke, 5-foot-11, point guard
rising redshirt junior
from Columbia, Mo./Lincoln, Mo.
missed all of 2023-24 season due to injury
started 25 of 32 games this season, averaging 21.6 mpg
averaged 2.6 ppg (31.7% FG, 26.2% 3P, 70.0% FT), 2.2 rpg, 3.0 apg, 1.1 spg, 1.4 topg
hasn’t been a great shooter so far, but she takes care of the ball and can run the offense competently
Again, I have no inside info and, in fact, none of these players are even in the transfer portal yet. However, things move quickly when roster building in the off-season and hopefully Pingeton is already having conversations with these, and many other, players.
A pair of troubling trends I see in regards to Pingeton’s recruiting chops are her worst seasons at Mizzou came immediately after NIL became legal and players became eligible to transfer without sitting out a year.
- NIL legalized on July 1, 2021
- players able to transfer without sitting out a year started with 2021 academic year
Here are Pingeton’s season results over the past five seasons:
- 2020-2021: 9-13 overall, 5-9 SEC, 10th place; WNIT bid
- 2021-2022: 18-11 overall, 7-9 SEC, 9th place; WNIT bid
- 2022-2023: 17-12 overall, 6-10 SEC, 9th place; WNIT bid
- 2023-2024: 11-19 overall, 2-14 SEC, 14th place
- 2024-2025: 14-18 overall, 3-13 SEC, t-13th place
She last took the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament in 2018-19 (their fourth straight trip) which happens to coincide perfectly with All-American, 3x First Team All-SEC, all-time leading scorer at Mizzou, and WNBA second round pick Sophie Cunningham’s career in Columbia. It’s worth noting that Pingeton also helped develop two other WNBA Draft picks, Bri Kulas (2014) and Christine Flores (2012).
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Unfortunately for her, that’s all ancient history when it comes to recruiting players who weren’t even in middle school when those players were picked. Another thing worth noting is that Kroenke and Slaughter were both top-100 kids in their respective recruiting classes that she got out of high school and Herron was a top-100 player she got out of the transfer portal. She also signed the No. 11 class in the nation for the 2019 cycle which was before the NIL/transfer portal era.
“I learned a lot in almost 15 years in the Southeastern Conference and I am ready to apply that in Madison while also evolving with the changing landscape in college athletics,” Pingeton said in her hiring announcement press release. I’m concerned that her evolution with the changing landscape in college athletics is either moving too slowly or should have started many years ago.
It takes time to develop relationships with high school coaches in a new state, so I’m willing to give Pingeton time there but I can’t say I’m looking forward to any sort of immediate recruiting boost with her hiring. My ringing endorsement? I guess it can’t really be worse that what the previous regime was doing!
Yay.
