Ex-Cats to Big Ten, SoCon: Where Kentucky women’s basketball transfers landed
Fourteen days after the official closing of the women’s college basketball transfer portal on April 20, all of Kentucky’s transfer portal entrants had put pen to paper and signed with new programs.
Following Kenny Brooks’ record-breaking second season in Lexington — which resulted in an overall record of 25-11 (8-8 SEC) and the program’s first Sweet 16 berth in a decade — he and his staff turned the page to next season.
The 2025-26 roster featured 12 players, five of whom retained no additional eligibility. Three others — sophomore guard and former top-40 prospect Lexi Blue, freshman forward and former McDonald’s All-American Kaelyn Carroll and 6-foot-5 freshman Swedish center Elsa Vadfors — opted to transfer out of the program.
Blue’s decision to transfer was not a surprise. Her potential was never quite realized in two seasons under the head coach for whom she flipped her commitment from Virginia Tech to Kentucky after his hiring in 2024.
Carroll’s decision to transfer was unexpected, and her entry to the portal was reported April 10 — more than a week after both Blue and Vadfors. The former five-star prospect was the No. 15 overall recruit in the class of 2025, and, though Carroll averaged just 11.8 minutes per game, she was meant to be a key piece of the future of the Kentucky program.
Vadfors, who did not play at all this season and signed as a late addition last May, was always thought to be a development project by the staff. She marked the second international center to spend one season with UK before transferring elsewhere; ex-Cat Clara Silva, a talented post from Portugal who had been playing professionally in Spain prior to her 2024-25 freshman campaign, left for TCU and started 38 this season, leading the Horned Frogs in both rebounds and blocks.
While Brooks and his staff continue to search for players to complement returning starters Clara Strack and Asia Boone, take a look at where Blue, Carroll and Vadfors have landed — and what you might expect to see from them next season.
Lexi blue lands at Northwestern
For the second time in her young career, Blue will join an established, respected coach seeking to build a foundation at their next stop.
Carla Berube, a former UConn great who spent the past seven years as head coach of Princeton, was hired away from the Ivy League after 147 total wins, five conference titles and five NCAA Tournament berths. Northwestern chose Berube to lead the program following the retirement of Joe McKeown, who retired after nearly 20 years at the helm in Evanston, Illinois.
Thought by some to be a possible successor to Geno Auriemma, the sport’s all-time wins leader, whenever he chooses to retire, Berube has guided multiple programs with rigorous academic standards to success; prior to her Princeton tenure, Berube amassed an overall record of 384-96 over 17 seasons at Division III Tufts University.
Northwestern, a member of the Big Ten since the program’s first varsity season in 1981-82, has only made the NCAA Tournament eight times — most recently in 2021 — and has never reached the second weekend. Chicago’s Big Ten team won only eight games last season and has not achieved double-digit victories since 2021-22 (17 wins).
In Evanston, Blue has a chance to make an immediate impact, though the Orlando native averaged just 1.9 points and 1.2 rebounds in 10.1 minutes over the course of two seasons in Lexington; Northwestern graduated two of its top five leading scorers, and lost another to the transfer portal.
In addition to Blue — Northwestern’s first portal acquisition — Berube and her new staff have signed a pair of rising sophomore transfers out of Syracuse in point guard Camdyn Nelson and wing Jasmyn Cooper and rising junior guard Lily Carmody out of Boston College.
Kaelyn Carroll opts for Washington
Carroll’s decision to transfer may have been surprising, but her landing at a fast-rising power-conference program was not.
Last season, head coach Tina Langley’s fifth leading the Huskies, Washington won 20-plus games for the first time since 2016-17 and achieved a second consecutive NCAA Tournament berth. Led by a trio of former top-30 prospects in their respective classes — Sayvia Sellers (No. 28 in 2023), Avery Howell (No. 16 in 2024) and Brynn McGaughy (No. 14 in 2025) — Washington reached the second round of March Madness an overtime loss to eventual Elite Eight participant TCU.
Howell, a former McDonald’s All-American and USC Trojan, was the Huskies’ strongest pickup during last season’s transfer portal cycle. Carroll’s signing to the top-25 bubble program reflects its continued momentum on the recruiting trail and likely means a larger role for the ex-Cat in her sophomore year.
Carroll, who averaged 3.4 points and 2.2 rebounds this season at UK, announced her signing with the Huskies last Saturday. She joins a portal class which also includes former Colorado State starting point guard Brooke Carlson, former North Carolina State starting forward Tilda Trygger and former Oklahoma State guard Macey Huard. Washington has also signed guard Amayah Garcia, the No. 51 overall prospect in the class of 2026.
Elsa Vadfors transfers to ETSU
Vadfors, the last of the ex-Cats to sign with a new destination, announced her commitment to East Tennessee State on Monday. She is the Buccaneers’ first transfer portal signing of the cycle.
Head coach Brenda Mock Brown, leading the charge in Johnson City, Tennessee since 2022, has recorded four consecutive winning seasons. Last season, the Buccaneers finished with an overall record of 18-13, losing in the SoCon Tournament semifinal to eventual champion Samford.
ETSU will return two of its top three leading scorers next season, and Vadfors’ height instantly makes her the tallest Buccaneer on the 2026-27 roster. She joins rising sophomore Lucia France as the program’s only true centers.
