How impactful have recent Ivy League graduate transfers been outside the conference?

“Kaitlyn Chen was the perfect addition for what this team needed at the position that we needed it,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma told reporters on April 3, the day before his team faced UCLA in the national semifinals.

Chen came to UConn to use her final year of NCAA eligibility after exhausting her Ivy League eligibility. The Ivy League canceled her freshman season in 2020-21 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the conference doesn’t allow graduate students to compete in athletics. So after she graduated in 2024, she had to play her final college season elsewhere.

The Next, a 24/7/365 women’s basketball newsroom

The Next: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX. 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.

In three seasons at Princeton, Chen won three Ivy League regular-season titles, three Ivy League Tournament titles and two NCAA Tournament games. She was named Most Outstanding Player of the Ivy League Tournament each year, won Ivy League Player of the Year in 2023 and was a WBCA honorable mention All-America in 2024.

She didn’t miss a beat at UConn, earning Auriemma’s trust from Day 1 and leading her teammates despite being a newcomer.

“She’s, I think, been a very integral part of some of [UConn’s] ‘big moment’ plays,” UCLA head coach Cori Close, who also recruited Chen as a graduate transfer, told reporters on April 3. “I’ve been very impressed. I was impressed with her decision-making at Princeton, and I’ve been impressed with her decision-making at UConn.”

Chen isn’t the only Ivy Leaguer who has thrived as a graduate transfer. But she is part of the last class of Ivy Leaguers whose college careers were upended by the pandemic. So let’s look at how the pandemic-era graduate transfers have fared overall, now that their careers are mostly finished.

All data in this analysis is from Sports Reference.

Your business can reach over 3 million women’s sports fans every single month!

Here at The Next and The IX, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women’s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at editors@thenexthoops.com to discuss ways to work together.

How many graduate transfers were there, and where did they go?

In four offseasons from spring 2021 through summer 2024, 38 Ivy League players graduated and transferred to other Division I schools. Most had an extra year of eligibility because of the canceled 2020-21 season, but some did for other reasons. For example, former Yale forward Camilla Emsbo took the 2020-21 academic year off from school to preserve her Ivy League eligibility. But a torn ACL ruled her out for her entire senior season in 2022-23, giving her an extra year that she used at Duke.

Players are included in this analysis regardless of the reason for their extra eligibility.

However, this analysis excludes two players who graduated in 2024 but missed all or virtually all of the 2024-25 season with injuries. Former Penn forward Jordan Obi, now at Kentucky, did not play for the Wildcats after getting injured in summer 2024. And former Princeton forward Chet Nweke, now at Georgetown, was injured on the first play of the Hoyas’ season opener. Both will be eligible to return in 2025-26.

In total, the 36 pandemic-era graduate transfers included in this analysis played 2,345 games for their Ivy League schools. They’ve played 1,121 so far as graduate transfers. Fifteen of them transferred to schools in power conferences, which are defined here as the ACC, BIG EAST, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC. The other 21 transferred to mid-majors.

The power-conference transfers

Players who transferred to power conferences after their Ivy League eligibility concluded tended to be key players as undergraduates and remain important players as graduates. In their final healthy Ivy League season (in nearly all cases, their senior year), they averaged 13.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.2 steals in 30.1 minutes per game. They started 95% of the games they played in that season and produced 0.14 win shares per game.

At their power-conference schools, they still started 65% of the games they played in. They averaged 7.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.9 steals in 21.9 minutes per game and earned 0.08 win shares per game. They also stayed similarly efficient, shooting 42.7% from the field and 34.1% from 3-point range compared with 44.3% and 33.8% in their final healthy Ivy season.

In short, the average path looked much like Chen’s, going from star to important role player. However, some players remained stars after transferring into a power conference.

Princeton alumna Abby Meyers, the 2022 Ivy League Player of the Year, was the second-leading scorer for a Maryland team that went 28-7 and advanced to the Elite Eight in 2022-23. She averaged 14.3 points per game on 45.5% shooting, not far off from her 17.9 points per game on 45.0% shooting as a senior at Princeton. That helped her become a first-round pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft.

“We really were fortunate to be able to get a player like Abby,” Maryland head coach Brenda Frese told reporters during the 2023 NCAA Tournament. “… To gain that experience and that leadership has been huge. She’s another dynamic scorer for us. … She’s understanding shot selection, being efficient and rebounding the basketball. So all the intangibles as well that we really need.”

In spring 2023, Harvard’s McKenzie Forbes, Penn’s Kayla Padilla and Columbia’s Kaitlyn Davis all committed to play their graduate season at USC. Freshman superstar JuJu Watkins led the way for the 2023-24 Trojans, who went 29-6 and made the Elite Eight. But Forbes was the second-leading scorer at 14.3 points per game — slightly more than the 13.7 she’d averaged as a senior at Harvard. Padilla and Davis were starters as well, averaging 7.8 and 6.0 points per game, and each had moments in the spotlight.

For example, Padilla had 13 points on 3-for-6 shooting in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game to help USC win the title. “While we have selfless people who play roles, they’re hoopers,” USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb told reporters postgame in response to a question about Padilla. “When it’s their turn to step up, they step up like an All-American.”

Forbes also scored 26 points in that game and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. And in the semifinals, the 6’ Davis had produced 8 points and 16 rebounds and guarded 6’7 UCLA center Lauren Betts to help the Trojans win in double overtime.

Like Meyers before them, Forbes and Davis were drafted into the WNBA after their graduate seasons (and Chen followed a year later). Forbes and Davis were third-round picks in 2024 and have since played internationally and in Athletes Unlimited.

Related reading: How McKenzie Forbes is approaching her second chance at a WNBA roster spot

The mid-major transfers

Ivy League players who transferred to mid-majors after graduation tended to be important contributors, but not stars, as undergraduates. As graduate transfers, they tended to maintain or slightly improve that production.

In their final healthy Ivy League season, they averaged 6.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 0.9 steals in 21.4 minutes per game. They started 62% of the games they played in that season and produced 0.05 win shares per game.

As graduate transfers, they started 65% of their games and earned 0.06 win shares per game. They averaged 7.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 0.8 steals in 23.0 minutes per game. They also shot slightly better from the field and from 3-point range, on average, than they did in their final healthy Ivy season.

However, some players made bigger jumps after transferring. Kallin Spiller had the biggest increase in scoring, from 1.8 points per game at Columbia in 2019-20 to 8.1 points per game in two graduate seasons at Hawaii. (She had one additional season of eligibility from sitting out in 2018-19 as an undergraduate transfer from Seattle to Columbia and another from the pandemic-canceled season.)

Spiller’s minutes were dramatically higher at Hawaii than at Columbia, which contributed to her increased scoring. She also added a 3-pointer to her arsenal, going from shooting 0.3 threes per game at Columbia to 1.4 in her first season at Hawaii to 3.0 in her second season at Hawaii.

Tune in to Locked On Women’s Basketball

Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.

Listen now!

Mya Murray, who played three seasons at Brown but saw her role decrease over her career, also made a jump as a graduate transfer to Robert Morris in 2024-25. She averaged 7.6 points and 5.7 rebounds in 18.6 minutes per game, up from 1.8 points and 2.7 rebounds in 10.0 minutes as a Brown senior. Her increase in rebounds per game is the most of any pandemic-era Ivy League graduate transfer.

Another Brown alumna, Dominique Leonidas, also had a relatively large increase in scoring as a graduate transfer to Boise State. She averaged 11.2 points per game for the Broncos in 2021-22, nearly doubling her average of 6.3 per game in her final season at Brown despite playing similar minutes. For Leonidas, the key was more efficient shooting inside the arc: 46.6% at Boise State, compared with 37.4% in her final season at Brown.

Leonidas’ win shares per game increased by 0.09 at Boise State, the largest increase of any Ivy grad transfer in this period. Spiller’s win shares per game jumped by 0.08, while Murray rounded out the top three with an increase of 0.05 per game.

What’s next for Ivy League graduate transfers?

Along with Obi and Nweke, 2024 Columbia graduate Nicole Stephens will have another year of eligibility in 2025-26. Stephens played for Dayton in 2024-25 but has a second year of eligibility there due to an injury at Columbia.

Those three players are the last pandemic-era graduate transfers from the Ivy League still playing. Going forward, the only players who will be able to grad transfer are those who miss all or most of a season due to injury or otherwise sit out a season as an undergraduate. Katie Benzan is an example of the latter, choosing not to play her senior season at Harvard in 2019-20 and transferring to Maryland after graduation.

Two Ivy League players entered the portal as graduate transfers for 2025-26: Penn guard Marianna Papazoglou and Penn forward Iyanna Rogers. Neither played as seniors in 2024-25, and Rogers also missed her freshman season due to injury. Papazoglou has committed to Division II West Chester.

Of course, Ivy League players can also transfer out as undergraduates — something that has become increasingly prevalent on the men’s side for star players in the era of name, image and likeness. It remains rare on the women’s side, but three role players entered the portal this offseason: Princeton’s Tabitha Amanze and Yale’s Lola Lesmond and Abigail Long. Amanze, a former top-50 recruit and a projected starter for the Tigers in 2025-26, has since committed to Virginia. Lesmond and Long are uncommitted and could still return to Yale.

Order ‘Rare Gems’ and save 30%

Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The Next and The IX, released his latest book on May 7, 2024. This deeply reported story follows four connected generations of women’s basketball pioneers, from Elvera “Peps” Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.

If you enjoy his coverage of women’s basketball every Wednesday at The IX, you will love “Rare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.” Click the link below to order and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout.