The 2022 transfer portal season officially surpassed the 2021 season, with 1,284 Division I players entering their names into the portal (compared to 1,197 a season ago). It’s a win for every player that made a decision to start a new journey or took a chance on themselves and their game.
For some programs, this was a big year for the portal, and for other programs, this was a big year … in the opposite direction as talented players elected to leave.
Here’s a look at the programs across the country that gained the most and lost the most to the transfer portal:
Gained the most
Baylor
Added: Aijha Blackwell (Missouri, two years remaining), Dre’una Edwards (Kentucky, one year remaining), Jana Van Gytenbeek (Stanford, three years remaining)
The Bears’ already short roster looked pretty bleak with the departures of NaLyssa Smith, Queen Egbo and Jordan Lewis. But Nicki Collen had no problem dipping into the transfer portal and adding talent and depth to the roster, which is already adding three top-75 players in the 2022 high school recruiting class.
Blackwell, a 6-foot guard and the nation’s second-leading rebounder last season (13 per game), will bring a high motor and tenacity. She averaged 15.4 points per game last season for the Tigers and is a good 3-point shooter (34 percent), so she’ll slot into this starting lineup and contribute immediately on both ends. Edwards, a 6-foot-2 forward, brings size, physicality and scoring potential. She averaged nearly a double-double last season (16.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game). Van Gytenbeek, a 5-7 guard, was one of the more surprising transfers last season (only because we rarely see folks leave Stanford with undergrad eligibility remaining). But after averaging about eight minutes a game over two seasons, she’s looking for an opportunity to play a larger role on the outside for a team. As a career 37 percent long-range shooter, she’ll help the Bears’ 3-point-shooting efforts. With three seasons of…