Georgia women’s basketball coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson may have pulled off the feat of a lifetime in her fourth year with the group of players she has coming in.
“When you look at what we did this off-season with our transfer portal and our freshmen, retainment of our players that are coming back, it’s clear that the University of Georgia invested in women’s basketball,” Abrahamson-Henderson said at SEC Media Day in Birmingham, Ala. on Tuesday, Oct. 14. “I want to thank President Morehead, Josh Brooks, Darrice Griffin for all of their support and great outlook on women’s basketball this year.”
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The Bulldogs, who finished the 2024-25 season 13-19 overall and 4-12 in the SEC with a trip to the second round of the conference tournament, returned a third of their roster, including sophomore guard Trinity Turner, redshirt junior guard Savannah Henderson, redshirt sophomore Miyah Verse (who Abrahamson-Henderson compared to Angel Reese) and sophomore Mia Woolfolk.
Turner and Woolfolk were SEC All-Freshman and two of the top four players on the team last year, both averaging more than 11 points and 4 rebounds per game alongside Flournoy — and Woolfolk didn’t even play the whole season due to an early injury.
Asia Avinger and De’Mauri Flournoy graduated, as did Roxane Makolo and Nyah Leveretter, who transferred in last season for their graduate year.
While the transfer portal claimed guards Summer and Indya Davis, who ended up at Georgetown, and center Fatima Diakhate, who is now with Pitt, it also had it’s upsides. Big ones, too.
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The Bulldogs managed to pick up ACC Sixth Woman of the Year Dani Carnegie, a sophomore guard who led Georgia Tech with an average 12.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in 2024-25.
Pulling her from Georgia’s in-state rival was pretty easy once the decision to transfer had been made. Abrahamson-Henderson said she only knew of Carnegie from recruiting. She’d followed her during her AAU days and remembers being disappointed when she’d committed to the Yellow Jackets.
“I closed my eyes and was like, ‘Dang, it would have been nice to get Dani,'” Abrahamson-Henderson said. “When she decided to transfer, one of the biggest things I thought was really impressive was her family. They really wanted her to stay in the state of Georgia and I’m a big believer that if you’re from the state, you should play for your school, right?”
The familial dynamic Georgia upholds is one of the things that hooked Carnegie right back.
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“I see that they’re very family oriented and I’m a big family person, how people treat each other,” Carnegie said. “Georgia puts the kids on the team first. I respect that so much, that (coach) can, even as a recruit, she put me first. I respect that so much, that I can play for a coach like that and have that relationship with her.”
While Carnegie’s hometown is technically Mount Vernon, N.Y., she attended three years at Rockdale County High School in Conyers, Ga., before graduating from Grayson High School in Loganville, Ga.
At Rockdale, she was team captain and got them the 2021 and 2023 regional championships. She was named the 2021 Georgia Freshman of the Year and the 2021 and 2022 Region 6A Player of the Year.
As a senior at Grayson, she led them to state and region championships and earned a plethora of honors, including being named the 2024 Miss Georgia Basketball, the 2024 Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year, the 2024 Georgia Player of the Year and the 2024 Region 7A Player of the Year.
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“When Dani is coming down the floor, her passing ability, her vision is amazing,” Abrahamson-Henderson said. “I’ve had to tell our post players, ‘Please, get your hands ready. Dani is not going to look at you when she passes.’ It’s a lot of fun to play with her because she can see a lot of different things. She can get into the paint or kick to the shooters on the perimeter. She reads offensively so well.”
Carnegie is going to have one of the biggest roles, Abrahamson-Henderson said, alongside Turner and Woolfolk who know the lay of the land. Carnegie wants to expand her game, make it so it’s not all about scoring with her. She knows she can facilitate and even has a defensive side people don’t know about.
Other transfer portal pickups include junior guard Riley Theuerkauf from Wake Forest, junior forward Vera Ojenwa from Arkansas, junior guard Enjulina Gonzalez from Miami (OH) and fifth-year center Aicha Ndour (who stands the tallest on the team at 6-foot-6) from Wichita State.
“When you talk about our three freshmen, … they are talented, competitive and fit our culture very well,” Abrahamson-Henderson said.
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The Lady Bulldogs signed two Georgia natives with guards Jocelyn Faison (Atlanta) and Aubrey Beckham (Dacula) and forward Zhen Craft (Maryland). Faison was ranked No. 76 nationally and No. 4 in the state of Georgia by 247Sports; Beckham was ranked No. 49 nationally by ESPN; and Craft was ranked No. 64 nationally by ESPN.
“I’m really, really excited about our team this year,” Abrahamson Henderson said. “We brought back our core from last year, and added the number five-ranked transfer portal, the number 18th-ranked freshmen class.”
Georgia women’s basketball opens its season against Alabama State on Monday, Nov. 3, at 5 p.m. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network+.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia women’s basketball hit the jackpot with offseason recruiting
