The USC women’s basketball season still has a long way to go, but eight games into the 2025-26 season, fans are starting to get an idea of the identity of this year’s version of the Trojans. Eight games don’t define a season, but they are enough to pick up on some trends, both good and bad.
It’s also enough time to pick up on some trends in the greater women’s basketball world. We have enough of a sample size to get an idea of other teams’ identities, strengths and weaknesses.
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Which means we also can start to get an idea of how leaving USC has worked out for former Trojans. USC lost 4 players in the transfer portal this past offseason, including three former five-star recruits. How has that decision to leave worked out for them? Let’s take a look.
Avery Howell, G, Washington
Avery Howell is thriving up in Seattle.
She burst onto the scene for the Huskies with 18 points on 5-5 shooting (including 4-4 on three pointers as well as 4-5 on free throws) in her first game wearing the purple and gold back on November 3 against Seattle University.
She’s primarily a scoring threat for Washington, averaging 12.1 points per game. She has reached double-figure scoring in 5 of her 8 games played.
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But she has found a way to impact the game in other ways as well. She’s actually Washington’s leading rebounder at 6.9 boards per game. In a game against University of Vermont where she had her worst scoring output (4 points), she made up for it by pulling down a whopping 12 rebounds. Her overall impact on winning is clear: she averages the most minutes per game of any player on the Huskies (28.8).
If you’re a Trojan fan who hasn’t caught one of Howell’s games, you have a great opportunity to do so very soon: Howell and the Huskies come to Galen Center this Sunday to take on USC. Trojan fans will get a look at why Howell, Sayvia Sellers and the rest of the Huskies have earned a No. 21 ranking in the AP Poll — but hopefully the Trojans will still prove to be the better team.
Kayleigh Heckel, G, UConn
If Kayleigh Heckel’s goal when she transferred to UConn was to become a starter for the Huskies, she has failed so far.
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That may seem like a harsh statement to lead with, but there’s a reason I did. I think Kayleigh Heckel would easily be a starter for the 2025-26 USC Trojans. Heck, I wish she was! I think her playing style alongside Jazzy Davidson would be very entertaining.
I also think that Kayleigh Heckel had the talent to start for last year’s USC team and so I wouldn’t fault her for leaving via the transfer portal to find an opportunity to start. That’s not how it’s worked out so far.
HOWEVER, Heckel is still in very good hands with Geno Auriemma. She may not have started a game yet but she is getting starter-caliber minutes: 19.5 per game, fifth-most on the team. She’s putting up 6.6 points per game and has improved defensively, averaging 1.9 steals per game.
And the Huskies are heavily favored to repeat as national champions. Some people think they could be undefeated national champions. So there’s that.
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USC will be playing juggernaut UConn very soon as well, on Saturday December 13 at Galen Center. Howell and Heckel in back to back games at Galen? Grab your popcorn.
Dominique Darius, G, Syracuse
Darius is perhaps the most surprising story out of USC’s entire outgoing transfer class so far.
Darius spent her first three collegiate seasons at UCLA, then went to USC for two seasons in 2023-24 and 2024-25. Five years into her college career, she’d never had a major role on any of her teams. She had only 8 total collegiate starts with most of those coming way back in 2021-22. She missed the entire 2024-25 season at USC.
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But this year, Darius has become a star for Syracuse. She has started all 7 games for the Orange and is third on the team with 11.9 points per game. She’s also first on the team with 2.4 steals per game. And the Orange are a solid team: they have a 6-1 record so far. It’s awesome to see Darius’s college career, which began way back in 2020, finally blossom.
Aaliyah Gayles, G, Utah State
Three seasons after Gayles was Lindsay Gottlieb’s first five-star recruit and the No. 8 player in the nation, she is playing like a star and a go-to player. It didn’t happen at USC, but it’s really great to see nonetheless.
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You’ll recall that Gayles looked to be headed for a star career at USC before she was shot 9 times at a house party in April of 2022, just a few months before her first season at USC in 2022-23. It was absolutely heartbreaking. But Gayles not only survived and recovered, but played for the Trojans for two seasons, in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
She may have never started a game for the Trojans, or scored more than 5 points in a game, but her positive presence and inspiring tenacity still made such a massive impact on the USC women’s basketball program.
And now, she is getting to be a star player again. She missed Utah State’s first game but has started every game for the Aggies since, averaging 12.8 points per game, 3.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists.
Utah State isn’t going to be competing for a national championship or anything like that this season, but Gayles is still one of the best stories in women’s college basketball. Here’s to hoping the best of her career is still in front of her.
USC’s incoming transfers
Wait, but if it’s good news for everyone who left USC, is that conversely bad news for USC?
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Not so fast. The Trojans’ incoming transfer class has been excellent. Kara Dunn and Londynn Jones have been particularly good; they rank second and third in scoring on USC’s roster respectively.
You could argue that this Trojan team could use a floor general like Darius or a rebounder like Howell, and I’d understand. I complained about not having Kayleigh Heckel in cardinal and gold this year earlier in this article myself.
But this seems like a situation where it’s worked out for everyone. This current USC team is very good, and everyone that left it is also thriving. Where would we put four more guards on this USC team full of guards anyway?
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So it seems the roster turnover worked out best for everyone. But it’s certainly something we will continue to monitor at Trojans Wire as the season goes on.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Former USC women’s basketball players having success at other schools
