I believe we lose Jillian Brown, Taylor Lauterbach, and Casey Valenti-Paea to graduation. None of them rank in our Top 6 in minutes played.
Those Top 6 in minutes for this season were the only 6 who played last night at UNC. All six are eligible to return next year:
PG Paris Clark - Rising Senior - 29 mpg, 10.1 ppg, 3.0 apg, 4.8 rpg
SG Kymora Johnson - Rising Junior - 36 mpg, 18 ppg, 6 rpg, 6 apg, 38% 3P%
G/F Olivia McGhee - Rising Junior - 27 mpg, 8 ppg, 5 rpg
F Edessa Noyan - Rising Junior - 24 mpg, 5.8 ppg, 4.3 rpg
F Latasha Lattimore - Rising Grad - 27 mpg, 14.8 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 2 blkpg
F Breona Hurd - Rising Soph - 25 mpg, 9.2 ppg, 5.1 rpg
Obviously step one is keeping all six; four of those six are underclassmen this year and in theory should continue improving into next season. Then they need help, that’s an unsustainable level of playing time, would like to see the roster go minimum 8 deep.
On the guard front, we do have an exciting option in Kamryn Kitchen who was a Top 75 recruit in the 2025 class before reclassifying and redshirting for us. Hoping she lives up to her billing next year as a rotation-worthy guard option off the bench. We’ve also got a Top 100 guard recruit incoming in Gabrielle White from NC. Payton Dunbar (Narrows, VA, represent!) has seen spot time as a rookie this year, some chance she could enter the mix too. Either way, there’s young options at guard in the pipeline who’ll be happy to compete for depth whereas transfers might want more obvious starting opportunities.
Front court is where there’s an obvious spot for the big sponsorship money to attract a top tier center. Hurd and Noyan are more forwards than centers; Lattimore could use some help, especially against stronger posts. No real options in the pipeline here either, as neither rising juniors RyLee Grays nor Hawa Doumbouya have garnered much buzz.
So anyways, I know a lot of talk about throwing around Alex Ohanian’s money, but frankly I do like a lot of the pieces we have coming in/back, so really I say get an all-ACC center and then maybe round out young depth and see what the returners can do.
