Notre Dame women’s basketball secures second transfer commitment of the day
Another one.
Late Tuesday night, Kylee Watson announced her decision to transfer from Oregon to Notre Dame. It marked the second such commitment of the day for the Fighting Irish. The university announced the addition of Stanford’s Jenna Brown earlier in the day.
Watson is a 6-foot-4 post player from Linwood, N.J. She was the No. 17 overall prospect in the class of 2020 according to ESPN. Like Brown, Watson is a former McDonald’s All-American. As it stands, Notre Dame has four current McDonald’s All-Americans on its roster; Brown, Watson, junior forward Maddy Westbeld and sophomore guard Sonia Citron. Sophomore guard Olivia Miles would have likely joined that list if she did not enroll early last winter.
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Watson played in 50 games across two seasons at Oregon. She averaged 2.2 points in 8.1 minutes per game as a true freshman and 3.8 points in 16.4 minutes per game last season. She has averaged 2.4 points per game over the course of her career.
Those numbers obviously don’t jump off the page, but Notre Dame badly needed a post player on its roster. The Irish likely are not done finding them in the transfer portal well even after the addition of Watson, either. As soon as Sam Brunelle entered the portal herself and Maya Dodson’s NCAA eligibility waiver was denied, head coach Niele Ivey and company knew they had to get busy restocking the roster with big bodies. One down. Probably more to go.
The Notre Dame roster is up to eight scholarship players and two walk-ons for the 2022-23 season. Four of the scholarship players were regular starters on last year’s team that stretched its season to the Sweet 16. Notre Dame was just a couple possessions away from punching a ticket to the Elite Eight in a narrow loss to NC State.
With what Notre Dame is currently working with, Watson will likely join the ranks of the starters. She started nine of the 32 games she played in a Ducks uniform last season.
Current 2022-23 Notre Dame women’s basketball roster
G Jenna Brown (Gr.)
F Kylee Watson (Jr.)
G Dara Mabrey (Gr.)
G Trinity Cha* (Jr.)
G Olivia Miles (So.)
G Sonia Citron (So.)
F Natalija Marshall (Jr.)
G Sarah Cernugel* (Jr.)
F Maddy Westbeld (Jr.)
G KK Bransford^ (Fr.)
* Walk-on
^ Summer enrollee
Bold: Transfer addition
