A pair of former LSU women's basketball guards revealed Sunday where they have decided to resume their collegiate careers.
Kateri Poole, a 2023 NCAA tournament starter, is headed to Houston, and Angelica Velez, a freshman who played sparingly in 2024, is transferring to Syracuse.
Each player decided to enter the NCAA transfer portal this offseason.
Go COOGS🎸 pic.twitter.com/onO839g531
— Kateri B. Poole (@kateripoole5) May 5, 2024
Poole, who's now a two-time transfer, entered in March, three months after coach Kim Mulkey said that the then-junior was no longer on the LSU team.
In 2023, Poole transferred to LSU from Ohio State and emerged as a key cog on the Tigers' the national championship squad. Mulkey moved the 5-foot-8 guard into the starting lineup for five tournament games, a stretch the defensive specialist caught fire from 3-point range, shooting 53%.
Velez, a native The Bronx, New York, was ESPN's 44th-ranked recruit in the Class of 2023, but as a freshman, she saw the floor mostly at the end of blowout games.
Including Poole and Velez, LSU lost four players to the transfer portal. Each have now committed to new schools: Hailey Van Lith is set to enroll at TCU, and Janae Kent, a freshman wing, is headed to Texas A&M.
Mulkey and her staff replenished those losses by adding four transfers: Miami's Shayeann Day-Wilson, Arizona's Kailyn Gilbert, Mississippi State's Mjracle Sheppard and Arkansas' Jersey Wolfenbarger.
With those additions, plus incoming freshman guard Jada Richard, LSU has 12 scholarship players, three below the NCAA limit.
The deadline for players to enter the portal was Wednesday