UConn women’s basketball in the mix for Stanford grad transfer DiJonai Carrington

After UConn women’s basketball’s season ended, Geno Auriemma told reporters that the Huskies were talking with “a couple kids” in the transfer portal, but didn’t get into specifics. On Thursday night, one name bubbled to the surface: Stanford grad transfer DiJonai Carrington.

The 5-foot-11 guard/wing announced her decision to transfer from the Cardinal along with her final three: UConn, Baylor and Oregon. Carrington missed all but five games this past season due to a knee injury and will be immediately eligible as a graduate transfer.

As a junior in 2018-19, Carrington started all 36 games for the Cardinal and averaged 14.0 points and 7.5 rebounds. She earned All-Pac-12 Team and All-Pac-12 Tournament honors.

After the early departure of Megan Walker, UConn does not have a true senior currently on its roster, but they do have quality upperclassmen in redshirt junior Evina Westbrook and juniors Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Christyn Williams. Carrington would not only give the Huskies a much-needed shot of experience, she’d also be able to contribute right away, which isn’t necessarily the case for the incoming freshmen.

If the team’s summer sessions are canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, her experience could be invaluable to a young UConn team. Assuming the regular season even starts on time, a lack of summer practices would put the freshmen significantly behind schedule and could also delay the development of sophomores Aubrey Griffin and Anna Makurat.

Another important factor is the fact that she’d be coming from Stanford, a similar level of play as UConn. The Huskies’ only other grad transfer in program history — Evelyn Adebayo — moved up from Murray State and never seemed to adjust to the higher level of play. Carrington has already seen and played against most of the elite programs in college basketball.

As of now, UConn has 10 players on its roster for next season — half of which are freshmen. Carrington is the only publicly-known transfer target for the Huskies at the moment.