Former Arizona women’s basketball players Lauryn Swann, Ajae Yoakum enter portal

There are over 1,100 women’s basketball players in the transfer portal a week after it opened for undergraduates who did not experience a coaching change at their school. Two more from Arizona joined that list over the last few days when freshman Lauryn Swann and senior Ajae Yoakum announced their intent to transfer.

The pair brings the total transfers out of Arizona to seven. Among teams that did not experience a coaching change, that’s equal to or less than at least 20 other programs that have seen between seven and 12 players enter the portal so far.

The most successful of those programs is Ole Miss, which lost to UCLA in the Sweet 16 this season. The Rebels have seven in the portal so far, although head coach Yolett McCuin has already started replacing them with more productive and experienced players from the portal. Even Notre Dame, which lost to TCU in the Sweet 16, has seen two players go into the portal—including star Olivia Miles.

That doesn’t make it any better for fans of the Wildcats program.

The loss of Swann is especially discouraging since she was the highest-scoring freshman and trailed only Paulina Paris among all newcomers to the team this season.

Swann was a late bloomer who didn’t get much attention during most of her high school career and only got ranked in the top 100 after committing to Arizona. Arizona was her first major conference offer.

The native of Queens, NY played well for the Wildcats on the offensive side of the ball. Head coach Adia Barnes was also generally positive about Swann’s desire to improve defensively.

Swann averaged 8.0 points and 2.1 rebounds in 20.3 minutes per game. She hit 39.1 percent of her 3-point shots, taking 128 over the season. Both the percentage and attempts were second on the team. She appeared in 31 games with five starts.

Yoakum didn’t play for Arizona. She was injured shortly after arriving in Tucson and spent the season rehabbing. She started working with the scout team in January but had a setback in recovery. She returned to the scout team later in the season.

Arizona honored Yoakum on senior day. She was expected to leave either to transfer or move on with life after college basketball.

As for who replaces the departing, Barnes posted her usual “Bear Down” post indicating a verbal commitment on Mar. 30. She followed it up with one of her typical “today is a good day” posts. There was also at least one recruit on campus on Mar. 31.

Arizona is also said to be in contact with Saint Louis guard Shun’teria Anumele.

Whether Arizona climbs higher in the rankings for the most players transferring out is still up in the air. The program posted a video of practice on Instagram early on Apr. 1. That video included Paris, Sahnya Jah, Montaya Dew, Mailien Rolf, and Brooklyn Rhodes—but it also included Swann, who posted her announcement of transferring about two hours later.