Latest news with #KayleighHeckel
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
UConn Turns Heads with Big Announcement on Thursday
UConn Turns Heads with Big Announcement on Thursday originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The UConn Huskies, led by head coach Geno Auriemma, have been widely considered one of the best women's college basketball teams in the nation over the past several years. Advertisement Auriemma recently led UConn to the national title with the help of college basketball stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd. After the season, UConn lost its leading scorer and one of the best guards in the country in Bueckers, who was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft. While Fudd will seemingly take over as the team's leader, UConn added one of the best transfers in the college basketball scene during the offseason. Former USC Trojan Kayleigh Heckel, a highly touted recruit, is headed to play for the Huskies next season. Before then, UConn announced that Heckel will be participating in the USA Basketball Women's U19 National Team trials. Advertisement "Kayleigh Heckel will participate in the 2025 USA Basketball Women's U19 National Team trials," posted the official social media account of the UConn Huskies women's basketball team. Heckel will be heading to Colorado Springs, set to begin team trials on June 18. Upon the release of the announcement, some fans took to social media, sharing their thoughts on the achievement by Kayleigh Heckel. "YAYY GOODLUCK K9," said one fan. "LFG! Good luck, K9," said another fan. "Let's go," mentioned one fan. "Best of luck k9," commented one fan. "Let's gooooooo," said one fan. "Good luck kayleigh!!" said another fan. UConn Huskies head coach Geno Lee-Imagn Images During her freshman season with the USC Trojans, Kayleigh Heckel posted 6.1 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, starting seven of 34 games in her introductory college basketball season. Advertisement Related: Mike Krzyzewski Names Best Player in Duke Basketball History Without Hesitation Related: Big UConn Announcement Turns Heads on Wednesday This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 5, 2025, where it first appeared.
USA Today
04-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
USC women's basketball loses Kayleigh Heckel to transfer portal as roster churn continues
USC women's basketball loses Kayleigh Heckel to transfer portal as roster churn continues Kayleigh Heckel joins Avery Howell in hitting the transfer portal. The next few weeks will be very busy. Less than 48 hours after USC women's basketball's season came to an end with a loss to UConn in the Elite Eight, freshman Avery Howell announced that she will be entering the transfer portal. As it turns out, however, Howell will not be the only Trojan departing the program, as she was quickly joined in the portal by Kayleigh Heckel and Aaliyah Gales. Gales was a relatively unsurprising departure. After redshirting as a true freshman, she has averaged under 7 minutes per game each of the past two years, appearing in just 24 total contests. It seemed as though Gales was never truly able to carve out a role for herself in head coach Lindsay Gottlieb's program, so it makes sense that she is choosing to look elsewhere. Heckel, however, is a much more surprising entrant. As a true freshman this year, she averaged 16.9 minutes and 6.1 points per game. With the Trojans graduating three of their five starters and superstar Juju Watkins likely set to miss significant time with an ACL injury, Heckel, like Howell, appeared poised to player a major role next season. With both players gone, however, USC's roster is now full of question marks heading into the offseason. Assuming Watkins is not healthy to start the year, the Trojans will return just one player who averaged more than three points per game in 2024-2025: Kennedy Smith. Expect Gottlieb to attack the portal hard this offseason as she looks to add players who can keep the program competitive while Watkins recovers from her injury.
