Jun 30, 2026 · 49 min · 8 segments
Most of the biggest names in the transfer portal have signed with their new schools. What were the biggest storylines and what schools won with the best additions? Follow us on Twitter…
Adam DruckerGuestLet's talk about the transfer portal.
This, of course, has become every year certainly drama, storylines, players moving after a lot of the m- rules were thrown out the window, and we're now in the NIL and money era.
And so while we have a few storylines and takeaways here from the transfer portal, we've done our best to aggregate some of the key takeaways.
Adam, I wanna just start first.
What was the biggest surprise for you from this women's transfer portal?
I mean, the biggest surprise, I guess, is just some of the things that we already knew were going to happen.
There was buzz that certain players were going, they were at least leaving their own schools, right? And it was just kind of, where would they go? And some of them, yeah, I feel like were pretty predictable, but some of them were surprising.
I think m- obviously, my biggest surprise, I'm gonna allude to Nicole Kieran's transfer away from A&M, specifically to UNC, who is, again, very new to this whole international, uh, prospect joining their women's p- tennis program.
That really kind of shocked me, um, just because I, I just didn't expect to see her go to U- UNC of all places.
Um, you know, at, at NCAAs, there were rumblings of her going to a couple places and that she was in, in the portal looking to leave A&M, and UNC was just not one of the names I heard and, and, uh, so it really, really surprised me.
Yeah, you certainly knew something was afoot when she was not with the team in Athens.
I saw her in some photos, and so that's what sort of, you know, churned the, the rumor mill.
And I'll say, this is gonna sound a little snobby, but I do miss not being as, like, in the know a little bit.
Like, uh, the Parsa bombs just don't hit the same when you know that they're in the portal and you know that they're looking at certain schools.
They hit so much better when you, like, one, don't even know they're, they're transferring, and all of a sudden they're going to some random school, and I, like, I wish I could have some of that because, ugh, I just wish that, like, genuine reaction of, like, shock could be there more than it is right now.
But the thing about Kieran was I actually h- had not heard that North Carolina was in the running for her.
And so what makes this so shocking is, and you alluded to this, is this is a North Carolina program under Head Coach Brian Kalbas that has been very, to use his words, pro-American.
So I think in Kalbas' entire tenure, up until bringing in Kojouru, they had only had three non-Americans over the past few decades.
They, of course, I think Kojouru was the fourth.
And so this is a huge departure from how North Carolina has traditionally built that roster, and I do really think North Carolina is a case study in a coach feeling that need to evolve because not only have we seen non-Americans come to that roster, we've seen players come in in January, right? He brought in Tatum Evans in January.
And so it is a fascinating case study in that coach's philosophy evolving in what it takes to win at the highest level because clearly, based on his words, like, if he thought he could continue to win NCAAs with an all-American roster, he would prefer to do that.
And I think Kieran coming in, it- she's gonna be 26 next year.
Let's talk about the transfer portal.
This, of course, has become every year certainly drama, storylines, players moving after a lot of the m- rules were thrown out the window, and we're now in the NIL and money era.
And so while we have a few storylines and takeaways here from the transfer portal, we've done our best to aggregate some of the key takeaways.
Adam, I wanna just start first.
What was the biggest surprise for you from this women's transfer portal?
I mean, the biggest surprise, I guess, is just some of the things that we already knew were going to happen.
There was buzz that certain players were going, they were at least leaving their own schools, right? And it was just kind of, where would they go? And some of them, yeah, I feel like were pretty predictable, but some of them were surprising.
I think m- obviously, my biggest surprise, I'm gonna allude to Nicole Kieran's transfer away from A&M, specifically to UNC, who is, again, very new to this whole international, uh, prospect joining their women's p- tennis program.
That really kind of shocked me, um, just because I, I just didn't expect to see her go to U- UNC of all places.
Um, you know, at, at NCAAs, there were rumblings of her going to a couple places and that she was in, in the portal looking to leave A&M, and UNC was just not one of the names I heard and, and, uh, so it really, really surprised me.
Yeah, you certainly knew something was afoot when she was not with the team in Athens.
I saw her in some photos, and so that's what sort of, you know, churned the, the rumor mill.
And I'll say, this is gonna sound a little snobby, but I do miss not being as, like, in the know a little bit.
Like, uh, the Parsa bombs just don't hit the same when you know that they're in the portal and you know that they're looking at certain schools.
They hit so much better when you, like, one, don't even know they're, they're transferring, and all of a sudden they're going to some random school, and I, like, I wish I could have some of that because, ugh, I just wish that, like, genuine reaction of, like, shock could be there more than it is right now.
But the thing about Kieran was I actually h- had not heard that North Carolina was in the running for her.
And so what makes this so shocking is, and you alluded to this, is this is a North Carolina program under Head Coach Brian Kalbas that has been very, to use his words, pro-American.
So I think in Kalbas' entire tenure, up until bringing in Kojouru, they had only had three non-Americans over the past few decades.
They, of course, I think Kojouru was the fourth.
And so this is a huge departure from how North Carolina has traditionally built that roster, and I do really think North Carolina is a case study in a coach feeling that need to evolve because not only have we seen non-Americans come to that roster, we've seen players come in in January, right? He brought in Tatum Evans in January.
And so it is a fascinating case study in that coach's philosophy evolving in what it takes to win at the highest level because clearly, based on his words, like, if he thought he could continue to win NCAAs with an all-American roster, he would prefer to do that.
And I think Kieran coming in, it- she's gonna be 26 next year.
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