Marquette Women’s Basketball Officially Announces The Transfer Of Tori McCoy

On Wednesday, Marquette women’s basketball made it official: Former McDonald’s All-American Tori McCoy has transferred and joined the Golden Eagles after one season at Ohio State.

McCoy is a 6’4” forward from Champaign, Illinois, who had originally considered Marquette during her recruitment before settling on Ohio State. She averaged 8.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game and made her way onto the Big Ten’s All-Freshman Team. McCoy wasn’t happy with her role with the Buckeyes, though, and has moved on to Marquette with the hopes of being able to play a more versatile part. McCoy will sit out the 2017-18 season per NCAA transfer rules, and then have three more years of eligibility remaining.

While McCoy is wearing #52 in the video in that tweet above, the photo on the press release page has been altered to show her wearing #0, just like she did at Ohio State. McCoy would be just the second player in MU women’s basketball history to wear #0 after Jasmine Collins from 2008-11.

Here’s head coach Carolyn Kieger on McCoy, the former top 10 prospect in the Class of 2016:

“We are thrilled to welcome Tori to our Marquette family,” Kieger said. “She is a tremendously gifted player who has the ability to affect the game on both ends of the floor. She has proven herself as an elite player both in high school and during her freshman season.”

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“As successful as Tori has been in her young career, we believe her best basketball is ahead of her. She will immediately help elevate our program to another level and is an amazing fit for our style of play,” Kieger said. “Her versatility and athleticism allow her to be a dynamic scoring threat on offense and a lethal shot blocker on defense. We are excited to help Tori develop on and off the floor and we look forward to seeing her in Blue and Gold.”

If McCoy is looking for a role on a team with more versatility, then Kieger is 100% right about her fit within the style of play. Kieger wants to play run and gun at all times, to the point of bordering on out of control. If McCoy can handle the ball in transition at her height, then she will create a situation where any one of the Golden Eagles on the floor can wreck havoc on opponents at will. McCoy’s first season of eligibility for Kieger will be the senior season for the current core of Allazia Blockton, Natisha Hiedeman, Danielle King, Amani Wilborn, and Erika Davenport, so think about inserting a very tall top 10 recruit into the roster that just won the Big East tournament this past March and let your imagination run wild.

Marquette was able to make the official announcement about McCoy because they announced two departures on Tuesday. The women’s basketball roster was projected to be full at 15 scholarships for both the 2017-18 season and 2018-19 season, so something had to give to make space for McCoy. As previously discovered, Chelsey Gibson has finished her degree at MU and will use the graduate transfer provision to play her final year of eligibility at Troy. Gibson was a JUCO transfer to Marquette originally, but blew out her ACL at the very start of practice in her first year on campus. She appeared in just 10 games as a redshirt junior in the 2016-17 season, averaging 1.2 points per game.

The other departure creates space on the 2018-19 roster, as Meghan Mandel will leave Marquette as well. The 6’4” Minnesota native was a freshman this past season and appeared in nine games for a total of 24 minutes. The long limbed Mandel seemed to provide MU with a dimension that they did not otherwise have this season, but her size never materialized into minutes during games that were still in doubt. There is no word at this time where Mandel is headed, but the press release from MU does state that she will be transferring.

Here’s Marquette’s brand new scholarship situation going forward: