The Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s basketball team had three open roster spots after the graduation of their seniors and with Nia Holloway entering the portal. By Monday morning the Gophers had filled all three open roster spots out of the transfer portal and added enough talent that this Gopher team should be a lock to be a preseason Top-20 team in the nation next fall Friday afternoon Minnesota picked up commitments from guard Leah Harmon from Central Florida and forward Tayla Thomas from Northwestern, and then Monday morning Minnesota picked up their star center in Penn State’s Gracie Merkle. Combined the Gophers are adding three proven playmakers who averaged 44.6 points per game a season ago. Harmon and Thomas have two years of eligibility remaining, while Merkle will play her final season in the maroon and gold.
Harmon joins Minnesota after leading the Knights in scoring last season averaging 15.7 points per game through the first 20 games of the season. She did miss the last month and a half of the season with a lower body injury. The 5’6 guard is incredibly quick and agile at breaking the press—something the Gophers had significant issues with this past season. She can create her own offense off the dribble and can play off of the ball as well adding 2.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game on top of her scoring. She is a three level scorer shooting 36.8% from beyond the arc in her career and is also a 83.9% career free throw shooter. She had a season high 38 points against Kansas in January and added two other 20+ point scoring performances this past season. She has been turnover prone at times in her career so it will be up to Dawn Plitzuweit and her system to calm those numbers down.
Harmon played just one season for UCF after starting her career at Miami. She appeared in 23 games off the bench as a true freshman. She averaged 2.8 points in 10.2 minutes per game. From Paterson New jersey she started her high school career at Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC and played her final year of high school at IMG Academy. She was ranked a five-star guard by ESPN and the #25 recruit in the nation in the 2024 class per ProspectsNation.
Thomas joins Minnesota after two seasons with Northwestern. The 6’3 forward averaged 9.7 points per game and 7.2 rebounds per game and added 1.2 blocks per game for the Wildcats while starting 28 of the 29 games she played in. Thomas in her collegiate career is a 42.5% field goal shooter, shoots 21.7% from beyond the arc and is 64.2% from the free throw line. She scored a career high 30 points in a win over Loyola in December of 2025.
She improved immensely from her freshman season where she saw action in just 20 games and averaged just 1.7 points per game. Thomas projects out in the Annika Stewart back up big/ stretch 4 role for the Gophers. She can hit from three, and has the athletic ability to score inside and grab rebounds. She will slide easily into the Gophers forward rotation next fall.
Thomas is from East Orange, New Jersey and also played at IMG Academy with Harmon. Named the No. 56 recruit in the class of 2024 by ESPN HoopGurlz.
Minnesota got the most awaited commit on Monday when Penn State center Gracie Merkle committed to the Gophers. The 6’6 Center averaged 19.2 points per game for a bad Penn State team a season ago. She added 8.2 rebounds per game as well. While Merkle is not a threat to shoot from beyond the arc and is only a career 61.1% free throw shooter, she is incredibly efficient in the paint. Last season she shot 72.5% from the field to lead the country by nearly 7% and for her career is a 70% field goal shooter.
Merkle averaged 15.5 points per game in her first year in Happy Valley as a redshirt sophomore. She started her career at Bellarmine in 2022-23 and missed her entire sophomore season with an injury receiving a medical redshirt. The Mount Washington, Kentucky native was named the Named 2022 Kentucky Miss Basketball.
Merkle comes in as the perfect Sophie Hart replacement. She’s even more talented offensively and can rebound. It will be on Plitzuweit to ger her to improve her defense even more and get in a bit better conditioning shape by the start of next season, but when you can add literally the most efficient scorer in the nation last season, you HAVE to be excited.
With the three transfers the Gophers suddenly have a very deep roster for the 2026-27 season. It also gives the Gophers incoming freshman class a bit more time to get acclimated to college basketball, but if any of them can adapt and break through quicky, the Gophers rotation could go as deep as 10-11 players next season.
Your 15 player Gopher lineup looks something like this:
Likely Starters:
PG Leah Harmon— JR
SG Mara Braun— RS SR
SG/SF Tori McKinney-JR
SF/PF Grace Grocholski-SR
C Gracie Merkle- RS SR
Bench:
G Brynn Senden—SR
F Tayla Thomas-JR
F Taylor Woodson-RS JR
G Kennedy Klick- RS-JR
G Makena Christian-SO
C Zoey Bershers- SO
G Natalie Kussow- FR
G Tori Oehrlein-FR
F Kylee Pabin—FR
F Adit Kuol-FR
