Powered by Roundtable

The former Colorado State Rams guard spoke about her decision to join head coach Tina Langley in the Pacific Northwest

The Washington Huskies women's basketball team is coming off its best season in over a decade and is returning many the key contributors from last year's squad.

First team All-Big Ten senior guard Sayvia Sellers, junior All-Big Ten honorable mention guard Avery Howell and Big Ten All-Freshman forward Brynn McGaughy will all be returning to the Pacific Northwest for the 2026-27 season.

Despite the amount of talented players returning to the team, the Huskies still needed to find help this offseason due to the amount of players who either ran out of eligibility or transferred out.

Washington was able to bring in a decent amount of talent via the transfer portal and the high school graduating class of 2027.

Four-star guard Amayah Garcia will be joined by transfer portal additions — forward Tilda Trygger (North Carolina State), guard Brooke Carlson (Colorado State), guard Macey Huard (Oklahoma State) and guard Kaelyn Carroll (Kentucky).

Trygger and Huard are strong candidates to earn starting roles with the team.

Two starting guards from last season, Elle Ladine and Hannah Stines, both graduated. Meaning that there will likely be space for Trygger and Huard to both carve out starting roles depending on whether head coach Tina Langley decides to opt for a four-guard lineup again or a traditional three-guard, two-forward lineup (with McGaughy being the other starter in the frontcourt).

Even with the openings in the starting lineup, Carlson, a 5-foot-8 guard who ran the point often with the Rams, will likely be a secondary ball-handler behind Sellers.

But, apparently, that's a role she's welcoming.

Carlson spoke to On3 Sports reporter Talia Goodman in a recent interview and discussed her reasons for transferring to the Huskies and what she expects her role to be with the team in the '26-27 season.

"With fit, (conversations were about) me being kind of a secondary ball-handler," Carlson said in the interview with Goodman. "Obviously, the minutes aren’t guaranteed, like some places that it would be. That was one thing that interested me, because I wanted to prove myself, work for that spot and work for those minutes. It’s going to be definitely different competition, so it’s going to be a little bit of an adjustment, but I’m really excited for that aspect of it."

Even in a "secondary" ball-hander role, Carlson would still provide a boost to UW. In that position, she would either be a floor general off the bench capable of running the playbook, or a secondary option to bring the ball up the court if the team needs Sellers past half court for a quick score.

Stines filled a similar role for Washington last season despite being in the starting lineup. In that position, Stines scored 6.3 points across 33 games (32 starts) on a 37.2% clip from the floor. She also averaged 4.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.2 steals per game.

With Colorado State last season, Carlson scored 11.7 points across 35 games (all starts) on 42.4% shooting in addition to 3.1 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.

"I feel like (the team has) a lot of really good talent, so I’m really excited to see how the pieces get put together," Carlson said in the interview with Goodman. "With goals, I feel like they’re very family-oriented. It’s a family culture, so that’s their biggest goal — keeping that culture and thriving. Then that just translates onto the basketball court, being able to to win games and compete at the highest level for championships."

JOIN THE CONVERSATION:

Remember to join our HUSKIES ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Washington fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!

1